quote:
Originally posted by nos482:
Many of the early deities were female. I can understand why you wouldn't want to think that this were possible. You come from a chauvinistic culture.
Hi nos. I agree that there were a lot of female deities - most of the early creation myths we can trace enshrined the female principle as the creator (makes sense, no?). This also translated to agriculture, husbandry, etc. Sumer, the Aztecs, etc, almost invariably used female deities in these roles. However, I would say that you might have a tough case showing correlation between having a bunch of female deities - even creators - and having a matriarchal society. Most of the early "civilizations" (i.e., from which we have something resembling written records - the Mesoamerican cultures, Sumer, Egypt, the pre-Babylonian chariot cultures, etc) all were (as near as we can tell) patriarchal societies.
Do you have any archeological references indicating that there is a correlation between polytheists having some female deities and the type of society?
quote:
Even in the animal kingdom females are mostly in charge. I.E. Insects, many of the big cats, Elephants, etc...
I'm not sure you can state this. Haplodiploid insects like bees and wasps with a strong caste system could, I suppose, be considered "female dominant", in the sense that all of the non-reproductives (i.e., everything except the queen and the male drones) are genetically "female". This doesn't mean that "females are in charge" of anything. Nor are males in this case. As to the big cats, you'll need to provide a reference. The only species that come to mind are lion (in which males compete), and leopards (where you're dealing with single motherhood). Are there any Felidae where the females compete for males (one indicator of female dominance/matriarchy)?
You can make a case that the female investment in reproduction is substantially higher in most sexually reproducing organisms than is the male's. However, whether that equates to "being in charge" is a whole 'nother question.
I'd appreciate any references you could provide on this.
WRT: The antiquity of wicca - I have little knowledge of the subject. Do you have any info or references tending to show a 20,000+ year old religion of any kind? Let alone wicca (which I thought stemmed from worship of Diana - another fertility goddess, of which there are quite a number as I mentioned). Certainly no question the Church spent an inordinate amount of effort attempting (fairly successfully) to extirpate ALL of the old religions - including wicca. They spent nearly as much time extirpating any heresies within their own ranks (think Mithraism or the flagelantes).
™ Version 4.2