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Product Description
WARRIOR WOMEN weaves science, mythology and mystical cultures into a bold new historical tapestry of female warriors, heroines and leaders who have been left out of the history books...until now. From China to Celtic lands, warriors, priestesses and matriarchs come to life in this accessible and dramatic account of one archaeologist's search for the truth. Jeannine Davis-Kimball, a real-life Indiana Jones, recounts her exciting and dangerous career uncovering the real story behind Amazons, banshees and mummies. Within all these groups, Davis-Kimball has uncovered an entire ancient class of courageous women who played vital and respected roles. WARRIOR WOMEN is the first mainstream book to explore the lost world of women warriors that stretches from Europe to Asia. What emerges is not only a thrilling and exotic ride, but a provocative re-examination of gender roles for the 21st century.
Amazon.com Review
Was Herodotus's account of the Amazons fact or fiction? Archaeologist Jeannine Davis-Kimball, in Warrior Women, an account of her digs at burial sites of Eurasian nomads, finds it an embellishment of the former. But, she posits, women's place in that world was generally more exalted than previously thought.
Nearly one-quarter of the women buried in some late Iron Age sites were either warriors or priestesses. Even the remainder, "hearth women," were important players in the tribes' surprisingly egalitarian societies. Further, southern Kazakhstan's famous "gold man" was in fact, a "gold woman." Davis-Kimball also finds solid evidence of "high status" women in graves as far east as China and as far west as Ireland. Warrior Women is, thankfully, free of lazy sensationalism. But it is frustratingly organized, with little regard to either chronology or geography. Further, Davis-Kimball never places her finds in any sort of context, be it popular or scholarly. --H. O'Billovitch
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