iorewmidwest.blogg.se - Chalice and the blade symbolism of god

It is entirely possible to take an evolutionary wrong turn – and in the present case, that turn could take us into an irrevocable dead end. But “progress” is not always progress – see last week’s blog post on Surviving Progress. If that is so, then if we moved from equality to patriarchy, then patriarchy must be an evolutionary step forwards. There is in many ways an implicit assumption that things get better as time progresses – that as human bodies and brains evolve, so does our wellbeing. Biological evolution necessarily leads to cultural evolution.

But looking at the evidence more objectively, it seems to suggest that in prehistory the two genders were regarded as different, but equal. Historians assumed that if a society wasn’t patriarchal, it must be matriarchal, so when they didn’t find evidence of matriarchy, they concluded that males must have always been dominant. Again, the evidence has been misinterpreted. Until one particular culture started marauding and put everybody else on the defensive around 5,000 years ago, it is likely that most prehistoric peoples lived peacefully and cooperatively. “Spears” in cave paintings were more likely branches or reeds. Too much archaeological evidence has been interpreted through the lens of what the historian expected to see, rather than what was there.

Humans are naturally warlike and violent.

With intellectual and well-researched rigour, she explodes some powerful myths: (I shall leave it to you to picture the many examples of the dominator mindset current in the world today.) She writes: “…once the function of male violence against women is perceived, it is not hard to see how men who are taught they must dominate the half of humanity that is not as physically strong as they are will also think it their “manly” duty to conquer weaker men and nations.” Groups can be different without being either inferior or superior.Īfter a rigorous examination of the archaeological evidence, she concludes that the original direction of our cultural evolution was towards partnership, but following a period of chaos and disruption around 5,000 years ago there was a fundamental shift towards domination, and we moved from a life-generating and nurturing view of the Universe (chalice/grail) to worship of the blade (the power to take life).Īlthough she bases her argument in the relationship between the two halves of humanity, she extrapolates that dominator mentality to domination not only over women, but over weaker men, over other countries, over nature – in fact, over anything that can be classified as “other”.

Partnership model = social relations based on linking rather than ranking.

Dominator model = ranking of one half of humanity over the other, in either patriarchy or matriarchy.

She suggests that, under Cultural Transformation Theory, there are two basic models of society: I had thought that maybe this would be because the stereotypically “feminine” qualities of compassion and nurturing would lead to greater consideration for the non-human and future human inhabitants of Planet Earth.īut Riane Eisler takes a different view which, on reflection, I think is stronger.

What I loved about it was that it confirmed a hunch that I’ve long had, that gender equality and sustainability are somehow entwined. Available in 26 different languages and with over half a million copies sold, it is definitely a book of significance. On this occasion, I’d like to thank those who recommended The Chalice and the Blade, first published in 1987, which rings as true now as it did when it first came out. When three people, quite independently, suggest that I should read the same book, I pay attention.