This book introduces the special dynamics of women and their close relationships with the gift in both past and contemporary religious settings. Written from a cross-cultural perspective, it challenges depictions of women¿s roles in religion where they have been relegated to compliance with specifically designated gendered attributes. The different chapters contest the resultant stereotypes that deny women agency. Each chapter describes women as engaged in an aspect of religion, from that of ritual specialists, to benefactors and patrons, or even innovators. The volume examines topics such as sainthood and sacrifice so as to refine these ideas in constructive ways that do not devalue women. It also examines the meaning of the term ¿gift¿ today, embracing the term in both figurative and literal ways. Such a collection of diverse women¿s writings and activities provides a significant contribution to their quest for recognition, and also suggests ways this can be understood and realized today.

Is the first to re-examine women's relations to the notion of the gift in ways that challenge conventional readings

Chapter 1. Contributing to Continuity: Women and Sacrifice in Ancient Israel (Carol Meyers).- Chapter 2. Economies of Sainthood: Disrupting the Discourse of Female Hagiography (Kathleen McPhillips).- Chapter 3. Conditional Gifts for the Saints: 'Gift" and "Commodity as Gender Metaphors in Shi'a Ritual Practices in Iran (Azam Torab).- Chapter 4. A Buddhist Gift Enigma: The (Im)perfect Generosity of Vessantara as Bodhisattvic Exchange? (Suwanna Satha-Anand).- Chapter 5. An Epic Cry for Autonomy: Philosophical and Ethical Thinking in a Daoist Woman's Ecstatic Excursions (Jinfen Yan).- Chapter 6. Embodied Divinity and the Gift: The Case of Okinawan Kaminchu (Noriko Kawahashi).- Chapter 7. Black American Women and the Gift of Embodied Spirituality (Stephanie Y. Mitchem).- Chapter 8. Women's Power to Give: Their Central Role in Northern Plains First Nations (JoAllyn Archambault).- Chapter 9. Food Gifts - Female Gift Givers: A Taste of Jewishness (Norma Baumel Joseph).- Chapter 10. Women and the Gift in Medieval South India (Leslie C. Orr).- Chapter 11. Abidah El Khalieqy's Struggles of Islamic Feminism through Literary Writings (Diah Ariani Arimbi).- Chapter 12. The Gifts of Wisdom: Images of the Feminine in Buddhism and Christianity (Morny Joy).