Re: Last point: Lesbianism is NOT salacious

Sexuality in language is an interesting point.

I know from my understanding of Tok Pisin in the highlands of Papua New
Guinea, that they make no pronoun distinction between male and female.
PIE, I believe did, with the result that in a number of modern
languages all nouns have become genderised. Modern English has moved
back the other way, although whether this is due to the ubiquitous
extension of the "male gender" to all nouns (as Winston Churchill said
to Bessie Braddock who objected to his use of the male gender for all
humans - "Madame, Man embraces Woman"). Poitr can you enlishten me on
the use and history of gender in PIE and the differences within and
between languages?

Another aspect of sexuality and language, relating back to discussions
on social class. The Chicago Cross Cultural Studies between 137
different groups showed gender relations between men and women were,
generally, more equal in unstratified societies, less equal in more
stratified societies. This would seem to confirm in part Eisler's
thesis of "partnership" versus "dominator" models of social relations.

But when she goes on to propose PIE "Kubans" as the originators of
patriarchy I feel she is totally wrong. Firstly sexual equality within
pastoral societies is generally greater than within urbanised ones -
Bedouins have raditionally allowed greater equality with women than do
urban Arabs, and in the stories of the Jewish patriarchs, women play a
much more positive and active role than they do in any other part of
the Bible (compare Sarah, Rachel, Rebecca, Leah, with Jezebel, Delilah,
Herodias or Salome). Women low in the social stratification have also
generally had greater equality with men than women high in status
(where women have been seen as the ultimate "status symbol").

There is also the prominence given to Goddesses in the IE, with cognate
names existing showing goddesses were workshipped, and had a high
status, prior to the spread from the steppes. Finally we have the
finding of "female warriors" in a number of IE traditions stretching
from the Ukrainian steppe, through into Anatolia (reputed home of the
Amazons), to the Celts (Boudicca, Maev) and the Germans (Brunhilda and
the Valkyrie). Athenian Greeks, who were particularly difficult with
their treatment of women (despite the brilliance of Sappho), found
cultures where women were accorded equality with men were "odd". They
tended to portray such cultures as "matriarchal" even when partnership
was clearly portrayed.

From an analysis of successive law codes (From Urukagina, Lugalzagesi,
Hamurabi, Nuzi to Moses) one can see a clear long term fall in the
status of women, from having ownership and occupational rights and
status equivalent to men to becoming increasingly confined and
oppressed. This has nothing to do with the invasions of naughty IE
nomads, as Merlin Stone and Riane Eisler have proposed, but rather
seems to be due to the natural debasement of women that occurs in
societies where military prowess and social status are extolled.

What do you others think?

John