{"id":2555,"date":"2011-04-16T09:28:00","date_gmt":"2011-04-16T15:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2555"},"modified":"2011-04-16T09:38:48","modified_gmt":"2011-04-16T15:38:48","slug":"unearthing-matriarchy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2555","title":{"rendered":"“Unearthing Matriarchy”"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Innovations<\/em> group blog at the Chronicle of Higher Education <\/em>has a post titled “Unearthing Matriarchy<\/a>,” about how the myth of peaceful ancient matriarchies became firmly entrenched (for a time) in Academia, in a way that biblical literalism never could\u2014outside of a denominational college.<\/p>\n

Writer Peter Wood points out that while someone who believed openly in literal seven-day creation of the Earth would have a hard time getting hired as a biology professor\u2014and rightly so, in his opinion\u2014a literal believer in the theories of Marija Gimbutas<\/a> would have no such problem getting a job in a women’s studies department.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t expect that to happen anytime soon, but it is a useful thought experiment. Why won\u2019t higher education hold women\u2019s studies to ordinary standards of historical accuracy? Because contemporary American higher education cares far more about protecting its favored group of political ideologies than it does its standards of rational inquiry and scrupulous use of evidence. The standards are cited most conspicuously when they lend themselves to fencing off members of disfavored groups. Why is higher education having such a hard time these days attracting public support? A good part of the reason is that it is so self-indulgent.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Maybe so.\u00a0 Also, serious peaceful ancient matriarch-ists are tiny in numbers compared to biblical creationists. They do not turn up in state legislatures trying to thwart the teaching of evolution and the choice of school textbooks. They are invisible to the news media.\u00a0 Having little political power outside Academia and para-Academia, they are treated more gently within its walls.<\/p>\n

(Via Prof. Reynolds<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Innovations group blog at the Chronicle of Higher Education has a post titled “Unearthing Matriarchy,” about how the myth of peaceful ancient matriarchies became firmly entrenched (for a time) in Academia, in a way that biblical literalism never could\u2014outside of a denominational college. Writer Peter Wood points out that while someone who believed openly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[137],"class_list":["post-2555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-academia"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-Fd","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3098,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3098","url_meta":{"origin":2555,"position":0},"title":"How not to Argue for Matriarchy","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 20, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Thealogian Carol Christ shows you how not to do it at the Feminism and Religion blog. First, create a \"straw man\" argument that lets you be the\u00a0 heroic rebel: [T]he \u201cparty line\u201d in the fields of Religious Studies and Archaeology\u2014even among feminists\u2014is that there never were any matriarchies and that\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3098#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":660,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=660","url_meta":{"origin":2555,"position":1},"title":"My Contribution to Reality TV","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 6, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"M. and I watched the PBS living-history show Texas Ranch House, which turned into \"MacBeth in West Texas,\" as several bloggers noted. I guess that means that the three Comanches were the three witches. Afterwards, M. was critiquing some of the gender stereotyping that went on, although to be congruent\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11680,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11680","url_meta":{"origin":2555,"position":2},"title":"Call for Papers: Fairies and Gothic Literature and Culture","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 11, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Fairies and fashion\" as a suggested topic? Someone must have seen my \"Dior Dresses the Fair Folk\" post! Seriously, there are some fascinating topics under potential consideration for this conference: Call for papers: Gothic encounters with enchantment and the Faerie realm in literature and culture University of Hertfordshire, 8\u201310 April\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"academia\"","block_context":{"text":"academia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=academia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2585,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2585","url_meta":{"origin":2555,"position":3},"title":"The Higher-Ed Bubble","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 24, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Talk of the \"higher-education bubble\" seems to be increasing. This short article from a North Carolina-based think tank\u00a0 pretty well sums it up: Like the nation\u2019s housing bubble, which eventually burst, the college bubble is caused by a number of factors. But the biggest force is, as my colleague George\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"academia\"","block_context":{"text":"academia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=academia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4572,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4572","url_meta":{"origin":2555,"position":4},"title":"Some Snapshots of the Shifts in Higher Ed","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 26, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"A cluster of related articles on higher education. 1. From Washington Monthly: why states are funding higher ed less. State support comes out of taxes. When the economy goes bad, states collect less money in taxes. States, however, are legally required to fund certain things. Pension plans, for instance, are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"education\"","block_context":{"text":"education","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=education"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2244,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2244","url_meta":{"origin":2555,"position":5},"title":"Wendy Griffin Named Cherry Hill Dean","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 31, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Cherry Hill Seminary has named Wendy Griffin of California State University, Long Beach as its new academic dean. They made a good choice. I have worked with Wendy for several years on\u00a0 the American Academy of Religion's Contemporary Pagan Studies steering committee, which she co-chaired from 2005-10. She and I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"education\"","block_context":{"text":"education","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=education"},"img":{"alt_text":"Wendy Griffin","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/WendyGriffinAAR2-119x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2555"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2558,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2555\/revisions\/2558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}