Description: Revolutionizing Motherlines reflects upon and troubles current and historical understandings of Naomi Ruth Lowinsky's concept of the motherline that connects mothers to their female ancestors. Complicated histories of erasure and threads of hope are tied together with intellectually engaging and emotionally resonant dialogues about maternal lineage to illuminate previously silenced motherlines of diverse abilities, ethnicities, genders, sexualities, mothering identities, family forms, and parenting practices. The introduction of the concept of ?mothervine?, an adaptation of Lowinsky's motherline, creates a powerful image of winding vines and roots with pruned ends and overgrowths that inform how matricentric feminist scholars can deconstruct patriarchal concepts. By using innovative feminist images and language to define and express experiences of mothering, it revises the past and intervenes in ongoing debates about how to de-centre cisnormative models of lineage. Revolutionizing Motherlines creates a richness of meaning for those engaged in motherwork, and offers new insights into methodology, theory-building, and praxis of maternal scholarship.
Review Quotes: This crystalline and powerful chorus of voices demonstrates why we need to explore, expand, and revolutionize our collection of motherlines and mothervines. The book ties together complicated histories of erasure with threads of hope, revising the past by adding stories of silenced voices and creating richness of meaning for those engaged in mothering. From Black motherlines to feminist goddess motherlines, the breadth of perspectives provides intriguing examples of this vital topic. This work upends motherhood under patriarchy and presents alternative ways of life that are matrifocal and centered on kindness and empathy?offering unexplored herstories and pathways toward better futures. It inspires readers to reflect on their own complex motherlines and to imagine what their legacies might accomplish. - Dr. Carolina Toscano, Saint Louis University - Madrid Campus This powerfully written volume provides much-needed explorations of contemporary and historical motherlines. Authors expertly query and expand Naomi Ruth Lowinski's notion of ?motherlines? to offer beautifully woven narrative and scholarly threads of maternal liberation, spun from intergenerational suffering, gifts, and love for ?revolutionizing motherlines.? This text will ground and nourish mother-roots of further inquiries by scholars, students, and all readers reclaiming our motherlines along our mothervines. - Nané Jordan, Ph.D., author of Placenta Wit: Mother Stories, Rituals, and Research This collection offers a vibrant and layered contribution to feminist and matricentric scholarship. Bringing together diverse voices, stories, and perspectives, it balances intellectual depth with emotional resonance, weaving theory and story in a way that is as engaging to read as it is important to the field. Honouring the foundations of 'motherlines' and diversity of perspectives, while also sharing the innovative framing of 'mothervines', it stands as a landmark contribution to maternal scholarship and a text to be returned to for years to come. - Dr Sophie Brock, Sociologist