Keepers of the culture

by Janet Mancini Billson

In Keepers of the Culture, Janet Mancini Billson brings new voices to the feminist debate-the seldom heard voices of women of color, Native women, and rural and immigrant women. Many live in small communities in social or geographic isolation from the middle class white North American mainstream that has until now dominated our perceptions of women's identity and relations between the sexes.Today's women face powerful challenges to break with the traditions of the past, coupled with a deep need and responsibility to preserve the strong and unique elements of their heritage. We all have much to gain from understanding women whose very definition of liberation and power may differ greatly from our own. Keepers of the Culture offers new insights into the questions of why some women embrace the ideals of the women's movement and others are hostile to it. By exploring women's lives in seven distinct cultural communities in Canada-Iroquois, Blood, Inuit, Mennonite, Jamaican, Chinese, and Ukr