Gentlemen and Amazons: The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory, 1861-1900
Gentlemen and Amazons traces the nineteenth-century genesis and development of an important contemporary myth about human origins: that of an original universal matriarchy. Cynthia Eller explores the intellectual history of the myth, which first arose among male scholars who mostly wanted to vindicate the patriarchal family model as a higher stage of human development. Eller tells the stories these men told, analyzes the gendered assumptions they made, and demonstrates how this story was adopted by feminists, communists, and fascists before the nineteenth century was over.
Gentlemen and Amazons traces the nineteenth-century genesis and development of an important contemporary myth about human origins: that of an original universal matriarchy. Cynthia Eller explores the intellectual history of the myth, which first arose among male scholars who mostly wanted to vindicate the patriarchal family model as a higher stage of human development. Eller tells the stories these men told, analyzes the gendered assumptions they made, and demonstrates how this story was adopted by feminists, communists, and fascists before the nineteenth century was over.
