Merlin Stone, from The Politics of Women's Spirituality, ed. by Charlene Spretnak (Anchor/Doubleday) 1982, pgs 8-9

"The first [theory on the origin of Goddess beliefs dating back several thousand years] relies on anthropological analogy to explain the initial development of matrilineal (mother-kinship) societies. Studies of 'primitive' tribes over the last few centuries have led to the realization that some isolated 'primitive' peoples, even in our own century, did not yet possess the conscious understanding of the relationship of sex to conception. The analogy is then drawn that Paleolithic people may have been at a similar level of biological awareness...

If this was the case, then the mother would have been seen as the singular parent of her family, the lone producer of the next generation...

The second line of evidence concerns the beginnings of religious beliefs and rituals and their connection with matrilineal descent..."