preview

Women's Role In Neolithic Society

Decent Essays
Open Document

Rob Revercomb
The Evolving Role of Women in Neolithic Societies

The role of women in society changed greatly as the Neolithic time period began. While still in the hunter-gatherer time period women and men were considered equal. As time progressed women began to do less physical work and subsequently started having reduced rights. Some examples of this are shown in recovered artifacts, such as sculptures depicting a women and a man. One of these is the sculpture of Raherka, who was male and Mersankh, who was female with Mersankh depicted standing behind and holding onto Raherka. This shows a dependency on the man, and communicates that the women of that time period were usually not the head of the household. There are many different reasons for the diminishing status of women in society. These include harder manual work, the need for warriors to defend their villages, men ensuring …show more content…

This was only realized as farmers watched animals throughout the day, and discovered the truth about childbirth. This newfound information caused men to fear that his offspring could have been produced by another man. The sudden want to ensure that your inheritance was going to your own bloodline caused men to keep their wives in their home to limit her exposure to other men. Women, being locked in their homes, were beginning to be treated more like property than people. The religious role of women changed during this time period, as well. One example of this is the gradual reassignment of goddesses from heroic status to goddesses of the home and fertility. They were also viewed as goddesses of passive things such as wisdom and creativity. This is opposed to the male gods who often represented more aggressive things such as power and war. These representations of women being the submissive, docile gender were just another reason that women lost the respect they had

Get Access