Riane Eisler
Encyclopedia
Riane Tennenhaus Eisler is an Austria
n-born American scholar, writer, and social activist. Born in Vienna
ca. 1937, her family
fled from the Nazis to Cuba
when she was a child; she later emigrated to the United States. She has degrees in
sociology
and law
from the University of California
. She is the author of many popular books and articles, and president of the Center for Partnership Studies. Eisler has been described as a cultural historian and an evolution
ary theorist.
She has coined the term dominator culture
to describe a system of top-down rankings ultimately backed up by fear or force. One of the core components of this system of authoritarian rule in both the family and the state is the subordination of women — whether in Nazi Germany
, Khomeini's Iran
today, or in earlier cultures where chronic violence and despotic rule were the norm. She analyzes the androcracy
(governance of social organization dominated by males) of Indo-European
and other societies, versus what she proposes was a partnership model (as distinct from matriarchy
) for the social organization of Neolithic Europe
and the later Minoan civilization
that flourished in prehistoric Neolithic Crete.
To support the idea that neither men nor women dominated one another, Eisler cites archeological evidence from southeast Europe, especially Crete
, drawing much from the research of Marija Gimbutas
, James Mellaart
, Nikolaos Platon
, and Vere Gordon Childe
. Her hypothesis about prehistory
also relies strongly on sources such as the Gnostic Gospels
and on the history portrayed by the Ancient Greek
poet Hesiod
. To support her thesis for contemporary societies, she draws heavily from cross-cultural studies. She and others using her partnership/domination conceptual framework have applied her analysis to fields ranging from politics and economics to religion, business, and education.
as "the most important book since Darwin
's Origin of Species." It sold 205,100 copies in over 4 years. It has been translated into at least 22 languages, including most European languages and Chinese, Russian, Korean, Hebrew, Japanese, and Arabic.
Her 2008 book, The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics, proposes a new approach to economics
that gives visibility and value to the most essential human work: the work of caring for people and the planet. It has been hailed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu as “a template for the better world we have been so urgently seeking,” by Peter Senge
as “desperately needed,” and by Gloria Steinem
as “revolutionary.”
Eisler's other books include the award-winning The Power of Partnership and Tomorrow’s Children, as well as Sacred Pleasure: Sex, Myth, and the Politics of the Body -- New Paths to Power and Love, an exploration of the origins of human violence, and Women, Men, and the Global Quality of Life, which statistically documents the key role of the status of women in a nation’s general quality of life.
at the invitation of Prof. Rita Süssmuth
, President of the Bundestag
(the German Parliament) and Daniel Goeudevert (Chair of Volkswagen International); Colombia
, invited by the Mayor of Bogota; and the Czech Republic
, invited by Václav Havel
, the (President of the Czech Republic).
Riane Eisler is a founding member of the General Evolution Research Group (GERG), a fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science
and World Business Academy, and a commissioner of the World Commission on Global Consciousness and Spirituality, along with the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu
, and other spiritual leaders. She is also co-founder of the Spiritual Alliance to Stop Intimate Violence (SAIV). She is the president of the Center for Partnership Studies, dedicated to research and education.
She is the author of over 300 essays and articles in publications ranging from Behavioral Science, Futures, Political Psychology, and The UNESCO
Courier to Brain and Mind, Yes!, the Human Rights Quarterly
, The International Journal of Women's Studies, and the World Encyclopedia of Peace.
Eisler was one of the founders of the Women's Rights Law Reporter
, the first legal periodical to focus exclusively on women's rights
. She is also an active Global Council Member at the International Museum of Women
.
of the Institute of Philosophy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
to edit The Chalice and the Blade in Chinese Culture (published in 1995 by China Social Sciences Publishing House). Jiayin's book tested Eisler's cultural transformation theory in Chinese culture, and found that there was also a shift from partnership to domination in Asian prehistory.
In her 2008 book, Gender and Information Technology: Moving Beyond Access to Co-Create Global Partnership, Mary Kirk uses Eisler's cultural transformation theory to offer an interdisciplinary, social systems perspective on issues of access to technology. Gender and Information Technology explores how shifting from dominator towards partnership systems—as reflected in four primary social institutions (communication, media, education, and business)--might help us move beyond the simplistic notion of access to co-create a real digital revolution worldwide.
and is a project of the Center for Partnership Studies, a not-for-profit 501(C)(3) organization recognized as a Non-Governmental Organization by the United Nations.
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n-born American scholar, writer, and social activist. Born in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
ca. 1937, her family
fled from the Nazis to Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
when she was a child; she later emigrated to the United States. She has degrees in
sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
and law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
from the University of California
University of California
The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...
. She is the author of many popular books and articles, and president of the Center for Partnership Studies. Eisler has been described as a cultural historian and an evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
ary theorist.
Partnership and domination models
Eisler proposes that we need new social categories that go beyond conventional ones such as religious vs. secular, right vs. left, capitalist vs. communist, Eastern vs. Western, and industrial vs. pre- or post- industrial, which she notes do not describe the whole of a society's beliefs and institutions.She has coined the term dominator culture
Dominator culture
Dominator culture is a term coined by futurist and writer Riane Eisler. This term first appears in her book The Chalice and the Blade . This book outlines in detail her theory of hierarchical dominator cultures vs...
to describe a system of top-down rankings ultimately backed up by fear or force. One of the core components of this system of authoritarian rule in both the family and the state is the subordination of women — whether in Nazi Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Khomeini's Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
today, or in earlier cultures where chronic violence and despotic rule were the norm. She analyzes the androcracy
Androcracy
Androcracy or andrarchy is a form of government in which the government rulers are male. This term derives from the Greek root words andros, or "man", and krateo , or "to rule".-Example:...
(governance of social organization dominated by males) of Indo-European
Proto-Indo-Europeans
The Proto-Indo-Europeans were the speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language , a reconstructed prehistoric language of Eurasia.Knowledge of them comes chiefly from the linguistic reconstruction, along with material evidence from archaeology and archaeogenetics...
and other societies, versus what she proposes was a partnership model (as distinct from matriarchy
Matriarchy
A matriarchy is a society in which females, especially mothers, have the central roles of political leadership and moral authority. It is also sometimes called a gynocratic or gynocentric society....
) for the social organization of Neolithic Europe
Neolithic Europe
Neolithic Europe refers to a prehistoric period in which Neolithic technology was present in Europe. This corresponds roughly to a time between 7000 BC and c. 1700 BC...
and the later Minoan civilization
Minoan civilization
The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age civilization that arose on the island of Crete and flourished from approximately the 27th century BC to the 15th century BC. It was rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th century through the work of the British archaeologist Arthur Evans...
that flourished in prehistoric Neolithic Crete.
To support the idea that neither men nor women dominated one another, Eisler cites archeological evidence from southeast Europe, especially Crete
Crete
Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...
, drawing much from the research of Marija Gimbutas
Marija Gimbutas
Marija Gimbutas , was a Lithuanian-American archeologist known for her research into the Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures of "Old Europe", a term she introduced. Her works published between 1946 and 1971 introduced new views by combining traditional spadework with linguistics and mythological...
, James Mellaart
James Mellaart
James Mellaart is a British archaeologist and author who is noted for his discovery of the Neolithic settlement of Çatalhöyük in Turkey. He was also expelled from Turkey suspected of involvement with the antiquities black market and was involved with the so-called Mother goddess controversy in...
, Nikolaos Platon
Nikolaos Platon
Nikolaos Platon was a renowned Greek archaeologist. He discovered the Minoan palace of Zakros on Crete.He put forward one of the two systems of relative chronology used by archaeologists for Minoan history...
, and Vere Gordon Childe
Vere Gordon Childe
Vere Gordon Childe , better known as V. Gordon Childe, was an Australian archaeologist and philologist who specialised in the study of European prehistory. A vocal socialist, Childe accepted the socio-economic theory of Marxism and was an early proponent of Marxist archaeology...
. Her hypothesis about prehistory
Prehistory
Prehistory is the span of time before recorded history. Prehistory can refer to the period of human existence before the availability of those written records with which recorded history begins. More broadly, it refers to all the time preceding human existence and the invention of writing...
also relies strongly on sources such as the Gnostic Gospels
Gnostic Gospels
The Gnostic Gospels are a collection of about fifty-two texts supposedly based upon the ancient wisdom teachings of several prophets and spiritual leaders including Jesus, written from the 2nd to the 4th century AD. These gospels are not part of the standard Biblical canon of any major Christian...
and on the history portrayed by the Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
poet Hesiod
Hesiod
Hesiod was a Greek oral poet generally thought by scholars to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. His is the first European poetry in which the poet regards himself as a topic, an individual with a distinctive role to play. Ancient authors credited him and...
. To support her thesis for contemporary societies, she draws heavily from cross-cultural studies. She and others using her partnership/domination conceptual framework have applied her analysis to fields ranging from politics and economics to religion, business, and education.
Books
Eisler's international bestseller The Chalice and The Blade: Our History, Our Future (Harper Collins San Francisco, 1987) was hailed by anthropologist Ashley MontaguAshley Montagu
Montague Francis Ashley Montagu was a British-American anthropologist and humanist, of Jewish ancestry, who popularized topics such as race and gender and their relation to politics and development...
as "the most important book since Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
's Origin of Species." It sold 205,100 copies in over 4 years. It has been translated into at least 22 languages, including most European languages and Chinese, Russian, Korean, Hebrew, Japanese, and Arabic.
Her 2008 book, The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics, proposes a new approach to economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
that gives visibility and value to the most essential human work: the work of caring for people and the planet. It has been hailed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu as “a template for the better world we have been so urgently seeking,” by Peter Senge
Peter Senge
Peter Michael Senge is an American scientist and director of the Center for Organizational Learning at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He is known as author of the book The Fifth Discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization from 1990...
as “desperately needed,” and by Gloria Steinem
Gloria Steinem
Gloria Marie Steinem is an American feminist, journalist, and social and political activist who became nationally recognized as a leader of, and media spokeswoman for, the women's liberation movement in the late 1960s and 1970s...
as “revolutionary.”
Eisler's other books include the award-winning The Power of Partnership and Tomorrow’s Children, as well as Sacred Pleasure: Sex, Myth, and the Politics of the Body -- New Paths to Power and Love, an exploration of the origins of human violence, and Women, Men, and the Global Quality of Life, which statistically documents the key role of the status of women in a nation’s general quality of life.
Activities
Riane Eisler keynotes conferences worldwide, and is a consultant to business and government on applications of the partnership model introduced in her work. International venues have included GermanyGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
at the invitation of Prof. Rita Süssmuth
Rita Süssmuth
Rita Süssmuth is a German politician and a member of the Christian Democratic Union .From 1985 to 1988, Süssmuth was Federal Minister of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth under Chancellor Helmut Kohl. She was a member of the German Bundestag from 1987 to 2002...
, President of the Bundestag
President of the Bundestag
The President of the Bundestag presides over the sessions of the Bundestag, the parliament of Germany, with functions similar to that of a speaker in other countries. In the German order of precedence, his office is ranked second after the President and before the Chancellor...
(the German Parliament) and Daniel Goeudevert (Chair of Volkswagen International); Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
, invited by the Mayor of Bogota; and the Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
, invited by Václav Havel
Václav Havel
Václav Havel is a Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician. He was the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia and the first President of the Czech Republic . He has written over twenty plays and numerous non-fiction works, translated internationally...
, the (President of the Czech Republic).
Riane Eisler is a founding member of the General Evolution Research Group (GERG), a fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science
World Academy of Art and Science
The World Academy of Art and Science is an international non-governmental scientific organization, an informal and non-official world network of individual fellows elected for distinguished accomplishments in the fields of natural and social sciences, arts and the humanities...
and World Business Academy, and a commissioner of the World Commission on Global Consciousness and Spirituality, along with the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Desmond Tutu
Desmond Mpilo Tutu is a South African activist and retired Anglican bishop who rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent of apartheid...
, and other spiritual leaders. She is also co-founder of the Spiritual Alliance to Stop Intimate Violence (SAIV). She is the president of the Center for Partnership Studies, dedicated to research and education.
She is the author of over 300 essays and articles in publications ranging from Behavioral Science, Futures, Political Psychology, and The UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
Courier to Brain and Mind, Yes!, the Human Rights Quarterly
Human Rights Quarterly
Human Rights Quarterly is a quarterly academic journal established in 1979 covering human rights. The journal is intended for scholars and policymakers and follows recent developments from both governments and non-governmental organizations. It includes research in policy analysis, book reviews,...
, The International Journal of Women's Studies, and the World Encyclopedia of Peace.
Eisler was one of the founders of the Women's Rights Law Reporter
Women's Rights Law Reporter
The Women's Rights Law Reporter is a journal of legal scholarship published by an independent student group at Rutgers School of Law—Newark. The journal provides a forum for exploring law and public policy relating to women’s rights and gender. The journal is published quarterly...
, the first legal periodical to focus exclusively on women's rights
Women's rights
Women's rights are entitlements and freedoms claimed for women and girls of all ages in many societies.In some places these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behaviour, whereas in others they may be ignored or suppressed...
. She is also an active Global Council Member at the International Museum of Women
International Museum of Women
The International Museum of Women, , headquartered in San Francisco, California, is an online museum that covers women's issues world-wide.- Creation and expansion :I.M.O.W. was founded as the Women's Heritage Museum in 1985...
.
Influence
Riane Eisler inspired Professor Min JiayinMin Jiayin
Min Jiayin is a professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. She is also the Editor in Chief of The Chalice and the Blade in Chinese Culture: Gender Relations and Social Models.-References:...
of the Institute of Philosophy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences , established in 1977, is the premier and highest academic research organization in the fields of philosophy and social sciences as well as a national center for comprehensive studies in the People's Republic of China. It was described by Foreign Policy...
to edit The Chalice and the Blade in Chinese Culture (published in 1995 by China Social Sciences Publishing House). Jiayin's book tested Eisler's cultural transformation theory in Chinese culture, and found that there was also a shift from partnership to domination in Asian prehistory.
In her 2008 book, Gender and Information Technology: Moving Beyond Access to Co-Create Global Partnership, Mary Kirk uses Eisler's cultural transformation theory to offer an interdisciplinary, social systems perspective on issues of access to technology. Gender and Information Technology explores how shifting from dominator towards partnership systems—as reflected in four primary social institutions (communication, media, education, and business)--might help us move beyond the simplistic notion of access to co-create a real digital revolution worldwide.
Honors
Dr. Eisler has received many honors, including the Humanist Pioneer Aaward and the first Alice Paul ERA award. She was the only woman selected for inclusion in Macrohistory and Macrohistorians for her work as a cultural historian and evolutionary theorist.Center for Partnership Studies
The Center for Partnership Studies (CPS), located in Pacific Grove, CA., was established in 1987 for the purpose of researching, developing, and disseminating education on the partnership model as developed by Riane Eisler.SAIV: The Spiritual Alliance to Stop Intimate Violence
The mission of The Spiritual Alliance to Stop Intimate Violence (SAIV) is to stop intimate violence — the training ground for the violence of war, terrorism, political repression, and crime. SAIV was founded by Riane Eisler with Nobel Peace Laureate Betty WilliamsBetty Williams (Northern Ireland)
Betty Williams in the city of Belfast in Northern Ireland, is a co-recipient with Mairead Corrigan of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976 for her work as a cofounder of Community of Peace People, an organisation dedicated to promoting a peaceful resolution to The Troubles in Northern Ireland...
and is a project of the Center for Partnership Studies, a not-for-profit 501(C)(3) organization recognized as a Non-Governmental Organization by the United Nations.
External links
- RianeEisler.com
- The Center for Partnership Studies
- SAIV
- Interview in MungBeing Magazine
- Participation in ONE:The Movie
- Re-Evaluating America's Value System, web-radio interview with Pat Lynch
- Councillor at World Future Council
- Creating a Caring Economy: Changing Gendered Values, by Riane Eisler, for Economica: Women and the Global Economy
- Partnership Studies Group (PSG), Udine University, Italy
- Mercanti, Stefano, Understanding the Language of Partnership: A Glossary (2011)