Barbara G. Walker (author)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Barbara G. Walker (born July 2, 1930, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an U.S. author and feminist. She writes about religion, cultural anthropology, spirituality, and mythology from a Neopagan standpoint, believing in the existence of Pre-Indo-European neolithic matriarchies. She often uses the imagery of the Mother Goddess to discuss the belief of these Neolithic Matriarchies. Her most important book is The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets (1983). She also is an influential knitting expert and the author of several classic encyclopedic knitting references.

Barbara G. Walker describes herself as an atheist. In the book, The Skeptical Feminist: Discovering the Virgin, Mother, and Crone, she writes about her belief that there is no deity. However, she believes that people, and woman in particular, can use the image of the Goddess in their day-to-day lives. Her book Woman's Rituals: A Sourcebook is an attempt to show how she puts her "meditation techniques" into practice, and is meant as a guide for other women to do the same thing.

In the 1960s and 1970s, she authored several volumes of knitting references which have become landmarks for their comprehensiveness and clarity. Her knitting treasury series documents over a thousand different knitting stitches. Other books considered mosaic knitting, for producing multicolored designs while knitting only one color per row, and constructing knitted garments from the top-down rather than the usual bottom-up method used in western knitting tradition. Her legacy continues with the reprinting of most of her knitting books, starting in the mid-1990s, as well as the publication of new contributions to the knitting literature.

Barbara G. Walker studied journalism at the University of Pennsylvania and began working for the Washington Star in Washington, D.C. While serving on a local hotline in the mid 1970s, helping battered women and pregnant teens, she became interested in feminism. The American Humanist Association named her "Humanist Heroine" in 1993, and in 1995 she received the "Women Making Herstory" award from the New Jersey NOW.

Contents

[edit] Criticism

Walker's claims are sometimes controversial, and often clearly and verifably wrong. Examples listed by critics are extremely numerous. The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets in particular has been heavily criticized for making outrageous claims with very little historical basis or documentation. One invalidated claim that the Arabian religion prior to Muhammad was based upon a group of female prophets who believed the Qur'an was inscribed upon the tablets of destiny much the same as the Goddess Tiamet has absolutely no verifiable historical reference. In other places where she actually provides sources, her claims are often debunked completely by the very source she cites. In her book The Secrets of Tarot, one invalidated claim is that the ferris wheel is named after the fenris wolf. It's actually named after its 19th century inventory/designer, George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr.. Her work is strongly influenced by the Robert von Ranke Graves book The White Goddess that is widely considered as pseudoscientific.

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../b/a/r/Barbara_G._Walker_%28author%29_8c31.html"