The Past is a Foreigners' Country: Goddess Feminists, Archaeologists, and the Appropriation of Prehistory

Feminist archaeologists and others have criticised the Goddess movement, and Marija Gimbutas in particular, for producing 'Golden Age' theories about the past, claiming that there is no convincing archaeological evidence that Old Europe was universally peopled by matrifocal, peaceful, egalitarian societies who worshipped a Great Goddess. Goddess feminists are accused of appropriating and mythologising the past to serve their contemporary political agenda. This paper considers such criticisms and argues that archaeologists, too, can be shown to have agendas of their own in relation to the past. Following a theoretical discussion, the issues of appropriation and colonisation are considered with respect to Malta's neolithic 'Temple Culture', and the agendas and activities of Goddess feminists in relation to it. The discussion is based on recent anthropological fieldwork in Malta.