1. Early Goddesses Hinduism Greeks Romans Christianity Egypt & Mesopotamia Judaism Islam PREHISTORY See Marianne Ferguson’s Women and Religion, Chapters 1,2,3

2. Pre-History Before written language, our earliest records of religion are found in….. Statues & sculpture Cave paintings Burial grounds Assyrian gate guardian Egypt Bulls in cave art – Spain and France Part human, part animal 12,000 BC oldest grave flowers

3. 20 th century archeological discoveries showed surprising evidence of widespread female religious statues, that were possibly suppressed over time by new male centered religious practices. For a long time, it seemed that male images and deities dominated, so it was assumed religions (and societies) were almost always patriarchal. Do religious images tend to be male or female?

4. Movie Clip Divine Women by Bettany Hughes You may be able to find the movie on You Tube

5. Goddess Worship in Ancient Societies (each explained in Ferguson Chapter 1) Venus of Willendorf Maha Devi IshtarInannaAsherath

6. Goddess Worship in Ancient Societies (each explained in Ferguson Chapter 1) Nut Isis Aphrodite Cybele Mater Magna

8. …oral traditions, stories told of the past. MYTHS Definition: a system of interrelated stories that are meant to reveal the inner meaning of human life and the universe. Myths truths are not historical or scientific. Their truth lies in the wisdom, meaning, values and guidance they provide for each society. These sacred stories are vehicles of passing on these truths from one generation to the next. Are myths true or false? Before written history there were…

9. 5 Functions of Myth (Joseph Campbell) 1.Mystical 2.Social 3.Pedagogical 4.Cosmological 5.Personal/Psychological See movie clip

10. Carl Jung’s Archetypes Archetypes are images we have in our minds, revealed in dreams, that often match the mythic images in religions. These symbols my be part of the human mind as part of a “collective unconscious” that surfaces in similar ways in different religions,