Marija Gimbutas
Posted: Sun Mar 12, 2006 2:29 pm
Salvete
Marija Gimbutas
There can be said allot about these authors who seem to have a affinity for creating a new mythology based on flawed theories and evidences. I’m pretty sure a whole volume can be written about them, but I will limit it to the influences they have on paganism.
Joan Marler wrote; “Although it is considered improper in mainstream archaeology to interpret the ideology of prehistoric societies, it became obvious to Marija that every aspect of Old European life expressed a sophisticated religious symbolism. She, therefore, devoted herself to an exhaustive study of Neolithic images and symbols to discover their social and mythological significance. To accomplish this it was necessary to widen the cope of descriptive archaeology to include linguistic, mythology, comparative religions and the study of historical records. She called this interdisciplinary approach ‘archaomythology’.”
On itself this is not such a bad idea, but the problem was the facts she gathered were good, just not her theories. Her work has influence feminism and neopaganism, which isn’t that bad if not for her flawed theories founding so much support among the feminists and neopagans.
The end result is somewhat similar to the work of Robert Graves who managed to craft a new mythology and possibly even a new pseudo religion based on his theories. Than again, this is also done by Silver RavenWolf in her early works.
Gimbutas’ critics instance grave good as characterizing more familiar Neolithic gender roles which Gimbutas did not account for and question her emphasis on female figure when many male or asexual figures have also been found. Peter Ucko speculated that Gimbutas’ alleged fertility figures were perhaps nothing more than Neolithica dolls. Her attempts to decipher Neolithic signs as ideograms in the Language of the Goddess received much criticism and resistance in her field. Peter Ucko and Andrew Fleming wrote a book debunking her theories. Check out this site for some information on the book: http://www.debunker.com/texts/goddess_rem.html
Valete
Quintus
Marija Gimbutas
There can be said allot about these authors who seem to have a affinity for creating a new mythology based on flawed theories and evidences. I’m pretty sure a whole volume can be written about them, but I will limit it to the influences they have on paganism.
Joan Marler wrote; “Although it is considered improper in mainstream archaeology to interpret the ideology of prehistoric societies, it became obvious to Marija that every aspect of Old European life expressed a sophisticated religious symbolism. She, therefore, devoted herself to an exhaustive study of Neolithic images and symbols to discover their social and mythological significance. To accomplish this it was necessary to widen the cope of descriptive archaeology to include linguistic, mythology, comparative religions and the study of historical records. She called this interdisciplinary approach ‘archaomythology’.”
On itself this is not such a bad idea, but the problem was the facts she gathered were good, just not her theories. Her work has influence feminism and neopaganism, which isn’t that bad if not for her flawed theories founding so much support among the feminists and neopagans.
The end result is somewhat similar to the work of Robert Graves who managed to craft a new mythology and possibly even a new pseudo religion based on his theories. Than again, this is also done by Silver RavenWolf in her early works.
Gimbutas’ critics instance grave good as characterizing more familiar Neolithic gender roles which Gimbutas did not account for and question her emphasis on female figure when many male or asexual figures have also been found. Peter Ucko speculated that Gimbutas’ alleged fertility figures were perhaps nothing more than Neolithica dolls. Her attempts to decipher Neolithic signs as ideograms in the Language of the Goddess received much criticism and resistance in her field. Peter Ucko and Andrew Fleming wrote a book debunking her theories. Check out this site for some information on the book: http://www.debunker.com/texts/goddess_rem.html
Valete
Quintus