Pitiless Bronze: A Postpatriarchal Examination of Prepatriarchal Cultures re-examines ancient symbols, myths, and archeological finds from a gynocentric point of view, since Heflin was able to determine that the ancient Egyptians did not discover that males play a biological role in pregnancy until circa 2400 BCE, which means males were only "blood relatives" through birth as sons, not as fathers--a term which probably began as an honorary position in a community, just as it is used in the Catholic Church today.
Pitiless Bronze gets its title because Heflin pinpoints events during the Bronze Age for the eastern end of the Mediterranean as the pivotal place and time when androcentrists began suppressing women heavily to build patriarchies. The "postpatriarchal" term indicates that there are no Full On Patriarchies in the world today, although the Taliban in Afghanistan is close. Once they make it legal for men to sell their wives and daughters, making women, once again, nothing more than chattel, they will be a Full On Patriarchy.
Once males realized they play a role in pregnancy circa 2400 BCE, however, they assumed they were "planting seeds" in women's "fertile fields," so that women, who had previously been seen as The Creators, became mere "vessels" to carry men's creations, which led to the rise in androcentrism, eventually giving rise to patriarchies.
Heflin examines several prepatriarchal cultures: the Sumerians, the Egyptians, the Hittites, the Cretans, the Mycenaeans, and the Aztecs. With ample evidence, Heflin proves Bachofen's logical premise that all cultures began as matriarchal, but became more patriarchal after men's role in pregnancy was discovered. Using biology and her knowledge of farm animals, Heflin explains why procreation was not discovered earlier, and how the Egyptians discovered males play a role in pregnancy from domesticating the only monogamous animal ever domesticated, pinpointing the era they did so via archeological discoveries.
Heflin also discusses the differences between Female Magic and Male Magic. Female Magic, which was believed to be more powerful than Male Magic, arose from beliefs about menstruation. Since women could bleed, but not die, for three to five days every month, our ancient ancestors believed women were Spiritual Warriors fighting a Cosmic Battle to bring new life from Another Realm to This Realm, which is one of many reasons why women were seen as The Creators. Some women's ability to successfully give birth also gave us the idea of "rebirth," since even ancient pharaohs assumed that they had to have their mothers buried near them in order to assure that the same woman was in the After Realm to give birth to them again there.
Heflin draws on the Egyptian Mound of Creation myth to demonstrate why human beings bury their dead in several basic earthen burial structures--mounds, pyramids, cysts, boat burials, and even on "mounts" or "hills" so designated by a community. These structures all imitate female pudenda.
Even ancient temple structures, such as ziggurats, imitated women's reproductive organs, with the steps leading up the ziggurat representing the birth canal, the arch over the steps the cervix, and the temple at the top the uterus, also known as the "holy of holies." This same structure is also found on herd animal skulls, like cattle and goats (also called bucrania), which necessitates a review of archeological interpretation of such symbols.
Pitiless Bronze is structured in two primary sections. "Section One: What Readers Need to Know" is written for lay readers, supplying definitions and descriptive examples to help non-scholars understand the concepts discussed in "Section Two: Postpatriarchal Examinations of Prepatriarchal Cultures," which is the more scholarly section of the book. One important chapter in Section Two is the chapter that started Heflin's 7-years of research, "Hero Schmero: The Iliad as a Cautionary Tale," which discusses how the epic poem is actually a warning about what happens when a society not only allows males to act violently, but also encourages them to be that way, citing Hero Worship as the longest running propaganda scheme in the world.
Heflin brings in myths, symbols (e.g. α (alpha = beginning), Ω (omega = the end or passing on to Next Realm)), and artifacts from many cultures around the world to further demonstrate why pyramids and other pudenda-shaped structures are found in so many places around the world, further cementing her argument that matriarchies were not thrown over successfully until males began changing language and cultural, especially religious, symbols from demonstrating Feminine Power into Male Power structures in order to enact egynovi--the active oppression of Feminine Power. Heflin created the term egynovi because no such term for the oppression of women's power had ever successfully been coined before, as pointed out in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's treatise, The Man Made World..