Welcome to Breaking Down Patriarchy. I'm Amy McPhee Allabest. Today's episode will be a discussion of the book

The Chalice and The Blade by Rianne Isler. This book was published in 1987, and along with other

female archaeologists working at the time, Isler proposed theories about humans' prehistoric past that caused quite a stir

in the field of archaeology and gave rise to a spiritual goddess movement within feminism

in the 1980s and 90s. But before we dive into our text, I'm excited to introduce my first

reading partner, Malia Morris. Hi, Malia. Hi, Amy. Thank you so much for being here

today. I'm so excited to have this discussion with you. What interested you in doing this project?

You know, I think something that we've discussed before, which is that we've had this immense privilege of being educated women

and how as educated women, this is a lot of information that I have never interacted with

before. I've heard bits and pieces, especially from my degree in sociology. But when it comes to

the particulars, you know, my knowledge is very scant.

So for me, I conceptualize the idea of learning about these primary texts as a way to sort of arm myself with information.

So that when I'm confronted with situations where I'm discussing it or when I'm confronting patriarchy,

that I'm just better prepared to understand

the process of how things have developed and how to move forward.

Thank you so much for sharing that. And thank you so much for being here. I'm really excited to

discuss this text with you and launch our project together. So with that, let's dive into the book.

And if you don't mind, I'd love it, Malia, if you could give us some background on Rianne Isler and some of the main points that we'll be discussing in this book, The Chalice in the Blade.

Rianne Isler is a social system scientist, cultural historian and attorney whose research, writing, and speaking, transformed the lives of people worldwide.

She lived through the Nazi occupation of Austria when she was a child, and she writes the following about that experience.

I was born in Vienna, and my parents and I lived there until Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany.

On Crystal Noct, so called because of the glass shattered in Jewish homes, synagogues and businesses,

...