Battle of the Sexes

Throughout the past few weeks' discussions of THE GREAT GODDESS and her once unchallenged predominance over the cultures from which these myths under inspection once originated, I've been pondering quite a bit about the implication of the transition from the goddess being supreme to the god, and what that says about what human beings view as the great "purpose" of life during that time period... 

In class we learned that a variety of tangible factors played into this transition including change in lifestyle from agricultural means, the installment of a formal military and law, and the introduction to new technology, war tactics, and even deities from conquering cultures; there is no doubt these factors play a major role in the alteration of a civiliation and the way it conveys, conducts, and hopes to maintain itself (a.k.a the myths associated with them), it must adapt to the seemingly more successful techniques of surviving through utilization of these categories that male gods now govern over (military/war, hunting vs gathering, technology of every sort). This transition within the myths of these ancient society depicts the same transition of these societies in their way of life, and if you think about it that's one heck of a change so quickly, to go from growing everything by hand, being one with Mother Earth and appreciating everything it provides for your family, to hunting Mother Earth's fellow children and using them to sustain your own life... quite a drastic transition I should say!

I feel that the shift in focus seen within these myths not only demonstrate how those cultures changed their lifestyle, but how they changed their way of viewing life and its purpose. Myths that asserted the goddess's goverinng dominance rather than the god's, concepts such as sharing the earth and its resources with fellow beings like animals and even gods and cherishing what your "mother" (the earth) has priveledged you with and making the most out of it the life that she herself gave were promoted. Once the god became the predominant being, the focus shifted to asserting dominance over animals and plants, taking as much as you can from the earth while you can (survival of the fittest/natural selection), and seperation from/serving under the gods rather than being more related to them as under the Great Goddess who birthed them all. Although these both can be seen within the very same societies, I venture to call these two different cultures; I propose that while socieites were living in the "goddess" era, the concepts under her reign promoted making the most out of the life you have now, conservation, strive for fulfillment out of the bare minimum, and optimism- in my eyes equivalent to making your own "heaven on earth", not fearing or looking forward death, heaven, or hell because you have already made the most of the moments in your life while you were living, regardless of the existance of any of the above (wow that was a horribly long, run-on sentence, I apologize). Under the reign of the supreme sky god, I believe the expression "balls to the wall" would fit nicely here... haha no but really, societies strove to get things done as fast/effieciently as they could while in the meantime sacrificing their happiness and fellow animals and human beings of the earth in the attempt to acheive happiness sometime in the future. To me this portrays "living" life in preparation for/avoidance of something beyond that - a heaven or a hell - but really they're going through what may be their only time of existence sacrificing their precious moments for or in fear of something beyond that. That's how most of today's society lives their life as well, always for tomorrow and never for today, and because that's today's status quo, its not easy at all on those who don't wish to follow.