Chapters 7-9 Summary and Analysis

The Canaanites are commonly said to have been dispossessed of Palestine by the Hebrews because of their "abominations" and "sexual license". That is, they practice what has been common for millennia throughout the Middle East: women live within a wealthy temple complex and have sex with males in the community who come to honor the Goddess. Disagreeing with archeologists who assume this is a form of magic to invoke fertility, Stone declares it is a sign that humans—women first—connect sex and reproduction and integrate the reality into religion. Sex is the Goddess' sacred, holy gift to humanity, and calling her practices "fertility cults" invites future scholars to call today's moralistic religion "sterility cults". Documentary evidence from across the Middle East shows that early societies know about marriage but choose to allow women, married and unmarried...