Description
Book Synopsis Drawing upon historical, archaeological, and mythical examples from around the world, this book reveals how societal views of female empowerment and authority can be directly traced to the reverence once directed towards female warriors, priestesses, healers, queens, pharaohs, and goddesses. Communities which revered women as sacred idols of their belief systems were far more likely to place women in prominent positions of social or political influence, since their members were quite used to envisioning power in the hands of a strong or divine woman.
The book also explores how goddesses were purposefully devalued during the rise of patriarchal civilizations, thus restricting the social importance of earthly women and their accompanying rights. One such instance can be found in Greek mythology''s Gaia: once revered as a dominant earth mother, she was replaced by a division of less-powerful figures with more socially acceptable feminine roles, such as Aphrodite, the goddes
Table of Contents
- Table of Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1—Europe
- 2—The Middle East
- 3—The Mediterranean
- 4—India
- 5—Asia
- 6—Africa
- 7—The Americas and Oceania
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
