The first accessible, non-esoteric book about traditional female knowledge.

WEISE FRAUEN
by Miriam Stein
Goldmann/PRH Germany, October 2024

Healers, shamans, priests, midwives, soothsayers: in antiquity, female communities and networks exchanged valuable, even life-saving, knowledge about nursing, healing, spirituality and sexuality. But in our patriarchal societies with their male-dominated academic discourse, female knowledge was often dismissed as irrelevant or un-serious and esoteric.

In her new book, culture journalist and bestselling author Miriam Stein goes in search of the forgotten heroes of our past, whose work still shapes our lives and thoughts today. It is a very personal journey, on which she talks to the modern heirs of our wise foremothers, including sex workers and shamans. She invites us to rediscover traditional female knowledge, and use it to live a feminist life of modern, empowered sisterhood.

Miriam Yung Min Stein is a journalist and author. She was born in South Korea in 1977 and adopted by a family in Osnabrück, where she grew up. She has performed on stage with Christoph Schlingensief and Rimini Protokoll, and published several books, including the bestselling Die gereizte Frau (‘The Irritated Woman’).