![]() ![]() These three introductory chapters form the general, yet highly personalized and therefore detailed, background investigation into Finnish herstory as regards a Finnish relationship with the land. After introducing their ideas, as well as those of many other authors, she places them a local Finnish geographical context of a place she visited every summer as a child. Here she discusses the work of primarily North American indigenous wisdom keepers including Lakota Vine Deloria, Jr. The third chapter is on Indigenous Knowledge and Earth-Based Feminism. She stresses a Traditional Ecological Knowledge system (TEK) throughout the chapter. Her premise with the second chapter is that the exchange economy of patriarchy has led to the current climate crisis and depletion of natural resources and that a return to a gift economy, based on giving and giving back rather than on taking and depleting would create a more balanced approach thereby helping the planet and all those who live on it heal. Kailo goes a bit further to coin the term Gift Imaginary to describe “indigenous matriarchies that offer more mother-woman, and nature friendly attitudes than the hegemonic ones” (11). This leads into the second chapter, which is an examination of how the equitable distribution is based not on an exchange economy, but rather on a gift economy as framed by Genevieve Vaughan and her International Network of Feminists for a Gift Economy. This cross-continent approach highlights these three authors agreement that matriarchy is not the direct opposite of patriarchy, but rather a different form altogether one that stresses the equitable role distribution and respect for both, and all, genders. She starts with a brief introduction of Modern Matriarchal structures as understood by people she has worked closely with including American Peggy Reeves Sanday, Ohio Bear Clan Seneca Barbara Alice Mann and German Heide Goettner-Abendroth. Kailo’s work, however, fills this gap by structuring her book into five main themes that lead into her presentation of the regional goddesses and feminine figures. ![]() Even the main National Museum in Helsinki lacks substantial references to the indigenous goddesses of the region, and starts their history section with the country’s Swedish heritage. ![]() Pre-Christian sacred female figures are not widely portrayed in many accounts of Finnish history. Finnish Goddess Mythology is a detailed analysis of how indigenous Finnish and Ugric female spiritual figures fit within the broader context of pre-Christian societies’ approach to the natural world. Kailo’s recently reprinted her 2018 work. ![]()
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