Rating: 
Summary: Some great points, but dissapppointing
Review: Chalice and the Blade covers the "Dominator" system and all its terrible consequences very well. There's not a lot of arguments to counter that portion of her book. Maybe she overstated the case a bit, but with all the atrocities throughout the course of history, overstatement is a hard thing to really come by. Accounts of goddess-based societies should be required knowledge for everybody. There has been suppression of non-masculine information for too long! All in all, dominator is bad, and thank god for Eisler's book on that score.I read the use of the word "dominator" to be really the word hierarchy, and it's on that part that I am disappointed by this book. Certainly an extreme hierarchal system is detrimental and disasterous to society and individuals--again, that account of the book is its strong point--but she actually more condemns hierarchies than tries to incorporate them into her so called "partership model" or linking model. And in condemning hierarchies in favor of a linking (or non-ranking) approach, she indeed contradicts herself. That is, she is using the very thing she condemns to prove her own point. She is saying that linking is BETTER than hierarchies in general. Certainly linking is better than dominator heirarchy, or at least much more livable a system of society, but to condemn all heirachies is using a hierarchal method of ranking. She RANKS linking (non-ranking) ahead of hierarchies. A contradiction. Hierarchies exist. And that's okay--atoms into molecules into cells into body, etc. Letter keys into keyboard into computer into internet, etc. Individuals into groups into tribes into nations, etc. Certainly MORE linking would be a good thing, but only linking is not an accurate account of the way of things. So read the book. The account of mysogyny and terror by people wanting to dominate are valid and very relevant. It's a good book, or maybe a good half of book--the other part a contradiction. A true partnership model honors both natural hierarchies and linking (aka heterarchies). But that's not part of Eisler's book, and as such its disappointing.
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Summary: This book answers the question: Why are we who we are?
Review: Some of you may have asked yourself: Why did those barbarians from the fringes invade and destroy the peaceful Neolithic civilization Eisler describes so beautifully in her book? Eisler begins to answer that question in her follow-up work _Sacred Pleasure_, a masterpiece that is must reading for those of you who enjoyed _The Chalice and the Blade_. What Eisler reveals in _Sacred Pleasure_ is that the evolution of human behavior is directly related to the environment. Duh! This is really old news, but it doesn't get much press since genetics is all the rage in the current paradigm-challenged orthodoxy. What happens is this: If you live in a pleasant environment, you are much more likely to be a pleasant people; if you live in a harsh environment, you are more likely to fight amongst yourselves, fight with your neighbors, and then go after the people from the pleasant environments. It's really very simple. _Sacred Pleasure_ shows us much more than this, however, so buy both books and read about how we got here, why we are how we are, and how we can create the peaceful and equalitarian future that is our birthright.
Rating: 
Summary: an old suspicion confirmed
Review: my mother gave me this book a number of years ago and i read it with interest - squirming a bit at the drama perhaps, but generally appreciating it as a new look at european pre-history and the messages that it might hold for us about our future. i read it again a few years later and realized that, this time around, something about the whole story smelled just a bit off. now, having read a lot of other literature touching on related topics (ruhlen, renfrew, cvalli-sforza and others) i realize what that something is. the whole thing just isn't plausible. question: if humans were originally happy and matriarchal what was it about the lives of the those early nomads that turned them into marauding patriarchs? question: are we really expected to believe that bands of primitive - albeit warlike - raiders were able to completely transform an ancient and stable society just by riding rough-shod over it? this is not how it has worked in other, better documented instances of invasion and occupation. look at china, for example. question: what does the author and her colleagues make of steadily mounting evidence that the spread of the indo-european languages coincided with the spread of agriculture in europe, western asia and elsewhere and that her "Old Europeans" most likely spoke indo-european languages? (well, this is actually a rhetorical question. i know what these folks make of it. it generally throws them into a spluttering rage.) don't get me wrong i definitely think there's something there to be found out. there have been genuine cultural transformations both pre-historical and historical that need looking into if we are going to find out where we've come from and - by extension - where we're going. we need some assurance that the field of the possible includes a way of life that isn't founded on violent oppression and the struggle for domination. all these things are critically important and the author - while she tells a ripping good story - fails to address them or to give satisfactory answers to the relevant questions.
Rating:
Summary: More than just interesting...
Review: I have never read a book that challenged my beliefs as much as this one. Yet it also convinced me that perhaps there is another side to history, one that our society's ethnocentric eyes cannot see. And it gave me hope....
Rating:
Summary: It woke me up to reality
Review: I think this book is a wonderful study of how our society went astray. This book is NOT, NOT about male bashing, but rather nurture assuring. It has, with the help of other books, helped to re-affirm my belief in the loving Goddess from back when religion was about nurturing without violence. I am a male women studies minor and this book helped me to see how the glorification of violence is a public celebration of the Blade, while there is a stigma on males who celebrate the life offering potentials of a Chalice. It is helping me understand who I am as a male in this society, and where we need to go to balance a reasonable partnership out of a dominating patriarchy. I recommended this book, yesterday, whole-heartedly, to a guy friend of mine who is also a women studies minor. This book is worth the time and thought. It will open your mind. It has opened mine. Invest in yourself through this book. She has provided SUPERIOR notes for supporting her facts.
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Summary: Every 23 year old should read this as a right of passage
Review: An fantastic study. I agree with most all of the "ideas". With one important exception. Eisly advocates a mother centered energy. A life giving and nurturing quality. Sugests that this quality should be of more importance in our society. A historicaly backed deconstruction of dogmatic church beliefs. Oh there is a lot more to it than that to be sure but the other reviews will cover that. She completely nails it she completely embued me with a thirst for this near utopian society based around life instead of death. And then she advocates abortion. Which is against everything of what i understand "between the lines" "Gylany" stands for. This issue i still struggle with. I recomend this book to anyone. I'm sending it to an astranged girlfriend. Not to get her back but hopefully to bring a certainty to the peace between us. Well this is getting a little off track. I digress. An important book that breaks down the trappings of dualistic thought patterns. Seeks balance rather than victory. Though matter a factly. Balance is victory. Otherwise one falls.
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Summary: Historical Self-Discovery
Review: What a clear, structured and scholarly path to follow as one learns of self and discovers the real story of human kind. I read this book over 5 years ago based on a friend's recommendation while on travel in California. When I returned, I had finished reading the book and was shocked, enlightened, and relieved to re-learn about our human story and the invaluable role that the feminine presence has played in history, religion, econony, etc. This book answered so many questions that have been unanswered for me over the years. Now, I know! The book does transcends "women studies". In fact, I was delighted to see this book favorably reviewed and recommended as a management text reading in a trade publication for American Society of Training & Development about 2 years ago. Now, if only it was possible for our high school and college students to read this book in our classrooms. What a thrill it would be to witness the scholarly debates that this book would surely generate.
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Summary: This book helps me understand how I got where I am.
Review: I believe this book is most important document I have ever read. Riane Eisler, has done a masterful job of putting into perspective how we as Westerners got to be how we are, out of touch with our intuition, abusive of the planet, institutionally condesending to feminine energy in all of its manifestations, and addicted to a "might makes right, male dominated" agenda. The Chalice and The Blade puts into words and affirms with scientific evidence what we all intuitively know: there is something wrong with the picture that has been presented to us as a civilization over the past 3,000 years. There is something that our more recent ancestors bought into that has led us astray from our Earth Mother. And more importantly, there is a way for us as a civilization to find our way back home, to work together to save the planet and ourselves. I have purchased 5 copies of this book (so far). I keep giving mine away. It is that important to me.
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Summary: This book has changed my view of the world and life
Review: What a revelation - I can't recommend this book highly enough. Knowing this part of our history shatters so many beliefs about the way 'we are' as women and men. It makes me feel that a lot of things we take for granted in our culture can be changed - are not fixed but simply agreed upon.
Rating:
Summary: History or Myth? Does it Matter?
Review: The Chalice and the Blade describes idyllic, Goddess-worshipping societies that Eisler believes existed several thousand years ago in eastern Europe and the eastern Mediterranean. She presents images of agrarian villages that had no defensive fortifications because there was no war. The communities were non-violent and egalitarian. There was no hierarchy and no sexism. There was no class system or great disparities of wealth. The people were deeply spiritual and practiced free love. They were profoundly connected to the natural world. Eventually, however, aggressive warrior nomads from the east (patriarchal peoples who worshipped male sky gods) destroyed these peaceful, Goddess-worshipping communities. The warrior nomads killed the men, raped the women, and took the children as slaves. The Goddess was suppressed and the patriarchy has ruled ever since. I read the book as a refreshing, life-affirming counter-myth that challenges the abusive aspects of our patriarchal traditions. The Chalice and the Blade celebrates the value of partnership, equality, collaboration, non-violence, and connectedness to nature. Eisler gives us some sense of the enormous power to heal that resides in the repressed feminine and lunar realms. However, I would offer the following cautions: 1. It is possible that Eisler has extrapolated a few scraps of evidence into a highly idealized society that didn't really exist. 2 . It is possible that Eisler's vision is pyschologically naive in the sense that everything has a shadow or dark side. If the Goddess societies existed, they would, by necessity, have a dark side. 3. It is possible that the problem with western society is not that it has a male image of divinity but that it has a one-sided, gender-specific image of divinity. Substituting a Goddess-based image might not lead to Utopia, but might bring its own set of problems. Perhaps we need images of the divine that honor both genders. 4. Eisler is a nationally known advocate of partnership models as superior forms of human interaction in contrast to "dominator" approaches. Faced with the choice of partnership or domination, the former is clearly preferable. A more neutral way of distinguishing between these two approaches would be to subsitute consensus for partnership and hierarchy for domination. It is possible that each approach - consensus and hierarchy - has its own merits and drawbacks. The negative shadow of consensus systems might be passive aggression, confusion, paralysis. It is possible that when grounded with love and respect, hierarchical systems can be generative and empowering. I suspect that the humanity would best be served by a society that reveres both male and female, earth and sky, soul and spirit, hierarchy and collaboration, passion and gentleness - a social order with a pluralistic approach that reflects mythopoetic diversity and celebrates consciousness. Yet, whatever the book's shortcomings I must confess that my heart is with Eisler.
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