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The Mediterranean Matriarchate

Its Primordial Character in the Religious Atmosphere of the Paleolithic Era

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

Uberto Pestalozza
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I wish to make it clear that this article will not be concerned with a general theory of the matriarchate. I have limited myself to a clearly defined cultural zone, from which I think that the hypothesis of a primitive matriarchal society cannot be rejected on the debatable grounds (recently stated), that the matriarchate could not have been established until after the discovery of agriculture. If in fact the matriarchate cannot legitimately be separated from the divine cult of the Mother, this in itself presupposes a matriarchal constitution, not political and military save for exceptions, but based simply on feminine authority and prestige. On the other hand, ethnologists and historians of religion tell us that the great goddesses are not born of agricultural civilizations, which merely provide them with conditions particularly favorable to their development. They exist before these civilizations and are worshipped by peoples who live solely by hunting, fishing, and the rudimentary gathering of products from still virgin land.

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 3 , Issue 12 , September 1955 , pp. 50 - 61
Copyright
Copyright © 1955 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

References

1. M. Eliade, La Terre Mère et les Hiérogamies cosmiques (Zurich, 1954), p. 82. Cf. with p. 77 and pp. 65-66.

2. U. Pestalozza, Religione Mediterranea (Milan, 1951), Preludio.

3. "There is in them (women) something which disturbs man and before which he feels himself disarmed." L. Lévy-Bruhl, Le Surnaturel et la Nature, p. 387.

4. J. Déchelette, Archéologie préhistorique (Paris, Picard, 1912), Chaps. VI to X (especially IX-X). See also C. Maviglia, Le Civiltà Paleolitiche (Milan, 1955).

5. Hoernes-Menghin, Urgeschichte der bildenden Kunst in Europe (Vienna, Schroll, 1925), pp. 121, 163, 165, 167.

6. J. Déchelette, op. cit., p. 215. Hoernes-Menghin, op. cit., p. 165.

7. See, for example, B. Malinowski, The Sexual Life of the Savages in Northwestern Mel anesia (New York, Halcyon, 1929), p. 179 ff.

8. B. Spencer and J. J. Gillem, The Native Tribes of Central Australia (London and New York, Macmillan, 1889), Chaps. IV-V.

9. M. Eliade, op. cit., pp. 66-67.

10. J. Déchelette, op. cit., p. 223, fig. 2.

11. C. Hentze, Mythes et Symboles lunaires (Anvers, 1932), pp. 46-47, figs. 6 and 7.

12. U. Pestalozza, op. cit., pp. 34, 57, 64, 298, 300-301.

13. C. Hentze, op. cit., pp. 124, 125, fig. 117; p. 121, fig. 113; p. 96, figs. 74-76; p. 99, fig. 82; p. 78, fig. 48; p. 116, pl. VI; p. 80, fig. 52; p. 81, figs. 54-55; p. 134, fig. 130; p. 78, fig. 50 (cf. Anthropos, Band IX, 1914, Hf. 5-6, p. 971, fig. 30); p. 77, fig. 46; Anthropos (same year), p. 976, fig. 43.

14. W. Hahland, Neue Denkmäler des attischen Heroen und Totenkultes, dans Festschrift für Friedrich Zucker (Berlin, 1954), Taf. 9, Abb. 4; Taf. II, Abb. 7; Taf. 12, Abb. 9; Taf. 13, Abb. 10; Taf. 16, Abb. 12; Taf. 19, Abb. 17.

15. C. Hentze, op. cit., pp. 128-130, figs. 121-128; Morris Jastrow, Jr., Bildermappe zur Religion Babyloniens und Assyriens, Nrr. 193, 198, 220, 223; 41, 14; 43, 8; 45, 3.

16. Glory, Sanz Martinez, Neukirch, Georgeot, Les peintures de l'âge du métal en France méridionale in Préhistoire, tome X, 1948, pp. 7-122; p. 9, fig. 2; p. 66; p. 88, fig. 18; p. 95, fig. 76; p. 96 (also p. 66); pp. 113-114.

17. F. J. Dölger, Der heilige Fisch, etc. (Münster im Westf., 1922), p. 186 (in a hymn to Ishtar-Tamuz).

18. U. Pestalozza, op. cit., pp. 18-19; 41-42; 66-67; 70.

19. Cantique des Cantiques, IV, 13 ff., VII, 2; P. Haupt. Biblische Liebeslieder (Leipzig, 1907), p. 90, nn. 35, 36; p. 34 ff., n. 20; U. Pestalozza, op. cit., p. 13, pp. 20-22. For the Paleolithic flora, see H. Obermaier, Diluvialfloria, in the Lexikon der Vorgeschichte (Berlin, 1924), II, pp. 414-419.

20. U. Pestalozza, op. cit., p. 16 ff., p. 223, p. 270 ff.

21. U. Pestalozza, Pagine di Religione Mediterranea (Milan, 1945), pp. 69-70; Religione Mediterranea, p. 231.

22. C. G. Seligmann, The Melanesians of British New Guinea (Cambridge, 1910), pp. 379-380; P. Hambruch, Südseemaerchen (Jena, 1931), p. 68.

23. Pliny, Natural History XXVIII, 39. See J. G. Frazer, Lectures on the Early History of the Kingship (London, Macmillan, 1905), p. 221. See also pp. 218-220. For real hearths with re mains of burnt wood from the upper Paleolithic, see C. Maviglia, La Cività Paleolitiche, p. 28.

24. J. Przyluski, La Participation (Paris, Alcan, 1940), pp. 3-4; U. Pestalozza, Religione Mediterranea, p. 15.

25. See M. Eliade, op. cit., pp. 31 ff.

26. Ch. Picard, Ephèse et Claros (Paris, Boccard, 1922), p. 449.

27. Momolina Marconi, Riflessi mediterranei nella più antica religione laziale (Milan, 1939), p. 103.

28. J. G. Frazer, op. cit., pp. 239 ff.

29. U. Pestalozza, op. cit., pp. 37-38. See also the Preludio.

30. R. Briffault, The Mothers (London, 1952), Vol. I, pp. 388-414. See also V. Bertoldi, Onomastica Iberica e Matriarcato Mediterraneo. Reprinted from Revista Portuguesa de Filologia, Vol. II (Coimbra, 1948).

31. In Eranos-Jahrbuch 1953, Vd. XXII (Zurich, 1954), pp. 359-360.

32. Op. cit., p. 361.