This document discusses several topics related to overpopulation, abortion rights, and the history of patriarchal societies. It argues that the Earth is currently overpopulated and that forcing unwanted pregnancies harms the planet. It provides statistics on abortion in the US and discusses ancient hunter-gatherer societies where women had more control over fertility. The document suggests that climate change may have contributed to the rise of patriarchal societies and loss of women's autonomy over their own bodies. Overall, it takes the position that giving women the choice to control their own fertility through contraception and abortion is necessary to maintain a sustainable balance between population and resources.
2. Are there too
many of us?
Have we
exceeded
the carrying
capacity of
the Earth?
3. The answer is: YES the Earth is overpopulated
now and it is only going to get worse.
4. •For all the reasons of
privacy and a woman’s
control over her own body,
the ability to choose
abortion should be an
essential right.
•There is another moral
dimension: in the face of an
overpopulated world, forcing
an unwanted pregnancy
harms the planet as well as
the woman.
13. 4 weeks
6 weeks
8 weeks
(1.6 cm)
12 weeks
•90% of abortions in the U.S. take place in the first trimester
•60% of abortions in the U.S. take place within the first 8 weeks when the
embryo is 1.6 cm or less in size
•30% of abortions take place at 6 weeks or earlier when the embryo is
only a few millimeters in size
“Medication abortion, which provides women with an additional options
early in pregnancy, clearly reinforces this very positive trend.”
- Rachel Jones, lead researcher, from: www.guttmacher.org
17. “When women decide to abort,
they do so for the sake of
principles that are not that
different from the ones invoked
by the makers of war: freedom,
self-determination, issues of
dignity as important as one’s
own survival…
What’s really shocking is that a
woman has the power to make
a moral judgment that involves
a choice of life or death. That
power has been reserved for
men.”
- Ginette Paris
18. The ancient social system of the hunter-gatherers
Woman’s menstrual blood was seen as the source
of all life. This sacred energy flowed from the
woman to the man. It gave him luck and power in
the hunt. Women were trusted to keep the balance
between production and reproduction.
19. “Infanticide during the Paleolithic
period could very well have been
as high as 50 percent…. An
important factor in the short life
span of Paleolithic women may
very well have been the attempt
to induce abortions in order to
lengthen the interval between
births.
Contemporary hunter-collectors
in general lack effective
chemical or mechanical means
of preventing pregnancy…. They
do, however, possess a large
repertory of… means for
inducing abortion.”
- Marvin Harris
20. Keeping the balance between the tribe’s
needs and what the earth could provide was
woman’s ancient role.
How did woman lose the power to keep the
balance between births and death?
How did she lose the power to control her
own body?
What happened?
21. Did ancient global
warming trigger the
creation of patriarchal
societies?
The first evidence for
widespread human warfare –
specialized arrow points thought
to be weapons of war – occurs
in Europe during the period of
rapid ice melt and sea level rise
between 15,000 and 7,000 BC.
Evidence presented in Plato
Prehistorian by archeologist
Mary Settegast.
22. First depictions of war
in rock painting art.
Previous painting
subjects were
primarily animals and
vulvas.
23. The migration of displaced populations may have set the stage
for the classic conflicts between the Greeks and the Amazons.
The Amazons were matrilineal clans. Women held the right to
the land, or “sovereignty.”
24. The Middle Assyrian Law
Code, 15th to 11th Century
BC
“If a woman causes her own
abortion and charge and proof
have been brought against her,
she shall be impaled and shall not
be buried.”
“It seems inconsistent to permit the
exposure of unwanted infants and to
visit abortion with the severest
penalties…
it is the father who has the right to
expose, while the mother has no right
to deprive him by her own act of his
choice of keeping alive or exposing
the child.”
- Driver and Miles, The Babylonian
Laws
36. Goddess of fertility or Goddess of death – both are part of life and the
power lies in keeping the balance.
37. The Dark Side of the Goddess
The Celtic Cailleach
The Indian Kali
38. The Thesmophoria
– a women’s ritual
from classical
Greece.
Menstruating
women gather for a
three day festival
where they sacrifice
piglets to the Snake
Goddess.
39. “The little pigs, they say, were food for
the great underground primal deities, the
snakes…
The women bow before great Snake in
wonder. They are inexorably bound to
Snake… for Snake is the power in the
earth, in the field, and the power in the
bodies of women…
The women are fond of the pigs with
their creamy pink skin soft as a baby’s…
- From Uncursing the Dark, by Betty
DeShong Meador
40. “Snake does not need to be
reminded of her power. But
the women! Ah! They tend to
forget. When life is going
well in the village and the
storehouse is full, the women
might say, “How clever we
are! How well we provide for
our people!’ They might
forget that the power of life
belongs to Snake.”
- From Uncursing the Dark,
by Betty DeShong Meador
41. The frog goddess reminded women that life is a balance between birth and death.
42. Myth is constructed of layers. The
birthing or aborting woman squats like a
frog. Her embryo looks like a tadpole.
The two aspects are merged into one
Frog Goddess.
Hequat, the Egyptian
Frog Goddess
tadpole
19th century German
frog charm with
human face
43. In Many Cultures Angels and Spirits
Represent Fetuses or Embryos
•A survey of 400 ancient cultures found evidence that nearly every one
practiced abortion.
•Without effective contraceptives, women who did not have the food and
other resources to give to an additional child often had no other choice but
abortion.
•Aborted fetuses were seen as messengers to the gods and many
cultures have venerated the still born, the miscarriage and the abortion as
angel, fairy or water spirit.
•Cherubs, Polynesian Tiki gods and the Jizo dolls of Buddhist Japan are
examples.
44. Olmec Corn Fetus
sculptures
Diagram illustrating changing proportions of the body
during the fetal period. After Keith Moore and T.V.N.
Persaud, The Developing Human, 1998, Figure 6-3.
“Most Olmec stone figurines represent humans in a
state of physical or spiritual transformation… the fetus
parallels the life cycle of maize, the quintessential
Mesoamerican symbol of the miracle of life. Both
undergo dramatic transformation, the fetus apparently
from "lower“ to "higher" animal and the maize from
seed to gloriously upright fruiting plant to seed again.”
- Carolyn Tate, Ph.D. and Gordon Bendersky, M.D.
“Olmec Sculptures of the Human Fetus”
46. Tiki God
Nanaue – Hawaiian shark god
Hawaiian legend tells of a woman who went into the surf
and was impregnated by a shark god. She gave birth to
Nanaue, a shark boy who began to devour her people.
Subsequently, when a woman needed to abort, she said
it was to give a shark baby back to its father.
Many
Polynesian
fishing
gods had
fetal
aspects
49. Europe’s Angel-makers
Wet nurses and foundling hospitals killed millions of infants from the middle ages
until the 19th century. For example, in 1640, 22% of all children baptized in
Florence were abandoned children. Most did not survive the foundling hospitals.
50. Original sin.
Eve is tempted by the Serpent.
The witch persecutions - How
many thousands of midwives and healers
were killed? Note the toads….
51. We need to
stop sacrificing
women!
Can’t we re-create
a culture that
trusts women
again to keep the
balance between
production and
reproduction –
between life and
death?
55. The Lysistrata Strategy – “The Lysistratan strategy of withholding
sex could have worked to stop the long term cause of war in
Greece, if only the women had held out long enough to cut off the
flow of new infants and reduce population pressure on the crowded
and ecologically depleted peninsula.”
57. Amaterasu Omikami, the Sun Goddess along
with her two brothers, Susanowa (Storm
God) and Tsuki-yomi (Moon God), governed
the universe. One fateful day, Susanowa,
who was jealous of Amaterasu's power as
the deity illuminating the world, went on a
rampage, wreaking havoc in her sacred
domain. Amaterasu fell into a deep
depression and in her grief exiled herself to a
rock cave. The other gods and goddesses,
no matter how much they tried, could not
draw her from the dark recesses of her
dwelling. The earth was covered in darkness
and crops began to wither and die without her
sunlight.
58. In desperation, they called upon Ame-noUzume, in hope that her healing powers of
laughter would entice Amaterasu from the
darkness. Uzume entered the cave dressed
in long robes which she promptly tied up
above her waist. She turned over a large
tub, stood upon it and began a bawdy
dance. Making light-hearted fun of
shamanistic rituals, she bared her breasts,
exposed her genitals and danced wildly
while drumming the tub with her feet.
(According to legend, this is the origin of
Taiko drumming.) The other gods and
goddesses laughed loudly at her antics and
joined in with her boisterous singing and
ecstatic dancing. Amaterasu, curious about
all the noise, came peering out of her hiding
place. Seeing the others laughing, she
abandoned her grief and emerged from the
cave to once again bestow light on the
world.
