Etruscan Women
The freedom of Etruscan women, disdained by Greek and Roman sources for moving around outdoors, dancing, particpating in sports, and drinking and reclining with men, or each other, at banquets. Gender parity in sarcophagi and other art, themes of women courting and Amazons.
The question of matrilineage: traces, but not fully matrilineal, and the eventual shift to more patrilineal nomenclature. Women in Etruscan religion: priestesses, the consecrating woman in the Tomb of the Baron, priestess-queen Larthia in the Regolini Galassi tomb at Cerveteri. The foundational prophetess Vecu / Vecuia / Vegoia, the Etrusca Disciplina, and divinatory books. The mysterious hatrencu of Vulci and their female-centered burials at the Tomb of the Inscriptions.
Tanaquil, the woman “well skilled in celestial prophecies,” a founder of the Tarquinian dynasty, with its matrilineal overtones, and her elevation of Servius Tullius and the common people. Gaia Caecilia and her magical distaff and belt of amulets.Download PDF ©2011 Max Dashu
Visual talk: Etruscan Women
Video dvd: Woman Shaman: the Ancients
