Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #112526 in Books
• Published on: 1998-02-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Synopsis
Examines feminine and goddess traditions to chronicle the role of women and drums in history, ritual, and religion.

From the Author
Quotes from other authors about When The Drummers Were Women
I worked on this book for fifteen years so its hard for me to say a little bit about it. I think the quotes it has received from other authors are a wonderful introduction to the book: I devoured this book with a spiritual hunger that astonished me, hunger for roots that go all the way back to zero. Hunger for information to back up my instincts, my intuitive responses to a world that has forgotten that god is the dance. Hunger for religious roots buried in the beat, burned at the stake, pulsing in the bloodlines of a billion wild women. Erased but not eradicated. Layne Redmond offers us proof that rhythm is our mother tongue. She has undertaken a shamanic journey for all of us to recover our spiritual heritage and call the beat back into our tribal hearts. GABRIELLE ROTH, author of Maps to Ecstasy..... Reading WHEN THE DRUMMERS WERE WOMEN gave me goosebumps. This inspiring history of feminine power and spirituality shows that patriarchy is just a blip on the screen and that women in charge of our bodies and spirits is our natural state. Layne Redmond has restored the drum to its rightful place as a sacred technology for repossessing our own consciousness. DR. CHRISTIANE NORTHRUP, author of Womens Bodies, Womens Wisdom..... By searching out the lost, early history of the frame drum, Layne Redmond has uncovered an important missing chapter in the history of humanity -- a chapter in which goddessses ruled beside gods and in which women's spirituality, wisdom and sexuality were affirmed through rituals involving drumming. In an age where people are rediscovering the communal and healing powers of rhythm, When The Drummers Were Women establishes the link between ancient knowledge and the contemporary emphasis on the importance of passion and soulfulness to life. RICK MATTINGLY, Editor, Percussive Notes magazine...... Wow! Through Layne's fabulous book, my own intuitive experience with drumming has been made more clear, and has been grounded in "Her-story." I'm sure this learning will deepen and enlarge my personal and group work. I highly recommend this well-documented treatise to EVERYONE, and especially those who are drawn to the power and magic of the drum. BROOKE MEDICINE EAGLE, author of Buffalo Woman Comes Singing..... What is so important about Layne Redmonds work, is that it has sprung from an immemorial need: It is the quest for women to recover their ancient roots. Some scholars of myth, such as Joseph Campbell, have insisted that the seemingly more widely distributed men1s mysteries emerged from a male attempt to rival the natural magic that women have always had: The mysteries of fertility, menstruation, childbirth. But the work of Marija Gimbutas, Riane Eisler and Layne Redmond show that women were far from passive embodiments of the Mystery. Rather, in a way congruent with their own magic they celebrated the universe in Her Feminine Form; an ancient religion largely free from violence or grandiosity, one in harmony with the natural rhythms of being. STEPHEN LARSON, The Shamans Doorway and A Fire In The Mind, a Biography of Joseph Campbell..... When the Drummers Were Women adds a valuable new dimension to our understanding of the ancient Goddess religions. Redmond, herself a brilliant drummer, documents that these instruments have long been played by women in ritual. Her own experience as a musician gives her insight into the ways drumming can be used to affect consciousness and opens our imagination to envision the actual ceremonies of the Goddess. As a drummer and priestess myself, I loved this book! STARHAWK, author of The Spiral Dance..... It it were possible to select a single factor responsible for the parlous state of the world today, patriarchy might be the leading candidate -- with its brutal suppression, denigration and denial of the feminine. In this passionate and erudite book, Layne Redmond links the goddess principle (expressed in the sacred, ecstatic sexuality of the distant past and the role of sexuality in evoking divine consciousness) to the playing of the frame drum -- once, apparently, exclusively a feminine instrument. As a scholar she traces the history of the drum from its former exalted position, thought its centuries of suppression, down to its current intense revival; as a virtuoso performer she speaks with authority on the drum1s real and readily accessible powers. Women reading this book will want to jump up and start playing Layne Redmond1s drum; men will get a valuable lesson in what they have been missing these past 5000 years or so. JOHN ANTHONY WEST, author of The Serpent in The Sky

Customer Reviews

When the Drummers Were Women - so long ago!
Drumming, in the powerful feminine/goddess traditions of Mediterranean & Middle Eastern cultures, was a medium of communication & spirituality; a way of exploring consciousness & the surrounding world. In all ancient friezes, bas reliefs & hieroglyphs the drummers were women.

This book was a gift from a son to his drumming mother & I have drunk from this spiritual history of rhythm as a thirsting nomad coming out of a desert - carefully, knowingly & with intense affection.

The images of women from ancient times, little statues, fragments of funeria, swatches of hieroglyphics from Egyptian graffiti are bone-deeply evocative. As a midwife of frame drums I know the awe-inspiring effect shamanic drumming has on health, happiness & that elusive sense of belonging.

This is the story of one successful woman's search for identity, spiritual connection & history of her gender. It is a search for every woman among shards that have been overlooked by the erstwhile all-male fields of anthropology & archaeology.

I recommend Layne Redmond's When the Drummers Were Women because this is a well researched volume & is for every women to reconnect with her ancient story & how spiritual has been our lineage.

Wonderful, ecstatic stuff - do check out my eInterview with this author!

A primer on prehistoric spirituality
How do you stand back far enough from something that is as personal and lifegiving as your own heartbeat so that you help a casual questioner understand it? What do you include, what do you leave for another time? I've long looked for a primer for exploring prehistoric spirituality. Like Goldilocks, those I found were "too, too dreary," covering detail after detail without finding the soul, or "too, too gooey," too close to the writer's intimate self and not reaching my needs. Redmond's book on drumming is "just right." It is clearly written and interesting. It is easily accessible to this casual reader. At the same time it is well researched with sufficient documentation both to make her assertions credible and to permit the reader further research. The notes, discography, bibliography, index, even the credits for the illustrations underscore the quality of the material presented and offer the reader plenty of direction for further investigation.

The Great Goddess from a Drummer's Point of View
WHEN THE DRUMMERS WERE WOMEN is a great bargain! In less than 200 pages, charmingly illustrated with black & white photographs and drawings, Layne Redmond accomplishes three tasks. Her original goal was to write a history of women's ritual drumming in selected ancient cultures. In reaching this goal, she has created a wonderfully accessible overview of the role of the Great Goddess in India, Sumeria, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Redmond also surveys the Paleolithic and Neolithic roots of the Goddess, as well as the transformation of the Goddess into the Virgin Mary. Not least of all, she anchors her story in the contemporary world, weaving together her personal and professional quests, the response of other women to her work, and relevant scientific research. Inevitably, in such an ambitious yet brief work, there are occasional flaws such as overgeneralizations or historical anachronisms; but these do not outweigh the merits of the book. Both her drummer's point of view and the breadth of her research offer new insights to readers familiar with the history of the Great Goddess. At the same time, her brevity and style make her work an excellent introduction for readers new to the subject. The subtitle of the book is "A Spiritual History of Rhythm", and the purpose seems to be both to document the role of sacred drumming by women priestesses in ancient times and to argue the value of drumming in contemporary spiritual practice. In pursuit of these two purposes, Redmond illuminates the role of women in ancient religions, the development of various mythic symbols, the evolution and suppression of the Goddess, and the physiological & psychological bases of spirituality. What may have started as a little book about rhythm became a major quest--as fascinating to the reader as it was meaningful to the author.