The Emergency of Patriarchy? Material Arts as Evidence

Who invented farming? Observations of plant behavior--recognition of young seedlings/seeds Over time--connections between rain and growth Awareness of where certain plants grew Worked out how to grow and tend crops

Why change? Easier access to tasty grains/reliable food supply (no need to carry food with them) Cereals only ripen once a year but seeds could be kept and eaten--storage? Accidental planting? Slow change to sedentism Increased population (Why?)

Evidence 20,000 BCE women had discovered food value of einkorn A single good strand could feed a family for a year Grains had 50% more protein than wheat today It easily plants itself--ancients could return to same site each year Eventually the small band might decide to stay longer or not move at all

So Women had it easier now? Hunter/gather men hunted about 4 days a week and women spent 2.5 days gathering to feed family Rest of time was leisure (visiting, being, rituals, games, informal education/raising kids)

Eynan Three layers of 50 stone houses Small stone domes Storage pits Huts had hearths Child and infant burials A settled hunting/gathering band (huh??)

And with farming (horticulture initially and then agriculture) Women’s world -mark fields for planting -used fire hardened pointed digging sticks -harvest time--all including children bring in grain - children watched sheep/goats -but gathering continued--fruits/nuts -women did milking and cheese-making -children’s work increased (age 3 =chase birds away)

Horticulture---> agriculture Men would help to clear fields using slash/burn methods Women would tend fields, complete household chores and tend children And build stone/mud brick homes, make tools, containers (1st pottery around 8000)

Textile production Why would it be a women’s task? -domestic spinning and fiber production could be done while children were underfoot (unlike plowing, hunting, sea fishing etc)

Evidence of Increased Distinction in Tasks Liulin site in China’s Yellow River Valley Males were buried with stone adzes and chisels Women were buried with spinning whorls In Syria (Abu Harewa) --female skeletons had deformed toe bones and powerful upper arms (not found in males)

Why would religion develop? In some societies, religion may have been an early form of social control--a way of encouraging certain standards of conduct as people learned to live together Viewed nature as imbued with supernatural powers Settled agriculturalists tended to emphasize the Female Principal of Life (Fertility) --the earth as the womb out of which their crops grew/life depended on this rite

1. Venus of Willendorf 2. Catalhayuk--Great Mother Goddess 3. Mother Goddess with Child, Uttar Pradesh, Gupta period,