- Riane Eisler
Riane Tennenhaus Eisler is an
Austria n born American scholar, writer, and social activist. Born inVienna , her family fled from theNazis toCuba when she was a child; she later emigrated to the United States. She has degrees insociology andlaw from the University of California. She is the author of many popular books and articles, and president of theCenter for Partnership Studies . Eisler has been described as acultural historian and anevolution ary theorist.Partnership & 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 coined the term domination culture to describe a system of top-down rankings ultimately backed up by fear or force, noting that one of the core components of this system of authoritarian rule in both the family and the state is the subordination of women--be it in Nazi Germany and
Khomeini 's Iran today or in earlier cultures where chronic violence and despotic rule were the norm. She analyzes theandrocracy (governance of social organization dominated by males) of Indo-European and other societies, versus what she proposes was a partnership model (as distinct frommatriarchy ) for the social organization ofNeolithic Europe and the laterMinoan civilization that flourished in prehistoric Neolithic Crete. To support the idea that neither men nor women dominated one another, Eisler citesarcheological evidence from southeast Europe, especiallyCrete , drawing much from the research ofMarija Gimbutas ,James Mellaart , Nicolas Platon, andVere Gordon Childe . Her hypothesis aboutprehistory also relies strongly on sources such as theGnostic Gospels and on the history portrayed by theAncient Greek poetHesiod . 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.An activist for social change
Riane Eisler inspired Professor
Min Jiayin of the Institute of Philosophy of theChinese Academy of Social Sciences to edit "The Chalice and the Blade in Chinese Culture", published in 1995 by China Social Sciences Publishing House. which tested Eisler's cultural transformation theory in Chinese culture, and found that there was also a shift from partnership to domination in Asian prehistory. Her work has inspired numerous other books, as well as dissertations, both in the United States and other nations.Eisler's international bestseller "The Chalice and The Blade: Our History, Our Future", now in 22 languages, including most European languages and Chinese, Russian, Korean, Hebrew, Japanese, and Arabic, was hailed by anthropologist Ashely Montagu as "the most important book since Darwin's Origin of Species".
Her newest book, "The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics" – hailed by
Archbishop Desmond Tutu as “a template for the better world we have been so urgently seeking,” byPeter Senge as “desperately needed,” and byGloria Steinem as “revolutionary”--proposes a new approach toeconomics that gives visibility and value to the most essential human work: the work of caring for people and planet.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
Germany at the invitation of Prof.Rita Suessmuth , President of theBundestag (the German Parliament) andDaniel Goeudevert (Chair of Volkswagen International);Colombia , invited by theMayor of Bogota ; and theCzech Republic , invited byVaclav Havel , the (President of the Czech Republic).Eisler's other books include the award-winning "The Power of Partnership" and "Tomorrow’s Children", as well as "Sacred Pleasure", a reexamination of sexuality and spirituality, 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.
Riane Eisler is a founding member of the
General Evolution Research Group (GERG), a fellow of theWorld Academy of Art and Science andWorld Business Academy , and a commissioner of theWorld Commission on Global Consciousness and Spirituality , along with the Dalai Lama, ArchbishopDesmond Tutu , and other spiritual leaders. She is also co-founder of the [http://www.saiv.net Spiritual Alliance to Stop Intimate Violence (SAIV)] . She is the president of theCenter for Partnership Studies , dedicated to research and education.Her pioneering work in
human rights expanded the focus of international organizations to include the rights of women and children. Her research on systemic cultural transformation has impacted many fields, includinghistory ,sociology ,economics ,psychology , andeducation . She is the author of over 200 essays and articles in publications ranging from Behavioral Science, Futures, Political Psychology, and TheUNESCO Courier to Brain and Mind, Yes!, theHuman Rights Quarterly , The International Journal of Women's Studies, and the World Encyclopedia of Peace.Dr. Eisler has received many honors, including the
Humanist Pioneer Aaward and the first Alice Paul ERA award. She is the only woman among twenty great thinkers includingHegel ,Adam Smith ,Marx , andToynbee selected for inclusion in Macrohistory and Macrohistorians in recognition of the lasting importance of her work as a cultural historian and evolutionary theorist.Eisler was one of the founders of the the "
Women's Rights Law Reporter ", the firstlegal periodical to focus exclusively onwomen's rights .Center for Partnership Studies
The
Center for Partnership Studies (CPS), located inPacific Grove, CA ., was established in 1987 for the purpose of researching, developing, and disseminating education on the partnership model as developed by Riane Eisler.AIV: The Spiritual Alliance to Stop Intimate Violence
The mission of [http://www.saiv.net 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 Williams and is a project of the Center for Partnership Studies a not-for-profit 501©)(3) organization recognized as a Non-Governmental Organization by the United Nations.
Bibliography
*"Dissolution: NoFault Divorce, Marriage, and the Future of Women". New York: McGraw-Hill, 1977.
*"The Equal Rights Handbook: What ERA means for your life, your rights, and your future". New York: Avon, 1979.
*"The Chalice and The Blade: Our History, Our Future". New York: Harper & Row, 1989. ISBN 0-06-250289-1
*"Sacred Pleasure: Sex, Myth, and the Politics of the Body". San Francisco: Harper, 1996. ISBN 0-06-250283-2
*"Tomorrow's Children: A Blueprint for Partnership Education in the 21st Century" (2000)
*"The Power of Partnership: Seven Relationships that will Change Your Life" (2002)
*"Educating for a Culture of Peace" (2004)
*"The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics". San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 2007. ISBN 978-1-57675-388-0External links
* [http://www.rianeeisler.com/ RianeEisler.com]
* [http://www.partnershipway.org/ The Center for Partnership Studies]
* [http://www.saiv.net/ SAIV]
* [http://www.mungbeing.com/issue_13.html?articleID=1094 Interview in MungBeing Magazine]
* [http://www.onetheproject.com/ Participation in ONE:The Movie]
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