Gender and Spirituality

Paper Summary:

This anthropological study evaluates an interview with Anna, a fifty-year-old Wiccan woman alongside that of Nisa of the Kung peoples. The basis of this comparison aims to define the similar spiritual and gender -based beliefs of each of these women, as they reveal their beliefs through their experiences in two differing environments. By evaluating these two women, the paper aims to show the similarities that stretch beyond normal societal barriers between indigenous and western cultures within a spiritual and gender role context.

From the Paper:

"In this manner, the anthropological aspects of similarity between these women show a concerted effort to reach deeper beneath the surface features of their societies, and find particular experiences that defy the patriarchal aspects of their beliefs. Nisa is aware of how men are not absolutist in their views of gender roles, just as Anna is also aware that it is not men in general that is the problem within her beliefs, it is the gender role stereotypes created externally (through the media and education) that she chooses to battle. For Anna it is the male/female unification of gender roles of Wicca that reinforce her belief in greater feminine wisdom, which is also deeply embedded within the beliefs that Nisa imparts within the details of her spiritual life."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Shostak, Marjorie. Nisa: The Life and Works of a Kung Woman. Cambridge: Harvard University, 2000.

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