[P2P-F] Fwd: Matriarchal Studies

Sun Aug 17 01:27:01 CEST 2014

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 <willi.uebelherr at gmail.com> 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 <dante.monson at gmail.com>
>> To: June Gorman <june_gorman at sbcglobal.net>; P2P Foundation mailing list <p2p-foundation at lists.ourproject.org>; "econowmix at googlegroups.com" <econowmix at googlegroups.com>; "op-n-m at googlegroups.com" <op-n-m at googlegroups.com>
>> Cc: leonard ferrari <leonard_ferrari at yahoo.com>; Tom Henfrey <tom at schumacherinstitute.org.uk>; Lisa Maroski <lisa.maroski at mindspring.com>
>> 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 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 ofthe 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 basisof 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 inthe 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 thatmatriarchies 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. Atthe 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
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> --
>>> 
>>> Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://en.wiki.floksociety.org/w/Research_Plan
>>> 
>>> P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net  - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net
>>> 
>>> Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens
>>> 
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>>> 
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