24 THE JEWISH POST & NEWS, Wednesday, September 18, 2019 Feature story Riane Eisler: World can be divided into domination societies and partnership societies iane Eisler was and repressive - be they secular Western soci- born in Vienna, eties like Hitler’s rightist Nazi Germany or Rand was a child Stalin’s leftist Soviet Union, or secular Eastern refugee with her par- ones like Kim Jung Un’s leftist regime, or reli- By ents from the gious societies, such as fundamentalist Iran, Holocaust, growing ISIS, or the Taliban, or the religious fundamen- up in Cuba and then in talists in the West today. Moreover, these con- MARTIN ZEILIG the United States. ventional categories are woefully incomplete: they pay scant, if any, attention to the majority of Her work as a systems scientist and cultural humanity: women and children. historian shows how we can construct a more equitable and less violent world based on part- The problem is that if we only look at part of a nership rather than domination. She is best picture, we can’t see the whole picture. This is known for her books, including The Chalice and Riane Eisler why the analytical method called the study of The Blade: Our History, Our Future (now in 27 rights to include the majority of humanity: relational dynamics introduced by my research foreign editions and 57 U.S. printings), and, The women and children). She keynotes conferences takes into account the whole of humanity, both Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring nationally and internationally and speaks of its male and female halves; the whole of our Economics (hailed by Archbishop Desmond applications of the partnership model at corpora- lives, not just politics and economics as conven- Tutu as “a template for the better world we have tions, universities, and platforms such as the tionally defined but our family and other inti- been so urgently seeking”). United Nations. mate relations; and the whole of history, includ- ing that long span of millennia we call prehisto- Her latest book, co-authored with anthropolo- She has received many honors including the ry. Looking at this more complete picture, we gist Douglas Fry, Nurturing Our Humanity: How Nuclear Peace Leadership award (earlier award- see two distinct social configurations that keep Domination and Partnership Shape Our Brains, ed to the Dalai Lama). Her other books include repeating themselves historically and cross cul- Lives, and Future (Oxford University Press, turally: the domination system and the partner- 2019), combines her original research ship system. with the latest findings from the social More contemporary leaders I admire and biological sciences, especially neuro- include founders of Israel such as David By contrast, societies that orient to science. Ben Gurion and Golda Meir, who com- the partnership side of the partnership- domination social scale have a very dif- Eisler is president of the Center for bined idealism with pragmatism. ferent core configuration. We see exam- Partnership Studies (CPS), Editor-in- ples in cultures as varied as prehistoric Chief of the Interdisciplinary Journal of the award-winning Tomorrow’s Children, Sacred societies such as Catal Huyuk, where there are Partnership Studies at the University of Pleasure, and Women, Men, and the Global no signs of destruction through warfare for over Minnesota, and a tireless advocate for human Quality of Life, documenting the key role of 1,000 years, and contemporary societies such as rights (she pioneered the expansion of human women’s status in a nation’s quality of life. For the La Paz Zapotec of Mexico, the Minangkabau more information, see www.rianeeisler.com and of Sumatra, and European nations such as www.centerforpartnership.org. Sweden, Finland, and Norway that have been trying to leave behind domination and violence, Dr. Eisler consented to an email interview with and where there is high valuing of caring for The Jewish Post & News. people and nature. These are not ideal societies, but they are more equitable and peaceful. JP&N: How did your childhood influence your future path in life as cultural historian, If we are serious about educating for peace, it lawyer and educator (among other things)? follows that we need more partnership-oriented RE: My passion for helping build a more equi- families where parenting is authoritative rather table, less violent world is deeply rooted in my than authoritarian and the use of force is not con- early experiences as a Jewish child refugee from sidered normal. the Holocaust. On Crystal Night, my father was dragged away by the Gestapo, but my mother JP&N: Who are the people, both past and pre- miraculously obtained his release, and we fled sent, you most admire? my native Vienna. RE: Among people from the past I admire are Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who in the 19th century My parents were able to obtain an entry permit pioneered what we today call the movement for to Cuba, where I saw the MS St. Louis, with 937 women’s rights, and, Theodor Herzl, who recog- men, women, and children aboard, turned back nized the need for Zionism, for a Jewish state to Nazi Europe. I grew up in poverty in the where, after millennia of persecution, Jews again slums of Havana until my parents were able to have their own nation. get back on their feet, and there learned that most of my extended family – grandparents, More contemporary leaders I admire include aunts, uncles, cousins – were murdered in Nazi founders of Israel such as David Ben Gurion and concentration camps. These were traumatic Golda Meir, who combined idealism with prag- events, but years later, after graduate school, matism. They include people working to end tra- www.pwc.com/ca marriage, and working as an attorney, they led to ditions of scapegoating and in-group versus out- my research and discovery of what kind of social group prejudice (which are built into domination system supports our human capacities for con- systems), like Nelson Mandela who tried to Shana Tova sciousness, caring, and creativity, or alternately, bring harmony between black and white people for insensitivity, cruelty, and destructiveness. in South Africa; Ruth Ginsburg, who fought for U’metuka reproductive justice for women (a huge issue in JP&N: What do you mean by the domination a world of unnecessary exponential population model and the partnership model of society? growth that is overwhelming our planet’s carry- RE: Early in my research it became clear that ing capacity); my husband and partner David to identify the core components of more equi- Loye (who has written tirelessly about how table, non-violent societies we have to go Charles Darwin actually said that in human evo- beyond old social categories such as right versus lution we must pay attention to factors such as left, religious vs. secular, Eastern vs. Western, mutuality and moral sensitivity), and the many thousands of women, men, and increasingly also Best wishes for the New Year to our Northern vs. Southern, and so forth. clients and friends. young people, today working for a more just, To begin with, societies in every one of these caring, and less violent world. © 2016 PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, an Ontario limited liability partnership. All rights reserved. 5113-01-2.11.2016 familiar categories have been violent, unjust,.