Introduction and brief definition of patriarchy
From the Oxford languages dictionary: "A patriarchy is a system of society or government in which the father or eldest male is head of the family and descent is traced through the male line." "A patriarchy is a system of society or government in which men hold the power and women are largely excluded from it."
"Patriarchy" is a label that I assign to a human cultural, social, economic and religious system whereby humans can derive self meaning and organize themselves to function as family units, organize into social groupings, conduct economic, governmental and military activity and deal with other human social entites and their environment. In a patriarchy, the male holds power and male values dominate in the culture and the conduct of social affairs. Some of these male values are the use of violence of all kinds, domination, vertical power structures, separation into different groups according race, gender, ethnic origin, religion, and sexual orientation, etc. Women are not allowed to hold power and are traditionally relegated to childrearing, taking care of the home and providing for the sexual wants and needs of the males. Entitlement is a predominant attitude in patriarchy. "Special-ness" is a strong patriarchal attitude. The concept of private property of all kinds is a key patriarchal economic concept. Patriarchy is strongly opposed to Holistic concept.
It is my conviction that human patriarchy has generated an enormous amount of violence, exploitation, death, pain, and suffering throughout the course of recorded human history. And patriarchy has now brought humanity into an ecological crisis of climate change, species extinction and loss of natural resources. And this same patriarchy has brought the human species to the verge of now multiple existential crises, labeled the "Polycrisis" that includes potential nuclear self-annihilation, civilization collapse due to climate change, and now the new threat posed by Artificial Intelligence (AI).
It is essential that we come to understand patriarchy's subtle tenants & values deeply buried in our religion and culture and the serious threat it poses for our future. These topics are discussed below. I believe we need start discarding patriarchy's dangerous and obsolescent grip on our minds and society. Then we can make a clear choice and transition to a more holistic, much less violent and much more sustainable future. The Sustainability page on this website is devoted to this holistic path to a better future.
Recommended Books
Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence -- by Karen Armstrong
There is an intimate relationship between religion and human violence. Religion of all kinds have often been used, and is still being used today, as a moral sanction for all manner of horrific violence. This relationship between religion and violence throughout recorded human history has been extensively, authoritatively and even handedly documented in this book by Karen Armstong. Armstrong is not one-sided and also points out the instances where religion has been used to promote peace, kindness and non-violence. Overall, this necessary, but depressing book, should be required reading for people who are concerned about violence and its relationship to religion.
My comments: "Goliath" is the term the author uses to refer to hierarchical and often authoritarian forms of government and human domination based on patriarchal principles. This book is an important primer on authoritarianism throughout human history: its orgins, how it dominates, its weaknesses and its future. This book is a grim read, but well worth the effort.
(Publisher's comments:) In Goliath’s Curse, Cambridge scholar Luke Kemp conducts a historical autopsy on our species, from the earliest cities to the collapse of modern states like Somalia. He traces the emergence of “Goliaths”: large societies built on a collection of hierarchies that are also terrifyingly fragile, collapsing time after time across the world. Drawing on historical databases and the latest discoveries in archaeology and anthropology, he uncovers groundbreaking revelations:
- More democratic societies tend to be more resilient.
- In our modern, global Goliath, a collapse is likely to be long-lasting and more dire than ever before.
- Collapse may be invisible until after it has occurred. It’s possible we’re living through one now.
- Collapse has often had a more positive outcome for the general population than for the 1%.
- All Goliaths contain the seeds of their own demise.
As useful for finding a way forward as it is for diagnosing our precarious present, Goliath’s Curse is a stark reminder that there are both bright and dark sides to societal collapse—that it is not necessarily a reversion to chaos or a dark age—and that making a more resilient world may well mean making a more just one.
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/691357/goliaths-curse-by-luke-kemp/