As we shall see, it was probably developed and propagated for purely political motives, aiming at goals that would allow the invading patrilineal Hebrews greater access to land and governmental control by destroying the ancient matrilineal system.

The Iron Age people of west and central Europe lived right on the edge of history. The first written records of these people and their beliefs were not written by them, but by their neighbours to the south – the literate civilizations of the Phoenicians, ancient Greece and Rome. It’s the Roman literature in particular which perhaps gives us the bes