Mai ka pō mai: Liminality and prohibition in material and cosmic feminine bodies

Abstract

This research explores the historical redefinition and contemporary reclamation of menstruation and birth as sacred, focusing on their ritual, cosmological, and cultural significance across religious traditions. Centering Hawaiian frameworks of kapu and mana, the study examines how bodily processes once regarded as spiritually potent were reframed as impure through colonial, Christian, and patriarchal interventions. Hawaiian menstrual seclusion and birthing spaces, for instance, were not inherently marginalizing but structured as vital sites of spiritual power and balance.Through comparative analysis—including figures such as Mary, Shakti, Toyotamahime, and Pō—this project highlights recurring patterns in which feminine creative power is both honored and suppressed across traditions. Drawing on ritual theory, feminist theology, and Indigenous knowledge systems, this paper argues that menstruation and birth are not biological anomalies to be managed but thresholds of sacred transformation. These acts often give rise to instinctive rituals—non-verbal, embodied responses to liminal states—which reveal the body’s capacity to hold, generate, and express sacred potential. By recovering these rites from centuries of misinterpretation and erasure, this study offers a framework for rethinking sacred authority, ritual practice, and the role of the body in religious life.