After reading everyone’s responses about matriarchy and patriarchy I have been pondering the question of what would make the best kind of society. I discussed the topic with my husband and he is of the opinion that war and strife have been the way of humankind from the beginning and it is just a fact of life. I stubbornly maintained that if everyone thinks that way then there is no hope. One has to believe that something is possible in order to make the changes to bring it about.
In my last post on the topic, I found evidence that there were peaceful societies in the past.
https://steemit.com/ecotrain/@stillwatersart/late-post-to-answer-the-question-what-is-matriarchy-what-do-you-think-a-matriarchal-society-would-look-like-ecotrain-question-of
I was then curious as to whether there are modern societies that are peaceful. A google search led me to this list of societies that seem to have a handle on peaceful living. https://cas.uab.edu/peacefulsocieties/
**List of peaceful societies is never completely finished or accurate. However, social scientists have convincingly described at least 25 societies around the world in which there is very little internal violence or external warfare. Generalizations are difficult to make accurately, except that most of the time these peaceful societies successfully promote harmony, gentleness, and kindness toward others as much as they devalue conflict, aggressiveness, and violence.
DISCLAIMER: While scholars have clearly identified a small number of societies in which people rarely act aggressively, it must be emphasized that no stamp of approval is intended for the societies included in this website. None of them are utopias. They share many problems with the rest of humanity. That said, however, most of the time they interact in a highly pro-social manner and they successfully avoid both violence within their own societies and warfare with other peoples.**
It seemed that many of them were somewhat primitive cultures other that a couple of religious groups like the Amish who are patriarchal. There seemed to be no real hierarchy in many of them with men and women being honored equally. Some tasks seemed to be divided by gender, but each would contribute to the work as needed regardless of whether it was predominantly a task for the other gender. Sharing was expected, but there were no “laws” enforcing it. Children were very nurtured at least until weaning and then they would play at real adult activities and learn how to be self sufficient and how to interact with their environment. There were no competitive games. Knowledge of and reverence for nature seemed to be central to their existence.
Some of these beautiful societies have seemed to erode a bit with the introduction of modern materialist values. It is a bit presumptuous of modern people to go into a society to teach our ways to try to better their lives.
Then I looked for a list of the most peaceful countries. Here is what I found.
https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/peaceful-most-countries-international-peace-day/
I don’t know if these places are ideal, but they appear to have a handle on peace for the most part.
Then I looked up the happiest places on earth and this is what I found. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/top-10/2016-worlds-happiest-countries/
There seems to be some overlap in the happy and peaceful countries. One thing that I noticed is that they are mostly cold places. I don’t think I would be happy with that part.
Next I was thinking about the teachings of Mark Passio. He has a lot to say about the Sacred Feminine and the Sacred Masculine and how we all have traits of both, relating them the the left and right hemispheres of the brain. They have to be balanced in order to have a properly functioning human and society. An imbalance in either direction can cause problems in our lives and the world. When everyone understands that to initiate no aggression or harm is the goal, then a society can function in peace. Here is his website if you want to explore more. http://www.whatonearthishappening.com
So my conclusions at this time are that hierarchy in and of itself does not bring order whether it is a patriarchy or matriarchy...neither is the answer. Giving each human the understanding that we are all worthy of respect and that self governance from the perspective of balancing our masculine and feminine sides and honoring life will bring about a society that can thrive.
I hope that you will check out these resources and let me know what you think. I don’t know if I’ve expressed it fully enough. I fear it could turn into something so long that it would be a book. Lol.
Love and peace to you all! 💕☮️🌀
