Chapter 3 Summary and Analysis

What effect does worshiping a female deity and living in a matriarchal society have on women? Various cause-and-effect theories associating women's status in society and the worship of female deities are offered alongside "reams of pseudo-poetic material", claiming that the female's ability to produce children so awes males that they worship women, but it appears that the critical element is "matrilineal descent of name and property" rather than matriarchy ("women in power"). In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, several scholarly "prophets" like V. Klein suggest that home ownership in early societies makes males dependent on females and often produces polyandry. They suggest that this is an evolutionary stage for all societies. This theory has fallen out of fashion, but remains well attested in many parts of the world. Archeology has produced much evidence that the early scholars lack, including law...