Invisible Women of Prehistory: Three million years of peace, six thousand years of war
with Marlene Derlet
Invisible Women of Prehistory is a revolutionary book that challenges our preconceptions about the past.
We often think of history as a linear development in which we are steadily moving out of a violent and patriarchal past to a more equitable and peaceful future. While we have no shortage of wars – and the incidence of violence against women is alarmingly high – we are told that humans have never lived in such peaceful times. We continually hear that our predecessors were violent but also that patriarchy is inevitable and universal. But what if none of this were true? What if we were descended from peaceful societies in which women were respected and equal to men? Would this inspire us to seek new ways of organizing our lives and of interpreting the present?
Based on many years of research into ancient history and prehistory, Judy Foster and linguist Marlene Derlet take on the world. They argue that three million years of peace, a period when women’s status in society was much higher than it is now, preceded the last six thousand years of war during which men have come to hold power over women.
They challenge the academic resistance to these ideas and re-examine both the archaeological work of Marjia Gimbutas and recent research into the prehistories of Africa, East and South Asia, the Americas, Australia, South-East Asia and Oceania.
2013 | ISBN 9781876756918 | Paperback | 240 x 170 mm | 404 pp | LOW STOCK - ALSO AVAILABLE AS EBOOKS
Reviews
This is a wonderful work of research which is like reading a detective novel, or even more appropriate, as if listening to our matriarchal elders telling us their oral stories throughout time...Despite their academic backgrounds, the authors also have the gift of making complex research and ideas accessible to the reader. You become immersed in this book as you might in any good novel or work of research about which you are passionate.
—Dr Cathie Koa Dunsford
This is a book you must have in your library.
— Tate, Blog Talk Radio
'Without a doubt, this book acts as a corrective to male-centric academic research'
—New Internationalist
Table of Contents
Contents
A Timeline of Human Prehistory.
Part One.
The Prehistoric Female Principle: The Goddess of Old Europe.
ONE
Introduction
TWO
The Theory of Marija Gimbutas
THREE
Forms of Bias: Sex and Gender; Archaeology; Matriarchy; Civilization; First Writing
FOUR
Intangible Evidence: The Role of Language, Oral Transmission and Myth
FIVE
Tangible Evidence: Prehistoric Art: The Visual Image: Sign and Symbol.
SIX
Northern Hemisphere: The Prehistoric Goddess Figurines of Old Europe
SEVEN
Hunter/Gathering, the First Horticulture and Agriculture
EIGHT
Northern Hemisphere: Three Prehistoric Civilizations
Part Two. The Indo-Europeans: ‘Civilization’ and History Begin
NINE
The First Indo-Europeans: the Beginning of ‘Civilization’ and Written history
TEN
The First Changes to Women’s Status
ELEVEN
Early Indo-European Philosophies: Their Development and Effects
TWELVE
Earliest Indo-European Philosophies: Justification for, and the Results of, Colonisation, ‘Development’, and Appropriation
Part Three. The Hidden and New Worlds: Prehistories, the Female Principle and Indo-European Influences
THIRTEEN
Peaceful Hidden Worlds: Africa
FOURTEEN
Hidden Worlds: India
FIFTEEN
Hidden Worlds: China. Korea. Japan
SIXTEEN
Hidden Worlds: Southeast Asia: Thailand
SEVENTEEN
Hidden Worlds: Indonesia
EIGHTEEN
New Worlds: Australia
NINETEEN
New Worlds: Oceania
TWENTY
New Worlds: North America
TWENTY-ONE
New Worlds: South America. Mesoamerica
CONCLUSION
The Gimbutas Legacy
A Word from the Authors
Bibliography
Web References.
Language Trees