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Date Posted: 08:32:27 01/26/02 Sat
Author: sarah
Subject: Re: Yasmin Greer the rest of the uterus crew
In reply to: Tyrone 's message, "Re: Yasmin Greer the rest of the uterus crew" on 07:03:53 01/26/02 Sat

Thank you Tyrone for writing something so interesting for me to respond to (although no comment as yet about Germaine Greer). I have to say i was completely ignorent about the Eve's precursor 'Lilith', I would very grateful if you could recommend any literature on her or on the origin of this 'myth'.

My response will be based on my agnostic assumption that religious stories are myths in the sense that they dont relate true life but express a particular ideology of a particular ruling social group. please feel free to be critical of this assumption (I am agnostic afterall).

Thanks to Yasmin's kind christmas present I've learnt a little about the relationship between patriarchy and mono-theism, and obviously matriarchy with goddess worship. The general consensus with archeologists is that Goddess worship precipitated, and to an extent was the precurser of monotheism (one male god). This ideological transition occured from about 1700BC and was charcterised by the military strength of the monotheists, who as a result were able to impel the essentially peace-loving goddess worshippers (the amazons are the only exception I can think of) to revoke and modify their beliefs (much like slave owners in the Americas did to their African slaves in the C18th). Popular goddess myths were subverted for the purpose of ideological control. We can see this in christianity (Mary, mother of Jesus who typified the connection of virgin and mother goes back to primative culture).

What I am trying to emphasise is the fact that religious stories are as much the word of Man and politician as they are of God. As such I question your argument that God wanted woman to be inferior and submissive to man. If this were true, why were women worshipped as sacred objects for their magical reproductive power for so long?

With social changes come changes in religious ideology. As a result, you cannot depend upon religion to give a definitive answer to the 'Gender Question'. I concede that in the past maybe it was necessary for women to be first and formost defined by their reproductive role, but in a modern age surely this is now redundent? I believe that the changes that are now happening to the lives and perceptions of women will allow them to be man's equal, and this is the most healthiest relationship for both man and woman. Women are not inherently inferior to man, reality is a construction of society.

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