Women in Prehistory: Volume 4

by Margaret R. Ehrenberg

Book Overview

Volume 4 in the Oklahoma Series in Classical Culture This thought-provoking book argues the contributions of women to the earliest advances in human knowledge, especially the discovery and development of agriculture, were much greater than has generally been acknowledged. By examining skeletons and grave goods, archeological evidence from settlement sites, and rock carvings and sculpted figurines, and by drawing anthropological parallels to later societies, Ehrenberg throws new light on the lives and social status of women in Europe from the Palaeolithic era to the Iron Age. The high status almost certainly enjoyed by women as the main providers of food in early prehistoric societies probably diminished in the later Neolithic Age, as men assumed an increasingly dominant role in farming. Even so, in the Bronze Age and Iron Age societies, individual women held positions of power: Ehrenberg considers the possibility that Minoan Crete was a matriarchy and that Boudica was only one of a number of female Celtic leaders.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0806122374
• ISBN13: 9780806122373
• Release Date: March 1990
• Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 7.0" x 10.0"

Customer Reviews

A good, thoughtful read

It is hard enough to try to piece together any of human prehistory but women suffer the usual extra fate of being particularly invisible or being always relegated to domestic and insignificant roles. Here, Margaret Ehrenberg attempts to make women visible without succumbing to false beliefs in matriarchies and female dominance. This is only a fairly brief look at possibilities over the immense timespan from the paleolithic to the bronze and iron ages but it is an interesting contribution. The changing role of women in economic production and its relation to women's status is a main theme but is not a straightforward connection. As Ehrenberg says, much new information from improved investigative technology (such as sexing of skeletons) and new thinking is needed. Whatever data we do have, though, certainly needs to be treated with caution as our views are naturally colored by our own cultures, experiences and expectations. The author provides a number of examples of archeological finds and some alternative interpretations and insights plus relevant information from present-day hunter-gatherers. A very good read.

Great, unbiased, archaeology book

As an anthropology major, I really loved this book. It was interesting and easy to read, as well as written by an archaeologist who presented an unbiased report of Women in Prehistory. I would definitely buy this book for people interested in Pre-History or Women's history.