Matriarchal Theories and Cultures as Models for Envisioning an Egalitarian and Socially Sustainable Future

Abstract

This panel focuses on matricultural studies and theories that offer compelling visions for societies of peace past, present and future. The fields from matriarchal or matricultural studies to the related fields of Gender and the Gift economy/ecology in Europe and North-America have established themselves as serious academic fields in the past twenty years. St. Gallen opened the first matriarchal studies Archive in 2011 and Oxford UP has published a comprehensive bibliography on matriarchies (H. Göttner-Abendroth and Barbara Alice Mann, 2014). The aim of this panel is to bring together scholars and two film makers who work on matriarchal cultures to present their most recent research and visual illustration of the topic. Kaarina Kailo and Heide Göttner-Abendroth focus on matriarchal or matricultural theories and critical theory. Kailo describes the Gift Ecology in the North. Kirre Koivunen presents her documentary on Woman at risk—on the possibilities of gift economies and matriarchies globally (Valokulabo 2017) and Francesca Rosati Freeman likewise presents her film on the Mosuo of China. The purpose of the session is to introduce this timely topic to scholars of gender and politics who may be unaware of the the peaceful and matriarchal roots of Europe with the longlasting civilization going far back into Neolithic times (Luciana Percovich).The panel makes visible that there are still many egalitarian, self-sustaining cultures with varying social arrangements that offer radical alter-natives to capitalistic patriarchy with its asymmetrical gender relations

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