The Creation of Patriarchy (Women and History; V. 1) ISBN-13: 9780195051858

ISBN-13: 9780195051858

Binding: Paperback

model number: halftones

Author: Lerner, Gerda

Details: A major new work by a leading historian and pioneer in womens studies, The Creation of Patriarchy is a radical reconceptualization of Western civilization that makes gender central to its analysis. Gerda Lerner argues that male dominance over women is not “natural” or biological, but the product of an historical development begun in the second millennium B.C. in the Ancient Near East. As patriarchy as a system of organizing society was established historically, she contends, it can also be ended by the historical process.

Focusing on the contradiction between womens central role in creating society and their marginality in the meaning-giving process of definition and interpretation, Lerner explores such fascinating questions as: What can account for womens exclusion from the historical process? What could explain the long delay–more than 3,500 years–in womens coming to consciousness of their own subordinate position? She goes back to the cultures of the earliest known civilizations–those of the ancient Near East–to discover the origins of the major gender metaphors of Western civilization. Using historical, literary, archaeological, and artistic evidence, she then traces the development of these ideas, symbols, and metaphors and their incorporation into Western civilization as the basis of patriarchal gender relations.

Release Date: 22-10-1987

Package Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches

Languages: English

Part Number: halftones

Edition: Revised ed.

Number Of Pages: 368