"In Yemen in 1920 ... Adela Damari's parents desperately seek a future husband for their young daughter. After passage of the Orphan's Decree, any unbetrothed Jewish child left orphaned will be instantly adopted by the local Muslim community. With her parents' health failing, and no spousal prospects in sight, Adela's situation looks dire until her uncle arrives from a faraway city, bringing with him a cousin and aunt who introduce Adela to the powerful rituals of henna tattooing"--Amazon.com.
More than just a beautiful form of self-expression for millennia, the art of henna body decoration has been used by cultures around the world for magical protection, blessings, celebrations, luck, and love. In this unique book, Philippa Faulks guides you step by step in the creation of magical henna art. Learn to mix henna paste and apply your design, select powerful symbols and the best places for them on the body, and blend in oils and herbs to boost your magic's potency. You'll also find dozens of ready-made henna designs and spells for love, passion, friendship, healing, prosperity, and more, plus correspondences to help you craft your own spells. Includes illustrations and a full-color photo insert.
The first inside look at the experiences of women who visit traditional mikvehs-ritual baths used to achieve purityFor Orthodox Jews, immersion in the mikveh-a ritual cleansing bath for women based on purity laws-is the cornerstone of family life. All Orthodox women must immerse in the mikveh before marriage, and Ashkenazi women must immerse every month after their menstrual cycle before sexual relations with their husbands may resume. But while the mikveh has been a tool for the exclusion of women, it has also, surprisingly, become an instrument of women's power-a place men cannot enter and thus cannot control.Roused by her own experiences of immersion, for eleven years Varda Polak-Sahm patiently observed and interviewed Jewish women using the mikveh, gaining unprecedented access to the entirely hidden feminine culture and sensual atmosphere within traditional mikvehs. The result is a richly nuanced, uncensored look at an experience that is for some holy and for others coercive. The House of Secretsgives voice to women from all branches of Judaism as they open up about what the mikveh means to them; how it fits in with their attitudes toward religion; its effect on their marriages and families as well as on their sexual, physical, and spiritual self-perception and on their relationship with God.Already widely praised in Israel, this English translation provides a firsthand account of the power of ritual immersion for the growing number of American Jews interested in reclaiming this practice.
Trusted with the secrets of the wealthy, she can never reveal her own... Escaping from an abusive marriage, seventeen-year-old Lakshmi makes her way alone from her 1950s rural village to the pink city of Jaipur. There she becomes the henna artist-and confidante-most in demand to women of the upper class. Known for her original designs and sage advice, Lakshmi must tread carefully to avoid the jealous gossips who could ruin her reputation and her livelihood. As she pursues her dream of an independent life, she is startled one day when she is confronted by her husband, who has tracked her down these many years later with a young girl in tow-a sister Lakshmi never knew she had. Suddenly the caution that she has carefully cultivated as protection is threatened. Vivid and compelling in its portrait of one woman's struggle for fulfillment in society, The Henna Artist opens a door into a world that is at once fascinating, stark and cruel.
A letter marked 'Urgent' arrives on the doormat: The Hoo Ha House is scheduled for demolition What can be done to save the Hoo Ha House? An adventure ensues...will the lost manuscript detailing Lord Hoo Ha and his magical secrets which enable things to come to life be found in time? And if it is will it be enough to prevent the waiting demolition gang from destroying the magic inside? Oh What a Hoo Ha...
Following World War II, members of the sizable Jewish community in what had been Kurdistan, now part of Iraq, left their homeland and resettled in Palestine where they were quickly assimilated with the dominant Israeli-Jewish culture. Anthropologist Erich Brauer interviewed a large number of these Kurdish Jews and wrote The Jews of Kurdistan prior to his death in 1942. Raphael Patai completed the manuscript left by Brauer, translated it into Hebrew, and had it published in 1947. This new English-language volume, completed and edited by Patai, makes a unique ethnological monograph available to the wider scholarly community, and, at the same time, serves as a monument to a scholar whose work has to this day remained largely unknown outside the narrow circle of Hebrew-reading anthropologists. The Jews of Kurdistan is a unique historical document in that it presents a picture of Kurdish Jewish life and culture prior to World War II. It is the only ethnological study of the Kurdish Jews ever written and provides a comprehensive look at their material culture, life cycles, religious practices, occupations, and relations with the Muslims. In 1950-51, with the mass immigration of Kurdish Jews to Israel, their world as it had been before the war suddenly ceased to exist. This book reflects the life and culture of a Jewish community that has disappeared from the country it had inhabited from antiquity. In his preface, Raphael Patai offers data he considers important for supplementing Brauer's book, and comments on the book's values and limitations fifty years after Brauer wrote it. Patai has included additional information elicited from Kurdish Jews in Jerusalem, verified quotations, correctedsome passages that were inaccurately translated from Hebrew authors, completed the bibliography, and added occasional references to parallel traits found in other Oriental Jewish communities.
Malay folklore refers to a series of knowledge, traditions and taboos that have been passed down through many generations in oral, written and symbolic forms among the indigenous populations of Maritime Southeast Asia (Nusantara). They include among others, themes and subject matter related to the indigenous knowledge of the ethnic Malays and related ethnic groups within the region. The stories within this system of lore often incorporate supernatural entities and magical creatures which form parts of the Malay mythology. Others relate to creation myths and place naming legends that are often inter-twined with historical figures and events. Ancient rituals for healing and traditional medicine as well as complex philosophies regarding health and disease can also be found.
Kabyle women from Algeria were believed to have been relegated to a role, subjugated by dominant males, in which they were confined to reproduction, nature, and their sensibilities. The weaknesses created by this inequality were thought to be compensated for by their living inconspicuous lives practicing magic, especially in love. Makilam rejects these preconceived ideas and demonstrates that women's magic was expressed in every domain of their daily lives: pottery making, food provision/preparation, and weaving. In fact, the traditional Kabyle society was incapable of functioning without women, who ensured its material and spiritual unity.
The term bodylore was coined for the American Folklore Society in 1989 to focus concerns with body language, costumes and accoutrements, movement, discourses, and representations, considering the human body as a cultural artifact rather than a natural object. Ten essays from various panels since then explore such topics as women in the American spa culture, body puns in Hamlet, quilts and women's bodies, and medical discourse. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
