BOOK REVIEW: THE MYTH
OF MATRIARCHIAL PREHISTORY
Before
I begin singing the praises of this book, I would like to give a brief overview
of its content. The book was written by Cynthia Eller in an attempt to show
that a universal matriarchal pre-historic society that worshipped an ubiquitous
Goddess is almost certainly a myth, and that the myth is very likely more
harmful than it is helpful. She begins by giving a general over-view and
run-down of the situation at hand, then she proceeds to discuss the
archaeological evidence and why it isn’t even close to being conclusive, and
then she proceeds to talk about why the artistic evidence is nowhere close to
even helping anyone ascertain as to whether ancient societies were Goddess
worshipping and matriarchal.
Now,
let me start out by pointing out the biggest flaw in the work as a whole. Eller
makes no secret that she disdains and abhors the matriarchal myth and finds it
more than a tad silly. While this does not necessarily color her interpretation
or presentation to a large degree, it does come across as hostile in the tone,
this aside, the information and assertions are quite solid.
One of
the stronger moments in the book where when she pointed out the fact that even
if the societies were Monotheistic-Goddess societies, that doesn’t mean that
they would have demonstrated gender egalitarianism. Eller’s examples included some Hindu sects who
highly revered Goddesses yet said that the difference between Goddesses and
women are similar to the differences
between the stone you worship and the stone you defecate on. Another
example that she provides is that of the plight of women in Ancient Greece,
specifically Athens where Athena was venerated very widely yet women were
treated harshly, deprived of the right to vote, and were essentially “legal
minors” even after marriage.
The
argument as a whole is wonderfully constructed. Eller carefully burns the
tethers which would suggest the myth as having any sort of truth, and
demonstrates why it is useless as a myth (mainly, because it relies on gender
stereotypes, sexism, assumptions about gender, and has more than its share of
generating misandry among its adherents.) She also obviously thoroughly
researched the subject and is a great example of scholarly work if one would
only thumb through her references and her discussing the references and how she
reached her conclusion.
Overall,
if you can get past the, at times, caustic tone of the author, you will find a
wealth of information which will most certainly enhance one’s understanding of
Indo-European cultures, and of how to sort the chaff from the grain when it
comes to interpreting archaeological finds and when peering into pre-history
(spoiler alert: Almost everything is chaff)
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