From 18th- 20th Century Archaeologists and anthropologists

try to understand origins of social structures

(including gender)

a) look in fossil and archaeological record

b) look at primates
c) look at “primitive” societies

Produce the trope - “Man the Hunter, Woman the Gatherer”

impetus for evolution was aggression, love of the hunt.
If men are the hunters,
then women interpreted as gatherers

1
Explanations of the origins of patriarchal ideas of
gender often reflect those same traditional ideas.

Johanna Stuckey argues that archaeologists categorize

powerful female goddesses as “mother goddesses”
or relegate them to “fertility cults”
despite their wide range of powers and
responsibilities

Friedrich Engels likewise sees human development

as a steady linear narrative of progress towards
civilization (his own!)

Savagery – barbarism - civilization

Other arguments countering “Man the hunter, Woman the gatherer”
women gatherers produce 80-95% of the food
(countered by argument that men did the gathering)

women domestic because of their role in child-rearing

(countered by pointing out that women’s activities
are not that limited, and many women are not
reproductively engaged)

nothing prevents women from participating in the hunt

or men from gathering or childcare.
in fact it makes more sense that the whole tribe would
be involved in both activities, children with elders.
cooperation is a Human development, not a gendered one

Feminist argument – Venus figurines indicate possibility of

a time when the Goddess did reign supreme. 3
 Venus of Dolní Vestonice
Paleolithic settlement in Czech Republic
Moravia, south of Brno

29,000-25,000 BCE

Earliest ceramic figure (fired terracotta)

4.4 inches tall

"Petr Novák, Wikipedia"

Göbekli Tepe, southeast Turkey, Neolithic Temple site, 9,000 BCE
Çatalhöyük, early excavation. Neolithic, south-central
Turkey. C 7500 BCE – 5700 BCE, transition from
Sharing economy to exchange economy. Pop 8,000 c 7000.
Female stone carved figurine, Catalhoyak, 6.7 inches tall, 2.2 kg
5500-8000 BCE.
Neolithic Female Deity from Catalhoyuk, Turkey c 6000 – 5500 BCE
Çatalhöyük, Pregnant woman, c7500 BCE, originally a separate
detachable head. Front view
Side/back view
Mnajdra Temples, Malta, c. 3600 B.C.
Minoan Snake Goddess
C 1600 BCE
Knossos, Crete
Gotland, Sweden
Snake-Witch

400-600 AD
Two main foundational knowledge groups that form our
sources in Western culture.
Greco-Roman
Judeo-Christian

Judeo-Christian traditions
Genesis – written around the 5th or 6th Centuries BCE
the Creation
The Temptation
The Fall

Aristotle – De Generatione Animalium (latin, not ancient Greek)

350 BCE

Paul’s letter to the Corinthians AD 53-54

The New Testament
Paul of Tarsus
The Whore and the Virgin Bride 17
 1,000 BCE 500 BCE - 476 CE (Fall of Rome)

Ancient Classical Period

Judeo-Christian Aristotle 384 – 322 BCE
Hebrew Bible, Plato 427 - 348 BC
Genesis Socrates 469 – 399 BCE

500 – 1400-1500
500 – 900 (early) 900 – 1100 (middle) 1100 – 1356 (High)
Middle Ages
feudal, agrarian society/rise of the Catholic Church
power hierarchies begin to change
after the plague

c571 1137 1346-1400

Birth of Mohammed The Art of Courtly Plague ravages
Love Europe 18
huge social impact
Michaelangelo, The Creation of Adam, 1511

19
Athena springs fully formed from Zeus
20
Michelangelo, The Temptation, The Sistine Chapel
21
Michelangelo, The Serpent, The Sistine Chapel
22
Notre Dame Cathedral, Adam, Eve and the female serpent
23
Adam Masaccio,
Adam and Eve
Expelled from paradise,
C 1424-25

24
The School of Athens, Raphael 1510
25
26
Aristotle
“aristotelian dualisms”

Fundamental difference between men and women

Male Female
Hot cold
Semen catamenia (menstrual blood)
Principle (form) matter
Soul body

“For the female is, as it were, a mutilated male, and the catamenia
are semen, only not pure; for there is only one thing they have not
In them, the principle of soul.” p.46
 Paul the Apostle, also Saul of Tarsus (his Jewish name)
c. 5 CE-c.64 or 67

Saint Paul Writing His Epistles, Valentin de Boulogne, c.1618

Caravaggio’s
Conversion on the Road
to Damascus, c. 1600
Christians - some knowledge is forbidden
and a sin to seek after

St. Paul - 1st Corinthians, construction of Eve

as a sexual temptress
The Fall in opposition to The Redemption

The Whore and the Virgin Bride

New Testament Old Testament

Virgin Bride Whore
Mary Eve
scene with angel scene of temptation
obeys god disobeys God
dove serpent
30
Women are misbegotten men, they are secondary,
Not quite complete, inferior.

Women are temptresses, their bodies and their natures

are the occasion of sin.

It is right and proper that men rule over women.

These principles are the natural reflection of God’s

order of things, and as they should be.

31
Feminist response to patriarchal foundational religions.

a) reinterpret the old texts

b) invent a new religion
c) recover an old one

What are these texts really about? Can they be useful to

women? What are the implications for the male role?