Imagine: a country where only women vote. In this country it's women who elect Congress and the Pres. Women put MEN into Congress and the presidency, but woe to any man who disappoints the women, because they will yank him out of the White House/Capitol Building faster than he can say "Wham, bam, thank you, ma'am...."
Although the armed forces in this fabled land are manned by men, guess who gets to decide when/if men go to war? You got it -- the women. Since the men protect the women and children, run the government, and also bring home the bacon, they are incredibly cherished.
In this enchanted country, men don't own land. Every single house, building, airport, forest, farm, and vacant lot is owned by women. What's more, women own everything springing from land. If a man wants oil, uranium, food or water, they say "Pretty please." (And very, very politely....)
Tidy bit of science fiction, you say? Annnnnnnggggkk! (Error Bell). This country existed. It was called "Haudenosaunee," and it stretched over and beyond the territory we today call New York state. The name EuroAmericans gave to it was "Iroquois."
All this came from a book recommended by Morgaine called Sisters in Spirit: Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Influence on Early American Feminists, 2001, by Dr. Sally Roesch Wagner. (Dr. Wagner is a founder of one of the nation's first women's studies programs; she's appeared in the Ken Burns documentary "Not for Ourselves Alone" and in the PBS special "One Woman, One Vote.")
Dr. Wagner believes Iroquois women birthed Iroquois democracy. If she's right, then women birthed American democracy, too, since it's obvious to anyone who's done reading in the area that the Founding Daddies adopted American democracy straight from the Iroquois.
Wow!!!! Heavy!
Go to Amazon.com to read more about this fab book.
1 comment:
Oooh, hot damn, that sounds cool! ::adds to reading list::
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