Posted by Perry on August 27, 2004 at 15:31:49
Ever since I started university in 1992, one year after I left TF, I've been interested in understanding the subjugation of women under patriarchal systems. Although I never took any courses in women’s studies, feminism or gender issues, I was in a multi-disciplinary program, which allowed me to investigate that subject through my BA thesis. My paper, entitled, “Low Expectations: the misrepresentation of women in literature”, considered the status of women as represented in Western literature from the Greek period onward, including biblical and biblically inspired writings.
I have not actively pursued further studies on this subject, but what I have noticed since then is that I relate to and communicate better with women far more than with men. Almost all my friends are women and I’ve always been more comfortable hanging out with them than with the few male acquaintances I have. In every job I’ve had in the past 13 years, I’ve either worked in all female environments with women supervisors, or on my own. When I was in law school I often ended up in seminar courses where I was the only male. These courses were always on subjects like social and economic justice, equal rights, etc., which for some reason didn’t seem to interest many males, whereas you’d never find any shortage of them in corporate, business, intellectual property law etc.
I went into law school thinking that I would not be able to relate to anyone there, but much to my pleasant surprise I made two really good friends, one a lesbian and the other a two-spirited aboriginal woman. And it turned out that they also live in the bohemian part of town where I do. I was accepted into their circle of friends and they made me an “honorary lesbian”. I also met and worked with several very powerful female lawyers, both lesbian and straight, who I would describe as women warriors who work to overcome injustices that can be attributed in large part to patriarchal systems.
The idea of women warriors has always appealed to me and last night I watched a fascinating documentary on that subject. It revealed new archeological evidence proving the existence of a tribe of women warriors who lived on the Asian steppes. The main focus of the documentary was a burial mound that contained the remains of a warrior-priestess. She was buried alone, indicating her importance, and her grave contained over 100 iron arrowheads, as well as religious ceremonial instruments. Correlations were made between the clothing and instruments found in the grave, to depictions from the same period (about 2500 years ago) on Greek pottery of the fabled Amazon women. The comparisons were incredible, and included similarities between the Amazon oral and written legends and evidence found in the grave, but even more incredible is that they did DNA testing on the bones in an attempt to see if ancestors of these warrior women still exist. The search led to Mongolia. One of the scholars had noticed that even among the remotest nomadic tribes in Mongolia, there occasionally appeared blond haired people with Caucasian facial features. In the course of making the documentary, they searched for one of these people and found a young girl of about 12 who appeared quite different from other members of her clan. The DNA test results showed conclusively that she was descended from the princess-priestess.
I am not in any way a scholar on this subject. I just find it fascinating. At the following link is a short excerpt from a book that provides more historical information on this tribe of women who lived northeast of the Black Sea, near the Caucasus Mountains. http://www.macha.free-online.co.uk/7day-extracts/amazons.html