This was originally posted on October 12, 2020 Prehistoric and indigenous religious traditions are often disparagingly mischaracterized as primitive fertility religions, concerned not with higher morality, but rather with the processes of reproduction of humans, animals, and plants. When these… Read More ›
Minangkabau
“Fertility” and the Regeneration of Life by Carol P. Christ
Prehistoric and indigenous religious traditions are often disparagingly mischaracterized as primitive fertility religions, concerned not with higher morality, but rather with the processes of reproduction of humans, animals, and plants. When these religions feature a Great Mother Goddess, it may… Read More ›
Why Can’t a Man Be More Like a Woman? by Carol P. Christ (and Hannah Gadsby)
Women are loving, caring, and clever. Why do men say: “I will not be like that, never?” In a recent article in Gentlemen’s Quarterly, my favorite comedian, Hannah Gadsby, said: Hello, the men. My advice on modern masculinity would be… Read More ›
A Question about “Egalitarian Matriarchy” in West Sumatra by Carol P. Christ
Following up on my recent blogs on the roles of women in the Neolithic revolution and on “egalitarian matriarchy,” I have been re-reading Peggy Reeves Sanday’s ground-breaking book, Women at the Center, about the survival of the “adat matriarchaat” (the… Read More ›
Women and Men in “Egalitarian Matriarchy” by Carol P. Christ
When the word “matriarchy” is spoken, the first question that comes up is: what about men? Most people imagine that matriarchy must oppress men—just as patriarchy oppresses women. Sadly, concern about the oppression of women in patriarchy is less automatic…. Read More ›
How “Egalitarian Matriarchy” Works among the Minangkabau of West Sumatra by Carol P. Christ
Currently I am reading Peggy Reeves Sanday’s a-mazing book Women at the Center: Life in a Modern Matriarchy for the third time. In it Sanday describes the living egalitarian matriarchal culture of four million people of the Minangkabau culture of… Read More ›