This is the book cover of New Antiquities: Transformations of Ancient Religion in the New Age and Beyond, edited by Dylan M. Burns and Almut-Barbara Renger, in which I have an article - "The artifice of Daidalos: Modern Minoica as
religious focus in contemporary Paganism." There are many interesting chapters in this book. Here's the abstract to mine:
That human society was peaceful, matriarchal
and goddesses-worshipping from the Upper Palaeolithic period (45,000–10,000
years ago) until around 3000 BCE with the rise of patriarchy is a common belief
within both the modern feminist Goddess Movement and contemporary Paganism.
This paper examines the representation of Minoan Crete within the literature of
the feminist Goddess Movement from the 1970s up to the present day. In
addition, it investigates the utilisation of outdated and erroneous
interpretations of Minoan religion within the separatist feminist practice of
Dianic witchcraft, the predominantly female pursuit of goddess tourism and
pilgrimage, and the theology of the male-only Neo-Pagan group, the Minoan
Brotherhood. Analysis and critique of the matriarchalist interpretation of
Minoan material culture as applied to figurines, frescoes, glyptic art, and
architecture by these groups demonstrates that these archaeological objects are
interpreted in a highly ideological manner in order to support both contemporary
religious belief and magical practice. That such interpretations have little to
do with actual Minoan religion is emphasised by focusing upon a group of the
most important and evocative feminist icons of the Minoan past: the faience and
ivory “snake goddesses.” Recent scholarship, pace earlier researchers such as
the Cambridge Ritualists, has demonstrated that these objects range from being
heavily reconstructed to outright forgeries and consequently are not reliable
representatives of ancient Minoan religion. The use of Minoan artefacts of
questionable authenticity along with an interpretative reliance upon outdated
scholarship by modern Goddess worshippers means that their rituals, festivals
and tours function as heterochronies, conceptually transporting participants to
an idealised, imaginary past that provides aesthetic compensation for the
imperfect world of today.
