The merit of discovering this important
stage in the relationship of the sexes is due to _Bachofen_. "Based on
life-giving motherhood," he says, "gynecocracy was completely dominated
by the natural principles and phenomena which rule its inner and outer
life; it vividly realised the unity of nature, the harmony of the
universe which it had not yet outgrown.... In every respect obedient to
the laws of physical existence, its gaze was fixed upon the earth, it
worshipped the chthonian powers rather than the gods of light." The
children of men who had sprung from their mother as the flowers spring
from the soil, raised altars to Gaea, Demeter and Isis, the deities of
inexhaustible fertility and abundance. These early races of men realised
themselves only as a part of nature; they had not yet conceived the idea
of rising above their condition and setting their intelligence to battle
with its blind laws. Incapable of realising their individuality, they
bowed in passive submission to nature's undisputed sway.
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