Linguistic problems with patriarchal reconstructions of Indo-European culture: A little more than kin, a little less than kind

Abstract

Synopsis During the past decade, archeologists have unearthed throughout much of southern Europe shrines in which the central object of worship is a female deity. Yet linguists analyzing the vocabulary of Indo-European, the unrecorded language from which most of the languages of Europe and Northern India descend, contend that the reconstructed vocabulary of Indo European points to a patriarchal culture with a patriarchal religion. Investigating their analyses of the terminology of kinship and religion in Indo-European languages, however, we find many ‘anomalies’ suggesting the presence of a matrilineal, matriarchal substratum in Europe and India. Linguistic treatments within a patriarchal perspective appear to overlook or dismiss any data which points toward female power and influence in the development of our culture, but such data do exist, providing evidence that women's current position as the ‘second sex’ is by no means biologically-determined.