ABSTRACT
This chapter describes Bambaras work in terms of womanism or indeed, a general feminist rubric must quickly come to terms with the reliance in her work on Afrocentric constructs, and African-derived divination sources. Bambaras work links her Afrocentric womanism to more global gynocentrism, since much of the work that has pushed a strong view of women as culture bearers is rooted in an analysis of the mythography of traditional societies. Dinnerstein explicates the near-globality of antagonism toward certain bodily functions, particularly those associated with the female, as having a great deal to do with the general opposition the genders/sexes feel toward each other, especially in adulthood. Although these sorts of tensions do markedly differ from culture to culture, some points are very strongly held: anything having to do with childbirth, lactation, menstruation and so on is usually marked off from other human functions, and thus ancient reverence for the goddess turns into patriarchal contempt.
