For the preconquest Maya, sexuality was a part of ritual discourse and performance, and all sex acts were understood in terms of their power to create, maintain, and destroy society. As postconquest Maya adapted to life under colonial rule, they neither fully abandoned these views nor completely adopted the formulation of sexuality prescribed by Spanish Catholicism. Instead, they evolved hybridized notions of sexual desire, represented in the figure of the Virgin Mary as a sexual goddess, whose sex acts embodied both creative and destructive components. This highly innovative book decodes the process through which this colonization of Yucatan Maya sexual desire occurred. Pete Sigal frames the discussion around a series of texts, including the Books of Chilam Balam and the Ritual of the Bacabs, that were written by seventeenth and eighteenth century Maya nobles to elucidate the history, religion, and philosophy of the Yucatecan Maya communities. Drawing on the insights of philology, discourse analysis, and deconstruction, he analyzes the sexual fantasies, fears, and desires that are presented, often unintentionally, in the "margins" of these texts and shows how they illuminate issues of colonialism, power, ritual, and gender.

This classic exploration of the Goddess through time and throughout the world draws on religious, cultural, and archaeological sources to recreate the Goddess religion that is humanity’s heritage. Now, with a new introduction and full-color artwork, this passionate and important text shows even more clearly that the religion of the Goddess--which is tied to the cycles of women’s bodies, the seasons, the phases of the moon, and the fertility of the earth--was the original religion of all humanity.

In Artemis: Virgin Goddess of the Hunt & Moon, Sorita d'Este offers a thorough scholarly examination of Artemis, a multifaceted deity venerated in antiquity not only as the goddess of the hunt and the moon but also as a powerful figure associated with childbirth, women, music, dance, and wild animals. This volume provides a comprehensive exploration of her vast influence and worship throughout the ancient world. Artemis, daughter of the Titaness Leto and the Olympian god Zeus, emerges as a significant and complex figure from birth, assisting her mother during the delivery of her twin brother, Apollo. Artemis held a unique place in Zeus' affections, receiving numerous gifts and privileges that elevated her status among the Olympian deities. Over the centuries, she assumed various roles, including Potnia Theron, the Huntress, and Mother Goddess. The latter role inspired her temple at Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and mentioned in the Bible. This major religious site saw Artemis worshipped by the Melissa Priestesses as a Mother Goddess rather than as the young huntress. This volume details the primary myths, powers, and cult practices surrounding Artemis, offering a study of her temples and sanctuaries, the festivals held in her honour, and her diverse roles in ancient mythology. The text delves into the animals sacred to her, her relationships with her virgin attendants and other gods and goddesses, and the myriad titles attributed to her, making it an essential resource for those seeking an understanding of this enduring goddess. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Second edition of the 2005 book by the same author, Artemis: Virgin Goddess of the Sun and Moon.

The White Goddess is perhaps the finest of Robert Graves's works on the psychological and mythological sources of poetry. In this tapestry of poetic and religious scholarship, Graves explores the stories behind the earliest of European deities—the White Goddess of Birth, Love, and Death—who was worshipped under countless titles. He also uncovers the obscure and mysterious power of "pure poetry" and its peculiar and mythic language.

What did it mean to be a man in colonial Latin America? More specifically, what did indigenous and Iberian groups think of men who had sexual relations with other men? Providing comprehensive analyses of how male homosexualities were represented in areas under Portuguese and Spanish control, Infamous Desire is the first book-length attempt to answer such questions. In a study that will be indispensable for anyone studying sexuality and gender in colonial Latin America, an esteemed group of contributors view sodomy through the lens of desire and power, relating male homosexual behavior to broader gender systems that defined masculinity and femininity.

When the Spanish arrived in Peru in 1532, men of the Inca Umpire worshipped the Sun as Father and their dead kings as ancestor heroes, while women venerated the Moon and her daughters, the Inca queens, as founders of female dynasties. In the pre-Inca period such notions of parallel descent were expressions of complementarity between men and women. Examining the interplay between gender ideologies and political hierarchy, Irene Silverblatt shows how Inca rulers used their Sun and Moon traditions as methods of controlling women and the Andean peoples the Incas conquered. She then explores the process by which the Spaniards employed European male and female imageries to establish their own rule in Peru and to make new inroads on the power of native women, particularly poor peasant women. Harassed economically and abused sexually, Andean women fought back, earning in the process the Spaniards' condemnation as "witches." Fresh from the European witch hunts that damned women for susceptibility to heresy and diabolic influence, Spanish clerics were predisposed to charge politically disruptive poor women with witchcraft. Silverblatt shows that these very accusations provided women with an ideology of rebellion and a method for defending their culture.