Women are the best

Our civilization started with women and was expressed in the mother goddess!!!

Like most of us I was educated with theories that mankind developed along the path of  nomadic hunters and fishermen to farming settlers and traders, and from primitive hut builders to ingenious craftsmen who built canals and cities. And they fought a lot, which brought along new technologies.... Wrong, wrong ,wrong so told Michela Zucca us on day 3 of our course; we started as nomads all right, living in primitive huts and picking fruit and mushrooms, digging roots, searching for snails and shellfish, but it were the women who did so. Hunting took place in a later stage, when bows, arrows and other equipment for hunting were available.  And we didn´t live in caves either: they were used for religious purposes and storage. The oldest religious remains are small women figures, pregnant and with big breasts, symbols of  life and fertility. Women were the central persons in the communities, providing for food, health care and passing on knowledge.

A lot has changed since then. Women are now living in a global system dominated by ideas of free marketing and competition. Knowledge of food in relation to health and environment is becoming a scarcity; how to keep this wisdom alive? Michela played the marketing tune as a possible solution: we could for instance try to save the knowledge by hiding it behind a seductive story on authenticity, cultivating its cultural and environmental value, selling the belonging unique products  on the place to middle aged businessmen....

Parto Teherani-Kroenner put the importance of the cultural  value of the heritage of food in a different perspective: she made clear that we don`t just have to find economic solutions. We are operating in a broader and much more complicated structure which contains different  of views  and values: ecological, economic, political and moral. The central question is how we are developing our social relationships. In answering this question she agrees with Michela, saying that sharing is not just a primitive reaction if meeting one another but also a wise decision. It saves not only time and energy, but it also enables us to exchange information and experiences, from which we can learn. And we may be able to help one another when necessary. This attitude however conflicts with neo-liberal ideas of free enterprise and marketing.

Food and meals can be seen as the materialized symbols of social networks. Parto tells us that in the creation and use of these symbols men and women have different positions, roles and tasks, which are culturally determined. She underlines her vision with literature and with own research in Iran, in which she looked at food security. She makes a distinction between food and meals and from both perspectives she analyses matters of security. By doing so she unfolds different contributions of men and women. So are men generally involved when technology is invented, used or repaired. Also transport to markets often is a male task. Women on the other hand make sure that the meals are nutritious and safely made. And they are an influential force in matters of social acceptance and networking, communication and passing on of knowledge. With Parto´s contribution we finally got answers to the question what the men were doing in the early days of our civilization. They helped in making the environment fit for living in one way or another. Maybe they were also involved in the domestication of sheep, cows or deer for milk. Because we did that as well in the very early stages of our existence.

One important lesson of Michela to end this short review of day three: in the beginning of human civilization it were the women who decided on borders and territory.  Why and where did we women lose that position? Interesting question for the coming days!!!!  Ally