Could relate to honors contract paper

Questions/discussion

For Week 2
Ch. 1: Gender and the Problem of Prehistory
 Prehistory: the time before the invention of writing (3500 BCE) (14)
 Variety of female figurines with large breasts, buttocks, and bellies have been found at
Neolithic sites- reflecting a view that the female body is linked to fertility/offspring (14)
 Questions of gender roles in prehistory have reflected the social assumptions of
archaeologists (14)
o Gender roles are fixed by biology-male is dominant food provider and the main
innovators of social and technological advances
 Women are cast as passive recipients of food and made for producing and raising babies
(15)
 The depictions of Paleolithic men reproduce the presumed sexual division of labor within
the Western industrial middle class where men are providers and women are confined to
domestic work and child raising (15)
 Some scholars believe there was the time of original matriarchy as one of high
civilization, followed by a fall into violence and oppression under patriarchy while others
believe the end of matriarchy was the triumph of “better” masculine qualities over
“inferior” feminine qualities (15)
 Females described as physically weaker by nature, unable to travel for or run swiftly
because of continual pregnancy and child care (17)
o Studies of foraging and gardening societies were skewed by the men’s ability to
actually observe and speak to women in such settings, but women researchers saw
that foraged food was equally adequate to the meat men hunted and sometimes
the main food source for a community (17)
 Women invented many tools for cooking as well as containers for cooking and storage
(18)
o Women were primary creators of the technology that turned raw into cooked,
plant and animal matter into clothes and containers-also probably the first to
scatter seeds and grow new plants (18)
 Women often also caught and trapped smaller animals and men also have been known to
gather instead of women (19)
 “Model of family based on a male provider and a female dependent is a product of
projecting the ideology of the industrial middle class household of modern society back
onto Paleolithic times” (19)
Rediscovering “Original Matriarchy”
 Original matriarchy is a time of female power, harmony, and justice resurfaced.
However, these studies have long been concealed by triumphant patriarchy. (20)
 Time when women were revered as the imminent power of renewal in nature. This time
was destroyed by patriarchal nomads the conquered peaceful people and imposing their
patriarchal culture and way of life on them (21)
 Questions asked in Cynthia Eller’s book The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory: Why an
Invented Past Won’t Give Women a Future. (22)
 o Culture of patriarchal domination of women and nature could be a “bad interlude”
that can be overcome, so two questions need to be asked:
o First, is this narrative historically true?
o Second, as a myth, does this narrative mediate real liberating transformation for
women and men?
 Gimbutas says that male representations were marginal compared to the overwhelming
predominance of images associated with the Goddess (23)
o However, Gimbutas’s reconstruction of the Goddess religion seems eisegesis—it
involves reading into ancient artifacts a predetermined worldview in which she
already believes (24)
 Significant that feminist anthropologists have found no societies with exclusively female
leadership as Gimbutas describes (24-25)
 Graves from çatal Hüyük showed that women were buried with cosmetics, mirrors, and
jewelry and males were buried with weapons and belt fasteners (Mellaart)(32)
 Symbolism of the shrine: bulls heads, figure above bulls heads, and the focus on the rites
of the dead (33)
 Very few Neolithic figures from the European Paleolithic and Neolithic areas that show a
female with a child (34)
 We aren’t even really sure these people had a “religion” separate from daily life or had
entities they thought of as “gods” or “goddesses” (35)
 The idea that human prehistory consisted of men providers and protectors sheltering and
feeding dependent women whose main job was cooking and caring for children was born
of the 19th century, postindustrial British and American middle class (38)
 Male plow agriculture reshapes land ownership in a way that moves societies in the
direction of class hierarchy and male domination over women (39)
 If women alone personify the forces of nature in the cycles of birth and death, either they
need to be controlled by men in order to control these forces of nature, or they are the
primary gender that will somehow “save” us from the destructive effects of male
domination of nature (39)
 Both males and females need to see ourselves as equally rooted in the cycles of life and
death and equally responsible for creating a sustainable way of living together (39)

For Week 3
Reuther (41-72)
 Fourth millennium saw a movement toward urbanization, and a stratified society began to
take shape (42)
 Temple leaders used slave and corvée labor and justified it by claiming to represent the
gods (42)
 Slave status was defined as hereditary, making their descendants permanently property of
masters (43)
 Women were generally excluded from the highest royal power, which was entrusted with
military defense, and were positioned to represent the extended family as priestess (44)
  Female slaves were paid much less in rations than male slaves, and due to female slaves
working in textiles, spinning and weaving became associated with the definition of
womanhood (44)
 Gods are seen to all have come from one pair of parents and are all extended family (45)
 Went from seeing gods as a natural phenomenon to seeing them as spheres of
administration (46)
 Goddesses Ereshkigal and Ninhursag have been marginalized and stories tell of them
falling under the protection of men (48)
 Creation myth tells of Marduk who overthrew the primordial goddess who created the
world of the divine. Her body becoming the matter shaped by the male warrior god into
the present cosmic order (48)
 Some stories tell of Dumuzi being the reason for the drought and death of nature while
the Sumerian and Akkadian versions view Inanna as the one who initiates the descent of
the natural world, and Dumuzi is her forced surrogate (53)
 Humans were created to serve gods with their labor (54)
 Men and women celebrated Inanna, and her devotees wore transgendered clothes
showing this time of upset of normal boundaries (56)
o This aspect of Inanna’s cult functioned as a temporary relief of class and gender
separations, not a real change in these divisions
Anat in Ugaritic Myth
 Anat is a goddess of war, she defeated enemies of her father and brother (59)
 Saved her brother Baal from the underworld and killed the man who sent him there (60)
 She killed Aquat because he wouldn’t give her his bow and arrow (60)
Isis of Egypt
 She and her sister represented the basis for kingly power, the house in which the pharaoh
was enshrined, the seat upon which he was enthroned (62)
 Wifely and maternal devotion were central to the nature of Isis (62)
 She learned the deepest secrets of the universe and with her power, brought Osiris back to
life (68)
 While men rule as kings and lords, it is the power of goddesses that puts them on their
thrones (68)
Demeter and Persephone of Greece
 Privilege the mother-daughter bond rather than the relation of young goddess and king
(69)
 Persephone is taken to be Pluto’s wife because her father, Zeus, set it up (69)
 The special bond of mother and daughter in the women’s part of the segregated
household must have often been rudely broken by a powerful father giving his daughter
away for marriage (72)
 Demeter withheld fertility. Women in Greek society had as their weapon of last resort the
withholding of their sexuality and fertility (72)
o Tradition credits women stopping the fratricidal Peloponnesian Wars by
withholding sex from men (72)
Foley (193-215)
 Since the decline of the goddess religions, women have lacked religious models and
spiritual systems that speak to women’s needs and experience (195)
  Patriarchal religions and the worship of male deities keep women in a state of
psychological dependency on men and male authority and legitimate the political and
social authority of fathers and sons in the institutions of society (195)
 The worship of goddesses affirms female power, the female body and female sexuality,
female religious insight, female experience, female will and women’s bonds and heritage,
all of which have been suppressed or undermined by patriarchy and patriarchal religions
 We must change the context in which we respond to symbols and the ways in which they
are used…otherwise they will not liberate but oppress (196)
 The worship of goddesses cannot simply be restored, it too must be reimagined if it is to
be seriously revived in a very different cultural context (198)
 Those that participate in goddess cults seek to restore respect for the female body, the life
cycle, and nature, and to challenge the antithetical modes of thought used by patriarchal
culture to marginalize women in her greater association with nature (199)
 The modern cult of the goddess is above all a space special to women (although men are
not formally excluded) in which they can restore themselves a sense of authority and
creativity denied by the mainstream culture (204)
 The ancient cults generally serve to give women a public (if not separate) role in
patriarchal society (204)
 In the Demeter and Persephone myth, the rape of Persephone by Hades is seen as a
patriarchal addition, and some believe she actually chose to spend part of the year in the
underworld due to her concern for the fate of the dead (205)
 What is the link between tasting in the underworld and having to return for part of the
year (Persephone eating a pomegranate seed)
 The acceptance of patriarchy is what permits the two deities (Demeter and Persephone) to
become of transcendent value to humanity (207)
The Academic Study of Religion Video
 Theology: study conducted within a tradition, an investigation of a religion from the
inside (Ex: Christian asking “why does God allow sexism in the world?")
 Academic study of religion (ASR) is not asking questions about the religion from within
like theology
o ASR takes place “one step out” of the theologian box
o Ex: “From Christian perspective, why does God allow suffering in the world?”
o Framing a particular world view and highlighting that it is not just given
 Main difference between theology and the academic study of religion is the tools that
each discipline uses and their goals
o Main goal of theology is to find the true meaning of the universe
o ASR is about understanding different people’s perspectives on the true meaning
of the universe
 Emic perspective: perspective of an insider or a participant in a specific religious
tradition
 Etic perspective: outsiders or observers, people who are “one frame out”
 Goal of ASR is having accessible, shared conversations

Sex and Gender Discrimination Video

 Sex: had to do with physical anatomy of the body, biological fact
 o There is no universal, cross-cultural meaning to physical sex
 Gender: has to do with society interpreting sex as one way or another
o Communicates information far beyond biological sex
 Western culture ascribes gender roles in “two flavors”

WGS Vocabulary Video

 Androcentrism: andro=man/men, centrism=center, a worldview that is centered on men/
has men at the center of the world, men are basic unit of humanity
o “Mankind”, “mailman”
 Misogyny: being “anti-vagina”, being anti-women/ women-hating
o Men and women can be misogynist
 Misandrony: being “man-hating”
 Patriarchy: social system of power built on the rule of the father
 Feminism: System of theory and practice aimed at eliminating gender-based oppression
 Intersectionality: Our multiple identities intersect in complicated ways (race, class,
gender, sexuality, etc.)

Mythology Video
 Myths: narratives (stories) that are held to be sacred and true, it’s not about “real”
o Myths are symbolic, include metaphors, are dream-like, and non-rational
 Myths reveal worldview and give us information about:
o Creation, cosmology (‘model of the universe’), social values, models of behavior
 There are myths in the contemporary world too
 Symbolism is very important in mythology
 Myth complex: core plot line to a kind of story with set characters that can have
variations
o Patterns, similarities and differences, reflect core cultures, Ex: fairytale
 Myths do cultural work

For Week 5
Reuther (73-97)
 “The shaping of the characteristics of the Hebrew God from the time of the judges and
early monarchy to the exile shows a process of convergence in which roles played by
Canaanite gods such as El, Baal, and Asherah, and perhaps Anat, were attributed to
Yahweh” (76)
 “A picture emerged of Yahweh as an omnicompetent deity who brought together in
“himself” most of the roles associated formerly with a pantheon of male and female
deities” (76)
 “Yahweh was male and could take over roles associated with female deities, especially
sexuality and reproduction, only in limited ways” (76)
 Yahweh is never depicted as having a penis or as actively sexual, unlike other male gods
such as Enki or Baal (76)
o He is a warrior who kills but is not vulnerable to death
  Sex and death become realms of the unholy, from which God is separated, and from
which those who worship him must separate themselves in order to come into the
presence of the holy (76)
Genesis 1-3
 3:7: “And the eyes on them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and
they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.”
o Didn’t know they were naked until eating from the tree of good and evil
 3:11: “Who told thee that thou wast naked?”
 3:16: “Unto the woman he (God) said, I will greatly multiply they sorrow and they
conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; any thy desire shall be to they
husband, and he shall rule over thee.”

For Week 6
Lec 1: Gods, Politics, and Plagiarism?
 Anzu myth: Anzu steals the tablets of Destinies from Enlil while he takes a bath. The
tablets allow the owner to alter reality as they see fit
 Three gods refuse to try to retrieve the tablets, but Ninurta agrees. He is defeated once but
wins with the help of Ea
 Anumaa Elish: sea goddess Tiamat creates an army to kill the gods in revenge for
murdering her spouse Opseu
 Two gods are asked to deal with it, but they refused, Marduk agrees to help as long as he
is made king. He defeats Tiamat with no help
 He uses Tiamat’s body and creates the world and Babylon
 Elish poem shows that Marduk is more successful than Ninurta
 Structure: order in the world, some type of chaos for the gods, the gods send
someone to defeat the threat/problem, battle in which the hero is successful and
order is restored
o Difference: Anzu is pre-formed world, restores pre-existing social structure, Enlil
is supreme, Adad, Girra, Shara refuse to help—Ninurta succeeds
o Enuma Elish showed the creation of the world, Marduk creates order, Marduk is
supreme, he was the leader of the world before any diety could claim that. He
claims to be what he was before any other god was there,
o Ea and Anu try and fail, Marduk succeeds—makes Marduk seem like he is so
powerful that he can defeat what others couldn’t
Lec 2: The Bible’s Ancient Near Eastern Context

Lec 4: Mesopotamian and Babylonian Creation stories
 Marduk: god of Babylon, defeats Tiamat to become King of the Gods, takes her course
and creates the earth, sky and universe, creates humanity out of blood of another God and
dirt
 Tiamat: water, chaos, dragon, killed by Marduk
 God/Yahweh: separates the earth from the sky also
 Ninhursag: goddess of wilderness, fertility, and wild vegetation. Complain that she has to
do all the work of food and other responsibilities
 o She creates humans from the dirt under her fingernails to have servants, she
breathes life into them like God breathes life into humanity
 Mesopotamian Creation: gods need servants for farming, buildings, even after death we
work in the underworld
 Religion is a reflection of the developing political situation in Mesopotamia—the king
serves the gods as the people serve the king
Lec 3: Human Gender in Genesis
 Creation is important
o Dichotomy between men and women
o Moral meaning: who is God’s image?, at fault?, moral and sinful?
 Torah, Hebrew Bible, Christian “Old Testament”: the same text
 Two creation stories in Genesis
 Genesis 1: creation of humanity in a single swoop, ‘Adam’ is the name for humanity—
man and woman created in God’s image simultaneously
 Genesis 2: God makes ‘Adam’ (name), then makes animals, then makes woman (Eve)
using Adam’s rib. Eve is below the animals in order of creation, she isn’t made out of
first substance like Adam and the animals were, but made of second substance
Women and Goddesses in Myth and Sacred text
(Agha-Jaffar, Tamara), 194-201
 Early Rabbinic Judaism, or the Judaism of the rabbis, was hostile toward women and
perceived them as inferior creatures whose position was subordinate to that of men (195)

Genesis, creation stories, Lilith notes (2/16/2021)

 Polytheism monotheism = gender problems (Ex: divine marriage and creation)
 Creation stories
o Give strong messages about gender
 Christianity and Judaism: humans ate what God told them not to, so God punishes them
o Differs in what the religions see as the sin in the story
o Judaism, Islam, some forms of Christianity agree that the sin is disobedience
o St. Augustine of Hippo (Christian) says the fruit stands for sexuality, and the
knowledge of good and evil is the knowledge of sexual experience, and Eve got
Adam to have sex (“Original sin”)
o Augustine says “original sin” is inherited because no one is born without sex
 Augustine’s take links women with illicit sexuality
 Original sin
o Sexual passion
o Involuntary erections prove it’s impossible to self-govern, therefore, humans need
God’s strict rules
o Sex for procreation isn’t bad because it allows life, so the only good reason for
sex is to bring life-very narrow idea about what sexuality can look like (no BC,
married men and women, missionary)
 When sex=sin, you get misogyny
o Women are temptresses; female sexuality must be controlled
o “Just-so” story: explains and justifies status quo patriarchy
o Augustine says, original sin transmitted though semen
 Lilith
o Product of midrash (tradition as a community to engage with the scripture to
apply and make sense of it)
o In midrash, if you find a problem or concern, you try to find continuity
o Originally misogynist joke
o Lilith was brought about because people thought if there were two creation
stories, there were two women. Lilith was before Eve-not the mother of humanity
o Lilith and Adam were created both from the substance of God, but Adam thinks
he’s better than Eve (Eve wants to be equal to Adam since they were both in his
image) and they have conflict that comes to a climax when they are about to have
sex
o Lilith wanted to be on top during sex, but Adam won’t let her and Lilith leaves
and says she won’t come back until Adam apologizes and treats her equally
o Lilith and God have a deal that she doesn’t have to be Adams wife, but her
children (demons) will be enemies of Adam and his children-she becomes the
darkness and death
o This leads to God making Adam a new woman-Eve
 Lilith as a nightwitch
o Transcends Judaism
o Starts with Babylonian demon Lamashtu that stalks the night sniffing out
pregnant women and babies to kill/eat
 Harpies: winged, owl-like creatures, night demons, in Greece
 Lamia: snake woman, dangerous, poisonous, in Greece
 Witches, vampires: seen as scary, dangerous, seductresses, Lilith could have influenced
the feelings of those about witches, fears of Lilith and rituals to stay safe from her have
been continued on through other cultures
 Lilith is:
o Personification of lust
o Female demon that sexually attacks men in their sleep (Succubus)
o Puts a female face on sexual transgressions and death of children
o Women are the “Devil’s gateway” to men-women make men vulnerable to sin
o Now, she has been transformed as a feminist symbol