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In The Divine Feminine in Ancient Europe, Sharon Paice MacLeod revists the nature of goddess worship in European prehistory by utilizing dozens of archaeological and ethnographic studies to determine how diverse practices and beliefs helped shape Western notions of spirituality and identity.ĭevelopments in anthropological and archaeological theory over the past few decades, particularly work on gender, identity, phenomenology, agency, and social memory, hold enormous potential for facilitating analysis of ancient religious practice and belief.
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While many integrate discussions of women with religious beliefs in past and present, the topic of goddess worship in and of itself has been generally avoided, perhaps in part because of the knee-jerk reaction to the initial, flawed studies. Since the 1990s, feminist perspective and gender roles have increasingly been utilized in archaeological and anthropological case studies across a broad geographic and temporal range.
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Subsequent, rigorous analytical work has played a crucial role in shifting the dialog from being largely androcentric to much more inclusive of all genders. Gimbutas’s work appeared in the United States during the feminist movement, and an academic focus on goddesses ostensibly confirmed ideas that the role of women in the past had been overlooked and undervalued. Unfortunately, some high-profile publications included claims that could not be tested, did not necessarily align with the data, and therefore did not stand up well to subsequent critique. The topic of goddess worship enjoyed a great period of scholarly and popular attention during the latter half of the twentieth century, spurred largely by the work of Marija Gimbutas, who, among her many contributions to the field of archaeology, published three volumes on the subject. Gender, Goddesses, and Responsibly Interpreting the Past for the Present Reviewed by Jennifer Shaffer Foster (State University of New York - Buffalo) The Divine Feminine in Ancient Europe: Goddesses, Sacred Women, and the Origins of Western Culture.