| Early Matrilineal Society The sudden need for writing things down is curious. Before systems of writing, people had committed large volumes of text to memory. For instance, the Rig Veda was entirely committed to memory, the size of which is much larger than the Bible. Throughout my research, I have looked for evidence of a matriarchal/patriarchal “shift.” This seems to have taken place over a long period of time and varied from continent to continent. Based on Sumerian mythological literature, we can see a pattern of male domination beginning to occur already by 1500 BC. Schools were formed in Mesopotamia where only the boys were sent for learning. If in fact, only males could read and write at this point, but women were bards and poets of the goddess, it would appear that power in the feminine based clan life was deteriorating by this time in history. Although Sumer is where writing first developed, it was not the beginning of cultural expansion and awareness, by far. One fact I find intriguing, is that one of the first things written down were “King Lists.” This fact alone, causes me to suspect that knowledge of paternity was an early factor in writing. In her book, Wake of the Goddess, Frymer-Kensky accurately sees this matrifocal to patriarchal shift: “Among the changes in religion, one trend that becomes very clear is the ongoing eclipse and marginalization of the goddesses. The process did not begin suddenly in the Old Babylonian period, nor should it be attributed to the influx of new peoples. On the contrary, the process seems already under way as soon as a written record becomes available. Despite the extensive roles of goddesses in Sumerian literature, one gets the impression that things are already in flux and that our documents already reflect a process of supplanting goddesses.” (90) Another important piece of information Frymer-Kensky brings to light is a royal document titled Reforms of Uruinimgina (read as Urukagina in earlier texts), who was a king of Lagash around 2350 BC. In this document, the king discusses how matters were far worse previously before his reign and how his new reforms have benefited social justice, boasting that, “the women of the former days used to take two husbands, but the women of today (if they attempt to do this) are stoned with the stones inscribed with their evil intent.” (91) The ancient world of the Sumerians was neither a female nor a male dominated society. We do know that the earliest great poems were written by a woman, Enheduanna, who was a priestess of the god Nanna and a daughter of King Sargon of Akkad. Her poems were studied, taught and copied by students, most of whom were male. (92) Tuition was expensive and only males were sent by families for learning. Females were only educated if they were a priestess or the daughter of a King. (93) |
The royal women of Sumer were another matter entirely and had quite a bit of power throughout society. Queens, governor’s wives, and royal princesses had enormous social influence. (94) In ancient Crete, women held high positions in all areas of modern life including priestesses, judges, doctors, artisans, athletes, and business entrepreneurs. Crete was a culturally advanced major trading center and port. Cretans enjoyed indoor baths with hot and cold running water through ceramic pipes and their plumbing in 1700 BC was superior to anything in Europe for another thousand years. The Cretans were also responsible for a lineal script that was passed down to the Greeks and Phoenicians, according to author Robert Graves. (95) Speaking about the matrilineal or early primitive way of life among tribal societies author Monica Sjoo phrases it best in The Great Cosmic Mother, when she says: “Matriarchies are not built on dominance principles, but on the facts of blood-kinship, including the primacy of the mother. Women owned their bodies, their children, and their living properties; women made vital decisions affecting the survival and well-being of their people. There was no way in which an elite group of men could set up laws to restrict a woman’s movements, ideas, or sexual activities. Economic relations were not experienced as separate from religious and social relationships; they were originally based on gift exchange, which served a communal-bonding function, not a competitive or profit-making one. Material goods had value only in terms of the social or spiritual uses to which they were put.” (96) Gimbutas sees the invasions of the Kurgan people (whom she views as the proto-Indo-European) as ending the long reign of matrifocal cultures between 4300 and 2800 BC. Gimbutas is of the opinion that the Aegean and Mediterranean regions and Western Europe survived the longest with the ancient culture intact, mostly concentrated in the islands of Crete, Thera, Malta, and Sardinia including parts of old Europe, until approximately 1500 BC. (97) (90) In the Wake of the Goddess, p.70-71 (91) ibid, p. 79-80; (See S.N. Kramer, "Poets and Psalmists: Goddesses and Theologians" in The Legacy of Sumer, 3-22). (92) ibid, p.12 (93) (https://www.historyonthenet.com/mesopotamian-education-and-sc4ools/) (94) In the Wake of the Goddess, p.21; (See W.W. Hallo, "Women of Sumer", in Legacy of Sumer, Denise Schmandt-Besserat, ed. (Malibu, Calif.: Undena, 1976), 23-40; P. Michalowski, Royal Women of the Ur III Period", JCS 31 (1979): 171-176; P. Steinkeller, "More on the Ur III Royal Wives," Acta Sumerologica 3 (1981): 77-92) (95) The Great Cosmic Mother, p. 18-19; (Robert Graves, The White Goddess: A Historical Grammer of Poetic Myth, New York: Farraf, Straus and Giroux/Noonday Press, 1966), p. 235 (96) ibid, p. 19 (97) Language of the Goddess, Intro, XX, XXI |