Rejecting the Embrace of the Goddess? Minoan Archaeology and the Divine Feminine

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dc.contributor.author Morris, Christine
dc.date.accessioned 2024-03-08T18:30:06Z
dc.date.available 2024-03-08T18:30:06Z
dc.date.issued 2023-02-11
dc.identifier.citation Morris, Christine "Rejecting the Embrace of the Goddess? Minoan Archaeology and the Divine Feminine." Paper presented at the Shaking the Tree, Breaking the Bough: Frazer's Golden Bough at 100, Melbourne, Australia, February 11, 2023. In New Age Movements, Occultism, and Spiritualism Research Library. Archives and Special Collections. Valdosta State University. Valdosta, GA. https://hdl.handle.net/10428/7089 en_US
dc.identifier.other C2964863-0ADD-B894-4477-874F4176F67B
dc.identifier.uri https://hdl.handle.net/10428/7089
dc.identifier.uri https://youtu.be/U3SC-pMSmoE
dc.description 1 video file. ms150-40-012_morris-christine_rejecting-the-embrace_2023-02-11.mp4 .mp4 1.16 GB 1,248,392,212 en_US
dc.description.abstract This paper is a point of departure from the Cretan Bronze Age ideas about Minoan female divinity strongly shaped by Sir Arthur Evans, excavator of the palace of Knossos. Evans, in turn, was influenced by contemporaries such as James Frazer and, to a greater extent, by Jane Harrison; but - equally importantly - his ideas were shaped by his lived experience: the wider historical, political and intellectual context, for example, conceptualisations of women's bodies, reproduction and motherhood, and the changing political configurations of colonialism, nationhood and war. Study of this intellectual past should not be thought of as an arid scholarly exercise, since through it we can explore Evans' vision of the Minoan divine world and gain a clearer understanding of the influence of his modes of thought on contemporary scholarship. The study of Minoan ritual and religion has, of course, not remained static since Evans; new finds and different approaches have provided opportunities for reframing the Minoan sacred landscape, but at the same time the older or traditional ideas of a Mother Goddess, a focus on fertility, vestiges of matriarchy, and a goddess-son/lover constellation remain part of the conversation. <br> In this paper, Morris proposes to explore and revisit some of Evans's ideas about female deities, touching on several intersecting themes with the aim of disentangling further the labyrinth of Goddess-related ideas which emerged from Evans's work while also paying close attention to key archaeological evidence and considering why it seems resistant to consensus in interpretation. The themes will include consideration of the fluidity and development (even inconsistency) of his ideas which are much less fixed than they are often represented; his conceptualisation of a Mother Goddess in the context of contemporary ideologies of motherhood; and how he explores ideas of monotheism in relation to modern Christian religion, with both of these threads of thought continuing to impact on tendencies to see a Minoan Goddess who is "one" rather than "many." Additional Authors: Shaking the Tree, Breaking the Bough: Frazer's Golden Bough at 100 (Conference); Tully, Caroline Jane; Budin, Stephanie Lynn; University of Melbourne; en_US
dc.format.mimetype video/mp4 en_US
dc.language.iso en_US en_US
dc.publisher Prudence Priest Collection of the New Age Movements, Occultism, and Spiritualism Research Library en_US
dc.relation.ispartofseries MS/150/40/;012
dc.rights Permission to post this digital asset provided by Christine Morris to the Valdosta State University Archives & Special Collections to be part of the New Age Movements, Occultism, and Spiritualism Research Library. en_US
dc.subject Goddesses, Minoan en_US
dc.subject Mother goddesses en_US
dc.subject Evans, Arthur, Sir, 1851-1941--Influence. en_US
dc.subject Frazer, James George, 1854-1941. Golden bough en_US
dc.subject Conference papers and proceedings en_US
dc.subject Literary criticism en_US
dc.subject Video recordings en_US
dc.title Rejecting the Embrace of the Goddess? Minoan Archaeology and the Divine Feminine en_US
dc.title.alternative "Rejecting the Embrace of the Goddess? Minoan Archaeology and the Divine Feminine." Paper presented at the Shaking the Tree, Breaking the Bough: Frazer's Golden Bough at 100, Melbourne, Australia, February 11, 2023 en_US
dc.type Video en_US


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