??the muse point of view?that became covered over: It?s in Taoism and
within emphasis on the female?the spirit of the valley, the yin.
Taoism being?the largest single coherent chunk of matrilineal descent,
mother consciousness-oriented, Neolithic culture that went through
the, so to speak, sound barrier of civilization in the Iron Age and
came out the other side halfway intact.?

That fragmented piece is in the book Wild Hunger, by Bruce Wilshire,
published by Rowmnan and Littlefield in 1998.  I need to know the
original source and to have the "blanks" filled in.  The larger
context of Gary's piece would be very helpful.

Hi ryoyu:

Thanks for the interesting question!

The Gary Snyder reference you seek is from a speech he gave at the
First International Symposium on Ethnopoetics at the University of
Wisconsin in 1975. The speech is called "The Politics of Ethnopoetics"
and a complete copy can be found at:

The Politics of Ethnopoetics
URL: http://www.ubu.com/ethno/discourses/snyder_politics.pdf

The quote you mention is taken from the following paragraph on page 11:

"The symbolism of the muse, the goddess, is strong in our occidental tradition
and it's also strong in the Sanskrit and Tamil traditions of India. The Chinese
tradition is somewhat dierent but has very interesting contacts with a kind of
muse point of view that very early that became covered over: It's in
Taoism, and within the emphasis on the female, the feminine, the
spirit of the valley, the yin. Taoism being, following Dr. Joseph
Needham's assessment of it in Science and Civilization in China, the
largest single chunk of matrilineal descent, mother
consciousness-oriented, neolithic culture that went through the, so to
speak, sound barrier of civilization in the Iron Age and came out the
other side halfway intact. Thus through its whole political history it
has been anti-feudal and antipatriarchal, so much so that Dr. Needham
says that in a way Taoism was a 2,000 year-long holding action for the
Chinese communist revolution. Dr, Needham is a bio-chemist from
England."

Search Strategy (on Google):
* "Gary Snyder" "emphasis on the female"
* "The Politics of Ethnopoetics"

I hope this helps!

websearcher

---

Clarification of Answer by websearcher-ga on 05 May 2005 07:35 PDT

In case you are interested in Ethnopoetics in general, here are some good links:

ETHNOPOETICS - Professor Dennis Tedlock
URL: http://epc.buffalo.edu/authors/tedlock/syllabi/ethnopoetics.html

UBUWEB - Ethnopoetics
URL: http://www.ubu.com/ethno/

The answer to my question was clear and complete.  I was provided with
the information I needed, although I didn't even realize that I did!