The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory Chapter 1: Meeting Matriarchy

Note: I'll be abbreviating the full title to The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory for this and all future posts regarding it.

Page 6, paragraph 1, "Theoretically, prehistory could have been matriarchal, but it probably wasn't, and nothing offered up in support of the matriarchal thesis is especially persuasive."


Page 7 Paragraph 4, "Whatever positive effects this myth has on individual women, they must be balanced against the historical and archaeological evidence the myth ignores or misinterprets and the sexist assumptions it leaves undisturbed."

These two excerpts nicely sum up the gist of the opening chapter of this work. Ms. Eller doesn't reject the myth of a prehistoric matriarchy out of hand. She appreciates the empowering aspects of it but does reject the underlying sexist themes - that women were still just nurturing baby makers but once upon a time they were also in charge and therefore patriarchy was an evolution of social structure which underscores the fact that women are just nurturing baby makers etc. - instead she seeks to expose the source of the myth and thus enlighten all genders and ages to what we can become without false myths containing equally false and more importantly artificial gender standards and stereotypes.

Eller, Cynthia. The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory: Why an Invented past Won't Give Women a Future. Boston: Beacon, 2000. Chapter 1 Meeting Matriarchy. Print.