Women played leading role in history

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. ˜ Hold on to your bearskin hats and
your macramé snoods, readers: You are in for a wild
verbal ride through your deep, deep past.

The authors of a new book have fashioned a 16-chapter
prehistory theme park worthy of Disney, but in their
confection, lame, even egregious, past assumptions
about our past are hunted down and slain, and stars ˆ
in the form of womankind ˆ are born.

"The Invisible Sex: Uncovering the True Roles of Women
in History" (Smithsonian Books/Collins) is a roller
coaster ride through Homo sapiens' unsteady past. No
stone tool is left unturned to bring us up on what is
ˆ and what is not ˆ probable about our long and
miraculous journey.

The authors are archaeologists J.M. Adovasio, the
founder and director of the Mercyhurst Archaeological
Institute; Olga Soffer, a professor of anthropology at
the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; and
Jake Page, a freelance writer. Adovasio is an expert
on perishable prehistoric artifacts; Soffer is an
expert on the Paleolithic Period and peoples of the
Old World.

Of greatest import in this book is the idea that women
have always been major players ˆ not simply
baby-machines who tended to the children, rustled up
roots, collected nuts and berries and relied on macho
male hunters to bring home the bacon.