or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
Express Checkout with PayPhrase
What's this? | Create PayPhrase
More Buying Choices
102 used & new from $4.77
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
When the Drummers Were Women: A Spiritual History of Rhythm
 
 
Share your own customer images
Search inside this book
Tell the Publisher!
I’d like to read this book on Kindle

Don’t have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here.
 
  

When the Drummers Were Women: A Spiritual History of Rhythm (Paperback)

~ (Author) "WOMEN TODAY ARE on a tremendous spiritual search..." (more)
Key Phrases: birthing chapel, sexual priestesses, frame drum, Great Goddess, Mother Goddess, Tree of Life (more...)
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
List Price: $18.95
Price: $12.89 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
You Save: $6.06 (32%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Want it delivered Tuesday, November 24? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details
32 new from $10.46 69 used from $4.77 1 collectible from $8.45

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
  Hardcover, December 31, 1997 -- -- --
  Paperback, May 26, 1997 $12.89 $10.46 $4.77

Frequently Bought Together

When the Drummers Were Women: A Spiritual History of Rhythm + The Healing Power of the Drum + The Shamanic Drum: A Guide To Sacred Drumming
Price For All Three: $32.66

Show availability and shipping details

  • This item: When the Drummers Were Women: A Spiritual History of Rhythm by Layne Redmond

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

  • The Healing Power of the Drum by Robert Lawrence Friedman

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

  • The Shamanic Drum: A Guide To Sacred Drumming by Michael Drake

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

The Healing Power of the Drum

The Healing Power of the Drum

by Robert Lawrence Friedman
4.4 out of 5 stars (9)  $9.41
The Shamanic Drum: A Guide To Sacred Drumming

The Shamanic Drum: A Guide To Sacred Drumming

by Michael Drake
4.7 out of 5 stars (3)  $10.36
Invoking the Muse

Invoking the Muse

~ Layne Redmond
4.9 out of 5 stars (8)  $14.99
The Healing Drum Kit

The Healing Drum Kit

by Christine Stevens
4.9 out of 5 stars (15)  $37.77
The Art and Heart of Drum Circles

The Art and Heart of Drum Circles

by Christine Stevens
4.5 out of 5 stars (6)  $8.11
› Explore similar items

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

A drummer herself who has taught and performed on the frame drum for many years, Redmond has written an engaging work on the history and meaning of female drumming in ancient spiritual traditions. She bases her work on her travels to ancient sites and other research, tracing the role of sacred drumming from as far back as the Paleolithic era (in the worship of the "Great Mother" or "Great Goddess") and in ancient civilizations in the Near East, India, Greece, and Rome. Along the way, she unearths the first representation of a framed drum at Catal Huyuk (in present-day Turkey), ca. 5600 B.C.E. Redmond even takes us through the rise of Christianity, which silenced both women and drumming in worship, then concludes with the reappearance of drumming in the modern age and its importance as a medium for transformation. Well documented, with an excellent bibliography, this multifaceted study will have great appeal for all readers and especially for music and women's studies collections.?Joan W. Gartland, Detroit P.L.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist

Women's spirituality circles have taken to drumming in a big way. Redmond has been a leader in reintroducing the frame drum, which, she persuasively argues, has been an instrument of spiritual transformation for millennia. Her marvelous book brings together mythology, history and prehistory, personal experience, musical lore, and scientific information on the healthful effects of drumming. Scores of illustrations show stately goddesses holding frame drums, wild maenads tossing their heads as they pound, and priestesses sanctifying space with the rhythms they beat. Redmond's own story of learning drumming in a society in which women are still actively discouraged from taking up the drums is a paradigm of female experience. Wise and passionate, Redmond's book will find a ready audience, made up not only of those who have attended her popular workshops but also of other women drawn to the ecstatic pulse of the drum. Patricia Monaghan
See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

  • Paperback: 224 pages
  • Publisher: Three Rivers Press; 1 edition (May 27, 1997)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0609801287
  • ISBN-13: 978-0609801284
  • Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 0.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #223,639 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category: (What's this?)

    #83 in  Books > Religion & Spirituality > New Age > Goddesses

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

More About the Author

Layne Redmond
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

› Visit Amazon's Layne Redmond Page
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:
Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
WOMEN TODAY ARE on a tremendous spiritual search. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
birthing chapel, sexual priestesses, frame drum, grain sieve, river valley cultures, djed pillar, bird goddess, sacred marriage rite, river cultures, cow goddess, divine feminine, burial goods
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Great Goddess, Mother Goddess, Tree of Life, Indus Valley, Asia Minor, Mob of Angels, Old Testament, New York, Middle East, Venus of Willendorf, James Mellaart, Paleolithic Venuses, Dolni Vestonice, Indus River Valley, Mother of God, Queen Pu-abi, Saint Teresa, Stone Age, Virgin Mary, William Irwin Thompson, Christian Church, Czech Republic, Middle Assyrian, Robert Graves
New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats
Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 100 books:
See all 100 books this book cites
 
15 books cite this book:
See all 15 books citing this book

Books on Related Topics (learn more)
 
Isis Magic by M. Isidora Forrest
 

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

When the Drummers Were Women: A Spiritual History of Rhythm
81% buy the item featured on this page:
When the Drummers Were Women: A Spiritual History of Rhythm 4.5 out of 5 stars (17)
$12.89
The Healing Power of the Drum
8% buy
The Healing Power of the Drum 4.4 out of 5 stars (9)
$9.41
The Healing Drum Kit
5% buy
The Healing Drum Kit 4.9 out of 5 stars (15)
$37.77
How to Play Djembe (Book/CD set)
4% buy
How to Play Djembe (Book/CD set) 4.5 out of 5 stars (13)
$16.47
Explore similar items

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 
(4)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
Agree with these tags?

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store

If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store. Learn more
 

Customer Reviews

17 Reviews
5 star:
 (12)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (17 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
40 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting angle on an overdone subject, March 8, 2003
By Kelly L. (www.FantasyLiterature.com) (Columbia, MO United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)      
Throughout history, music and rhythm have been used in religious ritual, to bring human beings into the ecstasy of the divine presence, by whatever name that has been called at any given time. And, specifically, rhythm was prevalent in the ancient Goddess religions of the Mediterranean. I never realized, until I read _When the Drummers Were Women_, how many of the Goddess traditions included sacred drumming. But it's right there--Cybele's devotees ate and drank from drums and cymbals, Inanna was given drum music as an offering, and votive figures of drumming women have been found in many places. It's like what I've heard happens when a woman gets pregnant--all of a sudden, she sees pregnant women everywhere. Not because there are more pregnant women than there were before, but because her focus has changed. Layne Redmond gives us a new focus--percussion--and suddenly we're able to see the pattern of rhythmic ecstasy that ran through many of these rituals, which many of us hadn't noticed before. And she also suggests drumming as a way to the divine today, and emphasizes that drums were not always seen as "masculine" instruments as they are seen today. Are they seen as masculine? Ask me, ask any woman who played percussion as a young girl. A lot of weird looks still follow a female drummer. But that's changing, thanks to prominent female drummers like Redmond.

Why not five stars? I think it's a personal issue of mine. I've read a lot of "history of the Goddess" books in my life, and at this point I'm heartily sick of reading about the matriarchy and its suppression by the patriarchy. This isn't Redmond's fault, it's mine. But this book contains the exact same story arc I've seen many times before, the very same oversimplified history. (The best three-dimensional account I've seen of this theme is Baring and Cashford's _The Myth of the Goddess. Other writers' tellings of this story come off as too sweepingly general after the Baring/Cashford book.) It's up to you whether the drumming angle justifies buying another book about the matriarchy/patriarchy story. For me, it was justified, because I am interested in Demeter, Persephone, and Dionysos, and got some new information about their rites from Redmond's book. It's the big question to ask yourself before buying this book.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A Treasure!, July 28, 2004
RE: simplistic feminist fluff??? Someone has a problem with successful women!!!

Let's get some facts about Layne Redmond down here:

Drum! Magazine readers (a rocker's mag, predominately read by young males) in 2002 voted Layne Redmond Percussionist of the Year, her album Trance Union, Percussion Album of the Year and her video, Rhythmic Wisdom, Percussion Video of the Year. In 2003 they once again voted Trance Union, Percussion Album of the Year. In 2003 the editorial staff of Drum! listed Layne Redmond as one of the 53 Heavyweight Drummers Who Made A Difference in the 90's, along with drummers like Tony Williams, Roy Haynes, Zakir Hussain, Elvin Jones and Micky Hart. By the way, she is the only woman on this list. Drum! Mag readers are well known for being into simplistic feminist fluff!

She was the first woman to have a Signature Series of world percussion instruments with Remo, Inc., one of the world's largest manufacturers of percussion instruments. She has been a soloist at the Touch Festival in Berlin, Seattle Bumbershoot Festival, the Institute for Contemporary Art in London, Tambores do Mundo in Brazil, the 1995 World Wide Percussion Festival in Brazil, and the Vienna International Percussion Festival in 2001. In Nov. 2004 she'll give a scholarly paper on Ancient Greek Percussion and also a hands on clinic, fusing Middle Eastern and Brazilian rhythms for tambourine, at the Percussive Arts Societies International Conference (PASIC 2004). Another group of people well known for their simplistic feminist fluff leanings.

In terms of her spiritual connection to the frame drum she has taught or lectured at Andover Newton Theological School, Hartford Seminary, the Unitarian Conference, St. Catherine's College in St. Paul and the Jewish Renewal center, Elayt Chayyim -- well known for their feminist fluff leanings.

I came across Layne Redmond in my research for my doctoral thesis on ancient music back in 1994 and have followed her career with interest ever since, actually writing a number of articles about her work. Her book, When The Drummers Were Women is invaluable, no where else are the images of the ancient Mediterranean women drummers held in a collection. Only a drummer of her depth and skill could have gleamed as much information from the ancient images of drummers as she did. I was fortunate to hear her lecture and perform at PASIC 2000 on Ancient Egyptian Percussion and I was also able to attend one of her rituals with the Mob of Angels in a cave in upstate New York along with 750 other men, women, and children. I don't think anyone there thought they were participating in light feminist fluff.

Her new cd, Invoking the Muse, shows how beautifully she has used her ancient research and her writing skills as a source for the creation of nine sophisticated, brilliant compositions, performed by some of the most successful and popular musicians in contemporary classical, jazz and world music. As for her writing as Library Journal put it: "Well documented, with an excellent bibliography, this multifaceted study will have great appeal for all readers . . " I recommend her website: www.LayneRedmond.com, a really a great resource and I'll let the New York Times wind this review up:

Layne Redmond is a superb percussionist!
The New York Times, James R. Oestreich, 1991

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The Great Goddess from a Drummer's Point of View, March 21, 1999
By A Customer
WHEN THE DRUMMERS WERE WOMEN is a great bargain! In less than 200 pages, charmingly illustrated with black & white photographs and drawings, Layne Redmond accomplishes three tasks. Her original goal was to write a history of women's ritual drumming in selected ancient cultures. In reaching this goal, she has created a wonderfully accessible overview of the role of the Great Goddess in India, Sumeria, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Redmond also surveys the Paleolithic and Neolithic roots of the Goddess, as well as the transformation of the Goddess into the Virgin Mary. Not least of all, she anchors her story in the contemporary world, weaving together her personal and professional quests, the response of other women to her work, and relevant scientific research. Inevitably, in such an ambitious yet brief work, there are occasional flaws such as overgeneralizations or historical anachronisms; but these do not outweigh the merits of the book. Both her drummer's point of view and the breadth of her research offer new insights to readers familiar with the history of the Great Goddess. At the same time, her brevity and style make her work an excellent introduction for readers new to the subject. The subtitle of the book is "A Spiritual History of Rhythm", and the purpose seems to be both to document the role of sacred drumming by women priestesses in ancient times and to argue the value of drumming in contemporary spiritual practice. In pursuit of these two purposes, Redmond illuminates the role of women in ancient religions, the development of various mythic symbols, the evolution and suppression of the Goddess, and the physiological & psychological bases of spirituality. What may have started as a little book about rhythm became a major quest--as fascinating to the reader as it was meaningful to the author.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A Unique Topic Well Done and Provocative
I loved this book for its fascinating exploration into the history of women in the world of music, religion and spirituality. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Kendra Kett

3.0 out of 5 stars Just ok
It was alright but not my favorite book. The author has a very strong bais for women & against men that comes across in her writing, which is what most turns me off from her... Read more
Published on October 20, 2007 by Brigit

4.0 out of 5 stars you should hear some frame drums being played
Some (most?) of the historical antecedants quoted by Redmond about matriarchal societies in the past may be rather dubious. Of quite uncertain scholarship or attribution. Read more
Published on September 1, 2007 by W Boudville

5.0 out of 5 stars When the Drummers were Women
I totally recommend anything by Layne Redmond. This book is really good and is a MUST read for women on an earth based spiritual path, as well as for women who are into drumming... Read more
Published on March 19, 2007 by Unagi Sushi

5.0 out of 5 stars What We Lost When God Killed the Goddess
May I tell you about a wonderful, mind-expanding, and heart-expanding book I have recently read called "When the Drummers Were Women"? Read more
Published on June 2, 2004 by T. David Millican

2.0 out of 5 stars simplistic feminist fluff
This book basically covers the history of women using frame drums theorized by viewing artifacts and pictoral references from past 2200 years of civilized societies. Read more
Published on April 30, 2004

3.0 out of 5 stars Redmond's Contribution
Redmond's thesis is quite fascinating, and it is wonderful to see this area of oft-overlooked women's spirituality and religion come to light. Read more
Published on January 18, 2004 by E. L. Weinhold

5.0 out of 5 stars absolutely wonderful
as a female drummer for almost a decade now, i highly recommend this book to everyone out there, musical or no. Read more
Published on September 14, 2003

5.0 out of 5 stars This Book Is Excellent
This book outlines the history of drumming and empowers women today to take up the drum. This is a well researched piece of work that reaches into ancient history. Read more
Published on July 17, 2002 by Carole Pink

5.0 out of 5 stars The Beat of Different Drummers
This book made a major change in my life as a woman & a drummer. Filled with photos of funereal friezes, statuettes & bas relief of women holding frame drums or... Read more
Published on April 5, 2000 by Rebecca Brown

Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   

Product Information from the Amapedia Community

Beta (What's this?)

Look for Similar Items by Category

Look for Similar Items by Subject

Search Books by subject:





























i.e., each book must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...
 

Feedback

If you need help or have a question for Customer Service, contact us.
 Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
Is there any other feedback you would like to provide?

Your comments can help make our site better for everyone.


Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.