Re: How much henna?

Posted by Catherine Cartwright Jones on February 28, 2000 at 14:52:44:

In Reply to: How much henna? posted by Rupal on February 26, 2000 at 04:33:43:

I certainly hope you can write your henna book!
The two major works that discuss henna traditions from India (the two
you sent me) suffer terribly from one problem : men wrote the books,
and they rarely or never asked the women how THEY felt about the
henna. In Jogendra Saksena's book, he never quotes a woman henna
artist what she has in mind when she applies the patterns, and he
never quotes a woman who has henna applied why she has it done or how
she feels about it! (IMHO, he has a tendance to dismiss women as
pretty, brainless, submissive things .... with nary a thought in their
head except to please their husbands .... )
A book that tells how women feel about henna in a traditional setting
... without putting words in their mouths .... would be truely
wonderful!

I'm about ready to send my 18 page henna book outline to get
copyrighted so I can shop it around to publishers .... (looks like it
will max out at 600 - 750 pages, 2 or 3 volumes ....) but it's got an
entirely different perspective that what you have in mind. Mine's
history and traditions back to the neolithic period, tracing the
spread of the belief system that featured henna as a marker for
women's fertility and luck across 9000 years and 40 countries. It's
long on archaeology, art history, sociology, anthropology, literature
.... that sort of a thing. I don't know if I have anything that would
help you, but you generously helped me before, so you're welcome to
pick my brains if they're of any use to you!

Follow-ups:

• Re: How much henna? Rupal 01:40:11 2/29/00 (1)
  • Re: How much henna? Catherine Cartwright Jones 03:20:24 2/29/00 (0)