When Rt. Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori became the first woman to lead the Episcopal Church on November 2006, she marked an awesome comeback for her gender. Women were the top religious leaders many thousands of years ago, in Europe and the Mediterranean Coast. Then Asian tribes started to invade the region. They deprived women of their roles and rights, usually killing, maiming or burning priestesses.
During one of the coldest episodes of the Ice Age, European people suffered a near extinction event. Only a few female-centered families survived in the Pyrenees and in the Northern Balkans. They repopulated Europe, leaving a DNA trail that Dr. J.F. del Giorgio describes in ?The Oldest Europeans: Who are we? Where do we come from? What made European women different?? (A.J. Place, $18.95)
They spoke a tongue akin to present Basque. German academicians have recently mapped the names they left in Europe. Women had and extraordinary status in these tribes. A Roman writer that met some of their descendants qualified them as matriarchal. They were plainly matrilineal, matrilocal and matrifocal.
About eight thousand years ago, patriarchal tribes that spoke Indo-European languages started pouring into Europe. Their language came from a zone near present Iran. They brought with them farming techniques, state-of-the-art warfare and total contempt for females. At first, being a minority, they compromised, adopting the religious, political and social systems they met. New waves of invaders kept coming, adopting each time harsher policies. They finally took all rights from women. Greek women were confined inside gynoecia. In Rome, any husband could kill his wife.
Women managed to keep some rights only in the western fringe of Europe. From there, feminist movements sprang up. They rekindled an old, old fight. This time, at least, females regained terrain.
According to del Giorgio, present freedom and democratic traditions in Europe (and their offshoots in other continents) are a legacy from those ancient females. Children raised in families where women were respected tended to abhor authoritarian leaders. Welcome, Rt. Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori.
The image is a sketch from a 6th century B.C. sarcophagus from ?anakkale showing the murder of Princess Polyxena.
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