Matri Blog

A royal proclamation of 1512

Summary of The Herbalist, Charter of King Henry VIII:
It is well known that the Surgeons who are organized under their own trade guild and recognized by law, have done nothing but tend to their own lavish financial enrichment, have done nothing to ease the distressed patient, but have spent an enormous amount of time suing and harassing honest persons who have the knowledge of nature and how to use this knowledge, however obtained, and generously minister to the sick.
It is also well known that Surgeons will not provide services to the sick unless they receive great sums of money and even then, often cause harm to their patients.
For this reason, from this time and forevermore it shall be lawful for every person who lives in any part of the Realm of England or any of its dominions, and who has knowledge and experience of the healing nature of herbs, roots and waters, or the operation of same, to be free to treat the sick without suit, vexation, trouble, penalty or loss of their goods.

"The health of nations is more important than the wealth of nations." - Historian Will Durant (a matriarchal thinker?)

Film Festival at Lugo Lake

Tami Blumenfield and Ryan Kedar are organizing a film festival at Lugo Lake January 2006 on documentaries made of the matriarchal Mosuo. They are calling for submissions - more info here. The Moso Film Festival will be held on the shores of Lugu Lake, in southwest China's Yunnan Province, from January 14-19, 2006.

Have you ever been in a matriarchy without knowing it?

During the 2nd. World Congress on Matriarchal Studies in Texas I met Antje Olowaili who gave a presentation on the Kuna with whom she had lived at the beginning of the 90ies for one year.

In a recent conversation with her she told me that she was not aware that the Kuna, were a matriarchal people as she was still thinking of matriarchies as "Womens rule", the new definition was then not widely available.

When she read the literature of Modern Matriarchal Studies she "saw" for the first time that she had encountered and lived in a matriarchal society!

She has written a book about her experience, called "Schwester der Sonne" means Sister of the Sun. (in German only)
She is presently looking for a publisher of her book in English.

Antje is ill at the moment unfortunately (gute Besserung, Antje!), but she will let us know more about her experience as she gets well again. Stay tuned!

Newspaper-Rocks

What has a blog in common with the old American newspaper-rocks? Oh you dont know what a newspaper-rock is?
The largest known collections of petroglyphs (images recorded on stone) are in eastern Utah, western United States. Archaeologists call them newspaper-rocks.

Left picture: Native American Newspaper-Rock, Utah Click here for a panorama view of the whole rock

The African counterparts are the memory boards. They all serve the same purpose: Keeping the history and the tradition of a people alive. Members with a perfectly good memory are the guardians of the political continuity of the tribal community. They know everything by heart about their ancestors, events of the peoples myth, sacred places of the region where spirits and ghosts live, their names, countless proverbs, code words, songs and lyrics.
The rock or board is a memory tool for instructing the initiates, who become the next generations guardians of the tradition.

Right: Rock painting, Tassili^[?], Algeria, North Africa (click image to enlarge)

The symbolism is quite complex and also universal. You can find the same symbols in many other places on this planet and they are used until up to date!

They can be found on cave paintings in the south of France or in Spain or in the Tassili, Algeria. Still the Celts had them on their coins.

Left: African memory board (click to enlarge)

Matri-Blog is quite the same: it is a memory tool about humankinds history, about its myths and symbols, about sacred places and spirits and all what is important to a social community, which is worth this name.