Gentlemen and Amazons The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory, 18611900 [Paperback]

Gentlemen and Amazonstraces the nineteenth-century genesis and development of an important contemporary myth about human origins: that of an original prehistoric matriarchy. Cynthia Eller explores the intellectual history of the myth, which arose from male scholars who mostly wanted to vindicate the patriarchal family model as a higher stage of human development. Eller tells the stories these men told, analyzes the gendered assumptions they made, and provides the necessary context for understanding how feminists of the 1970s and 1980s embraced as historical fact a discredited nineteenth-century idea.

Cynthia Elleris Professor of Womens Studies and Religious Studies at Montclair State University. She is the author ofThe Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory: Why an Invented Past Will Not Give Women a Future; Am I a Woman? A Skeptics Guide to Gender; andLiving in the Lap of the Goddess: The Feminist Spirituality Movement in America.

Eller is an excellent historian. She expertly lays out the development of the little known myth of matriarchal prehistory in a way that is both highly knowledgeable and readable. This is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of feminist thought and anthropology. Rosemary Radford Ruether, author ofGoddesses and the Divine Feminine

Without a doubt, this is the best introduction into the mythological jungle of modern scholarship on matriarchy. Cynthia Ellers book is not only perfectly researched, it is also intelligent and pleasantly written. Philippe Borgeaud, author ofMother of the Gods: From Cybele to the Virgin Mary

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments

1. The Travels and Travails of Matriarchal Myth
2. Amazons Everywhere: Matriarchal Myth before Bachofen
3. On the Launching Pad: J. J. Bachofen and Das Mutterrecht
4. The Matriarchal Explosion: Anthropology Finds Motlãµ