Matriarchal religion
Encyclopedia
The concept of a Matriarchal religion is a concept forwarded in second-wave feminism
since the 1970s, based on the notion of a historical matriarchy
first developed in the 19th century by J. J. Bachofen.
A "matriarchal religion" is supposedly centered around Goddess worship
, fertility rites, and sacred traits attributed to female sexuality.
While Matriarchal religion has the focus of prehistoric religion
and ancient civilizations, the field of feminist theology
is mostly associated with the introduction of feminist ideology into Christianity
or Judaism
.
, 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", characterized as a paleolithic hunter-and-gatherer society practicing 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
.
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
.
, who took the Paleolithic Venus figurines
as evidence of prehistorical matriachal religion.
Merlin Stone
, from When God Was a Woman
, Marija Gimbutas
introduced the field of feminist archaeology
in the 1970s. Her The Civilization of the Goddess (1989) became a standard work for the theory that partiarchic or "androcratic" culture originated in the Bronze Age
, replacing a Neolithic Goddess-centered worldview.
Merlin Stone
presents matriarchal religions as involving a "cult of serpents
" as a major symbol of spiritual wisdom , ferility, life, strength..
These theories were presented as scholarly hypotheses, albeit ostensibly from an ideological feminist viewpoint, in the 1970s, but they also influenced feminist spirituality and especially feminist branches of Neopaganism
that also arose during the 1970s (see Dianic Wicca
), so that Matriarchal religion is also a contemporary new religious movement
within the larger field of Neopaganism, generally known as the Goddess movement
.
is a widely recognized archetype
in psychoanalysis
, and worship of Mother or Earth goddesses is known from numerous traditions of historical polytheism
, even in classical patriarchic
societies, the scholarly merit of the concept of the "Matriarchal religion" hypothesis has been de-emphasized since the 1990s , and the detrimental effect of using questionable scholarship to support political aims of feminism has been discussed in The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory
(2000).
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."
Second-wave feminism
The Feminist Movement, or the Women's Liberation Movement in the United States refers to a period of feminist activity which began during the early 1960s and lasted through the early 1990s....
since the 1970s, based on the notion of a historical matriarchy
Matriarchy
A matriarchy is a society in which females, especially mothers, have the central roles of political leadership and moral authority. It is also sometimes called a gynocratic or gynocentric society....
first developed in the 19th century by J. J. Bachofen.
A "matriarchal religion" is supposedly centered around Goddess worship
Goddess movement
The Goddess movement is an overall trend in religious or spiritual beliefs or practices which emerged out of second-wave feminism, predominantly in North America, Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand in the 1970s...
, fertility rites, and sacred traits attributed to female sexuality.
While Matriarchal religion has the focus of prehistoric religion
Prehistoric religion
Prehistoric religion is a general term for the religious beliefs and practices of prehistoric peoples. More specifically it encompasses Paleolithic religion, Mesolithic religion, Neolithic religion and Bronze Age religion.-Burial:...
and ancient civilizations, the field of feminist theology
Feminist theology
Feminist theology is a movement found in several religions, including Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, and New Thought, to reconsider the traditions, practices, scriptures, and theologies of those religions from a feminist perspective...
is mostly associated with the introduction of feminist ideology into Christianity
Christian feminism
Christian feminism is an aspect of feminist theology which seeks to advance and understand the equality of men and women morally, socially, spiritually, and in leadership from a Christian perspective. Christian feminists argue that contributions by women in that direction are necessary for a...
or Judaism
Jewish feminism
Jewish feminism is a movement that seeks to improve the religious, legal, and social status of women within Judaism and to open up new opportunities for religious experience and leadership for Jewish women...
.
History
Bachofen
J. J. Bachofen (1861) postulated that the historical patriarchates were a comparatively recent development, having replaced an earlier state of primeval matriarchyMatriarchy
A matriarchy is a society in which females, especially mothers, have the central roles of political leadership and moral authority. It is also sometimes called a gynocratic or gynocentric society....
, and postulated a "chthonic-maternal" prehistoric religion
Prehistoric religion
Prehistoric religion is a general term for the religious beliefs and practices of prehistoric peoples. More specifically it encompasses Paleolithic religion, Mesolithic religion, Neolithic religion and Bronze Age religion.-Burial:...
..
Bachofen presents a model where matriarchal society and chthonic mystery cults are the second of four stages of the historical development of religion
Development of religion
The development of religion describes the stages in the evolution of any particular religious system from a social sciences perspective. It includes such considerations as the evolutionary origin of religions and the evolutionary psychology of religion; the history of religions, including...
.
The first stage he called "Hetaerism", characterized as a paleolithic hunter-and-gatherer society practicing a polyamorous and communistic lifestyle. The second stage is the Neolithic
Neolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...
, a matriarchal "lunar" stage of agriculture with an early form of Demeter
Demeter
In Greek mythology, Demeter is the goddess of the harvest, who presided over grains, the fertility of the earth, and the seasons . Her common surnames are Sito as the giver of food or corn/grain and Thesmophoros as a mark of the civilized existence of agricultural society...
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
Classical antiquity
Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world...
.
Robert Graves
Robert GravesRobert Graves
Robert von Ranke Graves 24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985 was an English poet, translator and novelist. During his long life he produced more than 140 works...
postulated a prehistoric matriarchal religion in the 1950s, in his The Greek Myths
The Greek Myths
The Greek Myths is a mythography, a compendium of Greek mythology, by the poet and writer Robert Graves, normally published in two volumes....
and The White Goddess
The White Goddess
The White Goddess: a Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth is a book-length essay on the nature of poetic myth-making by author and poet Robert Graves. First published in 1948, based on earlier articles published in Wales magazine, corrected, revised and enlarged editions appeared in 1948, 1952 and 1961...
, and gave a detailed depiction of a future society with a matriarchal religion in his novel Seven Days in New Crete
Seven Days in New Crete
Seven Days in New Crete, also known as Watch the North Wind Rise, is a seminal future-utopian speculative fiction novel by Robert Graves, first published in 1949.-Summary:...
.
Second-wave feminism
The ideas of Bachofen and Graves were taken up in 1970s feminism, by authors such as Merlin StoneMerlin Stone
Merlin Stone was an author, sculptor, and professor of art and art history. She is best-known for her book, When God Was a Woman.-Biography:...
, who took the Paleolithic Venus figurines
Venus figurines
Venus figurines is an umbrella term for a number of prehistoric statuettes of women portrayed with similar physical attributes from the Upper Palaeolithic, mostly found in Europe, but with finds as far east as Irkutsk Oblast, Siberia, extending their distribution to much of Eurasia, from the...
as evidence of prehistorical matriachal religion.
Merlin Stone
Merlin Stone
Merlin Stone was an author, sculptor, and professor of art and art history. She is best-known for her book, When God Was a Woman.-Biography:...
, from When God Was a Woman
When God Was a Woman
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 UK as The Paradise Papers: The Suppression of Women's Rites...
, Marija Gimbutas
Marija Gimbutas
Marija Gimbutas , was a Lithuanian-American archeologist known for her research into the Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures of "Old Europe", a term she introduced. Her works published between 1946 and 1971 introduced new views by combining traditional spadework with linguistics and mythological...
introduced the field of feminist archaeology
Feminist archaeology
Feminist archaeology employs a feminist perspective in interpreting past societies. It often focuses on gender, but also considers gender in tandem with other factors, such as sexuality, race, or class. Feminist archaeology has critiqued the uncritical application of modern, Western norms and...
in the 1970s. Her The Civilization of the Goddess (1989) became a standard work for the theory that partiarchic or "androcratic" culture originated in the Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
, replacing a Neolithic Goddess-centered worldview.
Merlin Stone
Merlin Stone
Merlin Stone was an author, sculptor, and professor of art and art history. She is best-known for her book, When God Was a Woman.-Biography:...
presents matriarchal religions as involving a "cult of serpents
Serpent (symbolism)
Serpent in Latin means: Rory Collins :&, in turn, from the Biblical Hebrew word of: "saraf" with root letters of: which refers to something burning-as, the pain of poisonous snake's bite was likened to internal burning.This word is commonly used in a specifically mythic or religious context,...
" as a major symbol of spiritual wisdom , ferility, life, strength..
These theories were presented as scholarly hypotheses, albeit ostensibly from an ideological feminist viewpoint, in the 1970s, but they also influenced feminist spirituality and especially feminist branches of Neopaganism
Neopaganism
Neopaganism is an umbrella term used to identify a wide variety of modern religious movements, particularly those influenced by or claiming to be derived from the various pagan beliefs of pre-modern Europe...
that also arose during the 1970s (see Dianic Wicca
Dianic Wicca
Dianic Witchcraft and Dianic Feminist Witchcraft, is a tradition, or denomination, of the Neopagan religion of Wicca. It was founded by Zsuzsanna Budapest in the United States in the 1970s, and is notable for its focus on the worship of the Goddess, and on feminism...
), so that Matriarchal religion is also a contemporary new religious movement
New religious movement
A new religious movement is a religious community or ethical, spiritual, or philosophical group of modern origin, which has a peripheral place within the dominant religious culture. NRMs may be novel in origin or they may be part of a wider religion, such as Christianity, Hinduism or Buddhism, in...
within the larger field of Neopaganism, generally known as the Goddess movement
Goddess movement
The Goddess movement is an overall trend in religious or spiritual beliefs or practices which emerged out of second-wave feminism, predominantly in North America, Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand in the 1970s...
.
Reception
While the Mother GoddessMother goddess
Mother goddess is a term used to refer to a goddess who represents motherhood, fertility, creation or embodies the bounty of the Earth. When equated with the Earth or the natural world such goddesses are sometimes referred to as Mother Earth or as the Earth Mother.Many different goddesses have...
is a widely recognized archetype
Archetype
An archetype is a universally understood symbol or term or pattern of behavior, a prototype upon which others are copied, patterned, or emulated...
in psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis has expanded, been criticized and developed in different directions, mostly by some of Freud's former students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav...
, and worship of Mother or Earth goddesses is known from numerous traditions of historical polytheism
Polytheism
Polytheism is the belief of multiple deities also usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, along with their own mythologies and rituals....
, even in classical patriarchic
Patriarchy
Patriarchy is a social system in which the role of the male as the primary authority figure is central to social organization, and where fathers hold authority over women, children, and property. It implies the institutions of male rule and privilege, and entails female subordination...
societies, the scholarly merit of the concept of the "Matriarchal religion" hypothesis has been de-emphasized since the 1990s , and the detrimental effect of using questionable scholarship to support political aims of feminism has been discussed in The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory
The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory
The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory: Why An Invented Past Will Not Give Women a Future is a book by Cynthia Eller that deconstructs the theory of a prehistoric matriarchy. This hypothesis developed in 19th century scholarship and taken up by 1970s second wave feminism following Marija Gimbutas...
(2000).
American scholar Camille Paglia
Camille Paglia
Camille Anna Paglia , is an American author, teacher, and social critic. Paglia, a self-described dissident feminist, has been a Professor at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania since 1984...
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."
See also
- Goddess movementGoddess movementThe Goddess movement is an overall trend in religious or spiritual beliefs or practices which emerged out of second-wave feminism, predominantly in North America, Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand in the 1970s...
- Witch-cult hypothesisWitch-cult hypothesisThe Witch-cult is the term for a hypothetical pre-Christian, pagan religion of Europe that survived into at least the early modern period. As late as the 19th and early 20th centuries, some scholars had postulated that European witchcraft was part of a Satanic plot to overthrow Christianity; most...
- Feminist theologyFeminist theologyFeminist theology is a movement found in several religions, including Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, and New Thought, to reconsider the traditions, practices, scriptures, and theologies of those religions from a feminist perspective...
- Gender and religionGender and religionGender and religion encompasses a range of topics related to gender and religion.Some gender and religion issues can be classified as either "internal" or "external"...
- Emma Curtis HopkinsEmma Curtis HopkinsEmma Curtis Hopkins organized New Thought and was a primary theologian, teacher, writer, feminist, mystic and prophet who ordained women at what she named the Christian Science Theological Seminary of Chicago...