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                  [Note:  Basque words are in Italics and Bold-faced Green]

 

THE RISE OF PATRIARCHY *

 

A review derived from the following:

 

Nyland, Edo.  2001.  Linguistic Archaeology: An
Introduction.   Trafford Publ., Victoria, B.C., Canada.

ISBN 1-55212-668-4. 541 p.

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Introduction

 

          The Neolithic was the great age of seafaring, and all continents could have been discovered by 6,000 BC. At about the same time, the retreat of the glaciers from the mountain ranges of Europe had created significant changes in continental air circulation, which caused the Sahara to change from a lush grazing area into an ever-expanding desert (See Climate). The many tribes living there had to flee to servive. The Sea Peoples of the Sahara, living on the north coast, who knew geography, ferried these migrant populations first to the lands around the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. The Sea Peoples of the east coast and southern Arabia did the same for the eastern tribes that were then ferried to far away places like India, Japan and Oceania. The Atlantic coast of Europe had earlier been colonized by the masters of navigation, the Rh-negative Berber tribes from Morocco, who established population centers in the Bay of Biscay, west Ireland, the Hebrides of Scotland, Southern Sweden and as far north as Arctic Norway (at Mount Komsa).


          These migrants brought along the three pillars of their civilization: 1) absolute faith in re-incarnation, 2) a highly disciplined system of oral education and 3) their ancient and well-developed Saharan language.  Nyland (2001) calls their belief a way of life, because there was no separation between the secular and the faith. A religion, by definition, is based on revelation such as found in Christianity, Judaism and Islam, which the Goddess' way of life was not. The social structure of the population was based on the tribal, or extended family, system. The tribe controlled the land surrounding the village, which was administered by a council of elders headed by the Amona, the head of the matrilineal organized tribe. It lacked the centralized structure of the later patriarchy.

 

Concern in Utopia

 

          The first traces of dissent in the age-old Goddess civilization were noted around 4000 BC according to archaeologist Marija Gimbutas, somewhere in Anatolia or Southern Russia. It happened at about the same time as the development of metalworking, the domestication of horse and camel, and the first local excess-population problems resulting from successful agriculture. It is likely that all these conditions contributed to the upcoming breakdown. The Goddess civilization had been centrally nurtured from Malta and as long as regular contact with this center was maintained, any dissent was insignificant. The problems arose with those tribes which had no sailing and navigation traditions, located in regions away from salt water who therefore depended upon other tribes for their clergy's and teachers' contacts with the central shrine on Malta.


          Anatolia and Mesopotamia appear to have been the first places where young men refused to volunteer to be sacrificed, after having participated in the Sacred Marriage. They had tasted the exaltation of temporary kingship which awarded semi-deity status. Why should he be willing to give all that up in exchange for hypothetical re-incarnation in a newborn body? The earliest written evidence we have of this revolt is found in the Gilgamesh Epic of about 2800 bce.., part of which describes Gilgamesh's search for the elixir of eternal life. In the following quote from N.K.Sandars' translation of "The Epic of Gilgamesh" he expresses his doubts about the truth of reincarnation. We also see that, so very early in history, the Chief Priestess had been placed under supervision of a sky-god, whom she calls father, and the Sacred Marriage is ridiculed:

 

          Come to me Gilgamesh, and be my bridegroom; grant me seed of your body, let me be your bride and you shall be my husband. Kings, rulers and princes will bow down before you; they shall bring you tribute from the mountains and the plain. Gilgamesh answered glorious Ishtar, If I take you in marriage, what gifts can I give in return? What ointment and clothing for your body? I would gladly give you bread and all sorts of food fit for a god. I would give you wine to drink fit for a queen, but as for making you my wife - that I will not. Your lovers have found you like a brazier which smolders in the cold, a backdoor which keeps out neither squall of wind nor storm, a castle which crushes the garrison, pitch that blackens the bearer, a battering ram turned back from the enemy. Which of your lovers did you ever love forever? Listen to me while I tell the tale of your lovers.


          There was (1)Tammuz, the lover of your youth, for him you decreed wailing, year after year. (2) You loved the many colored roller (?) but still you struck and broke his wing; now in the grove he sits and cries "kappi, kappi, my wing, my wing". (3) You have loved the lion, tremendous in strength: seven pits you dug for him, and seven. (4) You have loved the stallion magnificient in battle, and for him you decreed whip and spur and a thong, to gallop seven leagues by force and to muddy the water before he drinks. (5) You have loved the sheppard of the flock; he made meal-cake for you day after day, he killed kids for your sake. You struck and turned him into a wolf; now his own herd-boys chase him away, his own dogs worry his flanks. (6) And did you not love Ishullanu, the gardener of your father's palmgrove? He brought you baskets filled with dates without end; every day he loaded your table. Then you turned your eyes on him and said "Dear Ishullanu, come here to me, let us enjoy your manhood, come forward and take me, I am yours". Ishullanu answered: "What are you asking from me? Why should I come to such as you for food that is tainted and rotten?" (Gilgamesh then continues:) "But when you heard his answer he was changed into a blind mole, deep in the earth, one whose desire is always beyond his reach". "And if you and I should be lovers, should not I be served in the same fashion as all these others whom you loved once?". When Ishtar heard this she fell into a bitter rage, she went up to high heaven. Her tears poured out in front of her father Anu and Antum, her mother. "My father, Gilgamesh has heaped insults on me, he has told over all my abominable behaviour, my foul and hideous acts" etc. etc.

 

          Obviously the Goddess' way of life had collapsed in Mesopotamia and patriarchy had taken over, although the priestesses were still very much in evidence. It would be many years in the future before a philosophy would be developed which was able to organize and execute a devastating attack on literally all aspects of the Goddess.

 

A Variety Pack of Deities is Invented

 

          With the breakdown of the old order, the Great Goddess of our ancestors was fractured into a plethora of more or less significant goddesses, some of which were given sex changes, others became warriors or witches, most were married off to sky-gods and god-kings and all were placed in subservient positions. Human characters and weaknesses of all sorts were assigned to newly invented gods and goddesses, from alcoholism to cruelty, cheating, brawling, weirdness etc. Several fearsome gods were associated with lightning and thunder, gods who walked and rode horses on the clouds and whose swords and spears were lightning bolts. This now being the age of writing, many were well documented among the Hittites, Egyptians, Sumerians, Greeks, Romans and later the Vikings. For all their temporary prominence, they left no impression upon the population, which had been unable to forget the loving Goddess of the past. In fact the new polytheistic mythology existed only in writing, having been invented by the new clergy who wanted to destroy the ancient Goddess mythology. When the new monotheistic religion became established, it had no trouble disposing of the godly weirdoes, but even to this day it has not succeeded in eliminating the ancestral Goddess from any of the "converted, or evangelized" populations, not even from the Jews themselves, many of whom still revere their "Shekina", and Mary, the mother of Jesus, is still revered among Christians.

 

The Inverted Religion

 

          It is not known which priesthood it was that had the original idea of turning all the attributes of the Goddess' faith inside out in their largely successful quest to destroy the ancient Goddess religion. They then decided to accept this negative image of the ancient gylanic faith as their own male-dominated religion. In doing so they changed the semi-democratic and holistic character of the old faith into dualism, which meant the introduction of confrontation, discord, selfishness and guilt into all aspects of life.


          The foundation was thus laid for the well organized woman-despising, pre-Judaic religion. Where this happened is not clear yet, but it is speculated that this happened in Nerik, an important Luvian cult-town in the Hittite province of Kizzuwadna, Anatolia. The priesthood's library of clay tablets has apparently been found in the town of Nerik, but Nyland (2001) had not been able to learn anything about the find. When the tablets are published we may know more. The process they set in motion is still with us today. Their main goal is expressed in the word

 

"armageddon", ar.-.ma-age-ed.-.do-on.:

 

Armageddon:


ar.           ara           aragikor                lustful 
.ma          ama          
Ama                    Goddess
age         age          
ageriko               notorious
ed.          ede          
ederrak hartu     to be defeated
.do          edo          
edonongo          everywhere
on.          one          
onezkero             right now


"The lustful and notorious Goddess must be defeated everywhere and right now". (2Kings 23:13-14)

 

With this goal in mind, the leadership of the new religion drew up a task list.

It was decided to work towards:

 

          1) the elimination of the tribal system by disposing of the priestesses, by destroying their holy sites and the peoples' places of ancestor worship. When that was done, the new clergy would direct the organization of strong, aggressive nations led by autocratic kings.

 

          2) the creation of a new language with a characteristic script for each of these newly created kingdoms to instill nationalism. Then phase the old Saharan language out of existence.


          3) altering the ancient belief in re-incarnation by teaching that life without end is only for god. This god would sit in judgment at the end of life and decide the place of residence for the soul. This eliminated the need for huge barrow tombs for the ancestors, which had been the religious center and pride of each tribe.


          4) making sexuality something dirty and despicable and sexual festivities a thing of the past. Kilts were forbidden because they allowed a quick display of male sexual prowess.  From then on men were to wear pants and women long skirts.

 

          5) phasing the memorizing tradition out, by teaching bright boys to write and to rely on books instead of memory. Books could easily be censored, replaced and re-written as the new society unfolded, but memorized knowledge was far more stable because it was for life. Women would remain at home and were not entitled to education or control over men, and certainly were not allowed to teach (1 Tim. 2: 11-14). As a result, the ancient oral traditions and universal language were carefully maintained by women, which "problem" was finally solved in the 15th and 16th century by condemning and burning some nine million women at the stake; the most brutal satanic event ever perpetrated on mankind.


       6) training and organizing expeditions of self-sufficient missionary groups to go to major population centers to spread the religion of male supremacy and its jealous sky-god. Each such group was to have a staff of linguists assigned to create the new language and script and teach this invention to the population.

 

Inventing New Languages

 

          The decision to create a variety of new languages and scripts required highly educated scholars and schools in which to train them. Linguistics became the first academic subject to be taught in institutions which later evolved into our universities, a tradition at least 4,000 years old. Confused remnants of the once great discipline of linguistics are still being taught as dogma in our universities today, but the ancient language invention science has been forgotten.


          Inventing a new language when there is only one existing to use as an example, may sound like an impossible task. A new and practical language did not come out of thin air or a dream. Fortunately for the Luvian priests, the ancient language was extremely logical and well-organized, it likely having been the product of much earlier linguists, possibly Egyptian, who had made up groups of words which were somehow related and assigned each of such groups a beginning root, made up of vowel-consonant-vowel, such as:


aba:     priest, rectory, advantage, surpass, shade
abi:     departure, speed, impulsive, begin, skillful
ibi:      vagabond, nomadic, behave, impassible, to cross
ade:    temple, gentle, adorn, courteous, prepare
ida:     write, document, clerk, subject, title, underline, literature
odo:   blood, martyr, rage, relative, angry, cruel, apathy
oha:   bed, concubine, spontaneous, lookout, distracted


         
This structure allowed plenty of opportunity for manipulation. Any associated information could be attached or agglutinated to the first syllable. Methods were slowly developed which could convert and mutilate the language in such a manner that the final product was not recognizable as a dialect of Saharan, but had its own rules of grammar and structure. The first step in this direction was the complete reversal of the periphrastic word order of Saharan; samples borrowed from Aulestia

 

negation+auxiliary verb+complements+ main verb
1          2           3         4       5
     ez       naiz       zurekin    etorriko  
I am   will   not   come   with you
2      5      1      4      3     3 
----------
1       2       3       4       5 
zu     bezain   ona    naiz    ni 
I    am     as     good  as    you 
5     4     2      3     2      1 
----------
1      2     3     4     5,6      7      8 
    ikusi  duzun   mutila    Jon  da     
John is the boy that you have seen 
7     8     6     5      4       3       2       1 
 

          The genius who invented this reversal of the ancient word order created the basics of the "family of Indo-European languages", something none of our modern linguists have been able to fathom, so far, although Heinrich Wagner came close. The priests thus laid the foundation for a large number of invented languages, which looked like they were genetically related but were only an artificial family.

 

          That the established order was deliberately turned topsy-turvy is shown in the meaning of many important words, which were reversed such as in: woman to man: andre (woman) which became andros (male) but in reality was an abbreviation of andrezale (fond of woman). This is the reason that the use of the word "androcratic" is not supported, supposedly meaning "male-dominated".


          black to white: the Saharan word
u'it / u'itsu (tar) was used to make the Dutch word "wit",

                English "white", German "weiss".


          hot to cold:
kalda (heat) became "kalt" in German, "cold" in English. (In Latin "caldus" still

               means "hot".)


          cold to hot:
hotz (cold) became "hot" in English, "heiss" in German.


          friend to foe: the Bible tells us that a "host" is an enemy, armed might; this agrees with

               Basque hostu/ohostu (to rob, to pillage). Yet "host and hospitable" are now words for

               "friend" in English.


          good to bad: the highly respected male clergy of the Goddess was called
abade (priest).  By

               removing the two outer vowels, the English word "bad" was created.


          This game of word distortion and meaning reversal was carried on during the next four millennia in all invented languages. A word such as
ashera, from ashola-era (care-ing) was used to create our English word "ash", because "ashera" was also the name of the tree planted beside the Goddess' altar and the Bible had ordered the tree to be burned. (Deut. 12:3 and 2 Kings 23:15; asherim is plural).

 

Collision of Two Ideologies

 

       Archaeologist Dr. Marija Gimbutas in her book "The Civilization of the Goddess" (p.396) came to a somewhat different conclusion:

 

          The Indo-European society was warlike, exogamic, patriarchal, patrilineal and patrilocal, with a strong clannic organization and social hierarchy which gave prominence to the warrior class. Their main gods were male and depicted as warriors. There is no possibility that this pattern of social organization could have developed out of the Old European matrilineal, matricentric and endogamic balanced society. Therefore the appearance of the Indo-Europeans in Europe represents a collision of two ideologies, not an evolution.

 

          Nyland (2001) took this train of thought one step further by suggesting that this collision between ideologies was the result of planned religious chicanery and enforced by the clergy of all the male-dominated religions. He could not agree with her that Indo-Europeans were involved because the Indo-European theory is probably a fallacy.

 

Major Changes Occurred With Male Domination

 

          The early religion had been a holistic one. Male and female had complemented each other in mutual respect and a well-balanced division of labor and responsibilities. Male domination meant that this former desirable state of affairs was turned into dualistic confrontation between the sexes. The male wanted the respect formerly accorded the woman, but in addition, to dominate and use and dispose at will. The priests wanted to make sure that paternity was always known, and that never again would the children and the children’s' inheritance be handled through the female line. The result was that married life for many women often became hell on earth. The German word for wife, "Frau" expresses this mentality well; it was coined from fa-arau, afa (happy) arau (discipline), "happy under discipline" and the Prussians' insecurity made sure that this discipline was enforced. Here follow some more changes that were brought about by the reversal of the Goddess' attributes.

 

From:

To:

Female Deity or Goddess

Male Deity or God

Ashera means "caring disposition"  

YHWH, means "frightening" (YHaWaliH, ihabali)

the Goddess was part of The All (the universe)

the God created The All (the universe)

Goddess immanent within every person    

God is transcendent, distant

idols revered

idols forbidden

both female and male clergy    

male clergy only

clergy dressed in white

clergy dressed in black

communal thinking: we, us, the tribe

selfish thinking: I, me, my son

individual responsibility, consensus sought

leadership gives orders, dictatorial

 

community rights

individual rights

all property and land communally owned

all property and land privately owned

artwork lavished on boats, religious objects  

artwork lavished on personal jewellery, weapons

man born from woman

woman created from man's rib

encourages individuality within family limits

conformity demanded, independence punished

women adored, held in high esteem

women must always be under control of men

no slaves, all people free, women persons

slavery, only males fully human, women non-persons

generally egalitarian

patriarchal, stratified society

martyrdom incomprehensible   

martyrdom encouraged

writing forbidden, memorizing required

memorizing discouraged, writing required

 

large communal projects  

ruling classes gather personal riches

universal language: Saharan

many invented languages

the world lies open, no boundaries

rigid boundaries, tight controls

one world, one people, one faith, one language

nationalism,many peoples, languages and religions

prophetic thinking part of faith, encouraged

prophetic thinking part of faith, encouraged

doctrines approach the truth

doctrines are the truth

sexuality beautiful, uninhibited

sexuality dirty, degrading, despised

direct access to Deity through prayer

path to Deity via church hierarchy

genital mutilation unknown

circumcision and female genital mutilation

the drums of the Goddess

the trumpets of male domination

tattooing encouraged and done by the clergy

tattooing considered degrading, discouraged

sacrifices common, one voluntary human every eight years

sacrifices common among early Hebrews, no human

individual names had to be earned

individual names given

life unending through re-incarnation

life ends in judgement day, choice: hell or heaven

death is part of living

death is the end of living

civilization based on caring and respect

civilization based on greed and shortsightedness

 

An Artificial World

 

          The coming of patriarchy with its insistence on gathering riches, has removed us from living natural lives in a healthy world.  First we were part of, and inseparable from creation, but now the new definition of the word "creation" tells us what it means: .k.-.re-ati-on.;

 

.k. - .re - ati - on.
oke - ere - ati - one
okergabe - erregali - atikitzaile - onetsi
pristine - gift - faithful - to bless
"Pristine gift to the blessed faithful".

 

          This indicated to Nyland (2001) that the world still existed in pristine condition when patriarchy arrived. The trouble is that the "blessed faithful" turned greedy and soon started plundering everything in the sea, on the land and even from the air; it didn't take the faithful long to create a mess.  By 2020 North America had exhausted well over half of its agricultural topsoil, much of its forest wealth and its enormous fish resources; we have polluted much of the fresh water in our lakes and poisoned the air in many cities and surrounding areas.  North America was pristine before patriarchy came, not very long ago.  I is time that we start to pay attention to and learn from the holistic manner in which the world environment was managed before patriarchy. Which system is more civilized and which one promises us happier lives?  Perhaps, some balance between people and the natural world.  There is no "nice" way to do it.  It is better to learn from the past.

 

 

     Bibliography