The Alphabet Versus the Goddess

This text proposes that the invention of the alphabet and the process of reading itself fundamentally rewired the human brain, with profound consequences for culture, history and religion. It claims that the result was an immediate decline in the status of women and the rise of monolithic masculine cultures. Making connections across subjects including brain anatomy and function, anthropology, history and religion, the author argues that the very act of reading reinforced the brain's left hemisphere at the expense of the holistic, concrete, feminine right. The balance between men and women shifted, initiating the decline in women's social and political status.