Based on accounts of various ancient writers, scholars have painted a sketchy picture of the activities of an all-female cult that, perhaps as early as the sixth century B.C., worshipped a goddess known in Latin as Bona Dea, "the good goddess."
| Line | Current feminist theory, in validating women’s own |
| stories of their experience, has encouraged scholars | |
| of women’s history to view the use of women’s oral | |
| narratives as the methodology, next to the use of | |
| (5) | women’s written autobiography, that brings historians |
| closest to the “reality” of women’s lives. Such | |
| narratives, unlike most standard histories, represent | |
| experience from the perspective of women, affirm | |
| the importance of women’s contributions, and furnish | |
| (10) | present-day women with historical continuity that is |
| essential to their identity, individually and collectively. | |
| Scholars of women’s history should, however, be | |
| as cautious about accepting oral narratives at face | |
| value as they already are about written memories. | |
| (15) | Oral narratives are no more likely than are written |
| narratives to provide a disinterested commentary on | |
| events or people. Moreover, the stories people tell to | |
| explain themselves are shaped by narrative devices | |
| and storytelling conventions, as well as by other | |
| (20) | cultural and historical factors, in ways that the |
| storytellers may be unaware of. The political rhetoric | |
| of a particular era, for example, may influence | |
| women’s interpretations of the significance of their | |
| experience. Thus a woman who views the Second | |
| (25) | World War as pivotal in increasing the social |
| acceptance of women’s paid work outside the home | |
| may reach that conclusion partly and unwittingly | |
| because of wartime rhetoric encouraging a positive | |
| view of women’s participation in such work. |
