Tracing the Disappearance of Goddesses by Leonard Shlain

In The Alphabet versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image, author Leonard Shlain links the demise of the goddess with the rise in literacy.

By Gaylon Ferguson

Why does sexism persist? Some would say it's because our ancient reverence for the feminine was displaced by worship of male gods. And what caused that? In The Alphabet versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image (Viking), Leonard Shlain, surgeon, author, and independent scholar, links the demise of the goddess to the rise of literacy. "Writing subliminally fosters a patriarchal outlook," he argues. "Writing of any kind, but especially its alphabetic form, diminishes feminine values and with them, women's power in the culture."

These are unsettling claims, but Shlain gathers a wide range of evidence, from Paleolithic cave paintings in the south of France to the pulsing computer screens of cyberspace, to support his "neuroanatomical hypothesis."

Shlain theorizes that major cultural shifts may follow a society's advances in literacy. Acts of reading and writing strengthen the brain's linear left hemisphere at the expense of the right hemisphere's more holistic, visual approach. Shlain calls the former abilities "masculine" and the latter "feminine," noting that images are usually perceived in an all-at-once fashion, while one reads or writes words in linear sequence. Thus, the hypothesis: the shift to literacy and alphabetic writing led directly to the domination of masculine modes of thinking, the abhorrence of images, and a marked decline in the political and social status of women. The result? A decline in women's rights and goddess worship.

During a tour of Mediterranean archaeological sites, the author recalls, "At nearly every Greek site we visited, [our tour guide] patiently explained that the shrines we stood before had originally been consecrated to a female deity. And, later, for unknown reasons, unknown persons reconsecrated them to a male one." Traveling to Crete, Shlain paused "among the impressive remains of Knossos. Elegant palace murals depicted festive court women, girl acrobats, and snake-holding priestesses—evidence of women's seemingly high status in Bronze Age Minoan culture."

Shlain's tour ended at Ephesus, site of the ruins of the Temple of Artemis, once the largest shrine to a female deity in the Western world. Here, the tour guide tells the legend of Mary, Jesus' mother, coming to Ephesus to die.

Contemplating all of this, Shlain comes up with his book's central questions: Why did property begin to pass only through the father's line? What event in human history could have been so pervasive and immense that it literally changed the sex of God?

There are, of course, a number of feminist scholars who have done pioneering work on these topics. Shlain cites the path-finding books of archaeologist Marija Gimbutas (The Language of the Goddess; HarperSanFrancisco, 1995), art historian Elinor Gadon (The Once and Future Goddess; HarperSanFrancisco, 1989), and social theorist Riane Eisler (The Chalice and the Blade; HarperSanFrancisco, 1988). Shlain's unique contribution to the field is his application of scientific discoveries regarding left and right hemispheric brain function to explanations of social change. Who would have thought that the move to literacy might have initiated the reign of patriarchy?

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