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A review by faunodecetimmolare
The Living Goddesses by Marija Gimbutas
informative
reflective
medium-paced
2.0
Note: I read the Spanish translation of the book (that isn't found in the "other editions" tab)
Since I first found out about Marija Gimbutas on my Introduction to Indoeuropean class in college, I've felt ambivalent about her. I deeply respect the labour and findings she has given to the original Urheimat for indoeuropeans and her work in pre-historical Europe. However, as another reviewer has already pointed out, her views about the Goddess Cult are also very biased (which, to be fair, that has been the case of many male philologist and arqueologist in the not so far past). I find that, in this book, she tends to jump out into conclussions that admit no other interpetation, such as the identification of tombs as a symbolic interpretation of the uterus, the reeds as related to the uterine fluid, and so on. She also seems to paint the matriarchal pre-indoeuropean europe almost as a homogeneous culture, in both religion and symbolisms, neglecting the universalims of some of the behaviours and beliefs, and, more evidently, as a utopian world before the patriarchal indoeuropeans (then, again, i'm in no way deniying the evidently patriarchal and warrior-culture of the indoeuropeans).
However, it is important to note how Gimbuta's work has been a milestone and breaking point for feminist works (even if she didn't really considered her labour as "feminist")
Since I first found out about Marija Gimbutas on my Introduction to Indoeuropean class in college, I've felt ambivalent about her. I deeply respect the labour and findings she has given to the original Urheimat for indoeuropeans and her work in pre-historical Europe. However, as another reviewer has already pointed out, her views about the Goddess Cult are also very biased (which, to be fair, that has been the case of many male philologist and arqueologist in the not so far past). I find that, in this book, she tends to jump out into conclussions that admit no other interpetation, such as the identification of tombs as a symbolic interpretation of the uterus, the reeds as related to the uterine fluid, and so on. She also seems to paint the matriarchal pre-indoeuropean europe almost as a homogeneous culture, in both religion and symbolisms, neglecting the universalims of some of the behaviours and beliefs, and, more evidently, as a utopian world before the patriarchal indoeuropeans (then, again, i'm in no way deniying the evidently patriarchal and warrior-culture of the indoeuropeans).
However, it is important to note how Gimbuta's work has been a milestone and breaking point for feminist works (even if she didn't really considered her labour as "feminist")