The Sage Forge

For most of human history and pre-history human society has run on two rails. One was a culture dominated by men and filled with heirarchies, careful records, and concepts like "destiny", "greatness", and "heroism". The other was a culture dominated by women that gave both children and men a sense of personal worth, an assurance of their capacity to accomplish all the things they need to do to thrive, and established a stable environment for the home. That there was an effort to transmit both of these cultures can readily be seen in the kind of things we dig up in archaeological studies of ancient human habitations. Not only are there similar spearpoints in related cultures, but there will also be similar pots, hearths, and woven goods.

There is a peculiar consistency to this separation of human effort even among widely separated societies. Among tribes in the area of the Great Rift in eastern Africa there are societies of hut-building peoples. In East Texas prior to white settlement the Caddoan tribes built the same kinds of settlements. In both societies women both built and owned the home. In both women also owned the personal effects and, if a man and wife separated it was she who kept personal effects, house, and small children. In both men hunted and women farmed. In spite of recent genetic studies expanding the apparent origins of the genomes of American Indians, however, there is no evidence to suggest these societal traits have any connection in the migration of African tribes to the Americas. These remarkable similarities in separation, also seen in other parts of the world, appear to be part of the human condition.

Western societies also have shown something akin to this kind of separation, though the wife is less universally the owner of the home. Women in most western cultures have also had their own priorities, again dealing with establishing stable, nurturing environments, and providing the foundations of basic human skills that, by age six, are the root of success for both girls and boys, while men went "out into the world" to make a living (and create a picture of society in their own image).

Now, back to the question. Quilting is an art practiced almost entirely by women. What does it say of our opinion of the nature of nearly all human societies, perhaps even of the results of evolution itself, if we question whether an art practiced primarily by women would be as intentional as those products of the culture of men? Perhaps it says women, or at least some fairly influential women, have bought into the conceit of men's culture.

Should we blithely accept the general corrosion of the women's side of culture to which we have been witness in the aftermath of the cultural revolutions of the 20th century? I don't think so. The processes that distributed women's roles in unrelated cultures spread across the globe, whether one believes they were divine providence or evolutionary accident, didn't produce so uniform an image of those roles to belittle anyone or keep them subservient. Societies functioning in that way did well. They perpetuated and propagated the skills needed to raise socially successful children, both male and female. As importantly they gave to women the power to civilize men within the contexts of their own societies. Men need order and assurance because they are psychologically insecure and unstable.

It is not that we should confine women to the traditional roles of ancient times. Many of us, for instance, appreciate the kinds of homes now being built primarily by men, and women make enormous contributions in every field. As society's increasing sophistication freed women from the remarkable burdens of their ancient drudgery the feminist movement of recent times has not stopped at wanting to open up male dominated roles to women, though. Instead, it has insisted on denigrating the ancient civilizing and enabling role of women as though it were degrading.

In truth the ancient roles of women are of equal, or even greater value than the old male roles. They are just harder to quantify, wrap a money economy around, and tax. Would we even need government if it weren't for men? Think hard. Men commit more than 90% of all major crimes, and the crimes women dominate deal with relationships with men. Women live longer than men because the role they serve in the heritage of the animal is more important evolutionarily, in spite of male dominance of societal institutions. When was the last time a woman started a war? What happens in the first six years and what civilizes adult males makes all the rest of civilization possible. Feminism washes that foundation away at civilization's peril.

We men are so self-consciously clever, always ready to catalog, take credit for, and advertise our inventiveness. Like the old U.S.S.R. we invented everything, or so we think. In the meantime a parallel culture, currently in some peril, goes quietly along making it all possible. "Yes dear, you are so smart. I'm really proud of you."

One thinks it possible a few women could have exercized some inventive cleverness, on purpose, in coming up with quilt designs and perhaps some other stuff, too. They were just secure enough not to crave the credit.