Off With Her Head!

The Denial of Women's Identity in Myth, Religion, and Culture

By: Howard Eilberg-Schwartz (Editor), Wendy Doniger (Editor)

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Paperback | 14 November 1995 | Edition Number 1

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242 Pages

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2.28 x 1.57 x 0.15

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Whereas many books look at how women's bodies are represented in different religions and cultures around the world, this work explores the site of a woman's voice and identity, her head. The female head threatens to disrupt the classic gender distinctions that link men to speech, identity, and mind while relegating women to silence, anonymity, and flesh. The contributors to this collection argue that the objectification of women as sexual and reproductive bodies results in their symbolic beheading. Decapitation occurs symbolically in myths as well as in actual practices such as veiling, head covering, and cosmetic highlighting, which by sexualizing a woman's face turns it into an extension of her body.

The essays explore how similar treatments of the female head find their unique articulation in diverse religious traditions and cultures: in Hindu myths of beheading, in Buddhist and Tantric practices and poetry about the hair of female nuns, in the resistance to veiling by early Christian women at Corinth, in contemporary veiling practices in a Turkish village, in the eroticization of the female mouth in ancient Judaism, and in Greek and Roman cosmetic practices.

Together these essays show how the depiction of the female head is critical for an understanding of gender and its influence on other fundamental religious and cultural issues.

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You Can Find This Book In

Non-Fiction Society & Culture Social Issues & Processes Feminism & Feminist Theory Social Groups Gender Studies Gender Studies: Women and Girls Cultural Studies History of Ideas Religion & Beliefs Aspects of Religion for Non-Christians Religious Institutions & Organisations

Religious Social & Pastoral Thought & Activity Religion Comparative Religion Sociology & Anthropology Anthropology Social & Cultural Anthropology, Ethnography

Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Spectacle of the Female Head	p. 1
"Put a Bag over Her Head": Beheading Mythological Women	p. 15
Shaven Heads and Loose Hair: Buddhist Attitudes toward Hair and Sexuality	p. 32
Untangling the Meanings of Hair in Turkish Society	p. 53
The Gendered Grammar of Ancient Mediterranean Hair	p. 76
Veils, Virgins, and the Tongues of Men and Angels: Women's Heads in Early Christianity	p. 131
The Nakedness of a Woman's Voice, the Pleasure in a Man's Mouth: An Oral History of Ancient Judaism	p. 165
Making Up a Woman: The Face of Roman Gender	p. 185
List of Contributors	p. 215
Index	p. 217
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.

Off With Her Head!

The Denial of Women's Identity in Myth, Religion, and Culture

At a Glance

Paperback

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

You Can Find This Book In

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