Max Dashu

Women, Power and Danger: sexual politics in the acceleration of witch trials in the late 1300s / early 1400s. Audio commentary on a chapter from The Sorcery Charge, Vol 12 in my series Secret History of the Witches. Here I’m talking about part I of the chapter “Women, Power and Danger.” (with a print transcript of the talk). /p/women-power-and-danger I look at the sexual politics of witchcraft accusations against women, but also the power that’s attributed to women and that women saw in resorting to spiritual means when all other social structures were designed to subjugate them. Everything from marriage law, inheritance, sexual behavior codes, income levels, paid work or unpaid work in the case of most females. Church and state used the sorcery accusation to subjugate women. And they hurled it at every female sphere of power, including the home. If a woman manages to prevail against the disadvantages and injuries that she faced in marriage, if she exercised power in life she must be a witch or have turned to one for assistance. The witches who were women’s resort in battery or desertion, who provided contraceptive methods or love charms or medicines for colicky babies—these women were tortured and burned. (Or banished, fined, branded, drowned, or imprisoned.) I talk about laws that upheld a man's right to batter their wives "and none shall be able to oppose him." "But the threat of witchcraft was really the most effective deterrent to male violence. And especially, above all, a certain kind of female sorcery, the threat of magically causing male impotence. This is something that we see canon lawyers already obsessing about in 1200s. It makes its way into canon law and church lawyers are still obsessing about it in the 1700-1800s. "European society was becoming ever more male dominated, but yet there’s this growing male anxiety about witchcraft. It seems that popular wisdom held that all male authority and privilege could be canceled out by the power of a witch. She could stop a man from beating his wife or sleeping around. She could negate his sexual potency or make him return to a wife he had deserted."

I began writing this series in 1978. My core question was What Happened to Women in Europe? How did men take over the priesthood, demonize and smash the goddesses, and preside over the witch hunts? Over decades of research and writing, chapters turned into volumes, and all but two of these books are still in file drawers and digital docs. I’ve put some excerpts on the Suppressed Histories website (/secrethistory/secrethistory.html ). I may not ever have the means to get all these books in print, so am publishing some open access, or portions of them (not in chronological order). All this time, I’ve felt urgency to put forward a historical analysis that integrates an understanding of patriarchy and colonialism, while drawing on (what remains of) the cultural record to shed light on women’s lives and ancestral cultures. This knowledge has been obscured, withheld, sequestrated. Some is lost forever, destroyed. Some remains under layers of christianization and the persecution of female spheres of power in increasingly patriarchal cultures. The legacies of persecution—not least the concept of “devil worship” and the agenda of conversion and religious supersession—laid the ground for European colonization of other continents and islands. Thus, the internal colonization of Europe created the model for colonial ideologies and persecutions of Indigenous cultures. A general summary is not enough; we need to go into the historical details to grasp the extent of all these changes. Here you can read an outline of these 16 volumes (scroll down a bit): /p/secret-history-of-the-witches I've been publishing chapters from some volumes elsewhere on my substack—especially from Vol V: Magna Mater, Paulianity, and the Imperial Church. It goes into the origins of church-state authoritarianism, the misogyny of Church patriarchs, and the persecution of pagans, "heretics" (non-orthodox christians), and Jews. It's very relevant in our times with the resurgence of militant christian dominionism... Shown: the Cumaean Sibyl with her prophetic books, striding past the fumeroles near Mt Vesuvius.

It was female gatherers who discovered that they could plant seeds for future harvests. This is why many oral histories credit women with inventing agriculture. So said the Omaha, the Shuar of Peru, and the Lunda of Angola. In Egypt it was Isis, while in Sumeria, the first farmer was “Ashnan the wise.” The Pawnee said Mother Corn gave seed to women, and taught them farming. Over most of North America, women raised corn, squash, and beans. For millennia women have worked in the rice fields, in Thailand, Vietnam, China, Indonesia, the Philippines, and even today, they still produce much of the world’s food. Clip from my 2008 dvd Women's Power in Global Perspective. (Video on the dvd is much sharper, due to codec problems with outputting these clips.) 85 minutes, only $10 plus shipping. You can get the video at: /product/womens-power-in-global-perspective-dvd/ Contents: Prelude: They skipped her when they wrote history Monumental women: Ancestral Mothers Founders, Chieftains, and Queens Clan Mothers: Structural Social Power Builders, Potters, Weavers: Life-sustaining Arts and Technologies Providers: Foragers, Farmers, Fishers and Traders Women Elders Seers, Shamans, Priestesses Healers, Medicine Women, Physicians Athletes, Warriors, Rebels Educators and Scientists Revolutionaries and Liberators Activists for Justice and Peace Plus two extras: Restoring Women to Cultural Memory and More Early Female M.D.s

The magnificent Kasai velvets from southern Congo. BaKuba women create these patterns in raffia pile on top of plain raffia cloth woven by men. The triangular black and white patterns also appear on the Ngaady Mwaash masks of Kuba ancestral mothers, and also on statues of ancestral women in of the BaPende. Both these cultures are matrilineal. I've started posting image flashes like this in Notes on my substack. Come over and take a look: /

If you missed the webcast, the video course on The Potency of Old Women is here. It surveys traditions and images of Old Woman, as creatrix, goddess, ancestors, who are present in the landscape; as mythic figures as cultural founders or icons of female authority; their demonization by patriarchal / colonial overwritings; and historic women who were powers in their societies, even against extreme odds of colonization and genocide. Video I: Old Woman as creatrix, divine progenitrix, Grandmother, ancestor, present in rock formations. Includes Chala Paccho, Nana Burukú, Chak Chel, the Cailleach, Spider Grandmother, and Baba Yaga, among others Video II: The mythic Old Woman, and the patriarchal demonization as a witch who resists male domination. Witch goddesses in folk art and folklore. Video III: Historic women elders who act as leaders, medicine women, teachers, priestesses, political movers and shakers. Old women as survivors, protectors, culture-keepers who preserve language and ceremony. Plus readings on megalithic traditions around the Cailleach in Ireland and Scotland; the Old Woman of the Dolmen in Portugal; Margot-la-Fée in France, and in Korea, Mago Halmi. (The first readings are up, and I'll be adding the rest later.) Register for $20 /checkout/Course/40141

The attacks on women's reproductive rights / self-determination are increasing fast now. "In the biggest jolt to abortion policy in the U.S. since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, a federal appeals court has restricted access to one of the most common ways to end early pregnancies, by blocking the mailing of mifepristone prescriptions." The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled against women's right of self-determination, overruling regulations of the federal Food and Drug Administration. This comes with attacks on women's right to vote (most married women take their husbands' last names, and unless they have passports with that name). And anyone else (like me) who legally changed their names. This is part of a full-stomp attack on human rights under the pedocrat. The Supreme Court just gutted what remained of the Voting Rights Act, allowing gerrymandering that wipes out the force of the Black vote in states with a large Black population. Louisiana, Alabama, and Tennessee are already moving to do this. And, Cheato is threatening to have ICE patrolling voting stations, and potenitally abducting citizens, or just scaring people of color away from the polls. We have to fight back against these serious threats to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

In the 1920s, Soviet officials began attacking Siberian shamans, as the tsarists had done before them—one in conjunction with the Orthodox Church, the other under the banner of "scientific" socialism. The Party regarded shamans as charlatans who exploited “superstitious” people in “primitive” cultures. They arrested them, confiscated and burned their drums and regalia, and legally disenfranchised them, forcing the Indigenous cultures of North and Central Asia to go underground. In Yakutia, the old Sakhá iduan Alykhardaakh became famous for confronting and overcoming the local Party cadres who were going after her and others. She invited them all to her house to show them that her power was real. She stood by the fire and started drumming and dancing, calling her spirit helpers. But she drew the Party men into trance with her, causing them to perceive water rising from the floor, and her catching a large fish as they watched. What she did next severely embarassed the cadres, and will make you laugh. The article describes the methods of persecution that Russian colonizers brought to bear on Indigenous peoples in the name of liberation. Their propaganda demonized shamans / iduan / kam / utugan. It was policy in some regions to bar them from collective lands, from fishing and hunting, to arrest them, and even shoot some to death. I also look at the pattern of women shamans, and the various ethnic names for them—many of which are related, across a broad swath of languages. And the renaissance of Indigenous cultures, including spiritual ways, after Glasnost'. /p/the-sakha-iduan-alykhardaakh-turns

Origin Stories Patriarchalized, and the Deep Origins of Mami Wata "Ifi Amadiume is a key source on women’s culture, and on historical patriarchalization: “In Igbo country, even as Onitsha women married out, they brought with them shrines to “the mothers,” and made conical clay mounds as dwelling places for the Oma spirit of nurturing and maternity. [Amadiume, Ifi, African Matriarchal Foundations: 1995 "Amadiume lays out a paradigmatic Igbo history of an Indigenous matrilineage that preserved veneration of its ancestral goddess, Ìdèmílí, under “patriarchal incursion.” Ìdèmílí was a river spirit, of a tributary of the Niger. This is one strand of the tradition, the oldest. Then, Nnobi oral histories tell of a hunter, Aho-from-the-wild, who met the divine woman Ìdèmílí near a stream and married her. Idemili had more powerful influence than her husband, “and so she spread her idols everywhere.” "Although her icons spread “everywhere,” it is hard to find pictures of them. This is the only one of Idemili I’ve located, in Amadiume’s classic book. "Over time, writes Amadiume, as the Igbo shifted to a patrilineal and patrilocal order, the theme of female subordination was superimposed over this goddess: “Thus, the all-powerful goddess Ìdèmílí was domesticated and made the wife of a less powerful god, Aho.” [Amadiume, 59-61] And a junior third wife, at that—a mythic subordination. Their much-courted daughter married out, taking a ritual pot with her, and she too spread her shrines around. [Amadiume, 39] "Despite the formal “domestication” of these female powers under the new patriarchal order, they remain the central mythic figures in Anambra state. ... So the goddess still exerts considerable cultural and political pull, as do the elder women who figure in her rites (even though a male shrine priest in women’s dress now presides over the sanctuary)." Read more at: /p/the-igbo-river-goddess-idemiliand

In feudal times, the wild giantesses who tossed boulders in the mountains are described as falling into bondage. When Fro∂i of the Skjoldings was king, he bought the bondmaids Fenja and Menja, who were of jötun (giant) kindred in Sweden. The king brought the jötun bondmaids before two magical millstones that were so huge that no man was capable of grinding them. The stones of this quern had a power of grinding out whatever they were told. Frothi ordered the supernatural female thralls to grind out gold for him. So Fenja and Menja labored at the stones, and the greedy king gave them small rest—no longer than the cuckoo remained silent. As they ground, the magical women chanted of their great strength, how they had tossed boulders as children, and how they gave battle in Sweden. Ultimately, the king’s attempt to harness natural powers out of greed for gold fails, as “the foreknowing pair” chant down their master. They prophesy his fall, grind out a call for an army to come, enemies to burn down his hall. Their chant mounts as they grind harder and faster, rocking the quern, then overturning it and splitting its stone with their momentum: “Ground have we, Frothi, now fain would cease; we have toiled enough at turning the mill.” In this post, I talk about bondmaids in Irish and Greek and Norse history, and how that relates to modern forced labor and to the trafficking of girls and women. /p/of-bondmaids-and-moments-of-overthrow

I had to create a substack post on this amazing social justice activist because this photo is so great. No time to summarize now, just a bit: ”In 1917 the Women’s Peace Crusade was set up, with Charlotte on the committee. In 1918 she gave up all other work to concentrate on this Crusade as a full-time speaker, traveling all round the country on speaking tours, through Scotland, Wales and the Midlands, Yorkshire and Lancashire. She wrote the Crusade’s best-selling pamphlet, An Appeal to Women - apparently 100,000 copies were sold. "One army spy reporting on her speeches, said ‘The whole tone of Mrs. Despard’s speech was that of resistance to authority.’ " Brava! Read the article at: /p/charlotte-french-despard-for-social

A formidable Igbo woman, Ahebi Ugbabe, rose from a designated fate as female chattel to become a female eze (“chieftain, ruler, king”)—taking the route of a warrant chief. She was the only female one in Nigerian history. This was a colonial role, but as we’ll see, she leveraged British power to overcome her disadvantaged status. I found her while researching these warrant chiefs, so fiercely opposed by the Igbo Women’s War in 1929. The first source I found was “The Female Leopard: Ahebi Ugbabe’s Rise to Power.”“ Which says: "Ahebi Ugbabe was a trailblazing figure in colonial Nigeria, rising from humble beginnings to become the first and only female warrant chief (king) in the region. Born in the late 19th century in Enugu-Ezike, an Igbo community in southeastern Nigeria, Ahebi’s remarkable journey was marked by strategic relationships with British colonial administrators. She leveraged these connections to assume traditionally male roles, including leadership positions and even taking multiple wives. “Known for her intelligence, spiritual prowess, and strength, Ahebi earned the title “Agamega” (Female Leopard). Despite facing resistance and challenges to her authority [as a woman], Ahebi’s legacy endures, and she was later deified as a goddess in her community. Her story continues to inspire and challenge traditional gender roles, reflecting the complex dynamics between colonial rule, gender, and indigenous culture in Nigeria.” Much more at the link, including Ahebi Ugbobo's escape from being given as an osu (shrine slave) to expiate her father's crime, and how she managed to rise from survival sex to become a political power. Also, I analyze the warrant chiefs appointed as puppets by the British empire. I added a video on how they bestowed regalia on these chiefs as a colonial method of control: hat and staff in Nigeria, metal gorgets in North America and Australia. And lots more. /p/ahebi-ugbabe-the-female-leopard-of

"The men who wrote early literature overlaid patriarchal interpretations of older cultural traditions. Patriarchal scribes deleted key elements, and distorted others through hostile editorializing. We can see this from the Bible as it entered written form, and from evaluations of early text criticism that shows its layers and contradictions. We see it in the writings of monks who recorded Irish and Norse orature, and in missionary accounts of Indigenous cultures. Similar editorializing was done by Brahmanic, Confucian, and Muslim writers. "Medieval Irish literature recorded folk orature while also transforming it (the subordination of Medb, for example). The Lament of the Cailleach Bhéara illustrates how the powerful Old Woman of folk memory, who roamed the hills and tossed boulders to build the megaliths, gets turned into a bitter old nun drinking whey and lamenting the loss of her beauty and her days of consorting with kings. "Patriarchalizing themes abound in Mesopotamian literature, notoriously Marduk’s murder and dismemberment of Tiamat (”who bore them all”). Shown: Marduk kills his grandmother Tiamat (in dragon form). "An older example is the Sumerian story in which Enki commits a series of rapes, starting with the great goddess Ninkhursag. He then successively attacks her daughters and granddaughters through generations. Ninkhursag finally curses Enki, but the Anunnaki pressure her to take it back, and to cure him. Greek myth is full of rapes by gods and heroes. Conquest of women’s bodies often involves colonization of countries, particularly by Apollo. His abduction of the huntress Cyrene initiates the colonization of Libya. He takes over sacred oracular springs, including that of Gaia at Delphi, as described in my chapter on Myths of Conquest, in Women in Greek Mythography. On which more at link. Paid subscribers get access to my audio talk which goes into much greater detail about these patriarchal overlays. But there's plenty more there in my summary: /p/patriarchalizing-and-colonizing-patterns