Why do people think that the ancients were matriarchal moon goddess worshipers.?

Question

The Sumerians, the first civilization, was a patriarchy. Their moon god was Nanna a male god.

Kandy: your answer is interesting. What ancients are you thinking of? I generally think of the middle eastern religions, but there are plenty of others. Please elaborate.

J: We actually know quite a bit on the Sumerians. They wrote things down quite often. Enough to know that Nanna was a male through all known periods. I own quite a number of books on the subject.

Anoldmic: Inanna was the daughter of Nanna. She was a goddess of war and pasion. As for them being the first civilization, they were the first to meet all of the hallmarks of civilization. Inanna comes from the word Ninannak meaning lady of the date clusters. Nin is the feminine, Nin (lady) an (date) na (posessive). I gave the Sumerians as a counter example to get an inteligent response.

Answer 1

A TRUE matriarchy? Im sorry to burst your bubble guys, but while there have been some tribal groups that were mainly matriarchial, but they exsist now only as historical footnotes.
Some civilization were matrilineal. But there is no archelogical proof of a full blown and fully function civilization that was martriarchal.
In the 60s, 70s and 80s alot of feminist historians and such insisted that prehistory mankind was matriarchal, but that has been blown out of the water in the last 20 years. They were most likely matrilineal, and women held an important role in thier culture. They had Goddesses and honored the Earth as a Mother, but thats not enough to say that women ruled.
Nana was a MALE God Inanna was his daughter. Sumer was a patriarchy, women held an important, maybe even NEAR equal role, but Sumer was not matriarchal.
Keep in mind that patriarchy does not always mean "Women are subjegated and nothing more than chattle"

Answer 2

First of all, they noticed that menstrual cycles roughly followed a lunar - 28 day - cycle, so they began to associate women with this big orb in the sky. Night and the moon are more mysterious - and this monthly flow of blood wasn't because they were wounded or ill as it would have been for a man. The sun which reveals all in the brightness of day is associated with power, and the men had the muscle power, which is what mattered most back then. So they were the stronger sex. But all being ignorant (depending on the civilization) mystery is scarey and fear has a power that is not combatted as easily as a muscle contest.

Second, depending on how ancient and who ancient, 9 months is a long time to keep track of insemination and a little person popping out of a woman 9 months later, especially since she'd probably been sexually active in the meantime and therefore there was no obvious male-female time-table connection.

Perhaps people today, in a male dominated society, like to think that once upon a time the roles were reversed, and that the future will swing the pendulum to the middle:equal rights.

Answer 3

The Sumerians were NOT the first civilization. There have been several groupings of people that have worshipped a moon goddess. And the Sumerian name was Inanna, not Nanna. the "In" part of the word marks it feminine.

You afraid of powerful women, are ya?

Answer 4

Interesting. We know very little of the Sumerians to make such a bold statement.

So what book are you referring to? God is spirit (wind). God made male and female. God said that was good.

Are you telling me that God has a gender?

Like I said, interesting.

Answer 5

Not all people do. Many ancient peoples before the Sumerians had matriarical socities.

Answer 6

hey man-you seem cool already met bluenikki-wont guarantee they are first-second natural choice to go with birth and moon to worship-one is live second is light at night-cant be sure but if i had to say what was first i go with earth mother-holler anytime or join my little circle of friends with interesting minds and varied ideas-keep the peace old hippie here

Answer 7

isis was female .
and there were Anunnaki before the sumerians

nanna probably comes from that

Answer 8

It all depends on which 'ancients' one is talking about, doesn't it.

Answer 9

Thanks for the info. I actually never thought about it before.