European Journal of Social Sciences Studies
ISSN: 2501-8590
ISSN-L: 2501-8590
Available on-line at: www.oapub.org/soc
Volume 2 │ Issue 3 │ 2017
doi: 10.5281/zenodo.438084
ALTERNATIVE FEMININE SPIRITUALITY AND
FEMALE CULTURAL CAPITAL
Gasouka Mariai
Associate Professor in Folklore Studies and Gender,
Department of Science Education and Educational Design,
University of the Aegean, Rhodes, Greece
Abstract:
The ritual in its context and indeed the magical one is approached as
text
and
speech and its readings/hearings are extremely interesting. The female, spoken, magic
words as well as the body language often shape or deny the intellectual worlds of
gender. The women's experiential experience, through ritual, builds identities, even if
within an occasional environment of freedom and self-determination. Moments of
resistance are marked, probably unconsciously, in the patriarchal status quo and in the
image of the female self that this class constructs. By exploring the identities and the
social roles of the gender in reality, we examine how people, men and women,
experience life in specific social and cultural contexts. The meanings, which are
associated with gender and identities, eventually shape an understanding of the world
and produce ideology. This fact implies a classification - however minimal - of those
phenomena and their meanings that ensure the gendered status quo as a symbolic one.
What were women trying to say through their magical rituals and when will we
discover the importance of cultural consignment which the feminine mystique is
bearing as a property and the ritual as action?
Keywords: female identity, magic, rituals, speech
1. Introduction
All the aspects of human life are surrounded with significances and meanings, which
are directly linked to specific purposes and cultural norms that determine, in specific
Copyright © The Author(s). All Rights Reserved.
© 2015 – 2017 Open Access Publishing Group
1
Gasouka Maria
ALTERNATIVE FEMININE SPIRITUALITY AND FEMALE CULTURAL CAPITAL
socio-economic conditions each time, the fields of ethics, attitudes, dominant values and
social expectations in their entirety. In this context an interest present at the symbolic
representations and the cultural significations of gender, i.e. the kind of social meanings
and values which correspond to men and women.
The definition of the concept of gender perspective and divide the male and
female researchers. Besides the fact that "gender" includes in its definition duality and
difference relations, it also contributes in the classification aspects of social and cultural
life. Sexes derived from a social interaction, with the transfer of concepts and values
through their reactions/manipulations of these messages from social groups and
individuals. In essence, it is social/cultural dialogue which is constantly changing and
worth to highlight that the discussion that is being developed around the issues of
gender, reformulations and the redefinitions that are attempted, they stimulate the
thought and clarify the scope of analysis of specific cultural and symbolic procedures
whereby gender is constructed, although, in our point of view, it is necessary to be
more emphasis on vibrant social processes and social/economic environment, in which
these processes take place (Ashcroft, Griffiths, & Tiffin, 1995).
The certain is that thanks to this process, the cognitive categories and symbols
are redefined in a new context and in new interpretations as well as individuals and
groups have the capacity to modify the system of gender equality meanings for
themselves and to transfer those changes to others (Moser, 2007). The mental world of
genders is therefore not only information systems but they are also flexible and fluid
systems of symbols, which are surrounded with value. Thus, the categories of
masculinity and femininity redefined and this contributes to the consolidation of all
information relating to women in the theoretical and conceptual framework of the
diversity of social structures and relationships, identities and ideologies xc(Connell
James & Messerschmidt, 2005).
2. Magic’s Redefinition from Feminine Perspective
Occasionally, interesting theories on magic have been raised. These theories also
included the determination of magical rituals, with its simultaneous inclusion in every
specific cultural context. As a rule, the magic has been seen as a result of a sympathy
which dominates the universe as activation spirits etc. metaphysical elements,
antiscientific associative thinking, symbolic link between transport systems, metonymy,
synchronicity, etc. and various activities with spiritual or material goals. The use of the
term "magic" is closely related to known historical prejudices - such as the distinction
between civilize/ primitive - but it is also associated with the perception of magic as an
ontological category (Curry, 1985).
European Journal of Social Sciences Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 3 │ 2017
2
Gasouka Maria
ALTERNATIVE FEMININE SPIRITUALITY AND FEMALE CULTURAL CAPITAL
Parallel with these there was an attempt "magic" to be determined in contrast to
other categories of thinking such as science and religion. Thanks to Emile Durkheim
and especially to Marcel Mauss (1963) the magical (and religious) are considered from
the early times, socially events their own autonomy which differs in that religion takes
place in the context of an organized church and the magic is performed in a private and
isolated place (Durkheim & Mauss, 1963). According to Mauss (1954), the magical ritual
is private, secret, mysterious and typically forbidden. Through these comparisons, a
number of scholars pursued to outline the organic and functional utility of magical, of
its social and psychological functions and the nature of its thought (Mauss, 1954).
They answered in psychological / anthropological / folklore questions about the
operation and effectiveness of the magic, the system of thought that reflects, and the
distinction between the scientific and traditional. L. Stark (2006) defines the term
magical as an energetic ritual which constitutes a kind of sociocultural adjustment
that includes folk knowledge and wisdom. The last ones are important tools for
understanding the role of magic in specific traditional communities. Although the
magical ritual differs from other cultural behaviors, in all forms of rituals, with public
or private character, the existence of common factors reveals which are pointed out
mainly post-structuralist, post-symbolic and feminist approaches (Stark, 2006).
Women have involved with magic and rituals for many centuries. From the
primordial therapists to the victims of the fire season, the witches through their magical
rituals, systematic and defined actions, movements, speech, etc. which were taking
place at a specific time and place, they covered a range of individual needs, desires and
expectations which were prohibited in patriarchal social society and these women were
intend "to change the entire face of the earth", as Freud pointed out (Strachey, 1961).
These women also formed female places, articulated female speeches and symbols and
they developed feminine forces which men could not control whereas they have
constructed an interesting feminine solidarity and networking, confirming Durkheim's
view about the importance of rituals as a tool of "class disruption" that contributes to
the consolidation of society (Jones, 1986).
The ritual constitutes a cultural speech that comes consciously not only from the
spoken word that is developing during magical rituals but also through gestures,
expressions, movements, demonstrations, etc. The speech includes except form the
actively transmission of information and their receipt and these kind of speech implies a
communicative process of coordination and negotiation between two or more people. It
constitutes part of the way in which the mental worlds of genders hurtle and clash
against. Simultaneously is a media event in the context of popular culture that includes
specific mental models which is worthy to be explored and interpreted from the female
perspective (Marshall & Sensoy, 2011). However, in one way or another, the magical
European Journal of Social Sciences Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 3 │ 2017
3
Gasouka Maria
ALTERNATIVE FEMININE SPIRITUALITY AND FEMALE CULTURAL CAPITAL
rituals constitute a field of conscious or unconscious resistances of women in patriarchal
dictates, a field of production/reproduction of knowledge and power and they construct
a world where gender becomes visible and calculable. As the gender is a social, variable
category every time it transfers and preexisting elements of intensity, resistance and
insurgency (Frable, 1997).
The areas where take place of the feminine witchcraft are surrounded by
sanctity: The witches, outside and beyond the patriarchal control, operate in conditions
(always temporary) of physical and intellectual freedom, something that the other
women are denied completely. They interact with the metaphysical; create symbolic
worlds, their own spiritual tradition and a kind of alternative female knowledge which
they bequeathed to future generations of witches. Basic female strategy is the "secrecy",
the maintenance of knowledge among "those who know about it". So the women often
perform the rituals in deserted houses or deserted locations during evening hours, i.e.
in conditions that would prevent the "bad" eyes to make the ritual ineffective (Duiker &
Spielvogel, 2006).
Secrecy serves, among other women for the creation of an atmosphere in which
the participants have turned the ritual into a sort of feminine knowledge. Through
limitation and concealment, the knowledge becomes valuable and finally belongs to
women, outside and beyond the masculine moods and male control. The possession of
this knowledge differentiates its holders of the other members of the community and
constitutes a source of unique power for them (Scarre & Callow, 2001). This tradition
and knowledge imply a major cultural chapter (which was ignored until our days) but
and a kind of feminine s could to enter the history of ideas as well as, according to
Lentaki the witchcraft requires a state of mind and so it can be examined from the
perspective of thought’s history. ”ut from this kind of history, the women - with few
exceptions - were excluded. Therefore, the gendered approach to magic and rituals,
beyond the comprehension of the symbolic expressive actions, contributes to the
rehabilitation of women as subjects in the field of the thought's history (Bailey, 2007).
3. The Female Body through Rituals
Central conceptual issue in the study of women's magical rituals is the "Female Body",
as natural symbol as well as a notion. It is considered to be the original means of
expression and perception of the ritual and also a means of the production of belief, of
symbolic relationships and ultimately of cultural knowledge. Feminist cultural studies
focus on the function and content of the ceremonies and give the female body a key role
in shaping the "internal" reality and insist on it as the primary means by which we
understand the rituals and speak through them. The focus on the relationship between
European Journal of Social Sciences Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 3 │ 2017
4
Gasouka Maria
ALTERNATIVE FEMININE SPIRITUALITY AND FEMALE CULTURAL CAPITAL
body and ritual is an important knowledge key as from this comes that cultural
knowledge, beliefs, symbolic links etc that are achieved in the frame of ceremonies can
only be fully understood through a lived bodily experience, the "embodied" experience
of perception and movement (Gasouka, 2006).
Especially for the latter, the fact that the body is a "way of knowledge" and how
the physical experience is closely related to the production of knowledge, it is
increasingly being raised. In fact, it's not just about movement, but about bodies that
move, which through a ritual creates social space (Gasouka, 2006). In this way, the
female body becomes a means and place of socially important transitions, as well as the
boundary that divides social space, especially the 'inside' from the 'outside', noting that
the concepts of 'inside' and 'outside' have always been extremely important for both
values, bodies, and spaces and for the organization and division of activities based on
gender. The body is the place of social information, which the society impresses on the
person, requiring the body to integrate it through - mostly ceremonial – movement
(Gasouka, 2006). Thus, the ritual interferes and differentiates social relations
particularly that of power, alters individual perceptions while the discreetness and
intensity of the ritual moment validate the ceremonial participation and the produced
social transformation of the individuals.
Directly related to the female body during magical rituals is the experience of the
socialization processes and this is associated with the internal processes taking place.
So the body is not just a physical instrument, but also the place of production and
evolution of sociality, which occurs through a ceremonial action and practice. It is
ultimately the intermediator between the lived experience and the external world,
between individual and collective experience, a fact that transforms the ritual into
tangible act, an act that is physically expressing the technique, control and coordination,
as well as the somatic experience (Schilbrack, 2004; Gasouka 2007).
4. The Magic Speech (Logos)
Gender and identity are constructed through language. Mary Joe Frug (1992) suggests
the acceptance of a basic principle: that human experience inevitably lies in language.
She notes that power is exercised not only by the imposition of direct coercion, but
through the way in which social reality shapes and / or limits language. However, as
the language is available to new interpretations, it may also be used as a means of
resistance in this dominant form and restrictions. So one authoritative male logos may
cause a feminist logos of resistance (Frug, 1992).
Chances are that sex is part of a conceptual system produced from the language
so special emphasis on the study of the ways in which identities and sexuality (female,
European Journal of Social Sciences Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 3 │ 2017
5
Gasouka Maria
ALTERNATIVE FEMININE SPIRITUALITY AND FEMALE CULTURAL CAPITAL
male, homosexual, heterosexual, etc.) are built, and played in the Word (political, legal,
historical, literary, etc.) is given. The Logos is an integral part of the magical process.
The magic language as strange and incomprehensible it may be, though sacred
according to Malinowski (1948), it has archaic origins and becomes effective only in
combination with other activities: using objects, body language and movement in a
particular place or time. It contributes to the cleansing of the sanctified environment,
but also in the performativity , i.e. the effectiveness of the magical incident. The The
magical power of words
Tambiah, 1 6
is based on the belief in the inherent ability
of the Logos to affect the universe. Since, as it seems, the magical Logos itself is a
magical ritual, when it comes to women, it releases internal forces, gives them a strong
sense of power and structures the identity and self-image of the strong woman-witch.
The female magical Logos during its articulation violates a fundamental function
of the language. That is a broad of communication. It is converted to a code of
communication and intellectual exchange of a small privileged group of female
insiders. It is a language inherently resistant to patriarchal order. It is a reason for
overthrowing the female subordination, even temporarily, so it is deeply political.
Prayers, spells, songs, blessings, curses, blessings, etc. transformed into paeans of
female, secret, confidential and private power which comes from far away, from the
misty and black memory of the female primordial past, of an alleged "golden age",
which often was resulted in the destruction of the witch (recall the time of the fire) from
the patriarchs and their laws (courts, sacred exam, e.t.c.) so that the other women to be
exemplified and not challenge their social situation (Stratton & Kalleres, 2014).
5. Conclusions
The construction of identity is a fundamental issue for contemporary debates which are
developed in the context of feminist and cultural theory. The meanings that are
associated with gender and their identities eventually shape an understanding of the
world and produce ideology. This fact implies a series of one - even minimal classification of those phenomena and meanings that ensure the gendered status quo as
symbolic order. In its context, the ritual, and indeed the magical one, is approached as
"text" and "speech" and its readings/hearings present exceptional interest.
The female, spoken, magic words as well as the body language shape or often
dispute the mental worlds of gender. The female personal experience, through the
rituals, constructs identities and images of self, even in an occasional environment of
freedom and self-determination. Through these rituals marked moments of resistance,
probably unconsciously, in the patriarchal status quo and in the image of the female self
that this class produces. This field of exploration of gender has exceptional importance
European Journal of Social Sciences Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 3 │ 2017
6
Gasouka Maria
ALTERNATIVE FEMININE SPIRITUALITY AND FEMALE CULTURAL CAPITAL
and it experienced as a conceptual world. The women and gender research should
reveal how various types of culture contribute to the construction of social experience
and personal identity, especially for women. In such a framework, the culture is
understood as a political practice, but also as a kind of reconciliation between
individuals and, consequently, this same acceptance (and its study) on one hand
contributes to the production of cultural messages, but also to the delineation of
political reality and on the other hand it include features of critical intervention and
political action.
Among other things, we must reveal the female worlds of magic, to understand
what they tried to say through their magical rituals and discover the cultural
significance of the cultural load which feminine witchcraft bears as a property and as a
ritual act. If we can achieve this through the rituals, and not only the magical one, we
can watch a field of the cultural progress of women (and to some extent to reconstruct a
part of their history), the structures and the symbols with which are organized this
process, how they relate to the social environment of women and how they affect their
social identities. Simultaneously we can uncover how the patriarchy repelled
information about the relationship of women with the production and development of
culture and the silencing of their contribution and cancellation together with the slander
of their magical powers, which had to remain hidden until today. Thus, it is very
interesting this turn that takes place lately to these negatively charged and hidden
potentials of women.
Bibliography
1. Ashcroft, B., Griffiths, G., & Tiffin, H. (1995). The Post-Colonial Studies Reader.
London: Routledge.
2. Bailey, M. (2007). Magic and the Classical Tradition. Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft ,
2 (2), pp. 205-206.
3. Connell James, R., & Messerschmidt, W. (2005). Hegemonic Masculinity. Gender
& Society, 19 (6), pp. 829 - 859.
4. Curry, P. (1985). Magic and the Making of Modern Science, Occult and Scientific
Mentalities in the Renaissance. History of Science, 23 (3), pp. 299 - 325.
5. Duiker, W., & Spielvogel, J. (2006). World History, Volume 1. Belmont: Thomson
Wadsworth.
6. Durkheim, E., & Mauss, M. (1963). Primitive Classification. London: Cohen &
West.
European Journal of Social Sciences Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 3 │ 2017
7
Gasouka Maria
ALTERNATIVE FEMININE SPIRITUALITY AND FEMALE CULTURAL CAPITAL
7. Frable, D. (1997). Gender, Racial, Ethnic, Sexual and Class Identities. Annual
Review of Psychology, 48 (1), pp. 139 - 157.
8. Frug, M. J. (1992). Postmodern Legal Feminism. Routledge: New York.
9. Gasouka, M. (2006). Sociology of Folk Culture: Social - Folklore Essays. Athens:
Psifida.
10. Gasouka, M. (2007). "Gender Systems, Symbols and Body" in scient. series Gender
Studies, Gender and Culture, ed. Vitsilaki Ch., Gasouka M. and G. Papadopoulos.
Athens: Atrapos.
11. Jones, R. (1986). Emile Durkheim: An Introduction to Four Major Works. Beverly
Hills: Sage Publications.
12. Malinowski, B. (1948). Magic, science and religion, and other essays. Glencoe: Free
Press.
13. Marshall, E., & Sensoy, Ö. (2011). Rethinking Popular Culture and Media.
Milwaukee: Rethinking Schools.
14. Mauss, M. (1954). The Gift. London: Cohen & West.
15. Moser, A. (2007). Gender and Measurements of Change:An Overview. Gender
and Development, 19 (1), pp. 1-3.
16. Scarre, G., & Callow, J. (2001). Witchcraft and Magic in Sixteenth- and Seventeenthcentury Europe. New York: Palgrave.
17. Schilbrack, K. (2004). Thinking Through Rituals: Philosophical Perspectives.
Routledge: New York.
18. Stark, L. (2006). The Magical Self: Body Society and the Supernatural in Early Modern
Rural Finland. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica.
19. Strachey, J. (1961). The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of
Sigmund Freud. New York: Norton.
20. Stratton, K., & Kalleres, D. (2014). Daughters of Hecate: Women and Magic in the
Ancient World. Oxford: Oxford Scholarship.
21. Tambiah, S. (1968). The Magical Power of Words. Man, 3 (2), pp. 175-208.
European Journal of Social Sciences Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 3 │ 2017
8
Gasouka Maria
ALTERNATIVE FEMININE SPIRITUALITY AND FEMALE CULTURAL CAPITAL
Creative Commons licensing terms
Author(s) will retain the copyright of their published articles agreeing that a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) terms
will be applied to their work. Under the terms of this license, no permission is required from the author(s) or publisher for members of the community
to copy, distribute, transmit or adapt the article content, providing a proper, prominent and unambiguous attribution to the authors in a manner that
makes clear that the materials are being reused under permission of a Creative Commons License. Views, opinions and conclusions expressed in this
research article are views, opinions and conclusions of the author(s). Open Access Publishing Group and European Journal of Social Sciences Studies
shall not be responsible or answerable for any loss, damage or liability caused in relation to/arising out of conflicts of interest, copyright violations and
inappropriate or inaccurate use of any kind content related or integrated into the research work. All the published works are meeting the Open Access
Publishing requirements and can be freely accessed, shared, modified, distributed and used in educational, commercial and non-commercial purposes
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
European Journal of Social Sciences Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 3 │ 2017
9