Blood, Bread and Roses –How Menstruation Created the World
Jun 28th, 2009 by admin
Anyone who’s ever felt left out of history class by the prevalence of masculine pronouns has been waiting for Blood, Bread, and Roses. Grahn, celebrated feminist poet and writer, approaches anthropology from humanity’s very inception with the perspective that menstruation was the mother of invention. She argues that menstrual seclusion rituals, widespread among early societies, established human understanding of separation and synchronicity, and that they conveyed that understanding through metaform, behavior that communicates social mores and shared belief. Scholarly, but readable and stimulating, Grahn draws from prehistoric and modern cultural comparison, etymology, and poetic inference to detail the roots of religion, law, mythology, mathematics, science, clothing and eating. While readers may not agree with all her theories, the book is indispensable for anyone who has wondered about the other half of historical gender bias, and longed for more balanced alternate theories.
Would anyone like to read and discuss this book with me? We could do this privately on a passworded blog. If you’d like to participate, e-mail me. 
Heart
Judy Grahn will be in Los Angeles August 15, so she’ll probably be talking about this book. I’ve heard her talk many times and she’s great. I’m glad a new book is out!
And thanks for the link to rainbow people Heart, doesn’t look appealing to me… tents wildernessd… I’m a city kid.
That sounds really interesting as I always wondered why it was his-story and not her- story.
Creation has to involve the sacred feminine energy.
So it is not even logical to have only a male creator.
Her-story, yes, we are still trying to get just the basics of female existence throughout time.
Thanks so much for the tip, Heart, the book looks really great and I’ve just ordered it. I’ll drop you a line when I’ve read it
I’m in the middle of the book, and it is quite interesting.
I’ll send out the password soon– welcome aboard, Feminamist, and glad you’re finding the book interesting, Satsuma. Me, too and so inspiring. Catharine Sara, you should join us when we get going. I was thinking September-ish.
xo
I should be done with Judy’s book by the end of August, if not sooner. So many great books to read, so little time …sigh
I have begun it - so far I am really enjoying it. You wouldn’t believe it though, while looking for an online blurb to share with a friend, I found it published online… So for anyone else who’s like to read dip in: http://bailiwick.lib.uiowa.edu/wstudies/grahn/