Click arrow to view video clipfrom the dvdWomen's Power by Max Dashu
uncovers the realities of women's
lives, internationally and across time, asking questions about patriarchy and slavery, conquest and aboriginality. About mother-right, female spheres of power, indigenous philosophies of spirit-- and the
historical chemistry of their repression. Even more important, their
role in resisting oppression.
A global perspective on women’s
history offers fresh and diverse conceptions of women's power, as
well as of men and gender borders. It overturns stereotypes of race and class, and the structures of domination that enforce them. It
digs under the usual story of lords and rulers, looking for hidden
strands, and reweaves knowledge from the divided fields of history, archaeology, linguistics and folk
tradition.
So we cast a wide arc,
looking for patterns and gaps and contradictions which, where vested
power interests are at stake, are trigger points for controversy.
Some of the flashpoints are women's
power; neolithic female figurines; gender-egalitarian mother-right cultures; patriarchy; witch-hunts; "heresies" such as goddess veneration or shamans; and the rise and fall of empires,
including the doctrines of supremacy and inferiority that prop up all systems of domination.
Max Dashu founded the Suppressed Histories Archives in 1970 to research women's
history internationally and understand how systems of domination established and perpetuate themselves. She has built a collection of some 15,000 slides and 100 shows. See the Presentations pages for descriptions of the Suppressed Histories
Series. Learn about the creation of the Suppressed Histories Archives, and about future projects, including books, dvds, and exhibits.
What is online here is the tip of
the iceberg.
More articles and images are added every month.
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