The city of women

"The City of Women, first published in 1947, is anthropologist Ruth Landes's study of candomble religious society in Brazil just before World War II. Afro-Brazilian candomble is a woman-centered, spirit possession religion developed by West African slaves in colonial plantation societies. Abandoning the scientific concept of culture that dominated anthropology in her time, Landes lets Brazil speak to her on its own terms. In The City of Women, she draws portraits of the priestesses and other women she visited in private homes and observed in candomble temples, all nuanced by her awareness of gender, race, and sexuality. Marketed as an exotic travelogue and dismissed by anthropologists when it appeared in 1947, The City of Women is now considered a classic of postmodern anthropology and a basic primary source for candomble studies."--BOOK JACKET.