Extra Credit Reading - Week 9 - Crash course videos

Kali, a Hindu goddess.

This week's video sets talked about the father god and the mother goddess. It went into detail about the roles they play and how they influenced society. The main point of these videos, I think, were the roles. However, it was something else that caught more of my attention and I thought it was a very important takeaway. In one of the videos, he talks about how goddesses were typically associated with fertility and bearers of life. This was assumed, not because there was evidence of this, but because they found old statues of women with large features, mainly big boobs. The guy mentions that these statues or carvings were never found with anything that resembled a fertility ritual of sorts.
So this idea is simply a theory. The important thing to understand is that this theory was made by "modern" humans. The humans that came after the Victorian age of science and believed that men were superior to women. The guy makes an important point saying that before we study, criticize, or assume things of history or prehistory, we have to be aware. Aware of our stereotypes and misconceptions, because these more ancient societies may not have believed those same things. This was a very helpful lesson for me to keep in mind throughout the rest of the semester and my career that when I read or study things that were analyzed or theorized by people before me that they may be forcing their viewpoints onto the people they were studying.


Crash Course Myth: Goddesses and Gods

Link to this week's videos: Link