Circa 1650, eve offers adam the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the garden of eden. At school, the taboos continued, despite the best efforts by authorities to educate girls. Menstruation proves more than a curse medical xpress. Back in 1992, and even today, in many societies, menstruation is an unspeakable curse, says aditi.
In the coming months, gupta plans to reach another 50 million girls across india, and plans to launch the book on boys puberty by yearend. It takes you through the history of menstruation from culture to culture, detailing the superstitions, myths and eventual understanding of all phases of menstruation. Curse definition is a prayer or invocation for harm or injury to come upon one. Misogyny and religion seem inextricably linked blood means god shuns unclean women. A cultural history of menstruation 2rev ed by janice delaney, mary lupton isbn.
How these organisations and individuals are helping break. These books will change the way you feel about menstruation. We dream of a future where menstruation is not a taboo, not a curse, but a welcoming change in a girls life, she signs off. I havent gotten through this one entirely i find it a little dry. Aditi gupta is the founder of menstrupedia, a friendly guide to periods which helps females during their monthly cycles. The earliest known book curse can be traced to ashurbanipal, king of assyria from 668 to 627 bce, who had the following curse written on many or all of the tablets collected at the library at ninevah, considered to be the earliest example of a systematically collected library. Guru nanak openly chides those who attribute pollution to women because of menstruation and asserts that pollution lies in the heart and mind of the person and not in the cosmic process of birth 9. Sharon golub, editor of lifting the curse of menstruation a stimulating and useful book, both for the scholarly and the general reader. The cultural story of menstruation by elissa stein, the curse. Confronting the last taboo, menstruation by karen houppert profile, 261 pp. There is a disturbing lack of i was pleasantly surprised by this book. Blood magic and the curse are both a little outdated now, but i find looking back in history fascinating especially when it comes to womens issues.
Aditi gupta putting an end to a period of taboos with. Rather, menstruation is regarded as an essential and natural process 8. For 45 days at the end of each ovarian cycle, a woman sheds almost a fluid ounce of blood. The business of menstruation, american book soon to appear. Aditi gupta, cofounder of menstrupedia, on trumping taboos.
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