Includes bibliographies and index.

Perspectives of indigenous religious traditions from the Americas, Asia, and Australia -- Women, family, and environment. -- Ngarrindjeri women's stories: Kungun and Yunnan Diane Bell -- Feminine rituality and the Spirit of the Water in Peru Frederique Apffel-Marglin -- Socioeconimcis, politics, and authority. -- Indigenous spirituality, gender, and the politics of justice: voices from the First Summit of Indigenous Women of the Americas Sylvia Marcos -- Authority and ritual in the caves of Tepoztlan, Mexico: women priestesses in popular religion Ana Maria Salazar Peralta -- Body, mind, and spirit. -- Dressing up the spirits: costumes, cross-dressing, and incarnation in Korea and Vietnam Laurel Kendall and Hien Thi Nguyen -- Women and sacred medicines among the Khasis in the highlands of northeast India Darilyn Syiem -- The not-so-subtle body in dais' birth imagery Jane Chawla -- Sexuality, power and vulnerability. -- Ritual gendered relationships: kinship, marriage, mastery, and machi modes of personhood Ana Mariella Bacigalupo -- Sexuality and ritual: indigenous women recreating their identities in contemporary Mexico Nuvia Balderrama Vara -- Women, world view, and religious practice. -- Drawing the connections: Mayan women's quest for a gendered spirituality Morna Macleod -- Decolonizing our spirits: cultural knowledge and indigenous healing Renee Linklater.

This book examines the critical and often undervalued contributions of women to the culture, well-being, and subsistence of their communities as active, powerful, and wise ritual specialists. --from publisher description

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