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Mythology and Symbolism of Eurasia and Indigenous Americas
Manifestations in Artifacts and Rituals
Małgorzata Oleszkiewicz-Peralba
164 pages, 73 illus., bibliog., index
ISBN 978-1-80073-816-4 $135.00/£99.00 / Hb / Not Yet Published (December 2022)
eISBN 978-1-80073-817-1 eBook Not Yet Published
Reviews
“This is one of those rare scholarly books where the author’s personal engagement with the subject takes us to the heart of the subject with ease and joy. Dr. Oleszkiewicz-Peralba is a scrupulous researcher with nuanced understanding of the subject…She connects extremely diverse cultures across time and space through mythology, rituals, women’s clothing, and sacred art.” • Neela Bhattacharya Saxena, Nassau Community College
“The breadth of the author’s knowledge is impressive and her ability to find commonalities and analogies is amazingly insightful, all rigorously argued and documented. Her erudition is stunning. This book is an excellent contribution to transdisciplinary studies, by bringing together anthropology, women and gender studies, cross-cultural analysis, spirituality and religion, and aesthetics.” • Alan West-Durán, Northeastern University
Description
There is a continuity of a cohesive system of symbols and patterns from the Paleolithic and the Neolithic that survives in present-day imagery. This linkage is evident in the analysis of popular art, mythology, and rituals of eastern Europe, as well as among the indigenous peoples across the Americas. This above suggests that these civilizations have common symbolic and mythological roots, and the patterns had special significance for the people who produced them; it also points out to internal connections beyond words present in the collective unconscious. The understanding of commonalities underlying the above seemingly distant cultures demonstrates that, despite appearances, there is more that unites us than that divides us.
Małgorzata Oleszkiewicz-Peralba is Professor of Hispanic Literary and Cultural Studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Her publications include Fierce Feminine Divinities of Eurasia and Latin America: Baba Yaga, Kali, Pombagira, and Santa Muerte (2015), and The Black Madonna in Latin America and Europe: Tradition and Transformation (2007), and Teatro popular peruano: del precolombino al siglo XX (1995).