The Living Goddesses [Paperback]

For those of you who have not had the privilege of an academic career or who are just starting out at University, you might not know that there are fads and fashions in academia just as there are fads and fashions in the other aspects of our lives. When I was an undergraduate, the History Dept. at my University was pretty much run by Marxist Historians. They groomed their students with their favorite concepts and practices and a generation of Marxist Historians was popped out. A few rebelled (some became reactionary, some revolutionary, and some just tried to be objective) and thus, twenty years down the line you have a change in fad and fashion and new schools of thought and modes of methodology take over in the halls of upper learning.

The same thing happens in all realms of study -- remember, all of these examinations and explanations are THEORIES! Even Marija's are theories; however, it is up the individual READER to determine which theory is logical and probable and to make their own choices. Do not surrender to the view of some self appointed arbiter of academia to tell you what is or is not of value.

Now remember, there are fads and fashions in academia. Marija's mode of theory arose from her life experiences (and just to find out a bit about the adventures of this extraordinary woman's extraordinary life is one reason to purchase "Living Goddesses") and the time in which she taught. Marija began teaching in the time of freedom and exploration that arose after W.W.II and in the Sixties. She continued teaching through the Seventies, Eighties and early Nineties. Many of her critics, however, are the products of the reactionary Reagan Era. Marija was not an ill taught or unaccredited scholar. She published twenty books and more than two hundred articles in various languages and taught at the best schools on this planet. She worked on many of the important archaeological digs of this century in many countries. She brought a new and fresh vision to the interpretation of data (which up until her time was nearly always interpreted by male scholars -- we see the world though our upbringing and this DOES matter in how scholars interpret their data). Marija Gimbutas, although she would have blushed at the praise, was a visionary genius.

I say this, even though I do not agree with all of her findings. However, there is enough in her theories to be of great interest and to make you comprehend the History of Western Civilization in a new way. A lot of what Marija theorizes makes incredible sense.

So, I say to you -- take a gamble and decide for yourself. I find that this is an extraordinary volume of work. Miriam Robbins Dexter, Ph.D. has done a wonderful job of condensing and clarifying Marija's life work into this very accessible volume. I think that everyone can get a good grasp of what Marija's theories were, and they are a refreshing breath of crisp clean air, after the thick, mind numbing fog that we have sometimes had to deal with in the halls of academia. Scholarship is supposed to foster new ideas and ways of looking at the world. It is awful to say that I do not think that this is always the case in our society. We are a society that still overvalues conformity; however, would you have your PC at the ready or be surfing the Internet if the conformists had had their way? I think not.

"Living Goddesses" is the final, fittingly comprehensive and approachable volume of Marija's life work. Miriam Robbins Dexter, Ph.D. has done a fantastic job of editing and finalizing the volume which must have been a Herculean task since the author was deceased. It is a gift to the minds of the world who explore, and wish to evaluate learning for themselves. It is a gift to the creative and visionary among us. I thank Marija Gimbutas, wherever she is, for gifting us with her knowledge, insight, and creativity. I also thank Miriam Robbins Dexter, Ph.D., for a wonderful job of tying everything together in an entertaining and enlightening manner. I highly recommend that you purchase a copy of this book and decide its merits for yourself.

Wendilyn Emrys, B.A.

The Kirkus reviewer says it is "bordering on the ridiculous" to assume that the bull could have been a female symbol, that this is Gimbutas' imagination. But then there is artwork remaining from this era with clear pictures of bull skulls with horns drawn over the pelvic areas of women, with the horns positioned where the fallopian tubes would be. This murals are reproduced in the book. Had the reviewer wanted to actually check what the book presented as evidence for this assertion, he or she would have been able to find this mural. Bull skulls painted over the pelvises of women, the symbolism is hard to dismiss.

The critics of Gimbutas either don't read her work or address people who have never read her work themselves.

Seeing the anger and spite towards this body of scholarly work leaves me wondering why is there so much hatred and antagonism towards the work of Gimbutas? Why are there so many irrational and inaccurate criticisms of her body of work?

The Kirkus reviewer was sloppy -- if he or she had bothered to read the book being reviewed, then he or she would have had access to the data that supports Gimbutas' assignment of the bucranium, the head and horns of ther bull, as a uterine symbol.

What kind of fly-by-night operation is Kirkus that they allow such sloppy reviews by someone who will make an attack on a position presented in the book without actually looking at the physical evidence for this position that is decribed and presented and footnoted properly in the book itself?

I am not impressed by the critic of Gimbutas. I haven't seen a criticism that was either accurate or unemotional.