"In the 'power-over' or 'power-for-oneself only' model there is an assumption of an active agent exerting control that [arises from] an actual or threatened use of power, strengths or expertise.
"The alternative model of interaction that we are proposing might be termed 'power-with' or 'power-together'... It suggest[s] that all participants in the relationship interact in ways that are based on connecting and enhancing everyone's personal power."
We are beginning to realize that the deeply rooted belief that women, other men, and nature must be dominated and controlled is an archaic and obsolete delusion.
History
Eisler presents a contemporary overview of archeological data gathered from excavations of Neolithic human communities (ca. 10,000 BC); in her reassessment she argues that substantial evidence now exists which suggests that in prior eras a "partnership" form of social organization was the norm. [It should be noted that many indigenous peoples have operated in the latter mode for thousands of years].
The work of Maria Gimbutas, for example, has strongly indicated that southeastern Europe held a flourishing partnership civilization from 6500 to 3500 BC. Similar to the form of Neolithic groups found in Crete, it would seem that the people of Old Europe developed complex religious, governmental, and economic systems without rigid sexual or class hierarchies. Women held high positions in the social order; between the sexes a basically egalitarian relationship prevailed - one which indicated a division of labor, but not the superiority of either sex.
Evidence of such egalitarian cultures in Crete and Catal Huyuk (in what is now Turkey) suggest active trading, but little in terms of military weaponry or fortifications.
However, in a sweeping turn of events (over several millennia), early partnership societies may have been overrun and conquered by nomadic bands, whose own mode of social organization was based on the dominator model.
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