Category: 2018 Conference

“Porous Boundaries: Women and Horses in Eurasian Epic Poetry, Shamanism,  Archaeology and Myth”

Keynote presentation by Dr. Gala Argent

“The roles of the horse within human cultures are complex and context driven. Horses may be domesticates whose bodies are eaten or used as products. They may be workers, drafted and indoctrinated into human endeavors and utilized for their strength, speed and power to human advantage. They may serve as metaphors and symbolic proxies for human or cosmic properties. Present-day Euro-American scholarly agendas primarily focus upon these human-generated concepts and in doing so view horses merely as objects or sets that are used by humans.

 This misses the point that horses are large and potentially dangerous creatures to whom riders entrust their lives. The relationship between horse and rider is necessarily based upon the subjective experience of two social beings sharing space, time and experiences.

 In this presentation I detail how horses are conveyed as companions and allies across Eurasia through historical narratives, oral traditions and archaeology. I cover the mutual devotion of Alexander the Great and Cyrus to their warhorses, Persian and Kyrgyz epic poetry detailing the exploits of heroes and their named hero-horses, and archaeological evidence of care in human-horse co-burials. I argue that these individuals and communities saw horses as partners, and recognized their agency by attributing intentionality and significance to their actions.” 

Gala Argent is an interdisciplinary scholar and lifelong equestrienne whose work concerns the relational ways humans and other animals come together. She holds a Ph.D. in archaeology, MA and BA degrees in (human) communication studies, and teaches or has taught in higher education departments of art, communication studies, anthropology and animal studies. Her current interests focus on theorizing human-horse interactions and relationships using models of nonverbal and interpersonal communication, and on the ways in which humans and other animals come together in relational, corporeal, temporal and spatial ways to co-create mutually interdependent selves and societies.

“Waterbirds, Water, Women and Place in Archaic European Lore”

Dr. Barber’s works bring together scholarship from a wide range of sources to discuss such diverse topics as textile history as “woman’s work,” culture and migration, the origins of myth in cosmology, and the evolution of modern folk dance from beginnings in ritual and sacred story. Her books include Women’s Work: The First 20,000 Years; Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times (1995), The Mummies of Ürümchi (1999), When They Severed Earth from Sky: How the Human Mind Shapes Myth (2004, coauthor with Paul T. Barber) and The Dancing Goddesses: Folklore, Archaeology, and the Origins of European Dance (2013).

The Dancing Goddesses: Folklore, Archaeology, and the Origins of European Dance won ASWM’s Sarasvati Award for Best Nonfiction Book in Women and Mythology in 2014. Publishers Weekly says of this book,

“Rich with anecdotes and compelling explanations of the origin of many modern customs (such as throwing rice at a bride), Barber’s is an informative and amusing read, often bringing together many diverse sources—traditional stories, illustrations of artifacts, and aspects of popular culture—into an illuminating whole that will serve as a nice introduction for those unfamiliar with the topic, and a valuable reference for scholars of European dance and folklore.”

Dr. Barber is professor emerita of archaeology and linguistics at Occidental College.

See Conference Page for Schedules, Registration, Program and Abstracts

“Scholarly Speculations:  Animal, Earth, Person, Story”

ASWM Conference March 16-17 2018

Gold Coast Hotel, Las Vegas NV

Our main theme is explorations of animal and earth mysteries, with an emphasis on Native American and indigenous scholarship.  This year our program will include a poster session for research in progress, in addition to panels, workshops, films, and plenary sessions.

Keynote presenters include:

• Elizabeth Wayland Barber: “Waterbirds, Water, Women and Place in Archaic European Lore”
• Dr. Gala Argent: “The Agency of Horses, Horses as Heroes in Eurasian Poetry and Archaeology”
• Sherri Mitchell, social justice attorney for indigenous peoples and land rights

And we will have a special presentation by Kathy Jones, founder of the Glastonbury Goddess Conference.

Join us to celebrate our first decade of inspiring and stimulating scholarly events. Come early for special pre-conference tour to the Temple of Goddess Spirituality Dedicated to Sekhmet (Thursday March 15).

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And stay over for a day of Modern Matriarchal Studies, also in the Gold Coast Hotel, on Sunday March 18.  Register here for Modern Matriarchal Studies:

For more information about Modern Matriarchal Studies Day, contact Joan Cichon