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Tidbit. An Italian researcher, Massimo Izzo, has questioned the “myth of matriarchy”, i.e. the idea that in Neolithic times the matriarchical society was the dominant model, represented as idyllic if not Edenic, until it was replaced by the “bad” patriarchy. The theory is mainly due to the Lithuanian anthropologist M. Gimbutas and in certain circles has been asserted as a sort of dogmatic truth. Izzo has pointed out that the theory is largely based on the discovery of numerous female statuettes, while ignoring the contiguous finds of statuettes that are male or of unknown sex; therefore, he says, it is more a reflection of modern femminist ideology than a feasible reconstruction of ancient social structures.