Patricia McBroom
Dance of the Deities is here!
"Rich, suggestive, and courageous, the book nearly exploded in my hands. It is loaded with so much: with the author's own journey and the war going on among archaeologists over the goddess. She writes about both with passion and insight, not falling into the trap of romanticizing females as more benevolent than we are. "
-Anne Barstow
Religious historian, author of “Witchcraze” and “Joan of Arc”
"The book’s blend of gender and ancient history with memoir results in a fully unique, well-sourced and stimulating work."
-Critic’s Report, Booklife Prize
Inside Dance of the Deities
Dance of the Deities: Searching for Our Once and Future Egalitarian Society, combines memoir and anthropology, taking the reader on a journey to 10,000 BCE and into the future with psychedelic medicines and new ways of living in cohousing villages.
Patricia argues that for thousands of years, women had a mirror in the sacred realm, as did men. An egalitarian society that balanced the sacred feminine with the sacred masculine was more common. That equality was lost in most of the western world with the rise of patriarchy some 5,000 years ago, as scholars have documented.
Today, evidence of goddess worship in the Neolithic Age is being written out of history books again by a patriarchal backlash in archaeology.
Reflecting on the evidence of the ancient goddess of nature, Dance of the Deities calls for contemporary women to replace comic book images of feminine beauty with authentic earth-based images of female power and authority and to deal with the dark side of the female deity. Patricia McBroom’s own existential quest for understanding the role of the sacred feminine argues that the human future on the planet is dependent on joining the masculine and feminine within a science-based environmental sense of the sacred.
Inanna and Dumuzi in the sacred union; clay tablet.
Circa 2000 to 1600 BCE
Prehistoric Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) and the nearby Levant were the places where humans first settled down during the Neolithic period, leaving massive monoliths at Göbekli Tepe (10,000 BCE) and a sizable town of 4,000 residents at Çatalhöyük (7,000 BCE). Göbekli Tepe is approximately 400 miles from Çatalhöyük.
Images of the Goddess and other prehistoric mysteries
Double-click on the images below to see the full gallery and descriptions of archeological sites and artifacts.
Göbekli Tepe
12,000-14,000 years ago
An archaeological site in southeastern Anatolia ( modern day Turkey), is, at 12,000 years old, the first surviving human construction in the world. It was a place of ritual for neolithic people, and It’s massive monoliths soar to 20 feet, weighing up to ten tons each.
An archaeological site in southeastern Turkey, is, at 12,000 years old, the oldest surviving human construction in the world. It was a place of ritual for neolithic people, and It’s massive monoliths soar to 20 feet, weighing up to ten tons each. A small portion of that has been excavated. Dangerous predators with prominent penises are carved into some monoliths. The blog site for Göbekli Tepe is called “Tepe Telegrams.”
A long human arm stretches down the side of some of the monoliths, while some top cross pieces carry vague, abstract signs of human faces. There is also indication of a loin cloth in the middle of the pillar.
An archaeological site in southeastern Turkey, is, at 12,000 years old, the oldest surviving human construction in the world. It was a place of ritual for neolithic people, and It’s massive monoliths soar to 20 feet, weighing up to ten tons each. A small portion of that has been excavated. Dangerous predators with prominent penises are carved into some monoliths. The blog site for Göbekli Tepe is called “Tepe Telegrams.”
Çatalhöyük
7,000-9,000 years ago
One of the oldest towns in human settlement, in modern-day Southeastern Turkey,
Çatalhöyük dates to 9,000 years ago. It was egalitarian and peaceful for about 1,000 years.
Excavated in the 1960’s by British archaeologist, James Mellaart, Catalhoyuk captured the world’s attention as a place of goddess worship. Mellaart identified the wall relief figure above as a “goddess” There were many of them in the town’s residences. Mellaart called this a relief of a pregnant goddess, "richly painted".
Excavations at Çatalhöyük,abandoned for several years after Mellaart’s work,were resumed in the 90’s by an international team headed by Stanford University. In the decades since, several artifacts identified as “goddesses” by Mellaart have been reclassified, including the plaster relief above, which Stanford archaeologists now identify as a bear.
Hodder himself wonders whether it is a woman at all (it has no genital indicators) Sumo wrestlers have breasts like that, Hodder said in an interview with the author of this book. Front, side and back of stone figurine uncovered in 2016 are shown above.
Excavated in the 1960’s by British archaeologist, James Mellaart, Catalhoyuk captured the world’s attention as a place of goddess worship. Mellaart identified the wall relief figure above as a “goddess” There were many of them in the town’s residences. Mellaart called this a relief of a pregnant goddess, "richly painted".
Old Europe
5,000-8,500 years ago
"Old Europe" refers to neolithic societies that were notably stable and non-violent for untold hundreds of years, without evidence of social stratification.
One of 15 figures that sat in a circle often called Council of the Goddesses. Common features: fat hips and a cylindrical neck Prehistoric Romania, 4200 BCE
A clay figurine from the Cucuteni–Trypillia culture, which lasted almost 3,000 years in what is now Ukraine and Romania, beginning in the 7th millennium BCE. Often called “goddess” figurines or “fetishes,” figures like this could be found sitting in a circle, as though in a council.
Called “stiff nudes” by Gimbutas, figures such as these from the Cycladic Islands in the 3rd millennium BCE suggested themes of death and regeneration. Gimbutas claimed that among the cultures of Old Europe, death never occurred without the concomitant notion of regeneration or rebirth. Archaeologist who have challenged Gimbutas’s theories have called figures like these “dolls,” among other descriptors. But the figures lack defining faces and postures reflect body positions in graves.
One of 15 figures that sat in a circle often called Council of the Goddesses. Common features: fat hips and a cylindrical neck Prehistoric Romania, 4200 BCE
Patricia McBroom
Patricia McBroom is an anthropologist, science journalist, professor of women’s studies and author.
Her 1985 book The Third Sex investigates women adapting to professional roles on Wall Street and was described in a New York Times review as “a brave and stunningly intuitive journey.”
A former science writer at the Philadelphia Inquirer, Patricia earned her degree in anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania and in 1980 published a book on the genetics of behavior. She has taught at Rutger’s University, Mills College, and the University of California at Berkeley.
Her newest work, Dance of the Deities, is a memoir challenging male-biased academic narratives of human culture and evolution, weaving together stories of female authority in egalitarian societies.
reviews
Acclaim for DANCE OF THE DEITIES
Plot/Idea: 9 out of 10
Originality: 10 out of 10
Prose: 9 out of 10
Character/Execution: 10 out of 10
Overall: 9.50 out of 10
Assessment:
Idea: This is a fascinating and unique read that challenges many cultural norms, blending personal narrative, gender studies, and anthropological treatise.
Prose: The writing is clean and professional with astute and engaging prose. McBroom imbues the narrative with warmth while providing an intelligent, academic treatise.
Originality: The book’s blend of gender and ancient history with memoir results in a fully unique, well-sourced, and stimulating work.
Character/Execution: The experience of reading this thoroughly researched book feels akin to auditing collegiate lectures with a charismatic lecturer. The book’s exploration of ancient female deities is expertly connected to modern gender studies through personal narrative.
Blurb: A fascinating anthropological read, tailored to the contemporary, that challenges many cultural norms.
-Critics Report, Booklife Prize, January 2021
"An astute psychological rescue worker among these assimilated individuals, she locates a problem in the victim but does not blame her. She helps her plunge ahead in the male culture without capitulating to its worst aspects.”
“The Third Sex raises far-reaching questions about what practicing feminism means...this fresh, engaging book brings all the frayed ends of gender identity, role changes, corporate life, marriage, child-bearing and parental responsibility together in the context of women’s public and private power…
The Women's Review of Books
Vol. 4, No. 9 (Jun., 1987), pp. 8-9
Early praise for Dance of the Deities
Contact
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"This book has captured the new wave to create a modern-day village brilliantly and succinctly.”
Charles Durrett,
Author of "Creating Cohousing: Building Sustainable Communities," called the “bible” of the cohousing movement by the New York Times
Events
See my column on Medium
August 4, 2023, BARBIE: A WARP DRIVE THROUGH 5,000 YEARS
When I first saw ads for the Barbie movie in that dreadful, saccharine pink, I wanted to vomit. It seemed as if every ounce of rejected feminine behavior from the 1950s had been brought together in one movie to make me sick. Who would want to see that movie, I thought, in this year of 2023? Well, I did — after I found out what the movie really portrays.
Barbie is a masterful portrait of our modern, urgent need to create a gender-equal society. In two hours, Barbie dolls tell a complex, layered story of the rise and fall of patriarchy. It’s a warp drive through 5,000 years of civilization and I sat stunned, unable to move, when it was over.
https://patriciamcbroom.medium.com/barbie-a-warp-drive-through-5-000-years-a4730e7de58
October 26, 2022, TWILIGHT OF THE GODDESS
Flowers painted on walls, young men holding fish, beautiful women collecting saffron to offer to the goddess. That’s what you see when you visit the Minoan remains on the on the islands of Crete and Santorini in the Aegean Sea. It’s a happy vision of an advanced civilization preserved on wall paintings that are more than 3,000 years old.
https://patriciamcbroom.medium.com/twilight-of-the-goddess-47396b663cab
March 25, 2022, LESSONS FROM UKRAINE — AT THE DAWN OF CIVILIZATION
Long before Russia invaded Ukraine this year, warriors from eastern Ukraine and Russia transformed Europe in the 3rd millennium BCE. Before that, Western and Eastern Ukraine were split into very different cultural systems -- egalitarian, female centered cultures in the West and male dominated tribes in the East. The struggle between democracy and autocracy goes back 6,500 years in Ukraine, in very close quarters. See my story at
https://patriciamcbroom.medium.com/lessons-from-ukraine-at-the-dawn-of-civilization-1d0a0c68b436
July 8, 2021, Fifth issue: THE DIRT ON PATRIARCHY
https://patriciamcbroom.medium.com/the-dirt-on-patriarchy-96033ca80a62
May 26, 2021, Fourth issue: TRANSFORMATION IN KURDISTAN
https://patriciamcbroom.medium.com/transformation-in-kurdistan-dfd197c1a1a8
April 13, 2021, Third issue: DANCING WITH THE EARTH
https://patriciamcbroom.medium.com/dancing-with-the-earth-c5456a8e0fa1
March, 2021 Second Issue: A DIVINE VULVA
https://patriciamcbroom.medium.com/patricia-mcbrooms-newsletter-2-c3bbcda31585
February, 2021, First issue: PATRIARCHY'S FIRST VICTIMS
https://patriciamcbroom.medium.com/weekly-newsletter-of-patricia-mc-broom-issue-1-db36f3e75428
Check back for future events
10/22/20 @ 2 pm International Women’s Writers Guild prologue reading.
10/3/20 @ 3 pm PST: Dance of the Deities Book Launch
Have you ever wanted to travel back in time to some distant past in human life? If so, you will want to join me on a virtual journey to 10,000 BC, as I launch my new book: Dance of the Deities: Searching for Our Once and Future Egalitarian Society.
My time machine departs on Saturday, October 3 at 3 pm PST and returns…well, I think it returns, later that day. In the meantime, we will pass through ancient Europe and Turkey in towns of the Neolithic Age, finally reaching an amazing site full of enormous, mysterious monoliths created by people 12,000 years ago, who had not even started to build villages yet.
6/20/20 California Writer's Club: "20 in 20"- CWC Berkeley Book Launch
Patricia McBroom will be one of 20 featured writers to present her newest book, Dance of the Deities. Each author will present or read briefly from their book, and answer one question. Join us for an engaging experience and a list of new books to read during shelter-in-place!