ANT 331 Feminist Spirituality & Wicca And Sande Secret Societies

Feminist Spirituality& Wicca and Sande Secret Societies
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Feminist Spirituality& Wicca and Sande Secret Societies
The way these texts compare and contrast is important because it gives a clear understanding of the religious beliefs and practices of women across two cultures. In one hand, the text addresses beliefs and practices of women in the west while the other addresses the same for women in Africa.
In both texts, the two cultures focus on the celebration of womanhood and empowerment of women. The feminist spirituality movement offers women rituals in celebration of the female cycle by celebrating things such as the first birth and menopause. In addition, they offer a ritual for preparation for political struggle and such is viewed as empowering women for political positions in the society. The movement is also actively involved in issues that revolve around women’s rights (Feminist Spirituality& Wicca, 27). Similarly, Sande secret society empowers women through their initiation ritual which allows them to be in control of their sexuality since they have more female self-knowledge after the ritual and ensures that their womanhood is well defined (Sande secret societies, 126). Furthermore, Sande organization fights for women rights and has the capacity to punish men who abuse women. More so, Sande offers women with group support and provides them with an opportunity to be by themselves without the interference of men, which happens during the initiation rituals (Sande secret societies, 264). It also allows them to be economically and politically empowered since it provides them with business connections and the ability to protest as a front against any form of political or economic oppression (Sande secret societies, 265).
The texts reveal that both cultures recognize definitive gender differences especially in terms of gender roles. In the text, (Feminist Spirituality& Wicca, 173), the writer reveals that Mormon theology believes that there must be a Goddess who performs women roles, which cannot be performed by God. Clearly, their recognition of gender differences goes beyond human beings. It exists even in the Heavenly world. The text further shows that there are doubts concerning gender roles, gods, and goddesses. This is attributed to the difference between the description of God, which is closer to the description of mothers, and the masculine words used when referring to God by different groups of people. Feminist spirituality also worships a Goddess and claim that the Goddess is within them and not out there (Feminist Spirituality & Wicca, 174), revealing clear gender differences. On the other hand, Sande secret ...