[P2P-F] Fwd: Matriarchal Studies

Sat Aug 16 21:08:09 CEST 2014

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 ( imposed ) debt

http://cashwiki.org/en/Debt_to_Intention

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/156YzIeH-eoYFl9nMzFxofQ55KVoksqusS0pYYL4WVaA/edit?pli=1#slide=id.g121aaf830_00

///

Potentials to use distributed approaches to linked data,
and explored by a variety of individuals and groups / projects :

https://github.com/assemblee-virtuelle/

https://github.com/open-app ( relating to enspiral / loomio )

https://github.com/automenta/netjs ( netention )

https://github.com/valnet/ ( NRP ? )

https://github.com/tav/ampify ( Espians ? )

https://github.com/willzeng/WikiNets ( Rhizi )

https://github.com/d-cent ( D-cent )

https://docs.openmustardseed.org/next-steps/source-code/ ( open mustardseed
)

///

Further recent brainstorming :

https://groups.google.com/d/msg/econowmix/buMYyTfcSCk/TP7stSUX4OQJ

On Sat, Aug 16, 2014 at 7:22 PM, June Gorman <june_gorman at sbcglobal.net>
wrote:

> 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<http://www.tef-global.org/>
> Education Advisor, UN SafePlanet Campaign <http://www.safepla.net/>
> Board Project Director for Outreach, International Model United Nations
> Association<http://imuna.org/>
> Steering Committee, (UNESCO/Global Compact) K-12 Sector for Sustainability
> Education <http://www.uspartnership.org/main/view_archive/1>  )
> Member, UN Education Caucus for Sustainable Development
> Member, UN Commons Cluster
>
>   ------------------------------
>  *From:* Michel Bauwens <michel at p2pfoundation.net>
> *To:* p2p-foundation <p2p-foundation at lists.ourproject.org>
> *Sent:* Saturday, August 16, 2014 4:49 PM
> *Subject:* [P2P-F] Fwd: Matriarchal Studies
>
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: *Dante-Gabryell Monson* <dante.monson at gmail.com>
> Date: Fri, Aug 8, 2014 at 5:54 PM
> Subject: Matriarchal Studies
> To: Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com>
>
>
>
> 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 disposition over goods and clan
> houses, and especially over the sources of nourishment: fields, flocks and
> food. All the goods are put in the hands of the clan mother, the matriarch,
> and she, mother of all the clan members, distributes them equally among her
> children and grand-children. She is responsible for the sustenance and
> protection of all clan members.
>
> In a matriarchal community, the clans enjoy perfect mutuality: every
> relative advantage, or disadvantage, in terms of acquiring goods is
> mediated by social guidelines. For example, at the seasonal festivals of
> the agricultural year, clans that are comparatively better off will invite
> all the inhabitants to be their guests. The members of such a clan organize
> the banquet, the rituals, and the music and dances of one of the annual
> festivals – and then give away their goods as a gift to all their
> neighbours. By doing this, they gain nothing except honor. At the next
> festival in the cycle, another lucky clan will step up, outdoing itself by
> inviting everybody in the village or neighbourhood, entertaining them all,
> and dispensing presents.
>
> Since this is the general attitude, matriarchal economy can be called a
> “gift economy”.  It is the economic manifestation of maternal values, which
> prevents development of an exchange economy and instead fully achieves a
> gift economy. Due to these features, matriarchies can be defined at the
> economical level as *societies of balanced economic reciprocity, based on
> the circulation of gifts.*
>
>
>    The patterns of* the political level* follow the principle of
> consensus, which means *unanimity* regarding each decision. To manifest a
> principle like this in practice, a society must be specifically organized
> to do so, and matrilinear kinship lines are, once again, the starting
> point.
>
> The basis of each decision-making is the individual clan house. Matters
> that concern the clan house are decided upon by the women and men in a
> consensus process, of which the matriarch is the facilitator. Each person
> has only one vote – even the matriarch – and no member of the household is
> excluded.
>
> The same applies to decisions concerning the whole village. The clan
> delegates meet together in the village council, but do not make decisions
> themselves; they simply communicate the decisions that have been made in
> their clan houses, and move back and forth, until a consensus decision is
> reached by the whole village. The same applies at the regional level. The
> delegates move between the local council and the regional council until
> consensus of all the villages is reached.
>
> The origin of all politics is in the clan houses, where the people live,
> and in this way, a true “grass roots democracy” is put into practice. The
> result of these practices is that matriarchies are *egalitarian societies
> of consensus.* This clearly shows how maternal values also permeate
> political practice.
>
>
> But such a societal system as matriarchy could not function as a whole
> without a deep, supporting and all-permeating spiritual attitude. *At the
> spiritual and cultural level, *matriarchal societies do not have
> hierarchic religions based on an omnipotent male God. In matriarchies,
> divinity is immanent*,* for the whole world is regarded as divine: as
> feminine divine. This is evident in the widely held concept of the universe
> as the Great Goddess who brought forth everything by birth, and of the
> earth as the Great Mother who created everything living. And everyone, and
> everything, is endowed with divinity by virtue of being a child of the
> Great Mother Nature.
>
> In such a culture, everything is spiritual. In their festivals, which
> follow the cycle of the seasons and the cycle of life, everything is
> celebrated. There is no separation between sacred and secular, so the
> everyday tasks also have ritual significance. In this sense matriarchal
> societies are sacred ones.
>
> The entire societies are constructed in the image of the creative Mother
> Nature. This divine mother is reflected in every woman’s being, and in her
> abilities to create. Every social, economic and political action is
> informed by the principle of the world’s – and the universe’s –
> all-encompassing maternal attitude.
>
> Therefore, on the spiritual level, matriarchies are *sacred societies and
> cultures of the Divine Feminine or Goddess.*
>
>
> Read more in:
>
> Heide Goettner-Abendroth (ed.):
> *Societies of Peace. Matriarchies Past, Present and Future*
>  Inanna Press, York University, Toronto/Canada 2009
>
> Heide Goettner-Abendroth:
> *Matriarchal Societies. Studies on Indigenous Cultures across the Globe*
>  Peter Lang, New York/USA, March 2012
>
>
>
>
>
> --
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> http://en.wiki.floksociety.org/w/Research_Plan
>
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