When the Spanish arrived in Peru in 1532, men of the Inca Umpire worshipped the Sun as Father and their dead kings as ancestor heroes, while women venerated the Moon and her daughters, the Inca queens, as founders of female dynasties. In the pre-Inca period such notions of parallel descent were expressions of complementarity between men and women. Examining the interplay between gender ideologies and political hierarchy, Irene Silverblatt shows how Inca rulers used their Sun and Moon traditions as methods of controlling women and the Andean peoples the Incas conquered. She then explores the process by which the Spaniards employed European male and female imageries to establish their own rule in Peru and to make new inroads on the power of native women, particularly poor peasant women. Harassed economically and abused sexually, Andean women fought back, earning in the process the Spaniards' condemnation as "witches." Fresh from the European witch hunts that damned women for susceptibility to heresy and diabolic influence, Spanish clerics were predisposed to charge politically disruptive poor women with witchcraft. Silverblatt shows that these very accusations provided women with an ideology of rebellion and a method for defending their culture.

"The myths and cosmologies of non-Western peoples are not just histories, relating the world as it once was, nor are they pseudo-histories, justifying the world as it has come to be. Instead, they are tools of struggle: ideologies both producing and produced by the effort to create society in someone's image. On them are written the memories and hopes of forgotten people, yearning for power over their - and others' - lives. Such is Irene Silverblatt's argument as she documents religious/ideological struggle in pre- and post-conquest Peru. Heavily influenced by Marxist anthropology and by debates about the social construction of gender, she examines religious and gender ideologies in the Andes prior to the Inca conquest, during their short reign (1450-1532), and after the coming of the Spanish. Though the pre-Inca period is relatively opaque Silverblatt argues that the sexes were relatively equal. Men's and women's work, men's and women's religion each upheld a portion of the universe. Women inherited from women, worshipped female gods and directed their cults; men inherited from men, and ruled cults whose gods were male. Gender was the dominant screen through which these people viewed life - and both sides could play. The Incas shared this gender-defined worldview, but used it to justify their conquest and control. They worshipped Viracocha, whom they claimed as the an-drogynous pro-genitor of Sun and Moon, respectively the ancestors of men and women." -- from www.jstor.org (Nov. 9, 2010).

The American Historical Association's Committee on Women Historians commissioned some of the pioneering figures in women's history to prepare essays in their respective areas of expertise. This volume, the second in a series of three, collects their efforts. As a counterpoint to the broad themes discussed in the first volume, Volume 2 is concerned with issues that have shaped the history of women in particular places and during particular eras. It examines women in ancient civilizations; including women in China, Japan, and Korea; women and gender in South and South East Asia; Medieval women; women and gender in Colonial Latin America; and the history of women in the US to 1865. Authors included are Sarah Hughes and Brady Hughes, Susan Mann, Barbara N. Ramusack, Judith M. Bennett, Ann Twinam, and Kathleen Brown. Incorporating essays from top scholars ranging over an abundance of regions, dates, and methodologies, the three volumes of Women's History in Global Perspective constitute an invaluable resource for anyone interested in a comprehensive overview on the latest in feminist scholarship.

Grade level: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, e, i, s.

There are no short-cuts to becoming a Witch. Traditionally, students take a year and a day to prepare for their initiation into the Craft. Based on this age-old custom, Wicca: A Year and a Day is a one-of-a-kind daily guide that introduces Witchcraft over a 366-day cycle. Ideal for solitary students, this intensive study course teaches the core content of Wiccan practice: the tides of time, the wonders of the seasons, the ways of herbs and magic, the mysticism of the Old Ones, and the inner disciplines of seers and sages. Daily lessons include exercises, Wiccan theology and lore, and discussions relating to circle work, magical correspondences, holidays, deities, tools, healing, and divination.

Gifted with the ability to see the past and future of anyone she touches, Juliet, who longs to free herself from the nightmares that plague her, is rescued from the Emperor's men by a valiant wolf-beast named Ryn who believes her to be his destiny. Original.