Matriarchal religion

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, Judaism, and to a lesser extent Islam ^{[citation needed]}.

The Mother Goddess is a widely recognized archetype in psychoanalysis,^[1] and worship of Mother or Earth goddesses is known from numerous traditions of historical polytheism, even in classical patriarchic societies.

J. J. Bachofen postulated that the historical patriarchates were a comparatively recent development, having replaced an earlier state of primeval matriarchy.^[2]. This idea was taken up in 1970s feminism, by authors such as Merlin Stone, who took the Paleolithic Venus figurines as evidence of prehistorical matriachal religion.^[3]

Sir Arthur Evans, Walter Burkert, James Mellaart, along with the brithish historian 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.

These theories were presented as scholarly hypotheses, albeit ostensibly from an ideological feminist viewpoint^{[citation needed]}, 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.

The scholarly merit of the concept of the "Matriarchal religion" hypothesis has been de-emphasized ^{[citation needed]} since the 1990s ^{[citation needed]}, and the detrimental effect of using questionable scholarship to support political aims of feminism has been discussed in The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory (2000).

Symbols

In matriarchal religions the cult of serpents is a major symbol of spiritual wisdom , ferility, life, strenght ^[4]. The cult of snakes has been claimed to be the oldest religious ritual of humankind.^[5]

Societies that have been claimed to have matriarchal religions

References

^ Erich Neumann The Great Mother
^ J.J. Bachofen, Myth religion and motherhood
^ Merlin Stone (1976) When God Was a Woman
^ When God Was a Woman p. 201, 204 210 211
^ Apollon, Python

[1] Erich Neumann The Great Mother

[2] J.J. Bachofen, Myth religion and motherhood

[3] Merlin Stone (1976) When God Was a Woman

[4] When God Was a Woman p. 201, 204 210 211

[5] Apollon, Python

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[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

Symbols

Societies that have been claimed to have matriarchal religions

See also

References