The Goddess In All Of Us

I agree with the author, Robert Strayer, in that it is important to first study our earliest ancestors (those whom we can date back to) in order to begin our study of the historic past. I find it terribly interesting the Paleolithic Era lasted such a long time. It truly makes me believe our modern world is a blink of an eye as compared to the existence of humankind. How is that Homo Sapiens have lasted so long and advanced only so far and yet the world has come farther than one could imagine in the in the last 200 years? I believe it is rather unfortunate. When reading about the San of southern Africa, we see they have a practice associated with the old way of life and yet have made it (barely) today. How is this possible? When we dive deep into our roots we realize we actually can survive with little means as long as our basic necessities are covered. The San have a system in finding food and building their homes; they have tools and the knowledge of discovering species of plants and animals that suit their lifestyle and appetite. Most importantly, they have a more European life style (as we dub it today): their work week is short, although strenuous, with substantial time for leisure and their diet consists mostly of vegetables. They are equal within their culture both with gender roles and the non-existence of class distinction. How is that we fell so far off? Granted, it is enjoyable to have warm blankets on a comfortable couch inside our homes with a stove that heats up quickly the food we bought at the local store. But, it seems it comes with a price. We trade in equality among our brothers and sisters for wealth, power and status. As our world has evolved we have had to move with the times and population growth and unfortunately this means we have to come up with class distinctions and unfair gender roles.

We come from a time when the Goddess was praised and where Mother Nature was feared and therefore treated with the utmost respect. Then nature began to change in the minds of the men of the first civilizations. Nature was no longer considered women and bearing children, but rather architectural designs and monumental art. Then all of a sudden the Goddess was a thing of the past and men were were hailed as deities; And, not to sound to much like a feminist, but doesn't it seem that times were more peaceful when we praised Mother Nature as opposed to male deities?

While reading through these chapters, I cannot help but to compare these time periods with the one we associate with today. Everything is easily accessible today; Things that took thousands of years to create we can go buy at the store a few minutes from our house. Yet, it seems we will inevitably face what the Paleolithic, Agricultural and first civilizations faced: disastrous weather. Mother Nature will again take her reign and tell us all we haven't taken care of her and she has had enough.

One of the most significant things to come about with the first civilizations was the written word. Finally people could write down what was dancing around in their heads whether is was offensive or not. Today, people are taking this privilege more seriously and forcing their voice to be heard.

History repeats itself and so does this global environment. We might as well do out part to sustain what little left we haven't already ruined because Mother Nature is staring at us in the face and telling us it's going to happen. What are we going to do? The Paleolithic and Agricultural societies lasted a long time, we can too if we take care of our world.