OK so not agrarian.(Who said I cant admit when I am wrong?) But the
implications of the goddess culture were one
of deference to women, then again it may not have been. A true egalitarian
society isnt in history like you say Johanna but in the Dobe Kung tribe of
Africa. It is too bad that the increasing of the integration of tribal
Africa into mainstream culture has decreased the size of these tribal
villagers.(A product of patriarchical society?)
Bertina
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
On Wed, 23 Sep 1998 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> I follow the discussions on this forum with interest, but have not been moved
> to participate until now. What moves me to write are two things:
>
> 1. The goddess culture goes back much further than the 'agrarian' period in
> our history. Actually, it was the 'evolution' from a nomadic lifestyle to a
> domesticated agrarian society- with its competition for land and the need to
> manage population growth - that was the beginning of the patriarchy. Let's
> not glorify our agricultural period as something that was particularly good
> for women, because it wasn't.
>
> 2. If you want examples for a balance of power and cooperation between men and
> women, you don't have to go back thousands of years. Check out some of the
> Native American tribal systems that were (are?) still functioning even at the
> beginning of this century, e.g. the Iroqoi (not sure about the spelling). Our
> early feminists drew many of their ideas, inspiration and courage from their
> exposure to the role of women in Native American cultures. Why do you think
> white men (and 'their' women) worked so hard to eradicate these cultures (and
> condemmed their supporters as 'savages')? This continues today with the few
> remaining matriarchal societies left in the world.
>
> I totally agree with previous writers on this topic who advocate that our hope
> lies in cooperation and a joint consiousness of the Earth's needs. And we
> don't have to go back very far to find examples of how we can do that.
>
> All the best
>
> Johanna
>
>
