This is a truly lame and pitiful attempt to take down an already well-documented concept that offends your androcentric view of history. My whole piece is filled with quotes from experts and citations (at least 8). I had a hard time figuring out how to make it all flow with so many quotes. If you want a really comprehensive look at the concepts read The Chalice and the Blade by Riane Eisler (she’s an internationally acclaimed scholar) and When God Was A Woman by art historian Merlin Stone for further documentation beyond what I already provided from many other scholars. There’s even more quoted for your convenience below.
It is not well documented that early tribal societies were violent — exactly the opposite. This is supported by prevailing scholarship in this area. You need to look beyond your confirmation bias.
Is it true that hunter-gatherers were peaceful egalitarians? The answer is yes.
During the twentieth century, anthropologists discovered and studied dozens of different hunter-gatherer societies, in various remote parts of the world, who had been nearly untouched by modern influences. Wherever they were found — in Africa, Asia, South America, or elsewhere; in deserts or in jungles — these societies had many characteristics in common. The people lived in small bands, of about 20 to 50 persons (including children) per band, who moved from camp to camp within a relatively circumscribed area to follow the available game and edible vegetation. The people had friends and relatives in neighboring bands and maintained peaceful relationships with neighboring bands.
“In prehistoric and early historic periods of human development, religions existed in which people revered their supreme creator as female.
The Great Goddess, the Divine Ancestress, was worshiped as far back as the Upper Paleolithic about 25,000 BC — not 7000 BC as had been previously believed by archaeologists and scholars based on archaeological evidence. The last Goddess temples were closed about 500 AD.
Little has been written about the female deities who were worshiped in the most ancient periods of human existence and still today, the material there is has been almost totally ignored.
Most of the information and artifacts concerning the vast female religion, which flourished for thousands of years before the advent of the classical age of Greece, Judaism, Christianity, was dug out of the ground after the Second World War. It is these more recent excavations which have changed our view of our most ancient history.”
GODDESS WORSHIP
Archaeological evidence proves that the Goddess religion existed and flourished in the Near and Middle East for thousands of years before the arrival of the patriarchal Abraham, first prophet of the male deity Yahweh.
Who was this Goddess? Why had a female, rather than a male, been designated as the supreme deity? How influential and significant was Her worship, and when had it actually begun?
Though goddesses have been worshiped in all areas of the world, we will focus on the religion as it evolved in the Near and Middle East, the cradle of western civilization. The development of the religion of the female deity in this area is intertwined with the earliest beginnings of religion so far discovered anywhere on earth.
THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE
The archaeological evidence for the existence of this ancient religion comes in the form of statues, murals, inscriptions, clay tablets and papyri that recorded events. Legends and prayers revealed the form and attitudes of the religion and the nature of the deity. Many ancient legends often refer to ritual dramas. These were enacted at religious ceremonies of sacred festivals, coinciding with other ritual activities.
Comments were often found in the literature of one country about the religion or divinities of another. Most cultures have myths that explain their origins. However, these are not always the oldest.
There are numerous accounts of the antagonistic attitudes of Judaism, Christianity and Islam toward the sacred artifacts of the religions that preceded them, especially in the case of the Goddess worshiped in Canaan (Palestine).
THE GODDESS IN EVERY FORM
Accounts of Sun Goddesses were found in the lands of Canaan, Anatolia, Arabia and Australia, among the Eskimos, the Japanese and the Khasis of India.
Most astonishing of all was the discovery of numerous accounts of the female Creator of all existence, divinities who were credited with bringing forth not only the first people but the entire earth and the heavens above. There were records of such Goddesses in Sumer, Babylon, Egypt, Africa, Australia and China.
In India the Goddess Sarasvati was honored as the inventor of the original alphabet, while in Celtic Ireland the Goddess Brigit was esteemed as the patron deity of language. Texts revealed that it was the Goddess Nidaba in Sumer who was paid honor as the one who initially invented clay tablets and the art of writing.
Most significant was the archaeological evidence of the earliest examples of written language so far discovered; these were also located in Sumer, at the temple of the Queen of Heaven in Erech, written there over five thousand years ago.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE
In agreement with the generally accepted theory that women were responsible for the development of agriculture, as an extension of their food-gathering activities, there were female deities everywhere who were credited with this gift to civilization.
In Mesopotamia, where some of the earliest evidences of agricultural development have been found, the Goddess Ninlil was revered for having provided Her people with an understanding of planting and harvesting methods.
In nearly all areas of the world, female deities were extolled as healers, dispensers of curative herbs, roots, plants and other medical aids, casting the priestesses who attended the shrines into the role of physicians of those who worshiped there.
The Divine Ancestress was known as Astarte — the Great Goddess, the Queen of Heaven, Innin, Inanna, Nan, Nut, Anat, Anahita, Istar Isis, Au Set, Ishara, Asherah, Ashtart, Attoret, Attar and Hathor. Each names denotes in the various languages and dialects of those who revered Her, different aspects of the Great Goddess.”
Here’s some more citations for you:
