Maybe you are familiar with something that goes like this: "In the ancient times, the world was matriarchal and there was a near-universal worship of a primordial, supreme Goddess. Then patriarchy was invented by a certain nomadic tribe (or, in another version, patriarchy was invented due to the emergence of agriculture) and patriarchal societies began invading the peaceful, matriarchal nations, wiping out the Goddess cultures. For millennia, such history has been unfairly suppressed and censored by the patriarchal powers-that-be, in particular by Christianity and Islam."
Merlin Stone (1931-2011), in her book (1976) When God was a Woman, popularized this idea at the time the Women's Liberation Movement was in ascendance. Other notable authors promoting similar ideas were Monica Sjoo and Marija Gimbutas.
While these authors were known academics, their hypotheses have been roundly debunked by respectable archaeologists, historians, and anthropologists.
Their works, however, made their way into the popular bookstore market as New Age publishers picked them up and published them as trade books. There are reasons why companies such as Llewelyn Publishers and trade books conglomerates such as HarperCollins peddle this type of book but never academic publishers such as the Oxford University Press.
That should tell you something.