Re: [P2P-F] Fwd: Matriarchal Studies

[Anna]

I understand your point Willi, and I agree that without material independence, 
we will not be able to free ourselves completely from capitalist values. I see 
this as a gradual process in which the desire to be free invites us to find 
ways to create material conditions for ourselves which are independent of the 
capitalist system. Then that independence to whatever degree feeds a 
consciousness which enables us to see other opportunities to become more 
independent, and so on. It is not a once for all event. We will all inevitably 
bring with us values we have internalised, consciously and unconsciously, which 
will need the excavation June talks about. The 'dreaming' is important, not 
because we can't imagine another way, but because we need to be clear about 
what we want. 

Anna

> On 16 Aug 2014, at 22:38, willi uebelherr  wrote:
> 
> 
> Dear June,
> 
> i follow the texts from dante and you. In your answer you wrote:
> 
> "I still believe there is another way to fight these dominating 
> pathologies by learning the language to expose them -- intellectually 
> and philosophically, yes -- but more importantly, excavate them 
> emotionally where this "learning" (like all social "learning") is most 
> deeply imprinted on our own sense of self. ..."
> 
> But without the independence in the local economy, no one can escape 
> from slavery. Only dream worlds can then arise. I know, for the people 
> in europe this is beyond their imagination. But there is no way around.
> 
> many greetings, willi
> now: Popayan, Colombia
> 
> 
> 
>> Am 16/08/2014 um 14:57 schrieb June Gorman:
>> Dante -
>> 
>> Forgive the pun, but on this economic point I believe you are right on the 
>> money!  For in this the patriarchal mindset has trumped, and the definition 
>> of all worthwhile "value" reduced completely down to that which makes 
>> certain people -- all of which, not coincidentally, tend to be the most 
>> "patriarchal" in their beliefs and emotional modus operandi -- the "leaders" 
>> of this increasingly unfair, unequal and unsustainable, breaking-apart 
>> world.  Yet, we call them "wealthy", often "intelligent" and treat them like 
>> "kings" and accept their system, even when spiritual, moral and even 
>> environmental bankruptcy are the obvious and only predictable ends.
>> 
>> It is, after the physical aggression and violence used more historically and 
>> currently in still less "developed" places, the most sophisticated of all 
>> their control mechanisms as so many, (as you explain in your resultant 
>> alienation from this economic system), have "bought" into it, telling 
>> themselves there is no other way.  At least the physical control and 
>> subsequent felt resistance was more honest and did not create our own 
>> participation in our own subjugation: this subsequent emotional as well as 
>> physical "slavery".
>> 
>> I still believe there is another way to fight these dominating pathologies 
>> by learning the language to expose them -- intellectually and 
>> philosophically, yes -- but more importantly, excavate them emotionally 
>> where this "learning" (like all social "learning") is most deeply imprinted 
>> on our own sense of self.  This, I have found, is the most important and 
>> most difficult work to do -- on ourselves first, and then on our societal 
>> systems.  But much, much easier to do when done together, accepting and 
>> admitting to the hard work of that emotional re-learning and what level of 
>> vulnerability and care it demands in order to do well. Especially as it is 
>> completely deemed "foreign" and denigrated by all that is most "valued" as 
>> "strength" and dominance of the patriarchal models so deeply enforced.
>> 
>> That is where "community" is most essential, and lived interactive presence 
>> in community the true test of these excavated truths.   Emotional honesty 
>> and emotional intelligence then become critical pre-requisites to do this 
>> work.
>> 
>> So I deeply support your trying to do it, Dante-Gabryell and helping all of 
>> us too, over this still rather cold distance of internet "words" that miss 
>> the deepest, most important heart-to-heart communication that is its true 
>> countervailing form to heal that very taught cold distance and created 
>> alienation.
>> 
>> In this I have found, the cognitive words mean very little compared to the 
>> actions in our lives and our greater world and with each other.
>> 
>> So I do truly appreciate that and what you are trying to do here,
>> June
>> And do you ever get to London?  I still believe the most powerful 
>> conversations of learning this very thing are indeed inter-personal.   By 
>> very definition, that have to be done that way to be "heard" truly and 
>> coherently. :-)
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>  From: Dante-Gabryell Monson 
>> To: June Gorman ; P2P Foundation mailing list 
>> ; "econow...@googlegroups.com" 
>> ; "op-...@googlegroups.com" 
>> 
>> Cc: leonard ferrari ; Tom Hen

Re: [P2P-F] Fwd: Matriarchal Studies

[willi uebelherr]

Dear June,

i follow the texts from dante and you. In your answer you wrote:

"I still believe there is another way to fight these dominating 
pathologies by learning the language to expose them -- intellectually 
and philosophically, yes -- but more importantly, excavate them 
emotionally where this "learning" (like all social "learning") is most 
deeply imprinted on our own sense of self. ..."

But without the independence in the local economy, no one can escape 
from slavery. Only dream worlds can then arise. I know, for the people 
in europe this is beyond their imagination. But there is no way around.

many greetings, willi
now: Popayan, Colombia



Am 16/08/2014 um 14:57 schrieb June Gorman:
> Dante -
>
> Forgive the pun, but on this economic point I believe you are right on the 
> money!  For in this the patriarchal mindset has trumped, and the definition 
> of all worthwhile "value" reduced completely down to that which makes certain 
> people -- all of which, not coincidentally, tend to be the most "patriarchal" 
> in their beliefs and emotional modus operandi -- the "leaders" of this 
> increasingly unfair, unequal and unsustainable, breaking-apart world.  Yet, 
> we call them "wealthy", often "intelligent" and treat them like "kings" and 
> accept their system, even when spiritual, moral and even environmental 
> bankruptcy are the obvious and only predictable ends.
>
> It is, after the physical aggression and violence used more historically and 
> currently in still less "developed" places, the most sophisticated of all 
> their control mechanisms as so many, (as you explain in your resultant 
> alienation from this economic system), have "bought" into it, telling 
> themselves there is no other way.  At least the physical control and 
> subsequent felt resistance was more honest and did not create our own 
> participation in our own subjugation: this subsequent emotional as well as 
> physical "slavery".
>
> I still believe there is another way to fight these dominating pathologies by 
> learning the language to expose them -- intellectually and philosophically, 
> yes -- but more importantly, excavate them emotionally where this "learning" 
> (like all social "learning") is most deeply imprinted on our own sense of 
> self.  This, I have found, is the most important and most difficult work to 
> do -- on ourselves first, and then on our societal systems.  But much, much 
> easier to do when done together, accepting and admitting to the hard work of 
> that emotional re-learning and what level of vulnerability and care it 
> demands in order to do well. Especially as it is completely deemed "foreign" 
> and denigrated by all that is most "valued" as "strength" and dominance of 
> the patriarchal models so deeply enforced.
>
> That is where "community" is most essential, and lived interactive presence 
> in community the true test of these excavated truths.   Emotional honesty and 
> emotional intelligence then become critical pre-requisites to do this work.
>
> So I deeply support your trying to do it, Dante-Gabryell and helping all of 
> us too, over this still rather cold distance of internet "words" that miss 
> the deepest, most important heart-to-heart communication that is its true 
> countervailing form to heal that very taught cold distance and created 
> alienation.
>
> In this I have found, the cognitive words mean very little compared to the 
> actions in our lives and our greater world and with each other.
>
> So I do truly appreciate that and what you are trying to do here,
> June
> And do you ever get to London?  I still believe the most powerful 
> conversations of learning this very thing are indeed inter-personal.   By 
> very definition, that have to be done that way to be "heard" truly and 
> coherently. :-)
>
>
> 
>   From: Dante-Gabryell Monson 
> To: June Gorman ; P2P Foundation mailing list 
> ; "econow...@googlegroups.com" 
> ; "op-...@googlegroups.com" 
> 
> Cc: leonard ferrari ; Tom Henfrey 
> ; Lisa Maroski 
> Sent: Saturday, August 16, 2014 8:08 PM
> Subject: Re: [P2P-F] Fwd: Matriarchal Studies
>
>
>
> Thanks June for reacting.
>
> I personally find it very challenging, in societies in which I lived and grew 
> up in, ruled by increasing monetization ( top down hierachical debt ),
> to live an approach based on sharing and contributing to a commons which 
> includes matriarchal / nurturing patterns.
>
>
> My own experience, is that monetization is so strongly imposed ( maintaining 
> control ) for the access to any resource, including water ( and soon perhaps 
> air ? ) , and the fear of lack of money so strong, that me, and other friends 
> who want to live in such way, seem to most often end up rather marginalized 
> from society, when intentionally deciding to reduce involvement in the 
> priorities of such ideological system empowered through servicing of debt / 
> the debt peonage.
>
>
> I personally look forward to reduce such

Re: [P2P-F] Fwd: Matriarchal Studies

[Dante-Gabryell Monson]

I find it interesting to observe ( and study ? )
how ( certain parts of ) established academia itself
might be adapting to maintain certain ideologies ?

Here is an article in french,
related to a business school in Brussels,
who has been offering courses to managers who , in my own interpretation,
start to doubt
about what they have been thought and have been applying ( chicago school
economics ),
after the unfolding of the crisis,
as to overcome the internal ( moral ? ) conflict such managers may have ?

http://www.rtbf.be/info/economie/detail_metez-moi-une-bonne-dose-de-philo-dans-votre-management?id=8329916

http://www.solvay.edu/executive-programme-management-philosophies

Perhaps there are similar courses for top executives in the UK, US, ... ?

Possibly we could bring forward our own,
but instead of encouraging them to continue managing a certain ideology,

put forward strategies in which they can use their position to enable
de-monetization,

eventually by investing into infrastructures that facilitate the emergence
of economic networks that become *less* dependent on corporate fiat credit
/ debt money ?

//

As for meeting face to face,
it could be nice to have a ( nordic ) folkhighschool like environment,
where one can meet, learn together, and live for a while.

*Visiting* people, especially in big cities, may imho not be ideal.

I'll detail this, applied to for example a city such as London :

As for London,my experience as a hitch hiker is ... to avoid such big
cities / black holes :)

Although I do understand such places offer a great diversity of activity,
My experience is also that such cities tend to be even more segregated.

It feels very lonely, in my own mode of experience, to be in such
environments,
unless one has the *keys* / legitimacy to access certain networks.

Professional networks, academic networks, diaspora migrant or expat
networks, activist networks, ... and preferably at the time of a specific
event, when attention is more available and shared, as otherwise attention
limits itself to the time of a cup of tea, with most people in bigger
cities being very busy, and passer-by people being disconnected from the
realities experienced by those who live there.   Hence I am careful not to
fall into bigger cities, as it is often a trap ;)

I sense that big busy cities are not particularly a place to genuinly
connect to the general population, imho,
and mere transportation costs a fortune, and so does train connection to
and from London.

Although in theory, Brussels and London are connected within a 1hour55
minutes train ride, in practice it is in my view accessible mostly to
professionals with paid expenses and/or people with salaries going on a
city trip.

It is cheaper ( and sometimes faster ) to go / hitch hike to central europe
...

Hence, I have very little incentive to go to London, and prefer meeting
friends that live in London, outside of London, for example on the
continent.

I still look forward for us to generate spaces for convergence.  There was
the Matera Edgeryders initiative.   There is the current banana space in
Berlin.

I hoped to set up a space in Belgium ( draft :
http://sharewiki.org/en/Antwerp_Collective  )



On Sat, Aug 16, 2014 at 9:57 PM, June Gorman 
wrote:

> Dante -
>
> Forgive the pun, but on this economic point I believe you are right on the
> money!  For in this the patriarchal mindset has trumped, and the definition
> of all worthwhile "value" reduced completely down to that which makes
> certain people -- all of which, not coincidentally, tend to be the most
> "patriarchal" in their beliefs and emotional modus operandi -- the
> "leaders" of this increasingly unfair, unequal and unsustainable,
> breaking-apart world.  Yet, we call them "wealthy", often "intelligent" and
> treat them like "kings" and accept their system, even when spiritual, moral
> and even environmental bankruptcy are the obvious and only predictable ends.
>
> It is, after the physical aggression and violence used more historically
> and currently in still less "developed" places, the most sophisticated of
> all their control mechanisms as so many, (as you explain in your resultant
> alienation from this economic system), have "bought" into it, telling
> themselves there is no other way.  At least the physical control and
> subsequent felt resistance was more honest and did not create our own
> participation in our own subjugation: this subsequent emotional as well as
> physical "slavery".
>
> I still believe there is another way to fight these dominating pathologies
> by learning the language to expose them -- intellectually and
> philosophically, yes -- but more importantly, excavate them emotionally
> where this "learning" (like all social "learning") is most deeply imprinted
> on our own sense of self.  This, I have found, is the most important and
> most difficult work to do -- on ourselves first, and then on our societal
> systems.  But much, much easier to do when done tog

Re: [P2P-F] Fwd: Matriarchal Studies

[June Gorman]

Dante -

Forgive the pun, but on this economic point I believe you are right on the 
money!  For in this the patriarchal mindset has trumped, and the definition of 
all worthwhile "value" reduced completely down to that which makes certain 
people -- all of which, not coincidentally, tend to be the most "patriarchal" 
in their beliefs and emotional modus operandi -- the "leaders" of this 
increasingly unfair, unequal and unsustainable, breaking-apart world.  Yet, we 
call them "wealthy", often "intelligent" and treat them like "kings" and accept 
their system, even when spiritual, moral and even environmental bankruptcy are 
the obvious and only predictable ends.

It is, after the physical aggression and violence used more historically and 
currently in still less "developed" places, the most sophisticated of all their 
control mechanisms as so many, (as you explain in your resultant alienation 
from this economic system), have "bought" into it, telling themselves there is 
no other way.  At least the physical control and subsequent felt resistance was 
more honest and did not create our own participation in our own subjugation: 
this subsequent emotional as well as physical "slavery".

I still believe there is another way to fight these dominating pathologies by 
learning the language to expose them -- intellectually and philosophically, yes 
-- but more importantly, excavate them emotionally where this "learning" (like 
all social "learning") is most deeply imprinted on our own sense of self.  
This, I have found, is the most important and most difficult work to do -- on 
ourselves first, and then on our societal systems.  But much, much easier to do 
when done together, accepting and admitting to the hard work of that emotional 
re-learning and what level of vulnerability and care it demands in order to do 
well. Especially as it is completely deemed "foreign" and denigrated by all 
that is most "valued" as "strength" and dominance of the patriarchal models so 
deeply enforced.

That is where "community" is most essential, and lived interactive presence in 
community the true test of these excavated truths.   Emotional honesty and 
emotional intelligence then become critical pre-requisites to do this work.

So I deeply support your trying to do it, Dante-Gabryell and helping all of us 
too, over this still rather cold distance of internet "words" that miss the 
deepest, most important heart-to-heart communication that is its true 
countervailing form to heal that very taught cold distance and created 
alienation.

In this I have found, the cognitive words mean very little compared to the 
actions in our lives and our greater world and with each other.

So I do truly appreciate that and what you are trying to do here,
June
And do you ever get to London?  I still believe the most powerful conversations 
of learning this very thing are indeed inter-personal.   By very definition, 
that have to be done that way to be "heard" truly and coherently. :-)



 From: Dante-Gabryell Monson 
To: June Gorman ; P2P Foundation mailing list 
; "econow...@googlegroups.com" 
; "op-...@googlegroups.com" 
 
Cc: leonard ferrari ; Tom Henfrey 
; Lisa Maroski  
Sent: Saturday, August 16, 2014 8:08 PM
Subject: Re: [P2P-F] Fwd: Matriarchal Studies
 


Thanks June for reacting.

I personally find it very challenging, in societies in which I lived and grew 
up in, ruled by increasing monetization ( top down hierachical debt ),
to live an approach based on sharing and contributing to a commons which 
includes matriarchal / nurturing patterns.


My own experience, is that monetization is so strongly imposed ( maintaining 
control ) for the access to any resource, including water ( and soon perhaps 
air ? ) , and the fear of lack of money so strong, that me, and other friends 
who want to live in such way, seem to most often end up rather marginalized 
from society, when intentionally deciding to reduce involvement in the 
priorities of such ideological system empowered through servicing of debt / the 
debt peonage.


I personally look forward to reduce such debt peonage.


Mere survival, in western europe ( that is, access to a one room flat, and not 
particularly high quality food ), easily costs 1000 euros a month.

Most of this money goes straight as a tax to service debt , profits and 
interests.


Strategies can be developed to reduce such costs, while increasing autonomy.   
I believe a number of us revolving around p2pfoundation may be interested in 
such strategies , and the opening up and sharing of knowledge that can empower 
it.


///

Various other concepts may be overlapping : 
certain forms of nomadism , festivalism ( http://p2pfoundation.net/Festivalism 
) , ... 


Finding ways to use the overproduction of our society, "hack" monetized 
speculation ... 


Nomadic forms of matriarchy ( and by this I do not mean controled by women ) 
can be a strategy for survival,
once we can find others

Re: [P2P-F] Fwd: Matriarchal Studies

[Dante-Gabryell Monson]

Thanks June for reacting.

I personally find it very challenging, in societies in which I lived and
grew up in, ruled by increasing monetization ( top down hierachical debt ),
to live an approach based on sharing and contributing to a commons which
includes matriarchal / nurturing patterns.

My own experience, is that monetization is so strongly imposed (
maintaining control ) for the access to any resource, including water ( and
soon perhaps air ? ) , and the fear of lack of money so strong, that me,
and other friends who want to live in such way, seem to most often end up
rather marginalized from society, when intentionally deciding to reduce
involvement in the priorities of such ideological system empowered through
servicing of debt / the debt peonage.

I personally look forward to reduce such debt peonage.

Mere survival, in western europe ( that is, access to a one room flat, and
not particularly high quality food ), easily costs 1000 euros a month.
Most of this money goes straight as a tax to service debt , profits and
interests.

Strategies can be developed to reduce such costs, while increasing
autonomy.   I believe a number of us revolving around p2pfoundation may be
interested in such strategies , and the opening up and sharing of knowledge
that can empower it.

///

Various other concepts may be overlapping :
certain forms of nomadism , festivalism (
http://p2pfoundation.net/Festivalism ) , ...

Finding ways to use the overproduction of our society, "hack" monetized
speculation ...

Nomadic forms of matriarchy ( and by this I do not mean controled by women
) can be a strategy for survival,
once we can find others to share with, and create with, progressively
reaching thresholds for critical diversity. (
http://sharewiki.org/en/Emergent_Synthesis )

///


Yet, we are not completely there yet.

I notice there is alienation all around.

I seem to have learned to feel confident about the internal referencing I
developed, and suffer mostly from the loneliness it can produce ( combined
with brief periods of more intense socialization ), I realize other friends
seem to still be struggling with sociocultural pressures from their
environments ( likely as they did not give up on mainstream environments )

To be able to live by such intrinsically motivated approach, void of
concerns regarding the debt peonage that threatens anyone to a ( silent and
lonely ) death sentence,

still seems to be an upper class privilege, or at the very least a middle
class privilege, based on what I see around me.

///

Interestingly, in what I see around me, such monetization seems to lead to
further deconstruction, and from such deconstruction to the extreme, I see
poor but educated artists ( coming from middle class families ? ) ,
with post-material focus in their needs, after experimenting some aspects
of stress poverty and post-modern deconstruction can bring to the remaining
expectations regarding a nuclear family,

"produces" a lot of single mothers, and single fathers ( although my
impression is that a lot of young men are lost in translation / do not yet
know how to position themselves ?  May end up even more isolated then women
who may still be able to culturally find recognition as mothers ) ,
and from there I see a potential for regeneration,

new ( albeit ancestral ? ) forms of social contracts (re)creating
themselves.

To listen to the wisdom of our bodies, and to be able to distinguish the
different impacts of different parts of our brains, as to be forced into
reptilian brain instincts only.

I find the following talk very interesting in this regard
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh0afEgZziI

At the same time, I personally sense that , as to not be controlled by a
potentially more complex system of debt reification , it can make use of
information systems that enable synthesis , enabling greater complexity, in
greater simplicity,   translating and aggregating intentions in such a way
that they do not end up being controlled by hierarchical debt - scarcity -
accumulation, but rather reverse such hierarchies towards intentional
communal shareholding.

In other words, matriarchal patterns that can include and build on top of
deconstructed pieces of information, to regenerate forms of synthesis.

In this, I see great potential in nomadic strategies, in modular
strategies, in tribes.  (  http://nomadology.com/tribes.html ,
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/19g_XYezo_jHEZINUqZNZUswZaLsuNHpvbsT3vNkW3eU/edit?pli=1#slide=id.p
)

By making available, through a commons, a technological basis,
I sense we are giving ourselves the means to reinventing and experimenting
with modular forms of social contracts, surviving in the interstices of the
conditionality of the debt peonage ,

making use of nomadic strategies,
moving to spaces abandoned by capital ( after their depletion )
as to regenerate social and ecological systems.

///

Some old brainstorming, suggesting approaches for reversing the current
concept of ( impos

Re: [P2P-F] Fwd: Matriarchal Studies

[June Gorman]

Thank you SO much for this Michel and especially Dante, who found this and 
shared this piece! As I truly believe this is an essential and critical 
discussion for any true transformation of a so deeply and aggressively 
imbalanced patriarchal society and world, and that the necessary emotional 
intelligence critical to getting back to any true "balance" or human and planet 
sustainability, has been broken and deeply damaged by that very left-brain, 
overly rationalized focus that obscures these issues.  And is so deeply 
reinforced by our educational system, which deepens this very imbalance.

It's just a great piece, Dante but the key -- and I have found this to be the 
hardest for those trained well in cognitive displacement of inner heart 
"knowing" -- is to actually understand this emotionally, not just cognitively.  
That's when actual human relationships are transformed, when we forge the paths 
of learning from each other that do not deny our different ways of 
understanding, but actually balances them so we can hear the gifts offered by 
that very "difference".  Over cultures and histories, as well as genders.

Anyway, critical to deconstruct as it so often is the underlying root of much 
of the dissension and "will to power over others" that is taught at the root of 
patriarchy but not, as this piece suggests and all my historical work has found 
as well, at the "power with one another" model at the ground of matriarchy.  

The key is to teach that at the level it is most understood, the level of the 
emotional heart, critical to any successful parenting of any human life and 
ultimately the planet that supports that and all life.

Just, "Thank you!"

Warmly,
June

June Gorman, Educator and Educational Theorist
Co-founder, Transformative Education Forum
Education Advisor, UN SafePlanet Campaign 
Board Project Director for Outreach, International Model United Nations 
Association
Steering Committee, (UNESCO/Global Compact) K-12 Sector for Sustainability 
Education   )
Member, UN Education Caucus for Sustainable Development
Member, UN Commons Cluster




 From: Michel Bauwens 
To: p2p-foundation  
Sent: Saturday, August 16, 2014 4:49 PM
Subject: [P2P-F] Fwd: Matriarchal Studies
 





-- Forwarded message --
From: Dante-Gabryell Monson 
Date: Fri, Aug 8, 2014 at 5:54 PM
Subject: Matriarchal Studies
To: Michel Bauwens 





http://www.hagia.de/en/matriarchy.html

http://www.hagia.de/en/matriarchy/matriarchal-studies.html


Matriarchy
Matriarchies are not just a reversal of patriarchy, with women ruling over men 
– as the usual misinterpretation would have it. Matriarchies 
are mother-centered societies, they are based on maternal values: care-taking, 
nurturing, motherliness, which holds for everybody: for 
mothers and those who are not mothers, for women and men alike. 
Matriarchal societies are consciously built upon these maternal 
values and motherly work, and this is why they are much more realistic 
than patriarchies. They are, on principle, need-oriented. Their precepts aim to 
meet everyone’s needs with the greatest benefit. So, in 
matriarchies, mothering – which originates as a biological fact – is 
transformed into a cultural model. This model is much more 
appropriate to the human condition than the way patriarchies 
conceptualise motherhood and use it to make women, and especially 
mothers, into slaves. 
  
The deep structure of “matriarchal society” (a structural definition): 
With matriarchal cultures, equality means more than just a levelling 
of differences. Natural differences between the genders and the 
generations are respected and honoured, but they never serve to create 
hierarchies, as is common in patriarchy. The different genders and 
generations have their own dignity, and through complementary areas of 
activity, they function in concert one other. More precisely, 
matriarchies are societies with complementary equality, where great care is 
taken to provide a balance. This applies to the balance between 
genders, among generations, and between humans and nature. Maternal 
values as ethical principles pervade all areas of a matriarchal society. It 
creates an attitude of care-taking, nurturing, and peacemaking. 
  
This can be observed on all levels of society: the economic level, 
the social level, the political level and the areas of their worldviews 
and faiths. 
  
  
At the social level, matriarchal societies are based on the clan, and on the 
“symbolic order of the mother”. This 
also means maternal values as spiritual principles, one that humans take from 
nature. Mother Nature cares for all beings, however different they may be. The 
same applies to motherliness: a good mother cares for all 
her children, embracing their diversity. 
This holds true for men as well. If a man in a matriarchal society

[P2P-F] Fwd: Matriarchal Studies

[Michel Bauwens]

-- Forwarded message --
From: Dante-Gabryell Monson 
Date: Fri, Aug 8, 2014 at 5:54 PM
Subject: Matriarchal Studies
To: Michel Bauwens 



http://www.hagia.de/en/matriarchy.html

http://www.hagia.de/en/matriarchy/matriarchal-studies.html

Matriarchy

Matriarchies are not just a reversal of patriarchy, with women ruling over
men – as the usual misinterpretation would have it. Matriarchies are
mother-centered societies, they are based on *maternal values:*
care-taking, nurturing, motherliness, which holds for everybody: for
mothers and those who are not mothers, for women and men alike.

Matriarchal societies are consciously built upon these maternal values and
motherly work, and this is why they are much more realistic than
patriarchies. They are, on principle, need-oriented. Their precepts aim to
meet everyone’s needs with the greatest benefit. So, in matriarchies,
mothering – which originates as a biological fact – is transformed
into a *cultural
model.* This model is much more appropriate to the human condition than the
way patriarchies conceptualise motherhood and use it to make women, and
especially mothers, into slaves.


The deep structure of “matriarchal society” (a structural definition):

 With matriarchal cultures, equality means more than just a levelling of
differences. Natural differences between the genders and the generations
are respected and honoured, but they never serve to create hierarchies, as
is common in patriarchy. The different genders and generations have their
own dignity, and through complementary areas of activity, they function in
concert one other. More precisely, matriarchies are societies with
complementary equality, where great care is taken to provide a balance.
This applies to the balance between genders, among generations, and between
humans and nature. Maternal values as ethical principles pervade all areas
of a matriarchal society. It creates an attitude of care-taking, nurturing,
and peacemaking.



This can be observed on all levels of society: the economic level, the
social level, the political level and the areas of their worldviews and
faiths.





* At the social level,* matriarchal societies are based on the clan, and on
the “symbolic order of the mother”. This also means maternal values as
spiritual principles, one that humans take from nature. Mother Nature cares
for all beings, however different they may be. The same applies to
motherliness: a good mother cares for all her children, embracing their
diversity.

This holds true for men as well. If a man in a matriarchal society desires
to acquire status among his peers, or even become a representative of the
clan to the outside word, then he must be like a “good mother”.



But in matriarchies, you don’t have to be a biological mother in order to
be acknowledged as a woman, because matriarchies practice the common
motherhood of a group of sisters. Each individual sister does not
necessarily have to have children, but together they are all “mothers” of
any children that any of them have. This motherhood is founded on the
freedom of women to decide on their own about whether or not to have
biological children.



This is possible because matriarchal people live together in large kinship
groups, formed according to the principle of *matrilineality*. The clan’s
name, and all social status and political titles, are passed on through the
mother’s line. Such a matri-clan consists of at least three generations of
women, along with their brothers, nephews and maternal uncles. In classic
cases, the matri-clan lives in one big clan-house. This is called
*matrilocality.
*Their spouses or lovers stay only over-night, in a pattern called
“visiting-marriage”. These principles of matrilineality and matrilocality
put mothers at the center; in this way women guide their clans without
ruling.



In order to achieve social cohesion among the clans of a village or city,
complex marriage conventions have been developed that link them in mutually
beneficial ways. The intended effect is that all inhabitants of a village
or city are related to each other by birth or by marriage. This shapes a
society that sees itself as a big clan, where everybody is “mother” or
“sister” or “brother” to everybody else. Thus matriarchies can be defined
at the social level as  *non-hierarchical, horizontal societies of
matrilineal kinship.*





This social order based on motherhood includes far reaching consequences
for the *economical level: *Matriarchal economy is a subsistence economy.
There is no such thing as private property, and there are no territorial
claims. The people simply have usage rights on the soil they till, or the
pastures their animals graze, for Mother Earth can not be owned or cut up
in pieces. She gives the fruits of the fields and the young animals to all
people. Parcels of land and a certain number of animals are given to each
matri-clan, and are worked on communally.



Most importantly, women have the power of