Gender Balance
Women have historically had a fairly constant interest in the spirit world. Spiritualism's current popularity in the West is a result of women having more power and visibility, giving the spirit world a prominence in society that it previously had only during spiritualism's "boom" periods when men became interested.
Historically, the majority of mediums for tromba spirits amongst the Sakalava have also been adult women, usually in their forties or older and is likewise associated with female status. In general, a Sakalava ritual in which the spirits must be fed, cannot be performed if the two are not present and represented.
Read more about this topic: Spiritualism (beliefs)
Famous quotes containing the words gender and/or balance:
“... lynching was ... a woman’s issue: it had as much to do with ideas of gender as it had with race.”
—Paula Giddings (b. 1948)
“Any balance we achieve between adult and parental identities, between children’s and our own needs, works only for a time—because, as one father says, “It’s a new ball game just about every week.” So we are always in the process of learning to be parents.”
—Joan Sheingold Ditzion, Dennie, and Palmer Wolf. Ourselves and Our Children, by Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, ch. 2 (1978)