Announcing Volume 4 of ASWM Proceedings: “Maternal Thinking”
MATERNAL THINKING: Gifts, Mothers’ Bodies, and Earth
Maternal Thinking: Gifts, Mothers’ Bodies, and Earth, the fourth book of proceedings of conferences held by the Association of the Study of Women and Mythology (ASWM), is an instructional guide to saving ourselves and our planet. Many pre-historic, and even contemporary cultures, especially Indigenous communities, feature “Maternal Thinking.” Such cultures perceive that societies are successful when they center qualities associated with mothering: care, nurturance, cooperation, and meeting everyone’s basic needs while respecting Earth and reciprocating nature’s generosity..
The Association for the Study of Women and Mythology is dedicated to presenting the stories and values of cultures that honor our mother the earth and life-giving relationships of reciprocity and gift giving among all who dwell here. Our Proceedings Volume 4 draws on “maternal thinking”, a feminist perspective that reflects on mothering as a model for and a model of caring relations that involve gift giving and reciprocity. This expansive conception of mothering is not limited to biological mothers. Several contributions by indigenous women share stories honoring care-giving practices taught to humans by other than humans, including the earth, elemental forces of nature, and various animals and other living creatures. Other chapters bring new understandings of mothering relations in myths and goddess stories from Europe as well as Kurdish culture, ancient Jewish writings, and Buddhism. Maternal thinking enriches our understanding of the past and feeds a vision of the future in which all life is respected and preserved.
Purchase Maternal Thinking at Amazon
Announcing Scholar Salon 91: Register for October 16
“Using the Past to Give Girls a Voice Today at Girl Museum“
with Ashley E. Remer
Thursday, October 16, 2025 at 3:00 PM Eastern Time
REGISTER HERE
Girls are “the most marginalized group of people throughout time and space,” says Girl Museum founder Ashley Remer. While there have been many individual girls who have achieved a level of notoriety and achievement, they are still not seen as serious contributors to history and culture. Giving girls space to speak, to create, to simply grow up at all is not a guarantee in any society even today. To address this gap, the Girl Museum (founded in 2009) gives girls a platform to raise their voices.
As a museum, we have scope to elevate girls of the past to provide inspiration and precedent for girls of today. We use many creative pathways to share knowledge, ideas, thoughts, and actions of girls in history to ensure our audiences understand that girls have always been present and a part of making our world. These include exhibitions, podcasts, educational activities, and other collaborative projects. We work with students, teachers, NGOs, scholars, volunteers, activists, and refugees to showcase the significance and power of girls in the world. In my talk, I will discuss Girl Museum and how offering opportunities and a place for girls to connect to each other and the past, we are building a better future.
Ashley E Remer is the founder and Head Girl of Girl Museum, the first museum in the world dedicated to celebrating girlhood and advocating for girls’ rights. She recently completed her PhD at the Australian National University on girls’ representations in fine art and how they are interpreted in public museums. Ashley is an interdisciplinarian working over 30 years across many artistic fields, including museums, art galleries, and theatres, in exhibition content production, non-profit management, and creative entrepreneurship with scholars, artists, NGOs, educators, and youth globally. She co-authored the book, Exploring American Girls’ History through 50 Historic Treasures. Currently based in New Zealand, Ashley is a lecturer in Museums Studies at Massey University.
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Upcoming Scholar Salon (3pm Eastern Time):
October 30, 2025: From the Heart: the Human Animal Connection with Susan Moulton
This Salon recording will also be available to members when processed after the event.
Announcing Scholar Salon 90: Register for October 2
“The Deer Mother and the Winter Solstice – A Heritage of Care and Rebirth“
with Kathryn Henderson
Thursday, October 2, 2025 at 3:00 PM Eastern Time
REGISTER HERE
Long before traditions of a red-clad elf, traversing the night sky with flying Reindeer, the Deer Mother brought the gift of the returning Sun on Her antlers.
The Image of the Deer Mother transcends time and cultures – from the tundra of the ancient arctic north, through the steppes of eastern Europe to the frozen lands of contemporary Nordic reindeer herders. Depictions of sacred deer date from Paleolithic cave paintings to Mongolian Deer Stones, through Scythian art (800 BCE – 300 CE) and beyond.
Golden Scythian sculptures portray deer rebirthing new life. Attacked by a predator, her antlers blossom into birds, representing rebirth. This imagery is also found in tattoos on frozen female and male mummies, preserved by ice. Through time the Deer Mother becomes an antlered Goddess, as depicted on a Scythian mirror handle, her antlers composed of the predators that follow the migrating herd. The mirror, a shamanic tool, represents the sun she carries on her antlers. Contemporary Nordic peoples tell of the Deer Mother bearing the returning Solstice sun on her antlers.
The myth of the contemporary Reindeer-herding Saami tells a story of the earth created from the loving heart of the Doe with golden hooves, in a planet that quakes when her children engage in violence against one another. The Deer Mother’s message is one of keeping balance, of reverence for the earth’s life-giving nurturance, death and rebirth. Hers is a message for all time – one that the world sorely needs today.
Kathryn Henderson, Professor Emerita in Sociology andWomen’s Studies, is an Ordained Priestess of the Reformed Congregation of the Goddess
International and a Founding BOD Memberof the Association of the Study of Women and Mythology. An early version of her Deer Mother research appeared in Goddesses in World Culture, ed. Patricia Monaghan, 2011. Her research interests include the contemporary representation and spiritual importance of Deer around the world and the significance of the Octopus in ancient Cretan sarcophagus art and cultural practice.
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Upcoming Scholar Salon (3pm Eastern Time):
October 16, 2025: “Using the Past to Give Girls a Voice Today at Girl Museum“ with Dr. Ashley Remer
This Salon recording will also be available to members when processed after the event.