Women played leading roles in the first Christian communities; Jesus' teachings had a feminist bent; ancient Hebrews worshipped the prehistoric goddess-mother well into monarchic times; and Nazis, with their system of male dominance, were a direct throwback to the Indo-European or Aryan invaders whom they crudely imitated. These controversial ideas and findings suggest the thrust of Eisler's highly readable synthesis. She convincingly documents the global shift from egalitarian to patriarchal societies, interweaving new archeological evidence and feminist scholarship. In her scenario, as womenonce veneratedwere degraded to pawns controlled by men, social cooperation gave way to reliance on violence, hierarchy and authoritarianism. The book, despite its jargon, is an important contribution to social history. Eisler wrote The Equal Rights Handbook.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
理安·艾斯勒一九三四年出生在维也纳,六岁时经历了纳粹德国占领的浩劫,全家侥幸逃离欧洲,乘船来到古巴。十四岁移居美国。战火,屠杀,三个国度,三种文化使她从小关心人类的命运,深思这样的问题:人类为什么要互相残杀?为什么那么残忍?那么野蛮?为什么全世界到处都是男人对男人和男人对女人的欺压?女人是天生就低于男人,注定永远处在屈从地位吗?
她创作《圣杯与剑》花费了十五年,阅读了研究人类两性关系的上千种著作,在人类文化学的高度上对两性关系的历史、现状和未来作了整体性的研究,得出了一些具有普遍意义的观点。此书封皮上印着普林斯顿大学著名人类文化学家A蒙塔古的评语:“自达尔文《物种起源》以来最重要的一本书”。英文版在头两年就重印了十五次。在美国许多报刊上发表的书评称这本书是:“我们这个时代出规律,用以指导解决罗马俱乐部的多份报告里指出的人类面临的全球性难题,引导人类“从进化意识中产生出有意识的进化”(索尔克语),能比较顺利地度过日益迫近的全球系统的突变分叉点。