Rewriting the Past to Save the Future: A Review of "The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future"

Abstract

The revival of a prehistoric religion of the "mother-goddess" has been championed as the solution to many modem ills. The archaeological evidence for the existence of such a goddess is examined and found wanting. It is suggested that this revival is predicated on ideas about the nature of women that differ little from 1 9th-century ideals that saw women as purer and nobler than men. The role of archaeological interpretations of data in promulgating such ideas is discussed.