Radical Beginnings of Women; Women Were the Original Creators of Culture:
The information below is radical in the true sense of the meaning of the word. The etymology of radical is radix - “root” or “going to the root of things”.
The version of history presented to us in most mainstream classroom settings is that there were distinctly defined gender roles in prehistoric societies that were rooted in “man the hunter” and “woman the gatherer”. Anthropologists have tended to accredit big game kills via men as the providers of the nutritional nourishment that fueled human evolution. Although women were fully capable of big-game hunting, as recent archaeological discoveries in Peru have proved, women did tend to function as the gatherers, as it enabled them to concurrently provide maternal care to their young. Nearby big game kills were not always guaranteed, and so men could be gone on the hunt for extended periods of time. The roots, grubs, nuts, plants, fruits and small animals that women gathered in the meantime provided 75% - 85% of the groups’ daily nourishment. These gathered items were rich in nutrients that fueled brain growth & function, including omega-6 & omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids and trace minerals such as iron, iodine, copper, selenium and zinc.
The above context that describes women as gatherers provides the beginning point for the creation of culture via the hands and minds of women. I will describe the development of five major industries, although there are many, many more. My reason for choosing to cover only five is my awareness of the unfortunately limited attention span of the 21st century person. #MakeMentalStaminaCoolAgain
Major Cultural Components Developed By Women:
Medicinal Healing / Herbalism / Agriculture
Fire
Cooking
Ceramics
Written Language
Medicinal Healing / Herbalism / Agriculture: Over thousands of years of food gathering, women’s knowledge of the healing applications of various plant and herb properties was developed through trial & error testing. Furthermore, women’s food collecting created agriculture, as women observed the relation between scattered seeds and plant growth. Women used digging sticks to plant seeds, and these sticks are regarded as humanity’s first tools.
Fire: World myths, folk traditions and anthropological studies agree that women first discovered how to use and produce fire. Ritual maintenance of fire remained entrusted to women through more recent historical times, such as seen with the Vestal Virgins of ancient Rome and the Irish nuns of St. Brigid.
Cooking: With the advent of fire keeping came cooking. Techniques such as cooking, boiling, baking and roasting developed out of the woman’s mastery of fire. Fire was used to dry and conserve foods for future use, as well as turn poisonous plants and herbs into safe, edible medicines.
Ceramics: Following the directed use of heat via fire, women began using the alchemy of fire to turn clay into hardened ceramic pots. In fact, in the “beginning” (late 7000’s BCE), pottery was a woman’s art, as seen in places such as Peru, Greece and Egypt. Women’s fingerprints on ancient pottery reveals the sex of the potters. The invention of the potter’s wheel took place alongside the urbanization of civilization. More pottery was needed by more people; here we see the beginnings of the mass production of goods. Women were unable to keep up with the demands of creating pottery from scratch, while caring for their children and maintaining the home. This led to pottery becoming a male dominated industry.
Written Language: On early pots, women painted mystical symbols that became standardized over a millennia and ultimately turned into a kind of shorthand language. The symbols painted on the pots were a representation of the continuum of life (i.e. spirals, moons, rain, rotations of the seasons, cardinal directions, eggs, crescents, horns etc.). Even more fascinating is that in 1973, a Peruvian ethnologist uncovered geometrical patterns on pottery and urns that were deciphered as being language-symbols relating to historical events, myths and poetry, with a grammar based on groupings of complementary colors. These early symbol languages were in existence at least 4,000 years before the development of Cuneiform in Sumer.
Connecting Herstory to the Modern Woman:
The “radical” or “going to the root” concept mentioned above is also a core philosophy of how I work with my coaching clients. We all know that in today’s world, there is a plethora of free advice available online about how one can improve their overall wellbeing. Unfortunately, before working with me, many of my clients faced obstacles in regards to the implementation of such advice. This is usually because they were trying to apply wellness and lifestyle changes with an awareness that only scratched the surface, instead of fully understanding the historical / spiritual / scientific root of the intervention they were trying to apply.
Reconnecting to your radical beginnings, or the root of your female-ness, will help you integrate wellness and lifestyle changes with intention and holism. Just by reading this post, you have learned that women were the original creators of major cultural components ranging from cooking to written language.
For me personally, each time I cook, the thought of ancient women discovering how to roast food flashes through my mind. It fills me with inspiration and gratitude when I think about how many vegetables have been roasted by women throughout the world since the beginning, and that I am able to carry on this tradition in my own kitchen. Furthermore, this idea of “going to the root” is incredibly powerful when it comes to cooking and health. When we prepare our meal from whole, natural, unprocessed foods, we are as near to the “root” source of the food as we can get without cultivating the food ourselves.
Cooking foods in their raw, natural forms brings us into greater connection with what we are eating. We know the exact ingredients that went into the meal (without hidden seed oils, sugars or additives) and we are forced to slow down as healthy cooking practices take time (as opposed to frozen meals, take-out or microwaves usage). Eating slow cooked, homemade meals from whole food ingredients is the best nourishment we can provide our bodies. These types of meals support all of our hormonal functioning including our digestion, our sleep cycles, our menstrual cycles, our stress management and our moods.
It never ceases to amaze me that through learning more about the cultures in the beginning, I am motivated to invest more time and energy into my current quality of life - How about you?
**Disclaimer: history is a highly subjective discipline as it is based on the human interpretation of a corroboration of sources. Older historical time periods are even more subjective as records and sources become less exact. The information I present is based on my interpretation and study of historical sources. It is only meant to be a springboard for your own personal inquiry!**
Citations:
“Brigid.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigid. Accessed 23 December 2023.
McSwine, Damien. “.,.” ., - YouTube, 7 November 2023, https://oxfordre.com/anthropology/anthropology/abstract/10.1093/acrefore/9780190854584.001.0001/acrefore-9780190854584-e-105. Accessed 23 December 2023.
McSwine, Damien. “.,.” ., - YouTube, 7 November 2023, https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1716068115. Accessed 23 December 2023.
Mor, Barbara & Sjoo, Monica. The Great Cosmic Mother. San Francisco, Harper One, 1990
Raoux, Jean. “Vestal Virgin.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vestal_Virgin. Accessed 23 December 2023.
“Women were successful big-game hunters, challenging beliefs about ancient gender roles.” University of Calgary, 11 March 2021, https://ucalgary.ca/news/women-were-successful-big-game-hunters-challenging-beliefs-about-ancient-gender-roles. Accessed 23 December 2023.
YouTube, 22 September 2021, https://ceramicstoday.glazy.org/articles/potters_wheel.html. Accessed 23 December 2023.
