Anita Diamant's fiction, "The Red Tent (1997)," is her interpretation
             of the activities in the red tent, where the Canaanite wives of the first
             patriarchs dwelt and celebrated the facets of womanhood, such as
             menstruation and childbirth. There, they were shielded from their men's
             outside affairs and cares. These patriarchs were Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
             and the wives were Sara, Rebecca, Leah, Rachel and their maids Zilphah and
             Bilhah. It assumes that these women were priestesses of goddess-worshiping
             tribes of the Canaan region who practiced and perpetuated rituals,
             traditions and habits until obliterated by their only daughter, Dinah,
             because of her violation by an Amorite and the murder of the Amorites by
             The novel is told from the first person viewpoint of Dinah, the only
             daughter and last child of Jacob and Leah and the last in the maternal line
             that should have sustained her mothers' goddess worship (Day 2003). She
             narrates about the occurrences inside the tent where the women in her
             father's family connect and relate, although not always in harmony, and her
             perception of rape by Shechem, his pursuit of her in marriage, the
             negotiations, and her brothers' violent murder of the Amorites and the
             inequality of her world. The author, however, innovates that Dinah falls in
             love with Shechem and that her brothers are impelled by envy because of the
             costly terms of the betrothal. This forever alienates Dinah from her
             maternal line and the goddess worship gives way to patriarchy (Day).
             In those times, woman was the source of being and this power was
             rooted in the land and celebrated by matriarchal traditions and rites,
             despite warnings from prophets and preachers. It is argued that Sara was
             the chief priestess of the goddess culture and that it was precisely
             through feminine power and through the relationships these powerful women
             in a common setting, the red tent, that Y...