The Amazon Alternative to Victoria's Secret

"Though they were long believed to be purely imaginary, overwhelming evidence now shows that the Amazon traditions of the Greeks and other ancient societies derived in large part from historical facts.  Among the nomad horse-riding peoples of the steppes known to the Greeks as "Scythians," women lived the same rugged outdoor life as the men.  These "warlike tribes have no cities, no fixed abodes," wrote one ancient historian; " they live free and unconquered, so savage that even the women take part in war."  Archeology reveals that about one out of  three or four nomad women of the steppes was an active warrior buried with her weapons."  from The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women Across the Ancient World, Adrienne Mayor.


Now that just makes me so happy.   Just because the arrogant, destructive, and really very lame civilized world is so seemingly all-encompassing these days, doesn't mean that it is the only reality that has ever existed or can exist.  Somewhere in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tuva or inner Mongolia, there were Scythian women.  And I bet they still are there, doing their thing, beneath the radar of civilization - our wondrous techno-civilization that still wants to put women into high heels, pencil skirts, thongs, push-up bras, and lipstick and tell them that is a power outfit.    It's just so ridiculous.  

National Geographic interview with Adrienne Mayor