ABSTRACT
The chapter sheds light on Marija Gimbutas’ integration into U.S. society and her struggle to make an academic career. It follows her from Harvard to UCLA, focuses on her broadening her research focus, and shows her eventual success as an expert in European prehistory and Indo-European studies, her excavations in Europe, and other academic activities. The chapter discusses Gimbutas’ continuous involvement with the Lithuanian diaspora in the U.S., as well as her connections with her relatives who remained in the Soviet Union, including her trips and lectures in the Lithuanian SSR. It explains her ideological positioning as an anti-communist in the Cold War context and her special role as an Eastern European émigré in the U.S. The chapter discusses also Gimbutas’ life context during the period when she made the turn towards elaborating her Old Europe hypothesis and discusses her involvement with the feminist movement in California where she lived. It described also her death in 1994 and the developments afterward. The chapter raises some questions regarding the reception of her work which are discussed more deeply in the following chapters.
