What is Patriarchy?
Webster's Dictionary defines patriarchy as"social organization marked by the supremacy of the father in the clan or family, the legal dependence of wives and children, and the reckoning of descent and inheritance in the male line. Broadly, the control by men of a disproportionately large share of power."
Patriarchy depicts men as the perfect norm against which women are measured and found lacking. Simone de Beauvior, in her essay "Woman as Other" wrote,"She is defined and differentiated with reference to man and not he with reference to her; she is the incidental, the inessential as opposed to the essential. He is the Subject, the Absolute - she is the Other."
Rather than being divinely ordained in the spiritual realm, the domination of women was a series of real events occurring between 4,300 and 2,800 years ago in different parts of the world. Riane Eisler, in her book The Chalice and the Blade documents the violent creation of patriarchy.
Up until approximately 5,000 years ago, power was shared by women and men in many cultures which Eisner named "partnership societies." Both women and men participated in government, religion, and commerce in a Goddess worshiping culture which was much more gender-balanced than the patriarchal society modern women must deal with.
Archaeological evidence from the ancient cities of Catal Huyuk and Hacilar in Turkey reveals how these peaceful societies were destroyed by the Kurgans, warlike nomads of Aryan and Indo-European stock who made their living by plundering instead of producing anything themselves.They worshipped a violent, vengeful warrior-god who lived in the sky.The Hebrews also shared this myth and violently destroyed partnership societies in other parts of the globe.
The violent sky-god theology of the Kurgans and Hebrews was radically different from Goddess-centered theology which was peaceful and earth-based.
Tombs unearthed before and after the invasion yield many differences. Before the arrival of the Kurgans, the tombs contained bones which were intact. However, after the violent takeover, the tombs usually yielded skeletons of one male with those of women and children who were ritually killed when he died. Often, the bones of the womens' forearms showed signs of being broken, indicating an attempt to deflect blows. Womens' ankles were also broken to prevent them from running away. Murals which once portrayed peaceful scenes for nearly 1,500 years now depicted violent scenes of war and conquest.
The U.S. Congress is 95 percent male. Is it possible for women to be represented by a government with such a pronounced gender imbalance? A glance at the annual military budget for the big boys' war toys ($275 billion) and the budget for the Women Infants and Children Supplemantal Program (WIC) which provides food and infant formula for poor women and their babies ($50 million) gives us a "hint" at the answer.
Incredibly, funding of the WIC program may even be reduced to "balance the budget". In groups ruled by brute force, (whether it's a pride of lions or a human patriarchal society), those with the most power take "the lion's share" while those with less power (usually women and children) must settle for crumbs. Today's global patriarchy is a direct descendant of Kurgan society. It contains the same "traditional family values" of barbarians; the use of physical force to control women, the condoning of environmental destruction for economic gain and institutionalized murder (war).
Why have women accepted domination for so long? Mary Daly, in her book Beyond God the Father says, "The exploitative sexual caste system could not be perpetuated without the consent of the victims as well as of the dominant sex and such consent is obtained through sex-role socialization."
This begins the moment we are born and is enforced by religion, the educational system, toy and clothing manufacturers, advertisers, doctors, psychologists, mass media and language.
Male-supremacist theology is the strongest shackle keeping women "in their place." In order for a woman to live her life as an autonomous human being, she must not only defy mortal men, but their gods as well. Consider the following statements written by men and attributed to "god's" will:
"Wives, submit yourselves unto your husbands as unto the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church."- Ephesians 5:22-23.
"God formed her body to belong to a man to have and to rear children. Let them bear children till they die of it." - Martin Luther
"A woman must never be free of subjugation." - The Hindu code of Manu V
"Your women are fields for you to cultivate, so go to your field as you will." - Koran 2:223
"Women have weak memories, are undisciplined, impulsive and dangerous when given authority over anything." - Catholic Church's edict against witches.
"I thank thee O lord, that thou has not created me a heathen, a slave, or a woman."- Orthodox Jewish prayer
"In pain shall you bear children, yet your urge will be for your husband and he shall rule over you."- Genesis 3:16
"Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. I suffer not women to teach nor to usurp authority over the man but to be in silence."- First epistle-Timothy 2:11-12.
Women remain trapped in the maze of sexisn when they cannot clearly define their enemy which is the system of patriarchy and not all individual men. Thus, feminists are not anti-male just as the abolitionists were not anti-white. The abolitionists only opposed those particular whites who practiced slavery. In the same way, feminists only oppose those men who support the domination of women. Many men have not internalized patriarchy and support women's rights. Unfortunately, their numbers have not reached the critical mass necessary for a major shift away from today's patriarchal world-view.
A global rise in feminist consciousness is gaining momentum at a pace never before seen in human history. As Mary Daly says,"The becoming of women in sisterhood is the counter-cultural phenomenon par excellance which can indicate the future course of human spiritual evolution."
Cloning and Dominionism
Dominionism is maintained by brute force and takes Genesis literally. In every nation, a certain race wields power over races with less power. Wealthy men of the most powerful race occupy the highest rung of the ladder. Women and people of less powerful races are consigned to the lower rungs closer to those occupied by animals and the natural world.
Humans are ranked by gender, race, sexual orientation, class, and culture. Ann Petermann of "Earth First" says,"The eco-feminist connection between the oppression of women and nature is extremely important as a basis to understand that all oppression, all of the "isms", are derived from the same basic source."
She defines this as the primal fear and hatred of both women and nature which has been internalized by many men. This is dominionism.
Jim Mason in his book
Pre-agricultural humans saw themselves as part of the natural world. They believed animals had souls and were sacred. When hunters killed an animal, they often performed rituals of thanks and apology to the animal's spirit.
However, about 10,000 years ago, humans shifted from hunting and gathering to agriculture and animal husbandry. The keeping of domestic animals required the blunting of compassion since each animal was raised from birth and known its entire life as an individual. Thus, in order to kill or castrate them without remorse, animals had to be"unsouled" and regarded as less than human so their suffering could be either justified or ignored.
Lack of respect and compassion set the stage for humans to brutalize each other. "The wooden fence mandated the beginnings of the concentration camp and the cord was the first shackle," said Richard Lewinsohn, author of Animals Men and Myths.
Today, factory farms are an accepted fact of life. People eat meat from these "concentration camps" without compassion for the beings they consume.
Hens suffer their entire lives. These helpless birds are crammed into filthy cages where they can barely move. They never see the sun or breathe fresh air. Day-old rooster chicks, having no market value, are tossed into barrels where they smother. Each hen is hung by her feet from a conveyor belt on her way to the knife. Often, the blade misses her throat and she is dragged, fully conscious, through scalding water to remove her feathers.
The widespread practice of compassion and respect is the only way human cloning will be prevented. A society that doesn't care about the suffering of billions of birds and animals is not likely to forbid the cloning of humans as a resource for organ banks or slave labor. Without the spiritual virtues of compassion and respect, humans will never rise above dominionism which is now destroying both human life and the lives of the non-human beings with whom we share this miraculous planet. Home
