Cynthia Eller is Professor of Women's Studies and Religious Studies at Montclair State University. She is the author of The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory: Why an Invented Past Will Not Give Women a Future; Am I a Woman? A Skeptic's Guide to Gender; and Living in the Lap of the Goddess: The Feminist Spirituality Movement in America.

"Eller eloquently outlines what she believes is the myth of matriarchal prehistory... Highly recommended." Choice "Gentlemen and Amazons is a compelling, complex ... and formidably researched historical study." -- Mary Farrell Bednarowski Feminist Collections

• List of Illustrations Acknowledgments 1. The Travels and Travails of Matriarchal Myth 2. Amazons Everywhere: Matriarchal Myth before Bachofen 3. On the Launching Pad: J. J. Bachofen and Das Mutterrecht 4. The Matriarchal Explosion: Anthropology Finds Mother Right (and Itself) 5. Making Matriarchal Myth Work: Communists and Feminists Discover the Mother Age 6. Mother Right on the Continent 7. Struggling to Stay Alive: Anthropology and Matriarchal Myth 8. Matriarchal Myth in the Late Nineteenth Century: Why Then? Why Not Before? Notes Bibliography Index

Cynthia Eller is Professor of Women's Studies and Religious Studies at Montclair State University. She is the author of The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory: Why an Invented Past Will Not Give Women a Future; Am I a Woman? A Skeptic's Guide to Gender; and Living in the Lap of the Goddess: The Feminist Spirituality Movement in America.

"Eller eloquently outlines what she believes is the myth of matriarchal prehistory... Highly recommended." Choice "Gentlemen and Amazons is a compelling, complex ... and formidably researched historical study." -- Mary Farrell Bednarowski Feminist Collections

• List of Illustrations Acknowledgments 1. The Travels and Travails of Matriarchal Myth 2. Amazons Everywhere: Matriarchal Myth before Bachofen 3. On the Launching Pad: J. J. Bachofen and Das Mutterrecht 4. The Matriarchal Explosion: Anthropology Finds Mother Right (and Itself) 5. Making Matriarchal Myth Work: Communists and Feminists Discover the Mother Age 6. Mother Right on the Continent 7. Struggling to Stay Alive: Anthropology and Matriarchal Myth 8. Matriarchal Myth in the Late Nineteenth Century: Why Then? Why Not Before? Notes Bibliography Index

Cynthia Eller is Professor of Women's Studies and Religious Studies at Montclair State University. She is the author of The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory: Why an Invented Past Will Not Give Women a Future; Am I a Woman? A Skeptic's Guide to Gender; and Living in the Lap of the Goddess: The Feminist Spirituality Movement in America.

"Eller eloquently outlines what she believes is the myth of matriarchal prehistory... Highly recommended." Choice "Gentlemen and Amazons is a compelling, complex ... and formidably researched historical study." -- Mary Farrell Bednarowski Feminist Collections

• List of Illustrations Acknowledgments 1. The Travels and Travails of Matriarchal Myth 2. Amazons Everywhere: Matriarchal Myth before Bachofen 3. On the Launching Pad: J. J. Bachofen and Das Mutterrecht 4. The Matriarchal Explosion: Anthropology Finds Mother Right (and Itself) 5. Making Matriarchal Myth Work: Communists and Feminists Discover the Mother Age 6. Mother Right on the Continent 7. Struggling to Stay Alive: Anthropology and Matriarchal Myth 8. Matriarchal Myth in the Late Nineteenth Century: Why Then? Why Not Before? Notes Bibliography Index