Unveiling and decolonizing Monotheaism: Rediscovering the One-Goddess Era

Abstract: The notion of monotheism, conventionally understood as the worship of a single male deity, has undergone extensive exploration. However, a remarkable and transformative narrative has been often overlooked - the era of monotheism, centered around a single Mother Goddess. This proposal seeks to illuminate this largely uncharted terrain, presenting compelling evidence for the existence of a prolonged era of monotheism preceding the rise of pagan polytheism and the subsequent emergence of monotheistic religions.

Presenter bio: Dilşa Deniz is a socio-cultural Kurdish anthropologist and presently is a visiting scholar at Harvard University Divinity School. Her research focuses on gender, the cultural, political, and religious practices in relation to Kurdish Alevis, Alevi geography, and myths of Alevism in Kurdish communities, particularly in the city of Dersim, an ancient urban center for Kurdish Alevism in Anatolia. She studies Alevism as an old independent Iranian (land of Arian) religion and thus refuses to be illustrated as a sect of Islam. She presently researching Shâmaran, the Mother Earth Goddess of Kurdistan, and the decolonization of this Kurdish myth at Harvard University.

Affiliation: Harvard Divinity School