An Ancient Feminist Correlation

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One of the most remarkable historical correlations I have observed in my studies of ancient cultures is the fact that there has never been a strongly egalitarian/feminine or matriarchal influenced culture that I have studied that did not practice human sacrifice. This was true of the Etruscans, the pre-Roman Briton's, the Carthaginians (with their Sidonian Asherah priesthood, which came to dominate Samaria, aka ancient Israel), the people of Old Testament Samaria, and many other cultures. All of these matriarchal influenced cultures practiced human sacrifice.

That is not to say that male dominated, or patriarchal societies haven't as well, some have, but I can think of many that didn't. And they didn't just oppose it, some sought to put an end to other cultures doing it, for instance early Israel or the early and even later Roman Republic, and others.

The reason I am bringing this up today is because I was listening to a video about the ancient origins of China, and the presenter noted something very interesting. The very first recorded kingdom with a proto-Chinese script, the Shang (the Chinese trace their origins back even further into a dynasty many scholars believe mythical, because we have no solid evidence of it) was a far more egalitarian society and dynasty than any other following dynasty. Their gender roles did not follow the historical Chinese norm. The presenter provided some interesting evidence including of a noble woman's tomb, which shows she was a warrior consort to the king of her day. She was one of his many wives, but she was not just a wife, she was a leader of armies and very important in this role. British women were known to fulfil a similar role prior to Rome's conquest, and probably after in the non-Romanized parts of Gaelic Britain. So did some of the very violent Steppe tribes like some of the Scythians. 

Then he noted something else. This dynasty also practiced human sacrifice, something ended by later dynasties. Though it took some time to finally finish, it eventually became taboo in later patriarchal Chinese eras such as the Han dynasty. But it gets even more interesting. Because the video notes how prominent these sacrifices were in this "egalitarian" dynasty, but increasingly less so afterwards. And it was the next dynasty after the Shang, the Zhou, that coined the Chinese concept of the Mandate of the Sky or the Mandate of Heaven. The idea that Heaven would only allow a kingdom to rule as long as it was just. The Zhou argued that the all wise Heaven would not have allowed the previous dynasty to end if it had not been too corrupt, wicked, violent and depraved. Note he's referring to the matriarchal influenced society which practiced human sacrifice in massive and shocking numbers.

It gets even more interesting, because it was the society which coined the concept of the Mandate of Heaven, the Zhou, to which Confucius looked with nostalgia as the days of justice and as a model for Chinese society. Though his version of justice would not be exactly ours.

I just listened to this video because it said: How old is Chinese civilisation? And that's all it takes to pique this historian's interest. And in that video this same correlation can be observed. Human sacrifice didn't fully end with the next dynasty, but it began to end with the patriarchal societies that followed the more egalitarian society. And this is observed across continents and across millennia. The Colonial explorers in the Pacific observed the same correlation between the egalitarian tribal societies of the island peoples and human sacrifice.

It's here where you might say, but our modern egalitarian society breaks this trend. And I say trend, because I have not been able to study every ancient matriarchal influenced society so some might buck this trend, they might not do human sacrifice. But ours is not one of those possible societies.

Australia aborts over 70,000 children a year, and America around 900,000. And this is a direct product of a matriarchal or egalitarian feminist policy. It's considered a core tenet of feminism that women have this "right". In fact without this ability it is well known to feminists that women would not be able to function in many similar roles that men do. It is almost as if the same spirit was behind these societies, the same spirit behind Jezebel. The spirit the Bible calls Asherah. 

Anyway, it's a fascinating correlation all the same. Evil repeats itself.