Jessica Wynn

And that detail gets lost every time the theory gets reused.

So later, Friedrich Engels, the German philosopher and co-author of the Communist Manifesto, he connected the idea of matriarchy to capitalism.

OK, of course.

He argued that the overthrow of what he called mother right, which basically meaning inheritance and family lineage passing through women, was the first major defeat of women.

So he saw matriarchy's disappearance as linked to the rise of private property and class society.

Then in the 1970s and 80s, parts of the feminist spirituality movement reshaped the whole thing into a story about a lost golden age of peace and goddess worship that was violently destroyed by patriarchy.

Yeah, but there's pretty much no evidence this prehistoric matriarchy actually happened.

So the idea circulated widely in feminist organizing.

Gloria Steinem talked about this.

It spread in neo-pagan communities, in academic conferences, and on network television.

So the images of a prehistoric world where women were revered, society was peaceful and ecological, and men hadn't yet ruined everything—

What's interesting is that the most rigorous takedown of this peaceful, matriarchal world narrative comes from a feminist scholar.

Her name's Cynthia Eller.

She wrote a book called The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory, and it's genuinely one of the most carefully argued deconstructions of this cherished belief that I've ever read.

I feel like you're making enemies.

All right.

Sure.

I know people are going to say how anti-feminist I am.

But her core argument is that the evidence offered for prehistoric matriarchy simply doesn't support the claim.

And her evidence is strong.