Beginning ~ how men gained control

When God Was a Woman ~ by Merlin Stone, 1976

"How did it actually happen?  How did men initially gain the control that now allows them to regulate the world in matters as vastly diverse as deciding which wars will be fought when to what time dinner should be served?"

From the dust jacket:

Here, archaeologically documented, is the story of the religion of the Goddess.  Known by many names — Astarte, Isis, Ishtar, among others — she reigned supreme in the Near and Middle East.  Beyond being worshipped for fertility, she was revered as the wise creator and the one source of universal order.  Under her, women's roles differed markedly from those in patriarchal Judeo-Christian cultures.  Women bought and sold property and traded in the marketplace, and the inheritance of title and property was passed from mother to daughter.  How did the change come about?  By documenting the wholesale rewriting of myth and religious dogmas, Merlin Stone details a most ancient conspiracy:  the patriarchal reimaging of the Goddess as a wanton, depraved figure. This is the portrait that laid the foundation for one of culture's greatest shams — the legend of Adam and fallen Eve.

In my quest to understand religions (I taught Religions of the World as an adjunct at Chattanooga State), this book may answer questions about why things were once so different.  This seems to be exploring the same sort of thing I read about in these books:

• The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley, 1982
• The Alphabet Versus the Goddess by Leonard Shlain, 1998
• The Women's History of the World ~ by Rosalind Miles, 1988
• The Spiral Dance ~ by Starhawk, 1979

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts Book Beginnings on Fridays.  Click here for today's Mister Linky.