The World Beyond BetterMost > Women Today

Essential Books for Women

<< < (5/8) > >>

serious crayons:

--- Quote from: atz75 on December 12, 2008, 11:21:52 am ---
The topic of cooking made me think of this book...

A Thousand Years Over a Hot Stove: A History of American Women Told through Food, Recipes, and Remembrances
by Laura Schenone
--- End quote ---

That sounds like a good one, too. I like it when women's traditional occupations are honored rather than trivialized or scorned. I understand the impulse to disdain household drudgery (and from the looks of my household I probably disdain drudgery a bit too much  ::)). On the other hand, we should appreciate what women traditionally have contributed to human society (albeit largely unpaid).

Front-Ranger:
A quote from the book The Alphabet Versus the Goddess:


--- Quote ---Shlain contrasts the feminine right-brained oral teachings of Socrates, Buddha, and Jesus with the masculine creeds that evolved when their spoken words were committed to writing. The first book written in an alphabet was the Old Testament and its most important passage was the Ten Commandments. The first two reject of any goddess influence and ban any form of representative art.
--- End quote ---


I was rereading the book last nite about the story of Joseph (he of the technicolor dreamcoat). Joseph was ambushed by his brothers and left for dead, but he was sold into slavery in Egypt. His talents were recognized by the ruling class in Egypt so instead of being a slave he became one of the most trusted and powerful assistants to the Pharoah. When a famine came to the land, he welcomed his brothers and other Hebrews into Egypt and they became powerful and influential, but were not trusted and began to be persecuted. Eventually they were led out of Egypt by Moses and went back to the Promised Land. However, in later periods of history, similar things happened to the Jews again.

What was the talent that Jews were simultaneously admired and reviled for? Literacy. . . the alphabet.

delalluvia:

--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on December 13, 2008, 03:02:25 pm ---A quote from the book The Alphabet Versus the Goddess:
 

I was rereading the book last nite about the story of Joseph (he of the technicolor dreamcoat). Joseph was ambushed by his brothers and left for dead, but he was sold into slavery in Egypt. His talents were recognized by the ruling class in Egypt so instead of being a slave he became one of the most trusted and powerful assistants to the Pharoah. When a famine came to the land, he welcomed his brothers and other Hebrews into Egypt and they became powerful and influential, but were not trusted and began to be persecuted. Eventually they were led out of Egypt by Moses and went back to the Promised Land. However, in later periods of history, similar things happened to the Jews again.

What was the talent that Jews were simultaneously admired and reviled for? Literacy. . . the alphabet.

--- End quote ---

Interesting, but the Egyptians were already literate.  Had invented paper - from papyrus.  Being an Egyptian scribe was a standard and desired and in demand job.  Egypt was a superpower, breadbasket of the ancient world, complete with monarchy and bureaucracy and were in command of most of the middle east during early biblical times - why do you think blbilcal Jews were said to migrate there and back?  I guess I'm not going to agree with some of the theories in the Goddess versus the Alphabet.

Front-Ranger:
Good points, della, and I shouldn't have begun in the middle of Chapter 8! Also, instead of literacy...the alphabet, I should have said, alphabet literacy. Going back to Chapter 6, "Cuneiform/Marduk," it is recounted how two centers of civilization developed about 3000 BC in Mesopotamia and Egypt. The rest of this chapter discusses the development of cuneiform in Mesopotamia, leading to the code of Hammerabi, and its implications.

Chapter 7, Hieroglyphs/Isis, talks about the development of Egyptian pictographic writing and how it dovetailed with Egyptian culture. If you study the pantheon of Egyptian gods and goddesses, their rulers, and their patterns of daily life, you will see that the Egyptians had what could be considered a matriarchial culture, honoring the goddess Isis and her son Horus above all, though the god Atum or Amon gradually grew in importance over the centuries.

Between 1700 and 1550 BC the balance of power changed and infiltrators called Hyskos gradually came to rule over the Egyptians. After these interlopers were driven out, the New Kingdom of the pharoahs began with sweeping changes. This was the period when the great monuments were built and the pharoahs, such as Ramses II, dictated great military conquests. The system of writing was also revolutionized, representing phonetic sounds rather than aesthetic pictures. The god Amon was elevated to the highest status and took on human form rather than being animalistic.

Stay tuned for more about the mysterious Hyskos people.

Sophia:

   Bell Hooks, is my suggestion. It is an african-american women who writes about thinking about how it is to be a women, and what is love. In her books she gives you new perspectives about life, marriage, love and being a women.   My favorite book by her is All about love.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page