Re-Imagining Inanna
The Gendered Reappropriation of the Ancient Goddess in Modern Goddess Worship
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.v6i1.53Keywords:
Ianna, contemporary goddess worship, contemporary paganismAbstract
Re-Imagining Inanna: The Gendered Reappropriation of the Ancient Goddess in Modern Goddess Worship examines the specifically gendered reconstruction of the ancient Mesopotamian deity Inanna in modern Goddess worship. This paper argues that the reconstruction of Inanna in modern Goddess worship is an imaginative process based upon unexamined gendered assumptions of what is properly feminine for a great goddess. The result of this process is a constructed image of Inanna that is incongruent with the
personality of Inanna as imagined in ancient Mesopotamia. Moreover, this incongruence leads to an examination of the Pagan approach to history and an analysis of the sociological features present in contemporary Paganism that allows for these selective reconstructions.
References
Aries, Philippe. Centuries of Childhood: A Social History of Family Life, translated by Robert Baldick. New York: Knopf, 1962.
Berger, Peter. The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion. New York: Doubleday, 1967.
Budapest, Z. 'Self-Blessing Ritual.' In Womanspirit Rising: A Feminist Reader in Religion, edited by Carol P. Christ and Judith Plaskow, 269-72 San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1979.
---. 'The Vows, Wows, and Joys of the High Priestess or What Do you People Do anyway?' In The Politics of Women's Spirituality: Essays on the Rise of Spiritual Power within the Feminist Movement, edited by Charlene Spretnak, 535-40. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press, 1982.
Bynum, Caroline Walker. Jesus as Mother: Studies in the Spirituality of the High Middle Ages. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982.
Christ, Carol P. Rebirth of the Goddess: Finding Meaning in Feminist Spirituality. New York: Addison-Wesley, 1997.
---. 'Why Women Need the Goddess.' In Womanspirit Rising: A Feminist Reader in Religion, edited by Carol P. Christ and Judith Plaskow, 273-88. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1979.
Cowan, Douglas E. Cyberhenge: Modern Paganism on the World Wide Web. New York: Routledge, forthcoming.
Dalley, Stephanie, trans. Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh and Others. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.
Eller, Cynthia. The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory: Why an Invented Past Wonít Give Women a Future. Boston: Beacon Press, 2000.
Fiorenza, Elizabeth Sch¸ssler. 'Roundtable Discussion: What Are the Sources of my Theology.' Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 1 (Spring 1985): 119-31.
Gadon, Elinor W. The Once and Future Goddess: A Symbol for our Time. New York: Harper and Row, 1989.
Gimbutas, Marija. The Civilization of the Goddess. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1991.
Goddess Remembered. Videocassette. Produced by Studio D. Toronto: National Film Board of Canada, 1989.
Jacobsen, Thorkild. 'Mesopotamia.' In The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man: An Essay on Speculative Thought in the Ancient Near East, edited by H. Frankfort et al., 125-83. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1946; Chicago: Phoenix Books, 1977.
---. The Treasures of Darkness: A History of Mesopotamian Religion. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1976.
Knight, Sirona, and Patricia Telesco. The Cyber Spellbook: Magick in the Virtual World. Franklin Lakes, NJ: The Career Press, 2002.
Kramer, S. N., trans. 'Hymnal Prayer of Enheduanna: The Adoration of Inanna of Ur.' In The Ancient Near East, vol. 2, A New Anthology of Texts and Pictures, edited by James B. Pritchard, 126-32 Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1975.
Neuman, Eric. The Great Mother, An Analysis of the Archetype, translated by Ralph Manheim. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1963.
Ochshorn, Judith. 'Goddesses and the Lives of Women.' In Women and Goddess Traditions in Antiquity and Today, edited by Karen L. King, 377-405. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1997.
Ortner, Sherry. Making Gender: The Politics and Erotics of Culture. Boston: Beacon Press, 1996.
Raphael, Melissa. 'Truth in Flux: Goddess Feminism as a Late Modern Religion.' Religion 26 (July 1996): 199-213.
ReWeaving. 'In Praise of Inanna.' http://www.reweaving.org/inanna.html (accessed February 7, 2004).
Schweitzer, Albert. The Quest of the Historical Jesus: A Critical Study of its Progress from Reimarus to Wrede, with an introduction by James M. Robinson, translated by W. Montgomery. New York: Collier, 1968.
Spiral Goddess Grove. 'Goddess Altar of Ishtar and Inanna.' http://www.spiralgoddess.com/Inanna.html (accessed February 7, 2004).
Starhawk. The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess. 10th ed. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1989.
---. 'Witchcraft and Womenís Culture.' In Womanspirit Rising: A Feminist Reader in Religion, edited by Carol P. Christ and Judith Plaskow, 259-68. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1979.
Stephens, Ferris J., trans. 'Prayer of Lamenation to Ishtar.' In Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, edited by James B. Pritchard. 2nd ed. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1955.
Stone, Merlin. When God Was a Woman. San Diego: Harcourt Brace and Company, 1976.
Telesco, Patricia. 365 Goddess: Daily Guide to the Magic and Inspiration of the Goddess. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1998.
Trible, Phyllis. God and the Rhetoric of Sexuality. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1978.
Wakeman, Mary. 'Ancient Sumer and the Womenís Movement: The Process of Reaching Behind, Encompassing and Going Beyond.' The Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 1 (Fall 1985): 7-27.
Weaver, Mary Jo. 'Who Is the Goddess and Where Does she Get us?' Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 5 (Spring 1989): 49-64.
Wolkstein, Diane, and Samuel Noah Kramer, trans. Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth: Her Stories and Hymns from Sumer. New York: Harper and Row, 1983.
