Invisible Women of Prehistory: Three million years of peace, six thousand years of war

A$42.95

Judy Foster

with Marlene Derlet

Invisible Women of Prehistory is a revolutionary book that challenges our preconceptions about the past.

We often think of history as a linear development in which we are steadily moving out of a violent and patriarchal past to a more equitable and peaceful future. While we have no shortage of wars – and the incidence of violence against women is alarmingly high – we are told that humans have never lived in such peaceful times. We continually hear that our predecessors were violent but also that patriarchy is inevitable and universal. But what if none of this were true? What if we were descended from peaceful societies in which women were respected and equal to men? Would this inspire us to seek new ways of organizing our lives and of interpreting the present?

Based on many years of research into ancient history and prehistory, Judy Foster and linguist Marlene Derlet take on the world. They argue that three million years of peace, a period when women’s status in society was much higher than it is now, preceded the last six thousand years of war during which men have come to hold power over women.

They challenge the academic resistance to these ideas and re-examine both the archaeological work of Marjia Gimbutas and recent research into the prehistories of Africa, East and South Asia, the Americas, Australia, South-East Asia and Oceania.

2013 | ISBN 9781876756918 | Paperback | 240 x 170 mm | 404 pp | LOW STOCK - ALSO AVAILABLE AS EBOOKS

Judy Foster

with Marlene Derlet

Invisible Women of Prehistory is a revolutionary book that challenges our preconceptions about the past.

We often think of history as a linear development in which we are steadily moving out of a violent and patriarchal past to a more equitable and peaceful future. While we have no shortage of wars – and the incidence of violence against women is alarmingly high – we are told that humans have never lived in such peaceful times. We continually hear that our predecessors were violent but also that patriarchy is inevitable and universal. But what if none of this were true? What if we were descended from peaceful societies in which women were respected and equal to men? Would this inspire us to seek new ways of organizing our lives and of interpreting the present?

Based on many years of research into ancient history and prehistory, Judy Foster and linguist Marlene Derlet take on the world. They argue that three million years of peace, a period when women’s status in society was much higher than it is now, preceded the last six thousand years of war during which men have come to hold power over women.

They challenge the academic resistance to these ideas and re-examine both the archaeological work of Marjia Gimbutas and recent research into the prehistories of Africa, East and South Asia, the Americas, Australia, South-East Asia and Oceania.

2013 | ISBN 9781876756918 | Paperback | 240 x 170 mm | 404 pp | LOW STOCK - ALSO AVAILABLE AS EBOOKS

Reviews

This is a wonderful work of research which is like reading a detective novel, or even more appropriate, as if listening to our matriarchal elders telling us their oral stories throughout time...Despite their academic backgrounds, the authors also have the gift of making complex research and ideas accessible to the reader. You become immersed in this book as you might in any good novel or work of research about which you are passionate.

—Dr Cathie Koa Dunsford

This is a book you must have in your library.

— Tate, Blog Talk Radio

'Without a doubt, this book acts as a corrective to male-centric academic research'

—New Internationalist

Table of Contents

Contents

A Timeline of Human Prehistory.                                                                                    

Part One.  

The Prehistoric Female Principle: The Goddess of Old Europe.

ONE

Introduction

TWO

The Theory of Marija Gimbutas                                                                                                                    

THREE

 Forms of Bias: Sex and Gender; Archaeology; Matriarchy; Civilization; First Writing

FOUR

Intangible Evidence: The Role of Language, Oral Transmission and Myth

FIVE

Tangible Evidence: Prehistoric Art: The Visual Image: Sign and Symbol.

SIX

Northern Hemisphere: The Prehistoric Goddess Figurines of Old Europe

SEVEN

Hunter/Gathering, the First Horticulture and Agriculture

EIGHT

Northern Hemisphere: Three Prehistoric Civilizations

Part Two.      The Indo-Europeans: ‘Civilization’ and History Begin

NINE

The First Indo-Europeans: the Beginning of ‘Civilization’ and Written history

TEN

The First Changes to Women’s Status 

ELEVEN 

Early Indo-European Philosophies: Their Development and Effects

TWELVE

Earliest Indo-European Philosophies: Justification for, and the Results of, Colonisation, ‘Development’, and Appropriation

Part Three.   The Hidden and New Worlds: Prehistories, the Female Principle and Indo-European Influences                                                                    

THIRTEEN                                                                                                      

Peaceful Hidden Worlds: Africa 

FOURTEEN

Hidden Worlds: India 

FIFTEEN

Hidden Worlds: China.  Korea. Japan

SIXTEEN

Hidden Worlds: Southeast Asia: Thailand                             

SEVENTEEN

Hidden Worlds: Indonesia                                                                                               

EIGHTEEN

New Worlds: Australia  

NINETEEN

New Worlds: Oceania

TWENTY

New Worlds: North America

TWENTY-ONE 

New Worlds:  South America.  Mesoamerica 

CONCLUSION 

The Gimbutas Legacy

A Word from the Authors

Bibliography

Web References.                                                                                                               

Language Trees