1. t0 15,000 Before gendered constructs
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Paleo-anthropologists can track human evolution and migration in prehistory using the remains of women, which have provided some of the most important breakthroughs in our understanding of the past. There is great variation between hunter gatherer groups and the gender dynamics that emerged.
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Human evolution took FOREVER, like 6 million years, but eventually the humans we are today emerged from our apelike ancestors. Hominids, as we were known, evolved in stages. Originally people assumed that evolution was linear, one stage morphing into another, but discoveries by paleoanthropologists over the last century have shed incredible light on our prehistoric past. The real breakthrough with evolution came in 1974, with the discovery of Lucy, a Australopithecus, a hominid ancestor, who likely lived around 3 million years ago! Historians have stated, “No other set of hominid remains found before or after is as renowned as ‘Lucy’.” This was the first complete hominid ancestor– and it was a FEMALE!
Lucy was found in fragments in the mountains of Ethiopia by a team of white, male researchers who were apparently rocking out to the Beatles song– Lucy. Lucy was short in stature for a full grown female, standing only 3.5 feet tall and her arm-to-leg ratio was much more ape-like than human. Her skull was quite a bit different from ours as well and with their small cranial capacity, this group of hominids likely could not think and conceptualize the world in the same ways we do.
Her discovery helped to challenge accepted theories of evolution. Her discoverer asserted that her remains were evidence that the human ancestral tree was less linear than the diagrams of evolution usually portray. The human tree was more like a bush with lots of different branches that occurred at the same time. Neanderthals, for example, lived at the same time as other hominid groups and interbred with them. Decades later, more evidence came to light that confirmed this hypothesis, including the Dikika child, who people refer to as Lucy's baby, although of course they probably lived thousands of years apart. If we got this wrong, what else have historians gotten wrong? If an erroneous family tree falls out of our history, does it make a sound?
Evolution: Human evolution is challenging to reconstruct. We know that slowly humans evolved to have larger brains and a frontal lobe allowing us to manage complex ideas and plan for the future. We also began walking upright, which required our human ancestors to develop a big toe, more flared hips to support our abdomen and upper bodies, and the S-curve in our spines- hence all the back problems! This illustrates that there has perhaps been too much discussion of the benefits of how we evolved and not enough attention to the challenges our advantageous traits have produced. For example, the massive human brains that make us such a smart species, despite the existence of flat earthers, which seems to contradict this, would have also made birth impossible. Women developed even wider hips and gave birth three months too early in order to be able to birth our big brains from the small female pelvis: this helps to explain colic and babies desire to be swaddled in that early period of their life. Which development came first; the wider pelvis or the larger brain is difficult to discern. Hopefully, it was the pelvis. Ouch!
Lucy was found in fragments in the mountains of Ethiopia by a team of white, male researchers who were apparently rocking out to the Beatles song– Lucy. Lucy was short in stature for a full grown female, standing only 3.5 feet tall and her arm-to-leg ratio was much more ape-like than human. Her skull was quite a bit different from ours as well and with their small cranial capacity, this group of hominids likely could not think and conceptualize the world in the same ways we do.
Her discovery helped to challenge accepted theories of evolution. Her discoverer asserted that her remains were evidence that the human ancestral tree was less linear than the diagrams of evolution usually portray. The human tree was more like a bush with lots of different branches that occurred at the same time. Neanderthals, for example, lived at the same time as other hominid groups and interbred with them. Decades later, more evidence came to light that confirmed this hypothesis, including the Dikika child, who people refer to as Lucy's baby, although of course they probably lived thousands of years apart. If we got this wrong, what else have historians gotten wrong? If an erroneous family tree falls out of our history, does it make a sound?
Evolution: Human evolution is challenging to reconstruct. We know that slowly humans evolved to have larger brains and a frontal lobe allowing us to manage complex ideas and plan for the future. We also began walking upright, which required our human ancestors to develop a big toe, more flared hips to support our abdomen and upper bodies, and the S-curve in our spines- hence all the back problems! This illustrates that there has perhaps been too much discussion of the benefits of how we evolved and not enough attention to the challenges our advantageous traits have produced. For example, the massive human brains that make us such a smart species, despite the existence of flat earthers, which seems to contradict this, would have also made birth impossible. Women developed even wider hips and gave birth three months too early in order to be able to birth our big brains from the small female pelvis: this helps to explain colic and babies desire to be swaddled in that early period of their life. Which development came first; the wider pelvis or the larger brain is difficult to discern. Hopefully, it was the pelvis. Ouch!
Venus Figurine, Wikimedia Commons
Migration: One of the biggest areas for improvement was our knowledge of human migration and its dates, again it is women, or rather their likeness, that helps illuminate this history. Only about 1.8 million years ago did humans begin to traverse the globe. Humans made their way into Southwest Asia, or the Middle East and Europe. 20,000 years ago an Ice Age pushed most of those peoples into southern and warmer regions. It is from those peoples that we learn the most about human beings as they recorded it in various cave paintings and in discovered graves. In eastern Europe, as early as 35,000 years ago there is evidence of more permanent settlements, which included numerous female sculptures known as Venus figurines depicting the female body with exaggerated bodily features. We have no idea how these figures were used… were they worshiped? Were they sex objects? It’s hard to know.
This was perhaps before gendered constructs (and no, we don’t mean anatomically correct robots!). One of the ways we know where groups migrated is the presence of women because they made it possible for the species to regenerate and make a mark there. Human migration made it all the way to Australia through the networks of islands in Indonesia as early as 60,000 years ago. In Australia an elaborate rock painting done by Aboriginal Australians showed a God of creation known as lightning man (no, not Usain Bolt!) with his smaller wife etched below him with exaggerated breasts and genitalia. Humans made it to the Americas somewhere around 15,000 years ago, and it is believed that this occurred in numerous different migrations over land, ice, and sea. These early Americans were known as the Paleoindians, who were followed by another group called the Clovis people. The Clovis culture abruptly disappeared 11,000 years ago.
The discovery in 2007 of an ancient teenage-girl’s remains in an underwater cave in Yucatan, Mexico, exemplifies the antiquity of female presence in this continent. Named by archeologists “Naia”, her remains are estimated to be 12,000-13,000-years-old. She had a hard life full of malnutrition and an early pregnancy.
This was perhaps before gendered constructs (and no, we don’t mean anatomically correct robots!). One of the ways we know where groups migrated is the presence of women because they made it possible for the species to regenerate and make a mark there. Human migration made it all the way to Australia through the networks of islands in Indonesia as early as 60,000 years ago. In Australia an elaborate rock painting done by Aboriginal Australians showed a God of creation known as lightning man (no, not Usain Bolt!) with his smaller wife etched below him with exaggerated breasts and genitalia. Humans made it to the Americas somewhere around 15,000 years ago, and it is believed that this occurred in numerous different migrations over land, ice, and sea. These early Americans were known as the Paleoindians, who were followed by another group called the Clovis people. The Clovis culture abruptly disappeared 11,000 years ago.
The discovery in 2007 of an ancient teenage-girl’s remains in an underwater cave in Yucatan, Mexico, exemplifies the antiquity of female presence in this continent. Named by archeologists “Naia”, her remains are estimated to be 12,000-13,000-years-old. She had a hard life full of malnutrition and an early pregnancy.
Naia, Public Domain
Prehistoric Clan, Public Domain
The final thrust of human migration was into the Pacific Ocean and probably only occurred about 3500 years ago. Interestingly, both men and women traveled to these newly discovered Pacific Islands clearly indicating the intention of settling.
Hunter Gatherer Culture: 95 percent of human history occurred before “history” was recorded. These early hunter gatherer peoples lived mostly in small, deeply personal, bands of 25 to 50 people. At some points in the year when food was plentiful these bands would gather together into even larger groups of hundreds of people. At these major events marriages were formed, and crucial information was shared. Otherwise these groups moved frequently to follow sources of food and maintained very few possessions as a result. Women also bore fewer surviving children because of the constant movement and limited food supply. They also breastfed their children longer, sometimes up to five years, to help space out births as breastfeeding can sometimes prevent pregnancy– but don’t try that at home!
Across the world, there was tremendous variation in the cultures that developed. Because of the lack of any formal, lasting bureaucratic structure in most places, there was also less hierarchy in hunter gatherer culture. Men and women were thus a bit freer than their agricultural descendants and got more free time in their day. Men and women honed a variety of skills, and worked altruistically for the good of the group. Roles and tasks were often differentiated by gender.
Despite the fairer social structure, this was by no means a golden age for women. Food was often scarce. In Africa and Eurasia Women, children and the elderly likely provided the majority of the sustenance through their gathering. There’s evidence that up to 70% of the diet of these early peoples came from plants, while meat accounted for only 30%.There is also zero evidence of the existence of tacos at this time. Can you imagine? So women were basically crushing it– or being taken advantage of… hard to say.
One interesting finding in a 1999 anthropological study of modern foraging groups is that grandmothers can actually help improve the evolutionary fitness of a tribe, as well as her own lifespan, by assuming responsibility for feeding weaned babies and allowing the young mother to produce more offspring. They call this the “grandmother hypothesis.”
There is no evidence that among these early peoples much of the modern misogyny facing women existed. Although it’s hard to know, there is little evidence of rape, domestic abuse, or emphasis on female virginity, staples of almost every society following this era. In the 1700s when Captain James Cook first encountered the aboriginal people in Australia, he wrote about their tranquility and egalitarian culture. Just decades later when other Europeans followed him to Australia, they found a highly toxic masculine culture that resulted in brutal domestic abuse. Has something changed in those 20 years by the introduction of patriarchal Europe? Or had this always existed and been lost to the record?
End of the Ice Age: As the Ice Age came to an end between 16,000 and 10,000 years ago natural global warming allowed for diverse plants and animals to flourish and provide a more rich human quality of life. As well as providing the basis for several very successful animated movies. Humans began to settle along river valleys and began a long transition to agriculture. Many have seen this transition as a positive one, but for women there were some unforeseen consequences.
Historian Jared Diamond in his once-controversial article, “The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race” argued that the invention of agriculture had a horrible impact on human health and led to class differences and the rise of elites, along with sex discrimination. Yup, he said it.
Some feminist historians go so far as to claim that in these hunter-gatherer societies gender relations were reversed. The theory rests its case on our prehistoric ancestors understanding of cause and effect. The theory goes that women held spiritual status in society as magical creatures that bring about life, because, the theory purports, our ancestors didn’t understand the role men played in creating life. The creation stories that survive and portray female pagan goddesses in all their sexualized glory may be evidence of this.
But this theory is pretty dated and the evidence is not widely accepted, and historians, including female historians, doubt this “revision” of history. In the following section we will explore this academic debate to more deeply understand the challenges of prehistory and also to see how the biases of our more egalitarian time can impact our reading of historical events.
By the end of this era, so much remained in question. How reliable are oral traditions recorded centuries or millennia after they were first told as evidence of prehistoric culture? Isn’t that just a thousands-of-years-old game of telephone? Would humans roam the earth forever? How would agriculture impact gender dynamics in the centuries to come?
Hunter Gatherer Culture: 95 percent of human history occurred before “history” was recorded. These early hunter gatherer peoples lived mostly in small, deeply personal, bands of 25 to 50 people. At some points in the year when food was plentiful these bands would gather together into even larger groups of hundreds of people. At these major events marriages were formed, and crucial information was shared. Otherwise these groups moved frequently to follow sources of food and maintained very few possessions as a result. Women also bore fewer surviving children because of the constant movement and limited food supply. They also breastfed their children longer, sometimes up to five years, to help space out births as breastfeeding can sometimes prevent pregnancy– but don’t try that at home!
Across the world, there was tremendous variation in the cultures that developed. Because of the lack of any formal, lasting bureaucratic structure in most places, there was also less hierarchy in hunter gatherer culture. Men and women were thus a bit freer than their agricultural descendants and got more free time in their day. Men and women honed a variety of skills, and worked altruistically for the good of the group. Roles and tasks were often differentiated by gender.
Despite the fairer social structure, this was by no means a golden age for women. Food was often scarce. In Africa and Eurasia Women, children and the elderly likely provided the majority of the sustenance through their gathering. There’s evidence that up to 70% of the diet of these early peoples came from plants, while meat accounted for only 30%.There is also zero evidence of the existence of tacos at this time. Can you imagine? So women were basically crushing it– or being taken advantage of… hard to say.
One interesting finding in a 1999 anthropological study of modern foraging groups is that grandmothers can actually help improve the evolutionary fitness of a tribe, as well as her own lifespan, by assuming responsibility for feeding weaned babies and allowing the young mother to produce more offspring. They call this the “grandmother hypothesis.”
There is no evidence that among these early peoples much of the modern misogyny facing women existed. Although it’s hard to know, there is little evidence of rape, domestic abuse, or emphasis on female virginity, staples of almost every society following this era. In the 1700s when Captain James Cook first encountered the aboriginal people in Australia, he wrote about their tranquility and egalitarian culture. Just decades later when other Europeans followed him to Australia, they found a highly toxic masculine culture that resulted in brutal domestic abuse. Has something changed in those 20 years by the introduction of patriarchal Europe? Or had this always existed and been lost to the record?
End of the Ice Age: As the Ice Age came to an end between 16,000 and 10,000 years ago natural global warming allowed for diverse plants and animals to flourish and provide a more rich human quality of life. As well as providing the basis for several very successful animated movies. Humans began to settle along river valleys and began a long transition to agriculture. Many have seen this transition as a positive one, but for women there were some unforeseen consequences.
Historian Jared Diamond in his once-controversial article, “The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race” argued that the invention of agriculture had a horrible impact on human health and led to class differences and the rise of elites, along with sex discrimination. Yup, he said it.
Some feminist historians go so far as to claim that in these hunter-gatherer societies gender relations were reversed. The theory rests its case on our prehistoric ancestors understanding of cause and effect. The theory goes that women held spiritual status in society as magical creatures that bring about life, because, the theory purports, our ancestors didn’t understand the role men played in creating life. The creation stories that survive and portray female pagan goddesses in all their sexualized glory may be evidence of this.
But this theory is pretty dated and the evidence is not widely accepted, and historians, including female historians, doubt this “revision” of history. In the following section we will explore this academic debate to more deeply understand the challenges of prehistory and also to see how the biases of our more egalitarian time can impact our reading of historical events.
By the end of this era, so much remained in question. How reliable are oral traditions recorded centuries or millennia after they were first told as evidence of prehistoric culture? Isn’t that just a thousands-of-years-old game of telephone? Would humans roam the earth forever? How would agriculture impact gender dynamics in the centuries to come?
Draw your own conclusions
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Learn how to teach with inquiry.
Many of these lesson plans were sponsored in part by the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources Eastern Region Program, coordinated by Waynesburg University, the History and Social Studies Education Faculty at Plymouth State University, and the Patrons of the Remedial Herstory Project. |
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Venus Figurine, Wikimedia Commons
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Was there a Great Goddess?
Some people believe in a divine feminine, worship goddesses, and some believe that before the father God, there was a great, mother Goddess. Was there? To answer this question, student will read conflicting accounts from two women historians: Rosalind Miles and Cynthia Eller and decide for themselves based on the evidence provided. 
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"The Fall of Man." Wikimedia Commons
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What do origin stories say about the role of women?
To answer this question students will read origin stories from cultures around the world. Students will consider the ways that gender is represented and the long term impacts the messages contained within these myths can have on a culture.
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Wikimedia Commons
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Are Hindu Goddesses feminist icons or stereotypical tropes?
In this inquiry, students will examine diverse sources related to ancient Hindu goddesses and determine how these goddesses are portrayed and if that portrayal is empowering to women and how different genders may perceive this portrayal.
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Lesson Plans from Other Organizations
- This website, Women in World History has primary source based lesson plans on women's history in a whole range of topics. Some are free while others have a cost.
- The Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media has produced recommendations for teaching women's history with primary sources and provided a collection of sources for world history. Check them out!
- The Stanford History Education Group has a number of lesson plans about women in World History.
Kojiki- Record of ancient things
This story is from the Kojiki, the Japanese "Record of Ancient Things". This story was among many that were recorded between 500-700CE to preserve the ancient traditions. The following story is the closest to a creation story there is in this text.
When heaven and earth began, three deities came into being, The Spirit Master of the Center of Heaven, The August Wondrously Producing Spirit, and the Divine Wondrously Producing Ancestor. These three were invisible. The earth was young then, and land floated like oil, and from it reed shoots sprouted. From these reeds came two more deities. After them, five or six pairs of deities came into being, and the last of these were Izanagi and Izanami, whose names mean "The Male Who Invites" and "The Female who Invites".
The first five deities commanded Izanagi and Izanami to make and solidify the land of Japan, and they gave the young pair a jeweled spear. Standing on the Floating Bridge of Heaven, they dipped it in the ocean brine and stirred. They pulled out the spear, and the brine that dripped of it formed an island to which they descended. On this island they built a palace for their wedding and a great column to the heavens.
Izanami examined her body and found that one place had not grown, and she told this to Izanagi, who replied that his body was well-formed but that one place had grown to excess. He proposed that he place his excess in her place that was not complete and that in doing so they would make new land. They agreed to walk around the pillar and meet behind it to do this. When they arrive behind the pillar, she greeted him by saying "What a fine young man", and he responded by greeting her with "What a fine young woman". They procreated and gave birth to a leech-child, which they put in a basket and let float away. Then they gave birth to a floating island, which likewise they did not recognize as one of their children.
Disappointed by their failures in procreation, they returned to Heaven and consulted the deities there. The deities explained that the cause of their difficulties was that the female had spoken first when they met to procreate. Izanagi and Izanami returned to their island and again met behind the heavenly pillar. When they met, he said, "What a fine young woman," and she said "What a fine young man". They mated and gave birth to the eight main islands of Japan and six minor islands. Then they gave birth to a variety of deities to inhabit those islands, including the sea deity, the deity of the sea-straits, and the deities of the rivers, winds, trees, and mountains. Last, Izanami gave birth to the fire deity, and her genitals were so burned that she died.
Donald L. Philippi, trans., 1969, Kojiki: Princeton, Princeton University Press, 655, and Joseph M. Campbell, 1962, The Masks of God: Oriental Mythology: New York, Viking Press, 561.
Questions:
When heaven and earth began, three deities came into being, The Spirit Master of the Center of Heaven, The August Wondrously Producing Spirit, and the Divine Wondrously Producing Ancestor. These three were invisible. The earth was young then, and land floated like oil, and from it reed shoots sprouted. From these reeds came two more deities. After them, five or six pairs of deities came into being, and the last of these were Izanagi and Izanami, whose names mean "The Male Who Invites" and "The Female who Invites".
The first five deities commanded Izanagi and Izanami to make and solidify the land of Japan, and they gave the young pair a jeweled spear. Standing on the Floating Bridge of Heaven, they dipped it in the ocean brine and stirred. They pulled out the spear, and the brine that dripped of it formed an island to which they descended. On this island they built a palace for their wedding and a great column to the heavens.
Izanami examined her body and found that one place had not grown, and she told this to Izanagi, who replied that his body was well-formed but that one place had grown to excess. He proposed that he place his excess in her place that was not complete and that in doing so they would make new land. They agreed to walk around the pillar and meet behind it to do this. When they arrive behind the pillar, she greeted him by saying "What a fine young man", and he responded by greeting her with "What a fine young woman". They procreated and gave birth to a leech-child, which they put in a basket and let float away. Then they gave birth to a floating island, which likewise they did not recognize as one of their children.
Disappointed by their failures in procreation, they returned to Heaven and consulted the deities there. The deities explained that the cause of their difficulties was that the female had spoken first when they met to procreate. Izanagi and Izanami returned to their island and again met behind the heavenly pillar. When they met, he said, "What a fine young woman," and she said "What a fine young man". They mated and gave birth to the eight main islands of Japan and six minor islands. Then they gave birth to a variety of deities to inhabit those islands, including the sea deity, the deity of the sea-straits, and the deities of the rivers, winds, trees, and mountains. Last, Izanami gave birth to the fire deity, and her genitals were so burned that she died.
Donald L. Philippi, trans., 1969, Kojiki: Princeton, Princeton University Press, 655, and Joseph M. Campbell, 1962, The Masks of God: Oriental Mythology: New York, Viking Press, 561.
Questions:
- Is there one god, goddess, or many? Name the characters.
- Who is responsible for creating humans?
- Is anyone asked to be silent in this story? Who?
- What happens to the female characters?
Remedial Herstory Editors. "1. T0 15,000 BEFORE GENDERED CONSTRUCTS." The Remedial Herstory Project. November 1, 2022. www.remedialherstory.com.
Consulting Team |
Editors |
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Kelsie Brook Eckert, Project Director
Coordinator of Social Studies Education at Plymouth State University Dr. Nancy Locklin-Sofer, Consultant Professor of History at Maryville College. Chloe Gardner, Consultant PhD Candidate in Religious Studies at Edinburgh University Dr. Whitney Howarth, Consultant Former Professor of History at Plymouth State University Jacqui Nelson, Consultant Teaching Lecturer of Military History at Plymouth State University Maria Concepcion Marquez Sandoval PhD Candidate in History at Arizona University |
Ron Kaiser
Humanities Teacher, Moultonborough Academy ReviewersPre-History
Dr. Marieka Brouwer Burg Professor of Anthropology at the University of Vermont Ancient: Dr. Kristin Heineman Professor of History at Colorado State University Dr. Bonnie Rock-McCutcheon Professor of History at Wilson College Sarah Stone PhD Candidate in Religious Studies at Edinburgh University Medieval: Dr. Katherine Koh Professor of History at La Sierra University Dr. Jonathan Couser Professor of History at Plymouth State University Dr. Shahla Haeri Professor of History at Boston University Lauren Cole PhD Candidate in History at Northwestern University |
Survey's on womens World History
In this landmark study, Shahla Haeri offers the extraordinary biographies of several Muslim women rulers and leaders who reached the apex of political systems of their times.
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The history of the world is the history of great women, their names should be shouted from the rooftops and that is exactly what Jenni Murray is here to do.
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Recording the important milestones in the birth of the modern feminist movement and the rise of women into greater social, economic, and political power, Miles takes us through through a colorful pageant of astonishing women
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Jenni Murray presents the history of Britain as you’ve never seen it before, through the lives of twenty-one women who refused to succumb to the established laws of society, whose lives embodied hope and change, and who still have the power to inspire us today..
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Meet the unsung sheroes of history: the diverse, defiant and daring (wo)men who changed the rules, and their identities, to get sh*t done.
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Beginning in seventh-century Mecca and Medina, A History of Islam in 21 Women takes us around the globe, through eleventh-century Yemen and Khorasan, and into sixteenth-century Spain, Istanbul and India. From there to nineteenth-century Persia and the African savannah, to twentieth-century Russia, Turkey, Egypt and Iraq, before reaching present day London.
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A trailblazing, conversation-starting history of women’s health—from the earliest medical ideas about women’s illnesses to hormones and autoimmune diseases—brought together in a fascinating sweeping narrative.
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Pre-History (3,300,000-3000 BCE)
According to the myth of matriarchal prehistory, men and women lived together peacefully before recorded history. Society was centered around women, with their mysterious life-giving powers, and they were honored as incarnations and priestesses of the Great Goddess. Then a transformation occurred, and men thereafter dominated society.
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Lucy is a 3.2-million-year-old skeleton who has become the spokeswoman for human evolution. She is perhaps the best known and most studied fossil hominid of the twentieth century, the benchmark by which other discoveries of human ancestors are judged.”–From Lucy’s Legacy
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The Chalice and the Blade tells a new story of our cultural origins. It shows that warfare and the war of the sexes are neither divinely nor biologically ordained. It provides verification that a better future is possible—and is in fact firmly rooted in the haunting dramas of what happened in our past.
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They live in caves and huddle around fires, but they are fully human, though they belong to our most ancient history. Risa the Arbiter has now spent years in her role and is known and respected throughout the area. Her children are half-grown and exhibiting traits of independence, both of thought and action. Her tribe has grown along with her and now needs more than one Arbiter can provide alone. Risa struggles with how best to organize her duties and establishes acolytes in each village to screen petitioners.
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How to teach with Films:
Remember, teachers want the student to be the historian. What do historians do when they watch films?
- Before they watch, ask students to research the director and producers. These are the source of the information. How will their background and experience likely bias this film?
- Also, ask students to consider the context the film was created in. The film may be about history, but it was made recently. What was going on the year the film was made that could bias the film? In particular, how do you think the gains of feminism will impact the portrayal of the female characters?
- As they watch, ask students to research the historical accuracy of the film. What do online sources say about what the film gets right or wrong?
- Afterward, ask students to describe how the female characters were portrayed and what lessons they got from the film.
- Then, ask students to evaluate this film as a learning tool. Was it helpful to better understand this topic? Did the historical inaccuracies make it unhelpful? Make it clear any informed opinion is valid.
Documentaries
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Ascent of Woman: is a documentary about prehistoric and Ancient women's history across cultures.
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Witches: A Century of Murder is about the witch trials that plagued England under Kings James IV and I and Charles I.
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Taking Root is a documentary about the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, Wangari Maathai. She was from Kenya and her work was on environmental protection.
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Feature Length Movies
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The Last Duel highlights the way that rape was handled in medieval Europe. It barely passes the Bechdel Test, with main actors being the male characters, but the whole theme of sex, sexuality, and gender dynamics cannot be ignored.
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Elizabeth tells the story of Elizabeth's Golden era.
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Mary Queen of Scots is a film about the relationship between the Protestant Queen Elizabeth I of England and her Catholic cousin Mary Queen of Scots who challenged her throne.
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Catherine the Great is about the career of Catherine of Russia and her challenges as a female leader.
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The Favorite is about the interesting palace life of Queen Anne and her closest female confidants. This film expands upon rumors of lesbianism within the court.
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The Woman King is a film about the Dahomey "Amazons," women warriors who fought European imperialism in West Africa.
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Albert Nobbs is a film about the life of a poor woman living in 19th century Ireland who cross dresses in order to improve her station.
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Victoria and Abdul is a film about the interesting relationship between Queen Victoria and Abdul Karim, an Indian man who earned her confidence.
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Suffragette tells the stories of English women who grappled with a way to have their voices heard in the early movement.
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The Danish Girl is historical fiction based losely on the life and marriage of a transgender pioneer.
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A Call to Spy is about the first British and American women spies that worked on the ground in France during WWII.
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Frida is a film about the first Mexican woman to have her work displayed at the Louvre in Paris, FR.
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Television Series
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The White Queen and the series that follow are based on a historical fiction novel about the rise of the Tudor family in England. The main characters are the women, who through marriage gain and lose the crown.
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The Serpent Queen tells the story of Queen Catherine de Medici of France and the complexities of being a queen regent.
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The Tudors tells the story of Henry VIII and each of his six wives. Remember the old school tale: divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived.
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Victoria is a TV series about the rise and career of Queen Victoria, whose reign spanned much of the 19th century.
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The Crown is a TV series that shows the rise and career of the current Queen of England, Elizabeth II. Her reign began shortly after WWII.
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Bibliography
Diamond, Jared. “The Worst Mistake in Human History.” Discover Magazine, 1987. http://public.gettysburg.edu/~dperry/Class%20Readings%20Scanned%20Documents/Intro/Diamond.PDF.
Gruss, Laura Tobias, and Daniel Schmitt. “The evolution of the human pelvis: changing adaptations to bipedalism, obstetrics and thermoregulation.” Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences vol. 370,1663 (2015): 20140063. doi:10.1098/rstb.2014.0063
Landau, Elizabeth. "How Much Did Grandmothers Influence Human Evolution? Scientists debate the evolutionary benefits of menopause." Smithsonian Magazine. January 4, 2021. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-much-did-grandmothers-influence-human-evolution-180976665/.
Pollard, Elizabeth and Clifford Rosenberg, Ed. World Together Worlds Apart: A Companion Reader, 2nd Edition, Volume 1. New York: Norton & Company, Inc, 2016.
Schrein, Caitlin. "Lucy: A marvelous specimen." Nature Education Knowledge 6(7):2, 2015. https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/lucy-a-marvelous-specimen-135716086/.
Strayer, R. and Nelson, E., Ways Of The World. 3rd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2016.
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Schrein, Caitlin. "Lucy: A marvelous specimen." Nature Education Knowledge 6(7):2, 2015. https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/lucy-a-marvelous-specimen-135716086/.
Strayer, R. and Nelson, E., Ways Of The World. 3rd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2016.
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