Is religion good for women?

[cbayer]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/0/18395819

14 September 2012 Last updated at 12:24
By Bettany Hughes
Historian and Broadcaster


Bettany Hughes wonders why women seem to have been written out of the history of religion


Historian and broadcaster, Bettany Hughes has addressed the BBC RE:Think festival in Media City calling for media coverage of religion to confront controversy head on. Here she asks whether the history of women's role in religion might have important lessons for society today.

Women and the divine have long been intimately linked, but our role in religion has, for thousands of years, been suppressed.

The Venus of Schelklingen, also known as the Venus of Hohle Fels, has been dated back to c 40,000 BC
During filming for my BBC series, Divine Women, the evidence was all around me. Wherever the team went - whether it was Turkey, Greece, China or Italy - we were advised to use the title Women and History. Women and Religion, the original title, was just too incendiary.

For me as a historian this is mind-boggling.

more at link

[tama]

1. Patriarcal cultures

Turkey, Greece, China or Italy. The very concept of 'religion' originates from patriarchal Roman culture. In terms of cultural anthropolology, patriarchy or statism are not the norm of human societies.

[dimbear]

2. The Romans had a good plan, religions for women and religions for men.

Worked fine for a long time, women had important roles in their own religions, then Constantine had other ideas.

It's historically interesting that before the Babylonian captivity, it would appear that the Jews were much more evenhanded, but were lured away toward the patriarchy of Zoroastrianism and other Iranian beliefs. Alas, Jezebel.

That's why icons of Asherah from that earlier period outnumber Yahwist icons many many fold. Also probably the reason the Jews then adapted an aniconic stance.

It would seem.