The Last Word : Women, Death, and Divination in Inner Mani

Rating:
Summary: Rich Female culture in a extremely male dominated area
Review: While there are a number of books that cover the culture of the men of Mani, from their spartan beginings to the present, generally the culture and beliefs of the Women have been ignored. While the funeral songs of the Mani are often mentioned as a unique trait of the area, few books even touch on the cultural context or that only women sing them. Books on the topic usually give the impression of the women as appendages of the male culture, with a hard life of harder work.

This book covers the (rapidly disappearing) culture of women of the Mani region, and how it contrasts (and conflicts) with the male culture. The book gives a rich view into a unique culture, and the even more unique culture women have carved out of this. The culture being covered has beliefs that predate the christanity of the area (and maybe predate even some classical beliefs), and the truely unique artform of the spontainious poetry of the funeral durges that are only sung by the women.

Even if your interest were the patriarchal traditional culture, the book would be useful in providing the full color of the background that that culture exists in. From the efforts of the priests to put a stop to the remaining old beliefs ("Old women's superstitions") to the role of the womens songs in directing vendetas everything is covered in a richly woven tapestry.

The author has family roots in the area, and has used them to gain access to lore and story that an "outside" anthropologist would have a difficult time getting access to. (And of course, being a women, she had access to much that men are traditionally excluded from.)

My only objection to this book (and some may take this as an advantage) is that when an example of Greek is given (always with English translations) the Greek is transliterated into the roman alphabet, instead of being presented in the Greek alphabet.