Hi, I wanted to start this thread to share what our favourite books are!
Here are mine:
Favourite overall: Life and Death: Twilight reimagined (Meyer). I love romantic novels. Love, theoretically was also excellent as was Love hypothesis :)
Favourite non-fiction: Assyria: The rise and fall of the world's first empire (Frahm). This caused a massive, obsessive hyperfocus on learning about Assyria when I'm just an astrophysicist!
I’ve never been able to reread books but I like books that change your perspective or aid you to see things in a different light. I read three books in a series during lockdown that opened my eyes a lot. They were by Yuval Noah Harari, the first in the trio is called Sapiens followed by Homo Deus and lastly 21 Lessons. The books topics cover the very beginnings of humanity and religions to technology and what may lay ahead for the future of humanity referring to AI especially.
Oh, Sapiens.
It is a good book. I just felt it wasn't for me since it didn't mention the Toba catastrophe theory or the disaster in 535-536 CE. But good nonetheless!
Is there anything from this book you particularly enjoyed?
Sapiens is good and vogently written but it could be the writer is a little too sold on the idea that our species is that war like and destructive. Recently I read a non academic who nevertheless did her homework and raised the idea again that Gimbutas may have been right about humans having been more peacefully matriarchal in the beginning.
Thank you for that, I think we forget we are part of the animal kingdom and a lot more goes into our choices than conscious thought and acting out those thoughts. Obviously different levels of hormones between the species play a role too. We are much more advanced than our chimpanzees cousins thankfully but the movies like planet of the apes are a frightening play on those fears that we are not so different after all.
I really need to get my hands on some Gimbutas books, my partner has them but they would be a bit difficult to lug over from the UK.
Have you read Before War from Elisha Daeva? She's not a formal academic, and she dies make the very interesting point that the world of academia can be very power driven. Start making unpopular claims and the gden doors of academia will close against you, and you will become a pariah, a laugh G stock. That is how dated paradigms become entrenched. I don't know if her imagination runs away with her too, she discusses her personal life rather a lot in her book, she's very much a 90's hippy. Must say she does also red like a breath of fresh air.
An acquaintance of mine corroborated the ideological/philosophical closed door in also producing a series of books on anthropology and philosophy under a pseudonym - he didn't want to be pilloried for supporting the more mystical side of Kant and William James either. This acquaintance is very much on the side of patriarchy as a necessary evolution though, where this was the path to getting away from human sacrifice. Good old Euripides.
I met thinkers such as Monica Sjoo who were critical of the more patriarchal side of a lot of New, Age thought, and the problematica side of this, though she was woke before her times too: she criticised my tarot artwork for not having enough Black peoe in my deck, though I did include Black characters.
Daeva is of the opinion that patriarchy evves under trauma, which could conceivably include mass dying off such as plague pandemic - and there is certainly scientific proof that Plague dud kill off thrici Neolithic communities. But drought and famine could also be responsible.
It does seem that the harsh conditions of desert communities are often the matrix for authoritarian monolithic religions. A certain Vitaly Malkin sent me his book to review for free, on that topic. It's called The Ruse of the One God.
I think the writer who first drew attention to all that was Desmond Morris in The Naked Ape. Yuval in passing says that in social situations we behave embsssingly like chimpanzees. We do share so much of our DNA with them. There is another book worth reading, alas I don't remember the title, maybe it's to book you are referring to, that talked of the way males in each of our species can become lethally aggressive in party groups. That book also suggested we are a little split between a more aggressive chimp heritage, and the more friendly tendencies of the bonobo. Seemed a bit reflective of the Cain and Abel myth?
Some academics too have more recently suggested that Gimbutas’ ideas about a more peaceful Neolithic Europe are valid, yet they are not universally accepted. She turned out to be right about many things, so she was a pioneer even if her methods were at times unsound. She is certainly responsible for reinterpreting the debate. Her Neolithic figurine ‘mother goddess’ hypothesis isn’t generally accepted by archaeologists, although her contribution kick-started serious research in the subject.
Unrelated to books but I know we share similar behaviours to chimpanzees who are extremely territorial, engage in patrols of their land and even kill each other sometimes attacking in groups. So we have early-stage nationalistic chimps who have created an army to protect their land and all done very naturally. They’ve even been observed to scout out perceived threats by climbing up to higher points in their environments. I think humans beings have slowly tried to become more diplomatic for the sake of peace, many a civilisation’s have come and gone and we’ve progressed so much by learning from each other over time however our ancestral roots are very much part of our DNA in such a way that it takes equal effort from all groups and parties to maintain a level of cooperation and stability,
I've heard that about the Plague too, it seems to have mutated in some way and become more infectious?
I've not read Gimbutas for many years, but I've read a lot of stuff where she is quoted, either negatively or possitively, to be honest I do think she let her imagination run away with her a bit. But more recently studies of bones of the Durotriges Tribe in modern Dorset show that the women stayed put and its the men who moved in with thier wives, women were often buried with very high staus goods, some previously thought to be "male" grave goods. It's probably that many peoples practiced Matrilocality, Men moving into a female family, instead of the other way around, it's even thought that it was widespread in northern Europe, which would be why so many Roman writers refer to the prominence of women in the societies they encountered.
It was always supposed that any graves with weapons, chariots, ships must have been male graves, but this says more about the attitudes of those assessing these things than what was practised by the peoples being studied. Anthropology, osteology and DNA testing have advanced how we look at graves and the bodies that remain in them.
I've often wondered where and when things like patriarchy started and of course why. Some years ago I read all of Jean M Auel's The Earths Children series, they were very good until the last one, which annoyed me. Trouble is she spent so long researching each book that the first was outdated by the time the third one was published, but they still make interesting reading, as long as you remember she wrote over a span of about 20 years.
I read a piece about Brehon law in Ireland, this was in place from pre-history up until Henry VIII's time, although it was modified especially by the arrival of Christianity. But it says that a man owns the land and the building/house upon it, but the woman owns the animals on the land and everything within the house. If the couple divorce, which they were allowed to do, then they each take what they brough to the relationship and any further gains are shared between them. I think this is a good example of patrilocality and gives an idea of how the Durotiges and others may have lived and divided assests. It seems a much more equitable way of life whether it's matrilocality or patrilocality.
I don't actually have the Gimbutas books, but I would imagine she is talking about neolithic times.That was from looking at the squat Venus figures, and so on. Riane Eisler followed up on this information, I know they hypothesized that it was Kurgan warriors that changed things. You can get a rough and ready take on what she was about on Gimbutas. She is seen as an eccentric now but just recently, an Elisha Daeva has contested this view, and that she was probably right.
On a different note, I hear they are now saying that plague has been around since neolithic times: any period of famine or disease may have set humanity on newer, more violent trajectoiries.
humans having been more peacefully matriarchal in the beginning.
That’s an interesting view, I haven’t read that. Does the book specify when the beginning would have been?
humans having been more peacefully matriarchal in the beginning.
That’s an interesting view, I haven’t read that. Does the book specify when the beginning would have been?
Thank you for that, I think we forget we are part of the animal kingdom and a lot more goes into our choices than conscious thought and acting out those thoughts. Obviously different levels of hormones between the species play a role too. We are much more advanced than our chimpanzees cousins thankfully but the movies like planet of the apes are a frightening play on those fears that we are not so different after all.
I really need to get my hands on some Gimbutas books, my partner has them but they would be a bit difficult to lug over from the UK.
Have you read Before War from Elisha Daeva? She's not a formal academic, and she dies make the very interesting point that the world of academia can be very power driven. Start making unpopular claims and the gden doors of academia will close against you, and you will become a pariah, a laugh G stock. That is how dated paradigms become entrenched. I don't know if her imagination runs away with her too, she discusses her personal life rather a lot in her book, she's very much a 90's hippy. Must say she does also red like a breath of fresh air.
An acquaintance of mine corroborated the ideological/philosophical closed door in also producing a series of books on anthropology and philosophy under a pseudonym - he didn't want to be pilloried for supporting the more mystical side of Kant and William James either. This acquaintance is very much on the side of patriarchy as a necessary evolution though, where this was the path to getting away from human sacrifice. Good old Euripides.
I met thinkers such as Monica Sjoo who were critical of the more patriarchal side of a lot of New, Age thought, and the problematica side of this, though she was woke before her times too: she criticised my tarot artwork for not having enough Black peoe in my deck, though I did include Black characters.
Daeva is of the opinion that patriarchy evves under trauma, which could conceivably include mass dying off such as plague pandemic - and there is certainly scientific proof that Plague dud kill off thrici Neolithic communities. But drought and famine could also be responsible.
It does seem that the harsh conditions of desert communities are often the matrix for authoritarian monolithic religions. A certain Vitaly Malkin sent me his book to review for free, on that topic. It's called The Ruse of the One God.
I think the writer who first drew attention to all that was Desmond Morris in The Naked Ape. Yuval in passing says that in social situations we behave embsssingly like chimpanzees. We do share so much of our DNA with them. There is another book worth reading, alas I don't remember the title, maybe it's to book you are referring to, that talked of the way males in each of our species can become lethally aggressive in party groups. That book also suggested we are a little split between a more aggressive chimp heritage, and the more friendly tendencies of the bonobo. Seemed a bit reflective of the Cain and Abel myth?
Unrelated to books but I know we share similar behaviours to chimpanzees who are extremely territorial, engage in patrols of their land and even kill each other sometimes attacking in groups. So we have early-stage nationalistic chimps who have created an army to protect their land and all done very naturally. They’ve even been observed to scout out perceived threats by climbing up to higher points in their environments. I think humans beings have slowly tried to become more diplomatic for the sake of peace, many a civilisation’s have come and gone and we’ve progressed so much by learning from each other over time however our ancestral roots are very much part of our DNA in such a way that it takes equal effort from all groups and parties to maintain a level of cooperation and stability,
I've heard that about the Plague too, it seems to have mutated in some way and become more infectious?
I've not read Gimbutas for many years, but I've read a lot of stuff where she is quoted, either negatively or possitively, to be honest I do think she let her imagination run away with her a bit. But more recently studies of bones of the Durotriges Tribe in modern Dorset show that the women stayed put and its the men who moved in with thier wives, women were often buried with very high staus goods, some previously thought to be "male" grave goods. It's probably that many peoples practiced Matrilocality, Men moving into a female family, instead of the other way around, it's even thought that it was widespread in northern Europe, which would be why so many Roman writers refer to the prominence of women in the societies they encountered.
It was always supposed that any graves with weapons, chariots, ships must have been male graves, but this says more about the attitudes of those assessing these things than what was practised by the peoples being studied. Anthropology, osteology and DNA testing have advanced how we look at graves and the bodies that remain in them.
I've often wondered where and when things like patriarchy started and of course why. Some years ago I read all of Jean M Auel's The Earths Children series, they were very good until the last one, which annoyed me. Trouble is she spent so long researching each book that the first was outdated by the time the third one was published, but they still make interesting reading, as long as you remember she wrote over a span of about 20 years.
I read a piece about Brehon law in Ireland, this was in place from pre-history up until Henry VIII's time, although it was modified especially by the arrival of Christianity. But it says that a man owns the land and the building/house upon it, but the woman owns the animals on the land and everything within the house. If the couple divorce, which they were allowed to do, then they each take what they brough to the relationship and any further gains are shared between them. I think this is a good example of patrilocality and gives an idea of how the Durotiges and others may have lived and divided assests. It seems a much more equitable way of life whether it's matrilocality or patrilocality.
I don't actually have the Gimbutas books, but I would imagine she is talking about neolithic times.That was from looking at the squat Venus figures, and so on. Riane Eisler followed up on this information, I know they hypothesized that it was Kurgan warriors that changed things. You can get a rough and ready take on what she was about on Gimbutas. She is seen as an eccentric now but just recently, an Elisha Daeva has contested this view, and that she was probably right.
On a different note, I hear they are now saying that plague has been around since neolithic times: any period of famine or disease may have set humanity on newer, more violent trajectoiries.
