Gentlemen and Amazons traces 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 Eller is Professor of Women’s Studies and Religious Studies at Montclair State University. She is the author of The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory: Why an Invented Past Will Not Give Women a Future; Am I a Woman? A Skeptic’s Guide to Gender; and Living 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 of Goddesses and the Divine Feminine
“Without a doubt, this is the best introduction into the mythological jungle of modern scholarship on matriarchy. Cynthia Eller’s book is not only perfectly researched, it is also intelligent and pleasantly written.” —Philippe Borgeaud, author of Mother of the Gods: From Cybele to the Virgin Mary
290 pp.6 x 9Illus: 27 b/w photographs
9780520248595$95.00|£80.00Hardcover
Mar 2011