I've mentioned before Felipe Fernández-Armesto. I've been listening to his book Out of Our Minds: What We Think and How We Came to Think It. I started listening during the early stages of the pandemic and must admit that my focus has been rather limited, by anxiety and so on. Now I am on my second go through it. And last night I came upon a section about theories of Goddess religions.
There are two theories, which Fernández-Armesto claims have not been borne out by the evidence: 1) that all cultures began with goddess cults that were subsequently quashed by men and 2) that the goddess cults were reframed by Christianity into the image of the Virgin Mary. What the evidence does seem to bear out is that some societies did worship or venerate female idols. There are statuettes and paintings of big-breasted and big-hipped females found around the world. Consider the Seated Woman of Çatalhöyük or the Venus of Willendorf.
Fernández-Armesto writes that it is natural that women should be seen as mystical, in the way their cycles match the waxing and waning of the moon, and the way in which they create life. Indeed, a society needs its women if it is to continue into the future, but it can do without many men. And that is why men were the ones the tribe could afford to lose in dangerous pursuits such as hunting or warfare.
He points out that the 'physical limitations' of women (apart from during pregnancy) are relatively insignificant. Most women on average can do what most men can do, it is only at the extremes of the bell curve that women are weaker. In addition, in a society where hunting and foraging were split by gender, the foragers (females) provided for a far larger proportion of the community's calorific requirements.
Today, I have not foraged. I am very fortunate in that I do get a weekly delivery from Abel and Cole. Vegetables! And I returned from Devon with about six week's worth of cheese. Yes, dear readers, I have returned.
Let me assure you, as this is the crucial thing, I have been diligent in putting no one at risk from my travel. I did not stop on either journey and I was in self-isolation in my 5* shed. Now I am in the same situation in my home. My family are wonderful - and went out of their way to create a space for me. However, this is a long-haul, I fear - and my animals and my mind needed this little house. I am saddened that I cannot do the house-work and cooking there while my family do home deliveries of cheese, bread and butter to their customers. I could have been a goddess. But I am far from that. I am saddened too that I will not see the blue hills, but life is not perfect and life in a pandemic even less so.
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