The Realm of Matriarchal Arts: The Heart and Earth of Resilient Communities

A hearth is the warm and ambient space at the center of a home or community where everyone belongs, where food is prepared and shared, and where handcrafts, festivities, rituals, and other communal activities take place. The “heart” and “earth” of the community is where sincere connections are forged among humans of all ages and stages of life, where and while the practical daily responsibilities that sustain and nurture life are shared. It is where human-to-human coherence is cultivated, as well as our capacity to care in a meaningful way for one another and the Earth.

Fire has been central to human civilization for thousands of years. It catalyzes alchemical transformations. Fire turns raw foods into digestible nourishment, herbs into medicine, metal and clay into jewels and practical wares, and groups of people into communities. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the fire element represents metabolic capacity, and spirit. In some Indigenous North American cultures, a gifting circle constitutes a “fire alliance,” or friendly bond between parties. Since ancient times in India, the practice of fire gazing (Trataka) has been prescribed by health practitioners to soothe the mind, relax the nervous system, and improve eyesight. A strong metabolic fire burns away impurities, as a forest fire when it’s done properly prepares the land for new growth. Fire provides ambient warmth, and a central axis around which humans share nourishment and experiences, tell stories, dance, sing, celebrate, deliberate, and pray.

The word “art” is likewise embodied in the linguistic utterance of “hearth.”

Matriarchal arts include, but are not limited to, weaving and textile design, basket making, ceramics and pottery, ritual dancing, herbal medicine, midwifery, culinary arts, as well as the art of consensus politics and peace-making. Skillful handcrafting fosters intelligence, active responsibility, relationships of cooperation, and, critically for our times, sustainable local and regional economies based on caring mutuality. Likewise, the art of forging resilient human relations, before it was outsourced to experts, industry, and social media platforms, was the realm of the matriarchal fire circle.

In Euro-American cultures, the domestic sphere functions in exploited servitude to an all-important and determinant class of taskmasters, industry leaders, and “influencers.” The guiding ethics are more, better, faster, and with more efficiency, yet are devoid of any regard whatsoever for the tenderness of human and nonhuman life. It is not surprising, then, that the lifestyle of typical modern communities is propped up by the exploited productivity of far-away, out-of-sight, out-of-mind manufacturing operations and resource extractions. The result is a multidimensional pyramid of slavery, exploitation, class wars, sex wars, poverty, myriad patterns of physical and emotional abuse, and chronic state-sponsored conflicts that are enabled by atomized and dependent constituencies.

These socioeconomic calamities are literally costing us our lives.

Matriarchal art stands in contrast to art produced in societies where there are elite artists, “starving artists,” and an enormous volume of mass-produced images and commodities that promote class hierarchy, social conformity, and consumerism. Matriarchal art is inherently spiritual, educational, practical, Earth-attuned, and reflective of the creative and life-sustaining technologies of skillful, self-determined peoples.

Matriarchies are distinguished by a worldview of spiritual immanence, rather than transcendence. This means that the guiding spiritual principle that all life is sacred is practiced at all levels of societal behavior.

“Matriarchal art”, therefore, implies generative activities, behaviors, and skills that
spiritually and practically serve life, local economies, and human self-actualization. It
includes any creative activities that holistically heal, nurture and care, honoring the
body and spirit of the artist, the Earth, and the community.

The prototype for this quality of social behavior can be seen in the activities and responsibilities inherent in mothering. When the generosity of Mother Earth and the nurturance required to raise a human infant to adulthood are regarded as the models for social behavior to aspire to, the mundane tasks of caring for life and one another become sacred responsibilities. Adopted communally and in social solidarity, behaviors of sharing, cooperation, generosity, care, and nurturance form the backbone of a resilient social system.

Thus, the domain of matriarchal arts is the forgotten sphere of human behaviors that give dignity to our humanity. A humane societal structure figuratively and literally must center life within the stability of a circle, where all members of society—especially the political and economic representatives—have their feet on the ground and can see and feel their kin, and themselves, within the context of a shared ecosystem. In a viable future, political representatives will be answerable to the hearth—the heart and earth—of the community.

The task most critical for our times, therefore, is re-membering the forgotten art of holding the communal hearth.

References:

Cichon, Joan Marie. Matriarchy in Bronze Age Crete: A Perspective from Archaeomythology and Modern Matriarchal Studies. Oxford: Archaeopress Publishing LTD, 2022

Garfinkel, Yosef. Dancing at the Dawn of Agriculture. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2003

Gimbutas, Marija. The Language of the Goddess. Thames & Hudson, 1989

Goettner-Abendroth, Heide. The Dancing Goddess: Principles of a Matriarchal Aesthetic. Beacon Press, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. 1991

Goettner-Abenroth, Heide. Matriarchal Societies; Studies on Indigenous Cultures Across the Globe. Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York. 2012, 2013.

Goettner-Abendroth, Heide, editor. Societies of Peace: Matriarchies Past, Present and Future. Toronto: Inanna Publications, 2009.

Iglehart Austen, Hallie. The Heart of the Goddess. Wingbow Press, 1990.

Kelly, Mary B. Goddess Embroideries of Eastern Europe. Northland Press of Winona (second printing edition), 1996.

Kelly, Mary B. Goddess Embroideries of the Northlands. Studiobooks, 2007.

Mann, Barbara Alice. “The Mother-Suckling-Child Principle of the Gift in Indigenous North American Cuture.” Canadian Woman Studies, 2020.

Barber, E. W. (2024). Women’s work: The first 20,000 Years: The first 20,000 years. W. W. Norton & Company.

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