The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory: Why An Invented Past Will Not Give Women a Future is a 2000 book by Cynthia Eller that seeks to deconstruct the theory of a prehistoric matriarchy. This hypothesis, she says, developed in 19th century scholarship and was taken up by 1970s second-wave feminism following Marija Gimbutas. Eller, a retired professor of religious studies at Claremont Graduate University, argues in the book that this theory is mistaken and its continued defence is harmful to the feminist agenda.
Thesis Eller sets out to refute what she describes as feminist matriarchalism as an "ennobling lie".Quoting Kwame Anthony Appiah, "The real political question ... as old as political philosophy ... [is] when we should endorse the ennobling lie."
She argues that the feminist archaeology of Marija Gimbutas had a large part in constructing a late twentieth-century feminist myth of matriarchal prehistory. She questions whether Gimbutas's archaeological findings adequately support the claim that these societies were matriarchal or matrifocal. She says that we know of no cultures in which paternity is ignored and that the sacred status of goddesses does not automatically increase female social status. Eller concludes that inventing prehistoric ages in which women and men lived in harmony and equality "is a burden that feminists need not, and should not bear." In her view, the "matriarchal myth" tarnishes the feminist movement by leaving it open to accusations of "vacuousness and irrelevance that we cannot afford to court."
Criticism Max Dashu wrote that Eller might, in some cases, lack sufficient ability to distinguish clearly between cases in scholarly studies and expressions of the burgeoning Goddess movement, including novels, guided tours, market-driven enterprises."
Editions The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory: Why An Invented Past Will Not Give Women a Future, Beacon Press (2000), .
See also Matriarchal religion Heide Göttner-Abendroth The Inevitability of Patriarchy Third-wave feminism When God Was a Woman Steven Goldberg
References
External links Official author site "Knocking Down Straw Dolls" - critique by Max Dashu Early Human Kinship was Matrilineal, by Chris Knight. Marler, Joan. The Myth of Universal Patriarchy: A Critical Response to Cynthia Eller’s Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory. Feminist Theology, Vol. 14, No. 2, 163-187 (2006) (2003 version)