Reconsidering Sexual Taboos

 By organizing human societies with women in positions of power, Wrangham and Peterson believe the aggression in men can be contained.  Although this may in fact be a way to keep male aggression in check, it presupposes that men are genetically predisposed toward violence.  Not all scientists or scholars agree upon this premise.

Reconsidering Sexual Taboos

Lecture Notes for Poly as a Path to Peace

By Veronica Monet

[Kennebec Entertainment is proud to introduce Guest Blogger, Veronica Monet, our dear friend from California who has provided guidance and insight in the development of two of our movie properties, Burning Memory and Valhalla.

Veronica is a sex educator, a relationship expert and a nationally known anti-violence advocate. A Certified Sexologist, she has extensive media credits including CNN, CNBC, A&E, ABC’s 20/20, FOX and Bill Maher’s Politically Incorrect. Veronica is an author and psychology graduate from Oregon State University.]

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When asked about the origins of human violence, non-violent communication expert Marshall Rosenberg, Ph.D responded: “. . . violence has been the social norm for about eight thousand years.  That’s when a myth evolved that the world was created by a heroic, virtuous male god who defeated an evil female goddess.”

[Beyond Good & Evil: Marshall Rosenberg on Creating a Nonviolent World by Dian Killian in Open Exchange Magazine January-March 2007, Issue #176]

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In 2002, The World Report on Violence and Health (the first comprehensive report of its kind to address violence as a global public health problem) announced that violence kills more than 1.6 million people every year.  “The death and disability caused by violence make it one of the leading public health issues of our time. . . . On an average day, 1,424 people are killed in acts of homicide, almost one person every minute. Roughly one person commits suicide every 40 seconds. About 35 people are killed every hour as a direct result of armed conflict.”

[www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/pr73/en/]

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Competition for resources is often indicted as a root cause of violence

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There are three primary reasons this recently discovered antidote to violence has so far existed in obscurity or been reduced to a joke.  eject a sexual solution.  Better to stay a violent culture than to violate First, the world’s taboos surrounding sex are so powerful that even if you tell people they can eradicate violence, they will r sexual taboos.

Second, the cure for violence DOES involve respect for the feminine.  In fact, it requires a complete restructuring of our current patriarchal systems and hierarchal paradigms.  Turns out that non-violence thrives in a society where women are accorded respect and authority.  But we are NOT talking about a hierarchal power structure.  Instead, it is defined by a series of “checks and balances”

And the third reason you haven’t heard this path to peace championed on all the major news networks is this – the culture in question is not human. 

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While most of the people who study primates would never suggest that humans should emulate a successful adaptation, the authors of Demonic Males, anthropologists Richard Wrangham and Dale Peterson do exactly that.   They believe the Bonobo provides a model of nonviolence which humans are capable of follo

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Riane Eisler, author of the bestselling book, The Chalice and the Blade, believes that peace is a function of social structure – not a genetic predisposition.  As a path to peace, she recommends a “partnership model,” in which gender is not associated with either inferiority or superiority.  According to Eisler, our current culture of violence is the by product of “the dominator model” of human society which seeks to assert gendered hierarchies with winners and losers.  She also believes that placing value on women entails placing value on their biological ability to produce life which in turn leads to a non-violent approach to conflict resolution.

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Bonobo society is polyamorous – not promiscuous – because sex forms deep emotional bonds for the Bonobo.  Sex is the glue which holds Bonobo tribes together and facilitates friendly relations with potentially competing tribes.  Bonobos also invest a great deal of energy in the pursuit and perfection of pleasure.  In fact, lovemaking involves a great deal of face to face contact and deep eye gazing.

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“Bonobos stand as a flagship, not only for conservation of the Congo rainforest, but also for Peace in the DRC - and globally. Bonobos exemplify how society can be successfully organized through cooperation and sharing of resources, as opposed to competition, territoriality and violence (as demonstrated by our other closest primate relatives, the male-dominated chimpanzees). Further, Bonobos show how love - and love-making - can ease tensions and keep the peace.”

[http://www.bonobo.org/peace.html]

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Janet Kira Lessin, author of Polyamory: Many Loves - The Polytantric Lovestyle, is convinced that sexual repression leads to violence. She believes humankind will transcend violence and end war once it learns to honor individual choice regarding sex. For Lessin, polyamory represents “a positive, passionate path to peace.”

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25 Peaceful Societies per www.peacefulsocieties.org:

Amish

Batek

Birhor

Buid

Chewong

Fipa

G/wi

Hutterites

Ifaluk

Inuit

Ju/'hoansi

Kadar

Ladakhi

Lepchas

Malapandaram

Mbuti

Nubians

Paliyans

Piaroa

Rural Thai

Semai

Tahitians

Tristan Islanders

Yanadi

Zapotec of La Paz

                                                                      Veronica Monet 

Gender Relations in Zapotec of La Paz: The nonviolence of this town, and some others in the same area, is interesting because there are other nearby Zapotec communities, such as San Andrés, that are relatively violent. Douglas P. Fry (“Female Aggression among the Zapotec of Oaxaca, Mexico.” In Of Mice and Women: Aspects of Female Aggression, edited by Kay Björkqvist and Pirkko Niemela, 187-199. San Diego: Harcourt Brace 1992)  reported several instances of spouse abuse in San Andrés but none in La Paz . Most women in La Paz are not constrained by a fear of abuse. They contribute economically to their families, they are respected, and they feel free to talk with male visitors in the absence of their husbands. With a few exceptions, most La Paz men are not possessive or jealous of their wives. In contrast, in San Andrés the women do feel constrained against speaking with strange men. The men try to control the San Andrés women, to make sure of their sexual fidelity, through fear and, if necessary, through force.

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Matriarchy, a Greek word that translates as either "women rule" or "in the beginning the mothers," is a complete social and political system, usually agricultural in nature, dominated by females. With roots in the late Neolithic period of human development, about 4,500 years ago, matriarchies may have once been common, but eventually gave way to the patriarchal, or male dominated, societies prevalent today. Besides the Mosuo, only a handful of small matriarchal cultures currently exist, including the Khasi of India, the Machinguenga of Peru, and the Nagovisi of Bougainvillea in the South Pacific.

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The Mosuo (pronounced MWO-swo) are a Chinese ethnic minority group who live high in the Himalayas, in an area straddling Yunnan and Sichuan provinces, close to the Tibetan border. Mosuo has a matriarchal society, one of the last in the world. Estimates as to their numbers vary, but are most likely around 56,000.   In their matriarchal society, they do not marry. They practice what they call "walking marriage" in which a woman may invite a man into her hut to spend a "sweet night," but he must leave by daybreak. If a pregnancy results from this union, the child will be raised by the woman and her family. The traditional Mosuo religion worships nature, with Lugu Lake regarded as the Mother Goddess and the mountain overlooking it venerated as the Goddess of Love. The Mosuo also practice Lamaism, a Tibetan variation of Buddhism. The Mosuo language is rendered not in writing, but in Dongba, the only pictographic language used in the world today. The Mosuo language has no words for murder, war or rape, and the Mosuo have no jails.

from: www.pbs.org and http://matriarchy.info