When the Drummers Were Women: A Spiritual History of Rhythm |
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When the Drummers Were Women: A Spiritual History of Rhythm
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by Layne Redmond
Sales Rank: 171665
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Discount: 32 %
List Price: $18.95
$12.89
At Amazon
on 6-22-2008.
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Features
Cover Type: Paperback with 224 pages
Published by: Three Rivers PressEdition: 1st Edition May 27, 1997
Written in: English
ISBN 10 Number: 0609801287
ISBN 13 Number: 978-0609801284
Book Dimensions:
9.1 x 7.3 x 0.9 inches
Weighs: 1.1 pounds
From Library Journal
A drummer herself who has taught and performed on the frame drum for many years, Redmond has written an engaging work on the history and meaning of female drumming in ancient spiritual traditions. She bases her work on her travels to ancient sites and other research, tracing the role of sacred drumming from as far back as the Paleolithic era (in the worship of the "Great Mother" or "Great Goddess") and in ancient civilizations in the Near East, India, Greece, and Rome. Along the way, she unearths the first representation of a framed drum at Catal Huyuk (in present-day Turkey), ca. 5600 B.C.E. Redmond even takes us through the rise of Christianity, which silenced both women and drumming in worship, then concludes with the reappearance of drumming in the modern age and its importance as a medium for transformation. Well documented, with an great bibliography, this multifaceted study will have great appeal for all readers and especially for music and women's studies collections.?Joan W. Gartland, Detroit P.L.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Women's spirituality circles have taken to drumming in a big way. Redmond has been a leader in reintroducing the frame drum, which, she persuasively argues, has been an instrument of spiritual transformation for millennia. Her marvelous book brings together mythology, history and prehistory, personal experience, musical lore, and scientific information on the healthful effects of drumming. Scores of illustrations show stately goddesses holding frame drums, wild maenads tossing their heads as they pound, and priestesses sanctifying space with the rhythms they beat. Redmond's own story of learning drumming in a society in which women are still actively discouraged from taking up the drums is a paradigm of female experience. Wise and passionate, Redmond's book will find a ready audience, made up not only of those who have attended her popular workshops but also of other women drawn to the ecstatic pulse of the drum. Patricia Monaghan
Reader Reviews
Throughout history, music and rhythm have been used in religious ritual, to bring human beings into the ecstasy of the divine presence, by whatever name that has been called at any given time. And, specifically, rhythm was prevalent in the ancient Goddess religions of the Mediterranean. I never realized, until I read _When the Drummers Were Women_, how many of the Goddess traditions included sacred drumming. But it's right there--Cybele's devotees ate and drank from drums and cymbals, Inanna was given drum music as an offering, and votive figures of drumming women have been found in many places. It's like what I've heard happens when a woman gets pregnant--all of a sudden, she sees pregnant women everywhere. Not because there are more pregnant women than there were before, but because her focus has changed. Layne Redmond gives us a new focus--percussion--and suddenly we're able to see the pattern of rhythmic ecstasy that ran through many of these rituals, which many of us hadn't noticed before. And she also suggests drumming as a way to the divine today, and emphasizes that drums were not always seen as "masculine" instruments as they are seen today. Are they seen as masculine? Ask me, ask any woman who played percussion as a young girl. A lot of weird looks still follow a female drummer. But that's changing, thanks to prominent female drummers like Redmond. Why not five stars? I think it's a personal issue of mine. I've read a lot of "history of the Goddess" books in my life, and at this point I'm heartily sick of reading about the matriarchy and its suppression by the patriarchy. This isn't Redmond's fault, it's mine. But this book contains the exact same story arc I've seen many times before, the very same oversimplified history. (The best three-dimensional account I've seen of this theme is Baring and Cashford's _The Myth of the Goddess. Other writers' tellings of this story come off as too sweepingly general after the Baring/Cashford book.) It's up to you whether the drumming angle justifies buying another book about the matriarchy/patriarchy story. For me, it was justified, because I am interested in Demeter, Persephone, and Dionysos, and got some new information about their rites from Redmond's book. It's the big question to ask yourself before buying this book.
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When the Drummers Were Women: A Spiritual History of Rhythm
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Price: $12.89
Updated on 6-22-2008.
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