Dr. Sabina Cveček

Were communities in prehistoric Greece matriarchal, matrilineal, or simply centered around women? This question has fascinated archaeologists for decades. Early on, figurines of women were often seen as “Mother Goddesses,” meaning female deities often representing motherhood, fertility, and creation, but feminist scholars later cautioned against such broad interpretations. Still, the idea that ancient societies may have been organized around maternal kinship and matrilineal descent—where family ties pass through the mother—has resurfaced in recent years. In this talk, Sabina Cveček revisits the debate, exploring what different types of evidence—from how settlements were laid out to how figurines were used—can tell us about gender and family life in the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Aegean. She draws on ethnographic examples to show that matrilineal kinship does not automatically mean women ruled, a key distinction for better understanding how these early societies were structured. This lecture is sponsored by the National AIA organization.