Women of the Sacred Groves: Divine Priestesses of Okinawa [Hardcover]

Susan Sered (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 4, 1999 | ISBN-10: 0195124863 | ISBN-13: 978-0195124866

Although most historical and contemporary religions are governed by men, there are, scattered throughout the world, a handful of well-documented religions led by women. Most of these are marginal, subordinate, or secondary religions in the societies in which they are located. The one known exception to this rule is the indigenous religion of Okinawa, where women lead the official mainstream religion of the society. This book is the first in-depth look at this unique religious tradition, exploring the intersection between religion and gender. Based on fieldwork in an Okinawan village, Susan Sered argues that the absence of male dominance in the religious sphere is part of a broader absence of hiearchical ideologies and cultural patterns. In addition to providing important information on this remarkable and little-studied group, this book helps to overturn our mostly unexamined assumptions that male dominance of the religious sphere is universal, axiomatic, and necessary.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The value of this sensitive study rests in its close attention to gender-related issues....This is a valuable addition to the literature on this relatively understudied area of the world."--Religious Studies Review --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Susan Sered is at Bar-Ilan University.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (March 4, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195124863
• ISBN-13: 978-0195124866
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,249,378 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Erroneous, Insensitive, Biased, July 16, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Women of the Sacred Groves: Divine Priestesses of Okinawa (Paperback)

Susan Sered's book "Women of the Sacred Groves" was not only a disappointment to read as a so-called "scholarly work", but disenheartening to read as as an Okinawan woman. Solely dependent on the lifeline ofinterpreters to conduct her research, the end product of her study is deeply colored. Since she is unable to read Japanese, she missed the rich accumulation of research on Okinawan women carefully discussed since Iha Fuyu's History of Okinawa. Also, because she bases most of her background research on the works of other white anthropologists and historians, many of whom were doing their "field work" during military occupation (thus fraught with political agendas) her work is tinged with bias. It amazes me how this book got published, since it was slapped together in such an unruly fashion.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Educated Outsider's view of One Village's Sacred Rituals, January 4, 2008

By 

Rebecca J. Vinson (Savannah,Georgia, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Women of the Sacred Groves: Divine Priestesses of Okinawa (Paperback)

I spent my childhood in Okinawa and Tokyo and Nagoya. I recently returned to Okinawa to live for several years as an adult in the towns of Yomitan and Okinawa City, both on the main Island. I attended and worked in Okinawan schools, churches, culture centers, and private homes. I speak the language and understand the culture as much as any outsider can. I've never lived on the Islands featured in this book, though I often rode my bike over the bridge out to them and could see them from the veranda of one of my homes in Okinawa City. Every Island, even every village on the main Island, has their own unique historic culture although they in "modern" times now share much Mainland Japanese and Shuri culture (of the Sho Kings). I've given benefit concerts for the old folks home on Okinawa's most sacred Island, Kudaka, where the First Man and the First Woman first lived. Most Okinawans have never even visited Kudaka (Japanese lives are even more full than American lives) and some of my Okinawan friends expressed to me that they were ashamed that I, a foreigner, had made time and they hadn't. In my work as a translator and performer of Okinawan songs, I learned that even the Hogen (local dialect) of different villages on the Main Island can be different enough for folks not to understand each other. If you go to the "outer Islands", communities have been even more isolated until the recent past, (1970s). Given that, I find that the book was an informative look into one village's customs. I am surprised by the anger in the anonymous two reviewers who trashed the author's research methods without giving any proof of their own area of experience. Have they ever even been for a visit? Did they live there a year as the researcher did? I could only speculate at what causes this anger. The book's author is a respected researcher working in a relatively undiscovered area of diverse and rich culture. This book is quoted in the NY Times Best Seller "The Okinawa Program". I suggest you read the book and then enjoy asking your own Okinawan neighbors (they are every where, just look for the Okinawan culture club in your local) to tell you about their experiences. Okinawa is well worth learning about. The whole world could benefit from emulating their values and practices.

15 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A truly ghastly example of erroneous methodology, October 9, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Women of the Sacred Groves: Divine Priestesses of Okinawa (Paperback)

I was initially delighted to see at long last the appearance of a work in English on Okinawan ethnology, a subject of enormous intrinsic interest that throws light on Japan's neglected "other half" (i.e. the Ryukyuan cultural sphere). Furthermore, this is a field which should fascinate anyone with an interest in Japanese culture bearing in mind that, ever since the work on the subject in Japanese of Iha Fuyu, Shimabukuro Genshichi, Yanagita Kunio, Orikuchi Shinobu and many other illustrious scholars more than 50 years ago, Okinawan religion and ethnology have been considered to constitute the earliest stratum of Japanese ethnic culture. This is perhaps one of the most extensively researched fields of Okinawan culture (one might even say of Japanese culture), with a vast body of research literature ranging through the disciplines of ethnology, history, oral literature, the performing arts, etc. But what a scandalous disappointment this work by Sered is! How can it have got past the OUP readers? There are almost no references to any of the vast Japanese literature on the subject (which is summarily dismissed as being virtually unworthy of consideration; perhaps because of the author's inability to read it?), the author shows no awareness of any of the historical and literary antecedents of relevance to her field, no attempt is made to expand her findings historically or geographically, etc., etc. The whole enterprise is a truly disgraceful example of faulty research. Considering the dearth of material in English on Okinawan and Ryukyuan culture and its relevance within the overall corpus of Japanese studies, this is a great pity, and one can but hope that the situation will be remedied through the appearance of an informed study on the subject in English in the near future.