Matriarchal religion

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The Minoan snake goddess figurines, though an almost unique find, feature frequently in literature postulating matriarchal religion Thea ton Opheon 6393 (cropped).JPG
The Minoan snake goddess figurines, though an almost unique find, feature frequently in literature postulating matriarchal religion

A matriarchal religion is a religion that emphasizes a goddess or multiple goddesses as central figures of worship and spiritual authority. The term is most often used to refer to theories of prehistoric matriarchal religions that were proposed by scholars such as Johann Jakob Bachofen, Jane Ellen Harrison, and Marija Gimbutas, and later popularized by second-wave feminism. These scholars speculated that early human societies may have been organized around female deities and matrilineal social structures. In the 20th century, a movement to revive these practices resulted in the Goddess movement.

Contents

History

The concept of a prehistoric matriarchy was introduced in 1861 when Johann Jakob Bachofen published Mother Right: An Investigation of the Religious and Juridical Character of Matriarchy in the Ancient World. He postulated that the historical patriarchates were a comparatively recent development, having replaced an earlier state of primeval matriarchy, and postulated a "chthonic-maternal" prehistoric religion. Bachofen presents a model where matriarchal society and chthonic mystery cults are the second of four stages of the historical development of religion. The first stage, he called "Hetaerism," was characterized as a paleolithic hunter-and-gatherer society that practiced a polyamorous and communistic lifestyle. The second stage is the Neolithic, a matriarchal lunar stage of agriculture with an early form of Demeter, the dominant deity. This was followed by a "Dionysian" stage of emerging patriarchy, finally succeeded by the "Apollonian" stage of patriarchy and the appearance of civilization in classical antiquity. The idea that this period was a golden age that was displaced by the advent of patriarchy was first described by Friedrich Engels in his The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State.

The British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans, the main rediscoverer and promoter of Minoan civilization, believed that Minoan religion more or less exclusively worshiped a mother goddess, and his view held sway for the first part of the 20th century, with a wide-ranging influence on thinking in various fields. Modern scholars agree that a mother or nature goddess was probably a dominant deity, but that there were also male deities.

The extent of matriarchal influence, particularly from the Minoan civilization, remains a topic of debate among scholars due to limited archeological evidence. Nevertheless, Greek art and literature reflect a nuanced interplay between patriarchal and matriarchal themes, suggesting a multifaceted cultural landscape. This dynamic balance between different societal paradigms underscores the richness and complexity of ancient Greek civilization.

In the early 1900s, historian Jane Ellen Harrison put forward the theory that the Olympian pantheon replaced an earlier worship of earth goddesses. [1]

Robert Graves postulated a prehistoric matriarchal religion in the 1950s, in his The Greek Myths and The White Goddess , and gave a detailed depiction of a future society with a matriarchal religion in his novel Seven Days in New Crete . [2]

Verbotenes Land ("Forbidden Land"), 1936 1936-003 Paalen.jpg
Verbotenes Land ("Forbidden Land"), 1936

Inspired by Graves and other sources was the Austrian Surrealist Wolfgang Paalen who, in his painting Pays interdit ("Forbidden Land"), draws an apocalyptic landscape dominated by a female goddess and, as symbols of the male gods, fallen, meteorite-like planets.

Second-wave feminism and the Goddess movement

The ideas of Bachofen and Graves were taken up in the 1970s by second-wave feminists, such as author Merlin Stone, who took the Paleolithic Venus figurines as evidence of prehistorical matriarchal religion. She presents matriarchal religions as involving a "cult of serpents" as a major symbol of spiritual wisdom, fertility, life, strength. [3]

Additionally, anthropologist Marija Gimbutas introduced the field of feminist archaeology in the 1970s. Her books The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe (1974), The Language of the Goddess (1989), and The Civilization of the Goddess (1991) became standard works for the theory that a patriarchic or "androcratic" culture originated in the Bronze Age, replacing a Neolithic Goddess-centered worldview. [4] These theories were presented as scholarly hypotheses, albeit from an ideological viewpoint, in the 1970s, but they also influenced feminist spirituality and especially feminist branches of Neo-paganism that also arose during the 1970s (see Dianic Wicca and Reclaiming (Neopaganism)), so that Matriarchal Religion is also a contemporary new religious movement within the larger field of neopaganism, generally known as the Goddess movement. [5]

Most modern anthropologists reject the idea of a prehistoric matriarchy but recognize matrilineal and matrifocal groups throughout human history[1][2] (although matrilineal descent does not necessarily imply matriarchal political rule). Matrilineality or matrilocality occurred in some prehistoric hunter-gatherer groups and was probably common in ancient[ clarification needed ] societies. Modern anthropologists note a fairly flexible system of kinship and residence among hunter-gatherers (our ancestors).[3][4] It can be matrilineal and/or patrilineal, matrilocal and/or patrilocal.[5] Several scientists also advocate the multilocality of hunter-gatherer communities, refuting the concepts of exclusive matrilocality (matrilineality) or patrilocality (patrilineality).[3][6] Also, some scientific data refute the one-line theory of evolution, which claimed that the ancient society was exclusively matriarchal, and only after some cultural shifts it moved to patriarchy. Modern data call into question this point of view.[7] At the same time, for example, pastoralists-farmers tend to be more patrilocal and patrilineal than non-pastoralists.[8]

The predominance of matrilineality or matrilocality varies by culture and period, including specific prehistoric hunter-gatherer communities and ancient societies. While some researchers argue that hunter-gatherer groups are multilocal, disputing exclusive matrilocality or patrilocality, they require particular examples or references to support their claim. Furthermore, scientific facts opposing the one-line hypothesis of evolution exist; however, citing particular research or instances would increase the credibility of this argument.

Anthropologist Eleanor Leacock's research among Canada's Montagnais-Naskapi Indigenous peoples is one example of a study that calls into question the idea of exclusive matrilocality or patrilocality. Leacock discovered that, while these communities were frequently classified as patrilineal and patrilocal, family relationships were more complicated and flexible than previously imagined, including evidence of matrilineal and bilateral kinship practices. This study emphasizes the need to reconsider assumptions regarding the rigidity of family networks and the variety of social structures in hunter-gatherer groups.

In contemporary spirituality, the Goddess movement has been used[ by whom? ] as a way for women to separate themselves from the powerlessness they were put under and to accept and come to terms with the fact that they are powerful.

Goddess Spirituality was not used early on in the feminist movement when it came to women expressing their spirituality because they[ who? ] did not see the correlation and saw it fit as a way to express different situations and events women faced. Also feminine spirituality and gerontology are closely derived or related to one another because feminine spirituality focuses very closely on newer generations and how they need to be in touch with themselves and the world around them.[ citation needed ] But it is also something that should be pushed onto older women[ citation needed ] because feminine spirituality, as spirituality is found in people of all ages. [6]

The Goddess Movement and Women's Movement have sometimes been closely associated. One example is the idea of bodily autonomy. Many feminist movements and leaders believe that women's bodies have been oppressed for many years, with accusations of slut shaming being aimed at some religious groups, for example.[ who? ] Members of this movement see women being fetishized and exploited and believe that it has played a significant role in violence against women.[1]

Triple goddess and other deities

There is a deity known within the movement and other spiritual groups as the Triple Goddess, who represents a woman's stages of life. Members say it's not strictly for women but for a general guide through childhood, maturity, and old age, but it strongly correlates with women. The Triple Goddess is a deity worshiped by many neopagan groups: women, children, and men. In these movements, she is seen as a deity that helps people understand what is happening in their lives at all ages. Many [ who?] believe the stages within women that the Triple Goddess guides them through their maiden/youth, mother and lover, and finally, wise woman. This is rooted in Pagan people and their beliefs but has changed throughout time, yet her central representation has remained the same.[7]

Triple goddess symbol Triple Goddess Symbol Filled.svg
Triple goddess symbol

Cultural impact

The Mother Goddess is a widely recognized archetype in psychoanalysis,[1] and worship of Mother Earth and sky goddesses is known from numerous religious traditions of historical polytheism, especially in classical civilizations, when temples were built to many Goddesses.

Criticism

Debate continues whether ancient matriarchal religion historically existed.[7] American scholar Camille Paglia has argued that "Not a shred of evidence supports the existence of matriarchy anywhere in the world at any time" and further that "The moral ambivalence of the great mother Goddesses has been conveniently forgotten by those American feminists who have resurrected them."[8] In her book, The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory (2000), scholar Cynthia Eller discusses the origins of matriarchal prehistory, evidence for and against its historical accuracy, and whether the concept is suitable for modern feminism.[9]

Kavita Maya cites scholars pointing out a perceived lack of an ethnic mix in Goddess feminism, arguing that the Goddess movement incorporates "unequal relational dynamics between white Goddess feminists and women of color" and states that it is influenced by colonial narratives, resulting in both "silencing and the romanticization of racial difference."[7]

See also

Related Research Articles

Feminist theology is a movement found in several religions, including Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Neopaganism, Baháʼí Faith, Judaism, Islam, Christianity and New Thought, to reconsider the traditions, practices, scriptures, and theologies of those religions from a feminist perspective. Some of the goals of feminist theology include increasing the role of women among clergy and religious authorities, reinterpreting patriarchal (male-dominated) imagery and language about God, determining women's place in relation to career and motherhood, studying images of women in the religions' sacred texts, and matriarchal religion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thealogy</span> The study and reflection upon the feminine divine from a feminist perspective

Thealogy views divine matters through feminine perspectives including but not limited to feminism. Valerie Saiving, Isaac Bonewits (1976) and Naomi Goldenberg (1979) introduced the concept as a neologism. Its use then widened to mean all feminine ideas of the sacred, which Charlotte Caron usefully explained in 1993: "reflection on the divine in feminine or feminist terms". By 1996, when Melissa Raphael published Thealogy and Embodiment, the term was well established.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marija Gimbutas</span> Lithuanian-American archaeologist (1921–1994)

Marija Gimbutas was a Lithuanian archaeologist and anthropologist known for her research into the Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures of "Old Europe" and for her Kurgan hypothesis, which located the Proto-Indo-European homeland in the Pontic Steppe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matriarchy</span> Social system with female rule

Matriarchy is a social system in which positions of dominance and authority are primarily held by women. In a broader sense it can also extend to moral authority, social privilege, and control of property. While those definitions apply in general English, definitions specific to anthropology and feminism differ in some respects. Most anthropologists hold that there are no known societies that are unambiguously matriarchal.

Matrilineality is the tracing of kinship through the female line. It may also correlate with a social system in which each person is identified with their matriline, their mother's lineage, and which can involve the inheritance of property and titles. A matriline is a line of descent from a female ancestor to a descendant of either gender in which the individuals in all intervening generations are mothers. In a matrilineal descent system, an individual is considered to belong to the same descent group as their mother. This ancient matrilineal descent pattern is in contrast to the currently more popular pattern of patrilineal descent from which a family name is usually derived. The matriline of historical nobility was also called their enatic or uterine ancestry, corresponding to the patrilineal or "agnatic" ancestry.

<i>When God Was a Woman</i> Book by Merlin Stone

When God Was a Woman is the U.S. title of a 1976 book by sculptor and art historian Merlin Stone. It was published earlier in the United Kingdom as The Paradise Papers: The Suppression of Women's Rites. It has been translated into French as Quand Dieu était femme in 1978, into Dutch as Eens was God als Vrouw belichaamd – De onderdrukking van de riten van de vrouw in 1979, into German as Als Gott eine Frau war in 1989 and into Italian as Quando Dio era una donna in 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mother goddess</span> Goddess who represents, or is a personification of nature, motherhood, fertility, creation

A mother goddess is a major goddess characterized as a mother or progenitor, either as an embodiment of motherhood and fertility or fulfilling the cosmological role of a creator- and/or destroyer-figure, typically associated the Earth, sky, and/or the life-giving bounties thereof in a maternal relation with humanity or other gods. When equated in this lattermost function with the earth or the natural world, such goddesses are sometimes referred to as the Mother Earth or Earth Mother, deity in various animistic or pantheistic religions. The earth goddess is archetypally the wife or feminine counterpart of the Sky Father or Father Heaven, particularly in theologies derived from the Proto-Indo-European sphere. In some polytheistic cultures, such as the Ancient Egyptian religion which narrates the cosmic egg myth, the sky is instead seen as the Heavenly Mother or Sky Mother as in Nut and Hathor, and the earth god is regarded as the male, paternal, and terrestrial partner, as in Osiris or Geb who hatched out of the maternal cosmic egg.

The Triple Goddess is a deity or deity archetype revered in many Neopagan religious and spiritual traditions. In common Neopagan usage, the Triple Goddess is viewed as a triunity of three distinct aspects or figures united in one being. These three figures are often described as the Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone, each of which symbolizes both a separate stage in the female life cycle and a phase of the Moon, and often rules one of the realms of heavens, earth, and underworld. In various forms of Wicca, her masculine consort is the Horned God.

This is an index of articles related to the issue of feminism, women's liberation, the women's movement, and women's rights.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johann Jakob Bachofen</span> Swiss jurist and philologist (1815–1887)

Johann Jakob Bachofen was a Swiss antiquarian, jurist, philologist, anthropologist, and professor of Roman law at the University of Basel from 1841 to 1844.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Goddess movement</span> Modern revival of divine feminine or female-centered spirituality

The Goddess movement is a revivalistic Neopagan religious movement which includes spiritual beliefs and practices that emerged predominantly in the Western world during the 1970s. The movement grew as a reaction both against Abrahamic religions, which exclusively have gods with whom are referred by masculine grammatical articles and pronouns, and secularism. It revolves around Goddess worship and the veneration for the divine feminine, and may include a focus on women or on one or more understandings of gender or femininity.

<i>The First Sex</i> Book by Elizabeth Gould Davis

The First Sex is a 1971 book by the American librarian Elizabeth Gould Davis, considered part of the second wave of feminism. In the book, Gould Davis aimed to show that early human society consisted of matriarchal "queendoms" based around worship of the "Great Goddess", and characterised by pacifism and democracy. Gould Davis argued that the early matriarchal societies attained a high level of civilization, which was largely wiped out as a result of the "patriarchal revolution". She asserted that patriarchy introduced a new system of society, based on property rights rather than human rights, and worshipping a stern and vengeful male deity instead of the caring and nurturing Mother Goddess.

Cultural transformation theory proposes that societies used to follow a “partnership model” of civilization but over time, it gave way to today's current “dominator model” of civilization. This theory was first proposed by Riane Eisler, a cultural scholar, in her book The Chalice and the Blade. Eisler affirms that societies exist on a partnership-domination continuum but we as a species have moved away from our former partnership orientation to a more domination orientation by uplifting masculine ideals over feminine ideals. She insists that people do not have to live in a society based on the rule of one gender class over the other. There is historical evidence that another type of society, where all individuals are equal, is possible.

<i>Womans Evolution</i>

Woman's Evolution: From Matriarchal Clan to Patriarchal Family is a 1975 book by the American revolutionary socialist Evelyn Reed. The book gives a Marxist view on the history of women and is considered to be a pioneer work of Marxist feminism. It has been translated into many languages.

<i>Goddess Remembered</i> 1989 documentary by Donna Read

Goddess Remembered is a 1989 Canadian documentary on the Goddess movement and feminist theories surrounding Goddess worship in Old European culture according to Marija Gimbutas, and Merlin Stone's 1976 book When God Was a Woman.

<i>The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory</i> 2000 book by Cynthia Eller

The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory: Why An Invented Past Will Not Give Women a Future is a 2000 book by Cynthia Eller that seeks to deconstruct the theory of a prehistoric matriarchy. This hypothesis, she says, developed in 19th century scholarship and was taken up by 1970s second-wave feminism following Marija Gimbutas. Eller, a retired professor of religious studies at Claremont Graduate University, argues in the book that this theory is mistaken and its continued defence is harmful to the feminist agenda.

<i>The Great Mother</i> 1955 book by Erich Neumann

The Great Mother: An Analysis of the Archetype is a book discussing mother goddesses by the psychologist Erich Neumann. The dedication reads, "To C. G. Jung friend and master in his eightieth year". Although Neumann completed the German manuscript in Israel in 1951, The Great Mother was first published in English in 1955. The work has been seen as an enduring contribution to the literature inspired by Jung, and was the first to analyze an archetype with such depth and scope.

<i>The Chalice and the Blade</i> Book by Riane Eisler

The Chalice and The Blade: Our History, Our Future is a 1987 book by Riane Eisler. The author presents a conceptual framework for studying social systems with particular attention to how a society constructs roles and relations between the female and male halves of humanity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Bond (author)</span> British author

William Bond was born in London, England in 1946. When he was four years old, his parents immigrated to Australia and lived in the state of Western Australia. In 1970, he returned to England, and has lived there ever since.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women in prehistory</span>

A large amount of research on prehistory has been dedicated to the role of women in pre-literary society. Tasks typically undertaken by women are thought to have formed a major sexual division of labor in relation to child-rearing, gathering, and other everyday occupations. More recent research has however suggested women also played an active role in hunting and other physical activities in place of the exclusively domestic roles traditionally occupied by women in literary civilizations.

References

  1. Wheeler-Barclay, Marjorie (2010). "Jane Ellen Harrison". The Science of Religion in Britain, 1860-1915. Victorian Literature and Culture Series. University of Virginia Press. p. 231. ISBN   9780813930107. [I]t was her interest in matriarchal religion and her insistence on its importance that most distinctly set her apart from other British scholars.... As early as 1900, she made note of the evidence of an older stratum of religion--the worship of earth goddesses--lying beneath Olympianism and supplanted it.
  2. Smeds, John (Winter 1990–1991). "Graves, Bachofen and the Matriarchy Debate" (PDF). Focus on Robert Graves and His Contemporaries. 1 (10): 1–17. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 12 December 2012.
  3. Stone, Merlin (1978). When God was a Woman. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN   9780156961585.
  4. Husain, Shahrukh (1997). "The Paleolithic and Neolithic ages". The Goddess: Power, Sexuality, and the Feminine Divine. University of Michigan Press. p. 13. ISBN   9780472089345 . Retrieved 12 December 2012. Marija Gimbutas is indivisibly linked with the study of the prehistoric Goddess.
  5. Christ, Carol P. (2002). "Feminist theology as post-traditional thealogy". In Susan Frank Parsons (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Feminist Theology. Cambridge University Press. p. 80. ISBN   9780521663809. Marija Gimbutas unwittingly supplied the fledgling movement with a history, through her analysis of the symbolism of the Goddess in the religion of palaeolithic and neolithic Old Europe.
  6. Manning, Lydia K. (2010-07-02). "An Exploration of Paganism: Aging Women Embracing the Divine Feminine". Journal of Religion, Spirituality & Aging. 22 (3): 196–210. doi:10.1080/15528030903547790. ISSN   1552-8030. S2CID   144409754.