Geographical classification

America > United States

Europe > Lithuania

Socio-cultural movements

Late modern period / Contemporary period

Groups by dedication

Writers

Humanistics > Archaeologists

Humanistics > Historians

Character
Portrait

Marija Biruté Alseikaitė-Gimbutienė

(Marija Gimbutas)

Vilnius (Lithuania) 23-01-1921 ‖ Los Angeles (USA) 02-02-1994

Period of activity: From 1946 until 1990

Geographical classification: America > United States Europe > Lithuania

Socio-cultural movements

Late modern period / Contemporary period

Groups by dedication

Writers

Humanistics > Archaeologists

Humanistics > Historians

Context of feminine creation

In 1956 Gimbutas introduced her Kurgan hypothesis, which combined archaeological study of the distinctive Kurgan burial mounds with linguistics to unravel some problems in the study of the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) speaking peoples, whom she dubbed the "Kurgans"; namely, to account for their origin and to trace their migrations into Europe. This hypothesis, and her method of bridging the disciplines, have had a significant impact on Indo-European studies.

Also, her discoveries took on great symbolic importance for feminists across varied disciplines who found, in her vision of a peaceful, egalitarian, nature-revering society, a sense of hope for the future based on this foundation in the distant past. Unintended to her, Marija Gimbutas’ impact was so great that it reached beyond the scholarly community and helped fuel the women’s movement in society at large. Though scholars on methodological and ideological grounds have challenged her work, this very work fuelled the initial tangible, scientific, and material support for the hypotheses that cultures existed wherein patriarchy did not rule, war and violence were not assumed as a cultural norm, and that there were, in fact, egalitarian social structures. In honour of her contribution to the mutual enrichment of cultures for universal understanding and peace, UNESCO designated Gimbutas among its milestone anniversary commemorations for 2021 in observance of her centenary year.

Other important women intellectuals of the Lithuanian exile were Birutė Ciplijauskaitė and Birutė Galdikas.

Review

Marija Gimbutienė, the most outstanding Lithuanian scientist who gained worldwide recognition - created a unique field of science and discovered and described the hitherto unexplored civilization of Old Europe. Her scientific ideas substantially impacted Lithuanian cultural life and Lithuanian poetry in the XX century. Gimbutiene's work was based on social and political movements in the United States and other parts of the world. Famous Hollywood actors, American journalists, and politicians attended lectures by the researcher at the University of California (Los Angeles). 

Activities

Justifications

  • She was a historian, archaematologist, and archaeologist.
  • In her works, she connect different disciplines - religion, archaeology, linguistics and ethnology and created a new discipline called - archaeomatologistic, which significantly changed the concept of European prehistory.
  • M. Gimbutienė expressed a new approach to archaeology - traditionally archaeologists only dig and describe their findings, and the professor began to interpret them, and interpret their meaning.
  • In her work, she revealed the evolution of the prehistory of the peoples of Europe, including the Baltics, and developed a conception of the culture of Old Europe and its collapse when the Indo-European tribes invaded Europe from the Eurasian steppes.

Biography

Lithuanian archaeologist and anthropologist Birutė Marija Alseikaitė - Gimbutienė, better known as Marija Gimbutienė, was born in 1921 in Vilnius. 1931 Marija Gimbutienė and her family moved to Kaunas. The reason for all this is the mother's concern for her children to receive a proper education and science at a Lithuanian university. Marija Gimbutienė graduated from Kaunas Aušra Girls' Gymnasium in 1938. After graduating, Gimbutienė immediately entered the Faculty of Humanities of Kaunas Vytautas Magnus University. In the same year when she entered the university, Marija Gimbutienė was actively involved in the excavation process of prehistoric repositories in Kaunas. 1942 Marija Gimbutienė graduated from Vilnius University and married. Later, Gimbutienė left Lithuania and entered the University of Tübingen in Germany, graduating in 1946. 1949 Marija Gimbutienė came to the United States, where in 1950. worked at Harvard University. Here she translated texts and worked at the Harvard University Museum. 1963 Marija Gimbutienė also became a professor at the University of California. 1993 Marija Gimbutienė has been awarded the title of Honorary Doctor at Kaunas Vytautas Magnus University. Marija Gimbutienė died in 1994. In Los Angeles, however, her remains were transported and reburied in Kaunas, Petrašiūnai cemetery.

Works

English

She wrote the best works in 1946–1971. 

  • Senoji Europa (Old Europe) (1996)
  • Senovinė simbolika lietuvių liaudies mene (Ancient symbolism in Lithuanian folk art) (1994)
  • Baltų mitologija. Senovės lietuvių deivės ir dievai (Baltic mythology. Ancient Lithuanian goddesses and gods) (2002)
  • Baltai priešistoriniais laikais: etnogenezė, materialinė kultūra ir mitologija (Baltics in prehistoric times: ethnogenesis, material culture and mythology) (1985)

Didactic approach

Lithuanian Literature.

Documents