& FREE Returns

FREE delivery: Sunday, Sep 5 Details

Fastest delivery: Friday, Sep 3
Order within 23 hrs and 8 mins Details

In Stock.
As an alternative, the Kindle eBook is available now and can be read on any device with the free Kindle app.

$$33.95 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Ships from	Amazon.com
Sold by	Amazon.com
Support	Customer service is provided by Amazon for all items.

Details

Ships from

Amazon.com

Sold by

Amazon.com

Support

Customer service is provided by Amazon for all items.

Return policy: This item is returnable

Add a gift receipt for easy returns

$3.99 delivery: Sep 3 - 13

Fastest delivery: Sep 2 - 8

Used: Good | Details

Sold by Friends of the San Francisco Public Library

Share

Other Sellers on Amazon

$33.74
& FREE Shipping

Sold by: Book Depository US

$34.99
+ $3.99 shipping

Sold by: Sandy Dunes Surplus

$43.21
& FREE Shipping

Sold by: Bahamut Media

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See all 3 images

Follow the Authors

Marija Gimbutas

Miriam Robbins Dexter

The Living Goddesses Paperback – January 12, 2001

by Marija Gimbutas (Author), Miriam Robbins Dexter (Editor)

70 ratings

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$32.25

—

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$30.98

$595.97

$27.00

Paperback

"Please retry"

$33.95

$29.74

$29.61

The Living Goddesses crowns a lifetime of innovative, influential work by one of the twentieth-century's most remarkable scholars. Marija Gimbutas wrote and taught with rare clarity in her original―and originally shocking―interpretation of prehistoric European civilization. Gimbutas flew in the face of contemporary archaeology when she reconstructed goddess-centered cultures that predated historic patriarchal cultures by many thousands of years.

This volume, which was close to completion at the time of her death, contains the distillation of her studies, combined with new discoveries, insights, and analysis. Editor Miriam Robbins Dexter has added introductory and concluding remarks, summaries, and annotations. The first part of the book is an accessible, beautifully illustrated summation of all Gimbutas's earlier work on "Old European" religion, together with her ideas on the roles of males and females in ancient matrilineal cultures. The second part of the book brings her knowledge to bear on what we know of the goddesses today―those who, in many places and in many forms, live on.

Print length

306 pages
Language

English
Publisher

University of California Press
Publication date

January 12, 2001
Dimensions

7 x 1.1 x 10 inches
ISBN-10

0520229150
ISBN-13

978-0520229150
See all details

Frequently bought together

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

Marija Gimbutas
4
Paperback
4 offers from $76.00
Marija / foreword by Joseph Campbell Gimbutas
91
Paperback
28 offers from $21.41
Carol P. Christ
21
Paperback
$34.95
Get it as soon as Wednesday, Sep 8
FREE Shipping on orders over $25 shipped by Amazon
Marija Gimbutas
19
Hardcover
$359.75
& Free Shipping
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
Marija Gimbutas
40
Paperback
25 offers from $18.03
J. P. Mallory
100
Paperback
$18.95
Get it as soon as Wednesday, Sep 8
FREE Shipping on orders over $25 shipped by Amazon

What other items do customers buy after viewing this item?

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

Marija Gimbutas
24
Paperback
$33.95
Get it as soon as Wednesday, Sep 8
FREE Shipping on orders over $25 shipped by Amazon
Marija / foreword by Joseph Campbell Gimbutas
91
Paperback
28 offers from $21.41
Merlin Stone
748
Paperback
$14.89
Get it as soon as Sunday, Sep 5
FREE Shipping on orders over $25 shipped by Amazon
Riane Eisler
397
Paperback
$18.48
Get it as soon as Sunday, Sep 5
FREE Shipping on orders over $25 shipped by Amazon
Marija Gimbutas
40
Paperback
25 offers from $18.03
Monica Sjoo
350
Paperback
$23.99
Get it as soon as Sunday, Sep 5
FREE Shipping on orders over $25 shipped by Amazon

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Wide-ranging and fascinating, "The Living Goddesses "should intrigue the curious and delight most feminist scholars."--"Library Journal"

From the Inside Flap

"The quintessence of decades of research. . . . It excellently illustrates the various manifestations of the Goddess in the Minoan world and in ancient Greece, among the Etruscans and the Basques, in Celtic, Germanic, and Baltic religion. . . . For sure, the ideas of Marija Gimbutas about the 'Old European' civilization are controversial, but they are built on strong arguments and valid bases, which make it indispensable for her dissident colleagues to take heed of her writings."--Edgar Polomé, Editor of the Journal of Indo-European Studies

"The overall view of 'Old Europe' Marija Gimbutas presents is not only readable but spellbinding. . . . Archaeological findings, folklore, and historical texts, including images and texts from ancient Greece and the ancient Near East, are drawn on, and together they produce a coherent, seamless imagery."--Kees Bolle, University of California, Los Angeles

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of California Press; First edition (January 12, 2001)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 306 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0520229150
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0520229150
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.3 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7 x 1.1 x 10 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #549,616 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #696 in Tribal & Ethnic Religious Practices
- #1,137 in Archaeology (Books)
- #1,768 in General Gender Studies

Customer Reviews:
70 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		85%
4 star		8%
3 star		3%
2 star 0% (0%)		0%
1 star		5%

How are ratings calculated?

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Retired Reader

Archeology with Imagination

Reviewed in the United States on August 13, 2012

Verified Purchase

The basics of archeology show it to be an exacting science. An archeological site is carefully mapped and often photographed to record exactly how it appeared before it is disturbed. Then as the site is examined each artifact, bones and other material objects are carefully notated as to where they were found and with what other objects. The idea is that even an archeologist whose was not present at the site can still get a pretty accurate idea what was discovered. If the site has some unique or interesting characteristics, the lead archeologist will then write it up describing in detail what was found and, usually, providing a plausible hypothesis on the original purpose of the site and as much about the humans associated with it as is possible within the limits of the physical evidence. Most archeologists stop here and devote themselves to cataloguing their findings.

Marja Gimbutas, fortunately is not "most archeologists" and goes far beyond the basics of archeology. Using physical evidence from multiple sites in Europe and the Anatolian Peninsula, historical references, and the examples of known "old European" peoples (the Basque, the Etruscans, and the Minoans) she developed a wide ranging theory of the cultures of Europe from the upper Paleolithic until the invading waves of the Indo-European speaking peoples from about 5,000 BCE.

The core of her theory is that the peoples of what she calls old Europe (pre Indo-European) from at least the upper Paleolithic through the Megalithic twilight of the Neolithic were matriarchal, peaceful peoples, who worshipped various forms of what she calls `earth goddesses' and reflect an egalitarian society. Gimbutas argues that the widely spread artifacts that more conventional archeologists consider "fertility images' in reality are images of earth goddesses who play a key role in the old European religious concepts of birth, death, and regeneration that Gimbutas theorizes was core to the old European belief system.

So has Gimbutas uncovered important clues about the builders of megaliths like Stonehenge and indeed Europe from upper Paleolithic through much of the Neolithic? Perhaps or perhaps not, but at least she has put forward a plausible, evidence based theory that could explain a little understood period in human development.

19 people found this helpful

Helpful

G. Joy Robins

Good reading, Great Goddess!

Reviewed in the United States on October 26, 2008

Verified Purchase

Having become an admirer of Marija Gimbutas long ago, I come to this book after reading "Understanding Early Civilizations" by Bruce G. Trigger. The "civilizations" he discusses are all much later than the widespread Old European "culture" Gimbutas explored. With roots in the Paleolithic it spans millennia, flowering in so called Minoan civilization and still surviving in folk culture today.
It embodies a kind of "proto-European" religion centered on the most basic of human experiences, life and death. These are seen through the eyes of people whose brains are just as complex as our own, living in a time when social organization was based on extended family and tribe.
The clear miracle of birth would naturally be the focus of awe. Death would have been a far closer companion than it is today and the cycles of nature would be very familiar. Hardwired as our species is for abstraction, and by extension religion, it is natural that the cycle of birth, death and regeneration would be central to the earliest belief system. That it would be female centered is not a surprise.
The social organization of that early time was probably based on the realities of surviving that include a very high value on child bearing females. Being able to attribute paternity was simply not important. Humans are not strictly monogamous as has been pretended in more recent times. The important thing was to enable reproduction and protect the young. If a woman could get more than one man to provide for her and her offspring, all the better. Young men could more easily be spared from the community to find mates elsewhere.
Then, of course, times changed. The human population grew and the horse was domesticated. Mounted Steppe nomads began numerous incursions on the settled, by then agricultural, population. They added a warrior ethic to the old religion and the hierarchy that led to kings and commoners took root. That development is what supposedly led to what we now define as Civilization. That definition is of course in flux. Trigger has allowed that the once essential ingredient, a written language, is no longer necessary.
What appears to be universal in the civilizations he includes are warfare and human sacrifice.
A little known and inconvenient truth is that human beings were better fed and had more leisure as hunter-gatherers. I suspect that people, especially the female half of that category, were better off where the Great Goddess was honored. While females were central, the essential contribution of males was appreciated.
Much of the iconography of the Goddess religion is still in use. Christianity can be seen as the primacy of the dying vegetation god and the mourning rituals leading to his resurrection. Mother Mary and the child Jesus hold a central position. Regardless of the militaristic nature of much that went on in the so called "Christian era", the ideal is still "Peace on Earth".
It annoys me that there is so much resistance to Gimbutas' well documented research and its message. Just the other day I saw a biblical archaeology TV special in which they discussed Lilith the supposed first wife of Adam who was created equal and not from his rib. They described how she had been demonized and they identified as a "monster" a winged woman with bird feet. If they had even the slightest familiarity with Gimbutas, they would have recognized the old Goddess immediately.

27 people found this helpful

Helpful

Amazon Customer

Great seller

Reviewed in the United States on October 4, 2020

Verified Purchase

Better than “acceptable” condition. Came quickly, exactly what I needed for a class I’m taking. Will order from this seller again. :)

Helpful

Kathy Schutt

This is her seminal achievement and brings all of her ideas together in the most readable version I've seen.

Reviewed in the United States on June 7, 2013

Verified Purchase

This is such an important book for even the casual student of ancient history...history prior to the Indo-European invasions. There was a completely different world view then. Some of what we consider to be "civilized" today, has come to us from them. One of those things is the equality of women and their leadership in families.

8 people found this helpful

Helpful

petr

The Living Godesses von Marija Gimbutas

Reviewed in the United States on August 27, 2014

Verified Purchase

The Living Godesses von Marija Gimbutas

ist für mich das besste und umfangreichste Buch über die vor
allem europaeischen Religionen des Neoliths bis Eisenzeit und
noch darüber hinaus. Es ist das lezte und nicht beendetes
Buch von Prof. Marija Gimbutas, geschrieben unmittelbar vor ihrem
Tode (beendet wurde es von ihrer Kollegin). Ich denke, sie wollte
ihr enormes Wissen allen zugänglich machen, nicht nur den angehörigen
der Wissenschaft. Im Buch befindet sich in kurzer Form das Wichtigste
aus ihren Werken.

Wer das Buch gelesen hat, hat eine Ahnung gewonnen über unsere
Wurzeln. Aber auch über unsere grausame Geschichte.

Das alle Wichtigste aber ist die Erkenntnis, dass die weibliche
Göttlichkeit nicht die männliche Göttlichkeit ausgeschlossen
hat. Das Patriarchat hat also nicht etwa den fehlenden männlichen
Gott gebracht, sondern hauptsächlich den "fehlenden" Kriegsgott.

Nicht die Männer sind schlecht, sondern der Krieg! Der Kriegsgott
ist weiter darüber hinaus deshalb schlecht, weil er die weibliche
Göttlichkeit ausgeschlossen hat. Insbesondere im Christentum.

Dieses Buch braucht wenigstens auf Deutsch zugänglich gemacht werden!

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Gramail

Fascinating work, pity about the editing

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 2, 2010

Verified Purchase

I've been a fan of Marija Gimbutas for many years and am wholly convinced of the truth of her basic supposition, namely that the militaristic and patriarchal religion/politics which has dominated the culture of our species from the dawn of recorded history to the present day is actually an aberration against the background of a much longer period in which our societies were united in respect for our mother Earth, as personified in the various goddess figures. However I had not previously read her own original writings and I chose this book as the allegedly most comprehensive account of her ideas and of the archaeological and archaeomythological research underpinning them.

The book falls into two distinct parts, of which the first looks in detail at the religious symbolism of 'Old (pre-patriarchal) Europe', as revealed in the artefacts which have survived the last 5,000 to 7,000 years, mainly in the form of ceramic figures, and speculates about the beliefs which can be attributed to the peoples of that time. Clearly we need to see the objects in question both to know what she is talking about and to see whether the arguments make sense to us, and indeed this wide-ranging section does appear at first glance to be well illustrated. On reading closely the fascinating blend of archaeology, deduction and intuition which characterises Gimbutas' writing, however, I found I wished for many more illustrations, and also for more references; there is a massive bibliography and numerous editorial notes, which involves a lot of tedious flicking backwards and forwards, but it's often not clear which ideas are based on her own fieldwork, on that of other archaeologists, or on pure speculation. Gimbutas pioneered with Joseph Campbell the exciting discipline of archaeomythology, but I fear this will never be accepted by the mainstream unless its proponents are open about the distinctions between mythology and conventional archaeology. In short, this section is quite dense and hard to read for the lay person, but not rigorous enough for the sceptical scholar either. The 'conclusions' at the end of each chapter by the editor Miriam Dexter are more in the nature of summaries and do not add much to the experience.

The second part of the book is the more original and its strength is in the way Gimbutas traces the survival of the goddess myths over the ages and despite the ever encroaching patriarchal control. As she guides us from the Minoan and Etruscan civiliations via the Basque and Celtic, into the historical era and gradually northwards to the Germanic and even Baltic mythologies, we simultaneously come tantalisingly close to the present day and to Gimbutas' own personal history, thus neatly completing the circle of an extraordinary life and life's work. It is little short of thrilling to learn that these ancient myths have only so recently been laid to rest in some parts of Europe and no wonder that the neopagan movement is inspired by Gimbutas to breathe new life into the abandoned and rejected goddesses. This is potentially a most inspiring and rewarding thread to follow and it is deeply to be regretted that her editor failed to provide one single illustration for these pages! I know nothing of Miriam Dexter or of how much work she had to do to prepare Gimbutas' manuscript for publication; from the long and wordy preface, acknowledgements, introduction, afterword and notes she provides it does not appear that she worked closely with Gimbutas or was familiar in her lifetime with her ongoing work on this her final book, but it seems at the least a disservice to leave what was in many ways her crowning achievement in this incomplete state, all for the lack of some fairly straightforward research in picture libraries which might have brought the historical account to life.

Some or perhaps most responsiblity for this must no doubt be laid at the doors of the publishers University of California Press, who have also chosen for some bizarre reason to print both left and right pages with a massive left hand margin and none on the right, so that it is actually impossible to read the left hand pages, never mind hold this awkwardly sized book comfortably, without totally breaking the spine. The revolutionary ideas in this last testament to a lifetime of pioneering research deserve a new editor and publisher to bring them into more general public recognition.

15 people found this helpful

Agata Nowicka

Great book, a very pleasant read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 24, 2018

Verified Purchase

Great book, a very pleasant read, just it makes you very sad that the world of the Goddess is gone and replaced by some kind of patriarchal madness....

2 people found this helpful

Gordon Toumaniantz

An archeologist who really went in with a big wooden ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 20, 2014

Verified Purchase

An archeologist who really went in with a big wooden spoon. Three cheers for her - but I fear we'll have to wait for the next generation of matriarchal & patriarchal archeologists to actually start talking to each other. Marija's friend and colleague who completed the book is too reserved to continue the heady words....

3 people found this helpful

Jessica Herriot

Thoroughly recommend this for the serious student

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 18, 2015

Verified Purchase

Thoroughly recommend this for the serious student.Wide historical comparisons ,from across Europe , giving archaeological evidence to support her views of Goddess worship and the role of the sacred feminine in early societies. Fascinating.

One person found this helpful

Mr A Bekvalac

There is a history of Europe (OLD EUROPE) that is ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 31, 2014

Verified Purchase

There is a history of Europe (OLD EUROPE) that is unspoken and hush-hush because it contradicts linear view of progress. When written this book was before its time and sill is. Buy it read it and be proud of OLD EUROPE.

One person found this helpful

See all reviews