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Message: <blockquote data-quote="fusangite" data-source="post: 1876101" data-attributes="member: 7240">I think you're seeing causation where there is simply correlation here. Over time, most literate societies have become more monotheistic until quite recently. Over time, most literate societies have reduced women's roles in the public sphere until quite recently. But this does not mean that one is causing the other.When one gets down into the details of comparing third and fourth century Roman society to fourth and fifth century Roman society, the idea of the pagan world as an egalitarian, woman-friendly place and the Christian world as a hostile one does not seem that apparent. One can similarly contrast 6th and 7th century Arabia to 7th and 8th century Arabia -- there, the evidence might even let you make the case that monotheism improved women's rights. Similarly, when one makes the same differential comparison between the centuries immediately preceding conversion to the centuries immediately following, the Germanic and Slavic worlds seem equally ambiguous. I am immediately reminded of Catalina Erauso, the 16th century muleteer and sword duelist who used to fight men for the right to sleep with their wives. In the end, she became a fencer of such renown that she received an audience with the pope who was so impressed that he granted her a special dispensation to live as a man for the rest of her life.Even when one looks at matricentric societies where women hold the majority of property and political rights, one sees that men often still dominate the mythic and public spheres so, in a sense, I think that even in non-patriarchal societies, female heroes are going to be more inherently exceptional. (Which is fine with me because D&D is all about exceptional people.)I'm also appreciative of the examples you cite from the Near East in terms of other social models. I would also recommend people interested in that sort of thing look at Iroquoian societies like the Cherokees or Mohawks.</blockquote>

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