The ​Earth Has Given Birth to the Sky
Female Spirituality in the Hungarian Folk Religion

From ​the images of God represented in the religious folk tradition we are able to form conclusions about the everyday life of the faith community, dominant family structures, relationships between man and woman, gender roles, and the division of labour within the family. At the same time, the oral tradition reflects the influence of ecclesiastical and social expectations, even if in a negative way, resulting in negative attitudes toward the contemporary power politics. Texts relating to religion demonstrate clear gender-based characteristics. It depends, what kind of ideologies has to be supported or, exactly on the contrary, has to be withdrawn into „inner emigration” – within the burdensome domination of commonly defined rules – by gender groups within the community. All these obvious or hidden expressions of convictions can be explored in the pictorial descriptions of oral tradition. The derogatory female images in biblical stories – interpreted and enforced from a typical point of view of rural story-telling men – inform us unambiguously about male self-preservation and hidden fears against women. The prayers and biographies of peasant women, on the other hand, do not concentrate on men, but rather avoid male elements, and, contradicting the everyday experiences of male oppression, they visualise the absolute female power.