Women's Roles in Ancient Times

Women's Roles in Ancient Times

For years, people have said that since the beginning of civilization our society has been patriarchal. This assumption is wrong. Archeological evidence proves that in the beginnings, the cultures were female-centered, with a creator goddess. Women's roles were valued as more important than men's role specially because they could give birth. Although this is true, no evidence suggests that these cultures had a matriarchal society. In fact, the evidence found supports the idea of a society where men and women worked side by side sharing the labor, with different roles or tasks, but all equally important. This idea declined over time until we got to the point where women were treated as slaves, and societies were completely male-centered. To prove that women did actually have a very important role in the beginnings of times, we will look at evidence from three archeological sites: Paleolithic Europe, the Neolithic "Old Europe" and the Neolithic Catal Huyuk.

First, Paleolithic period in Europe which contains information for the oldest civilization we know up too now, covers the years 40,000 to 10,000 BCE. In this period, people saw the universe as an all giving mother, a very powerful force that gave life. The birth giving process, was looked upon as miraculous in this times, therefore women were venerated for them posses that ability. Evidence to support this theory, can be found in the paintings on the caves discovered in this site. Fist, in these paintings female figures or feminine symbols where always placed in the center, surrounded by the masculine symbols. Also whenever animals' drawings were found in those painting, they were often drawn with big bellies implying pregnancy. E...

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...a society where women took on not only an important role, but perhaps the most important role that of the creator of life. However, as society developed and cultures were born the world changed, and we came upon what we have today. A world, where women not only do not have the important role it had before, but had to fight to get the minimal human rights that any human is entitled to. After generations, today we are able to support the importance of the role of women in the creation of many of the principal societies have been built upon such as agriculture and art. In spite of the many changes through the generations, there is one irrefutable fact that will always ensure the place of women in history, we will always be the giver-of-life. Even if that role has been cast down from that of a Goddess to that of an everyday woman, the miracle of it still remains intact.