gnu - You will find virtually no references in any of the conventional history books, except some ancient unconfirmed legends about Amazons.

However, there is a great deal of alternative literature which is very interesting. Try looking up books by Jessica Amanda Salmonson, Starhawk (Spiral Dance was her first book), and various authors in the "Goddess" traditions. You will generally find these books in "New Age" or "religion" or some section like that, but they kind of defy normal categorization.

It is a consensus among the community interested in this subject that:

The entire planet Earth went through a lengthy matriarchal stage (of many thousands of years) prior to the onset of the patriarchal era. All of our present history books and all of our holy scriptures date from the later patriarchal period.

The matriarchal period featured a society where women held the positions of authority. There was warfare, but a lot less than came under the patriarchy. The priesthood were female, as were the political and military leaders. Family lineage was traced through the mothers, not the fathers. This was a world society at one time.

Personally, I believe we as a race tried letting women run the show (worked out pretty well), then tried letting men run the show (worked out a whole lot worse), and are now on the verge of creating...for the first time...a society in which both men and women run the show on an equal and cooperative basis.

I certainly hope so, anyway.

- LH