CfP: Matrix 4(1) - Women and Water: The Flow of Matriculture
THEME: Women and Water: the
Flow of Matriculture
Deadline for abstract
submission: 15 June 2023
The relationship of women with
water is deep, flowing among and between cultures as disparate as the
Anishnaabeg of eastern Canada, the Celtic people of Europe, and the
Ashanti of western Africa. This issue of Matrix seeks to
explore that relationship. We are looking for articles which, among other
things, describe women’s ritual behaviour in relation to water, the ways in
which water affects women’s lives and experiences, the cultural stories and
views which inform their relationship.
Today, there is a heightened
knowledge of the preciousness of water to human life. Is the special
relationship to water some cultures attribute to women connected to
our wombs as the matrix of life, particularly to menstruation
and the uterine liquids in which embryos swim? Or are there other
reasons buried deep in myth and storytelling which explicate a special ritual
relationship? What are women’s ritual responses, for example, to water
pollution? What is the role of the moon when considering women and water?
We are interested in exploring the cultural roots and contemporary
shapes of the importance of water to women’s lives and we encourage
research about women’s rites of passage using
water, water-based rituals or ceremonies, water festivals,
and seasonal honourings, showing how they are centered in women’s
identities and cultural roles, within their creation stories, and their life
teachings.
We also encourage creative artworks
(any media) and community contributions which focus on the relationship between
women and water, women and the moon, and/or women, water, and the moon.
Personal essays or reflections on the theme are also welcome.
Possibilities for papers include
yet are not limited to the following. Don’t be limited by our imaginations!
- Myths and stories about women and water
- Rituals and ceremonies concerning water done
by women
- Culturally-affirming relationship
between oceans, seas, rivers, ponds, or other natural bodies of water and
women
- Special relationships associating the moon,
water, and women
- Economic consequences of women’s
associations with water
- Historical instances of women’s preeminent
relationship with water
Issue
Editors: Editorial Collective of Matrix
Please submit a 250-word
abstract (max) to the Editorial Collective of Matrix: A Journal for
Matricultural Studies.
Submission via email
to: Linnéa Rowlatt, Managing
Editor, or to the Editorial Collective at info@networkonculture.ca (subject
line: Matrix Vol 4, Issue 1)
About Matrix
Matrix: A Journal for Matricultural
Studies (Matrix) is an
open-access, peer-reviewed and refereed scholarly journal published by the
International Network for Training, Education, and Research on Culture (Network
on Culture), Canada. Matrix is published online twice yearly
(Autumn/Winter and Spring/Summer). Matrix is a new journal in
the humanities and social sciences, founded to provide an interdisciplinary
forum for those who are working from the theoretical stance of matriculture as
a Geertzian cultural system.
Matriculture refers to the cultural
system that brings together all cultural aspects informing the lives of
mothers, usually women, of a given society, and by extension, the lives of
women. Talking about matricultural systems allows us to consider as primary the
cultural context of a given society as perceived, constructed, and lived by its
women. Similar to other cultural systems such as art, religion, or mathematics,
employing the heuristic of matriculture allows for, among other things:
cross-cultural comparisons; fresh insights into the social roles of women, men,
otherwise identified, children, and the entire community of humans, animals,
and the environment; and/or renewed understandings of historically mis-labelled
cultures. With Guédon’s work in mind, then, and based on Geertzian principles,
the concept of matriculture is both a model of reality by
rendering the structure of matricultures apprehensible and a model for reality,
where psychological relationships are organized under its guidance.
We encourage submissions from
scholars around the world who are ready to take a new look at the ways in which
people - historically and currently - have organized meaningful relationships
amongst themselves and with the natural environment, the myths, customs, and
laws which support these relationships, and the ways in which researchers have
documented and perhaps mis-labeled the matricultures they have encountered.
For more information, visit our
website: https://www.networkonculture.ca/activities/matrix
Contact Info:
Linnéa Rowlatt
Managing Editor
Matrix: A Journal for Matricultural
Studies
URL: https://www.networkonculture.ca/activities/matrix