Sauna Culture, Sweat and Spirituality

Kaarina Kailo, Ph.D., is an Adjunct Professor at Oulu University, Finland, and a writer, scholar,  politician, and former professor of women’s studies, as well as a self-made artist who illustrates her books, to make science visible and more aesthetic. She has published hundreds of texts, articles, and books on comparative mythology, mother goddesses in the North, eco-mythology, ecofeminism, spiritual saunas, and sweat lodges, Northern women’s culture, the gift imaginary, and the bear religion. She has held women’s studies positions in Canada and Finland and as a senior fellow at the Finnish academy. She is a fellow of the Archeomythological Institute's European branch and focuses on peaceful, egalitarian cultures such as the Danube Civilization and healing traditions, especially in the sauna.

• Chapter 1. Introduction.- Chapter 2. Methods, Approaches, Definitions and Key Concepts.- Chapter 3. Patriarchal Politics of the Profane and Sacred.- Chapter 4. Feminist Spirituality.- Chapter 5. Indigenous Views on the Spiritual.- Chapter 6. Proto-Saunas and Spiritual Ceremonies –the Case of the Delaware Big House and Sweat Lodge.- Chapter 7. Native Elders on the Sweat Lodge Today.- Chapter 8. Research on Sweat Lodges and Healing.- Chapter 9.  Iberian/Galician Saunas.- Chapter 10. Old Europe and Pueblo Kivas, “As Above, so Below”.- Chapter 11. The Irish Sweathouse as Site of Healing.- Chapter 12.  Delaware Big House and Irish Sweat Houses—Comparisons.- Chapter l3. On Sauna Culture, History and Herstory.- Chapter 14. Summary. Archeomythology and Old European Spiritual Lifeways.