The Myth of Universal Patriarchy: A Critical Response to Cynthia Eller’s Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory

Abstract

In The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory, Cynthia Eller describes a dangerous, ‘ennobling lie’ that must be overturned in order for women to have a viable future. The so-called matriarchal myth which she attempts to debunk is the idea that human societies have not always supported male domination in social structure and religious practice and that societies have existed in which women and the entire natural world were honored. This article examines Eller’s stated assumption that such ideas are utopian inventions and that male dominance is the most reasonable, scientifically sound approach to an interpretation of prehistory.