When colonizers from the West came to the Philippines, they brought with them successively different views of what constituted "good" and "bad" women. Caught in this series of re-definitions were the female shamans, who fell from the highest prestige to the designation of "witch." Brewer (religion and construction of gender, Murdoch U.) examines how religion, ideology, and power changed the positions of all women in the Philippines in the early colonial period, and how women who once controlled their own ideology came into conflict with outside forces whose power came from a completely different tradition. Brewer includes a glossary and notes on her resources. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)