When humans began to understand procreation
Question: Nothing is said in the first 5 sessions about when humans began to realize that men played a part in the continuance of the species and the impact that might have had on a change from a Goddess-centered spirituality to a God-centered religion. It seems that I read many years ago that humans began to understand procreation after some animals were domesticated and humans observed their copulation with faster results than say larger animals. It kind of sounds like women were revered for their procreation, were cooperative rather than violent, and were accepting of men, but when men saw their part in procreation, they wanted power over/domination – stick it to women?/sorry. At some point men were considered the creators and woman only the receptacle for the seed which grew into a baby. Later it was realized that it took both.
This question has been growing for me as I read through the materials and if someone brings it up, I’m not sure how to respond except that I’m looking into it.
Thank you in advance for your thoughts and insights.
Carolyn Hawk
Rev Shirley Ranck said,
March 22, 2011 @ 10:05 am
The truth is that we are speculating about Old Stone Age times, way before written records and we just don’t know when human beings first learned about the male role in conception. I don’t think early people were as ignorant as we often imagine them to be. However we just don’t know. The best scholarly speculation on the subject is in the two books mentioned on page 48 of Cakes Vol. I. {“The Alphabet Versus The Goddess,”] by Leonard Schlain, and the one by Carol Lee Flinders. You would have to read more than the short summaries to get a sense of their ideas, but they are very interesting. The other possibility is Joseph Campbell who may have written something on this topic in The Masks of God: Primitive Mythology. But feel free to say to your group that nobody really knows. We know there was a shift in human culture from emphasizing and empowering women to more and more empowering of men, and there are many hypotheses as to how and why that happened. So far nobody seems to have the whole truth.
I hope this helps. Very best wishes to you and your Cakes group!
Shirley Ranck