Dec 3 recording.
A great talk and discussion with Chris Knight and Jerome Lewis on 'Modern metaphors of political resistance movements applied to human origins'
Some wonderful storytelling from Jerome!
The dynamic of #sexstrike has been described as 'communism in motion' by our colleague #MornaFinnegan. See her wonderful piece 'Politics of Eros' on gender as collective action in a nonprivatised society. The pendulum of power keeps swinging between the sexes -- as long as women keep their bodies in motion hierarchy never gets the chance to flood back in.
This is government by dancing.
https://rai.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1467-9655.12060
This film by Bruce Parry, with Jerome and Ingrid Lewis, shows the full-on ritual #sexstrike in action from 5 min 10secs here. The BaYaka girls of Ngoku secret society emerge from the forest as initiated, singing and dancing beautifully but incredibly rudely. Men crawl into the corners and avert their gaze, but still enjoy the very sexy taunting of their own ineptitude.
A few days later, the men stage a comeback with their Ejengi spirit, lured from the forest by women's voices.
Interesting piece on the ideas of #sexstrike so troubling the US.
What this misses out is that #sexstrike was how we created human culture! And it was periodic -- not forever! Aligned to the #moon and #menstrualcycles
See 'Blood Relations' on this link
https://libcom.org/article/blood-relations-menstruation-and-origins-culture-chris-knight-complete-book
Sex Strike takes specific forms among #African #huntergatherers, that is #menstrual #taboos and rules about #brideservice which is the work a son-in-law does for his mother-in-law (she is boss) otherwise no nooky!
This highly original book presents a new theory of the origins of human culture. Integrating perspectives of evolutionary biology and social anthropology within a Marxist framework, Chris Knight rejects the common assumption that human culture was a modified extension of primate behaviour and argues instead that it was the product of an immense social, sexual and political revolution initiated by women.
Look to Liberia rather than Lysistrata for guidance on sex strikes.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/10/opinion/4b-movement-south-korea-trump.html?smid=url-share
#USPolitics #SexStrike #4BMovement #LeymahGbowee #Liberia #Feminism #SouthKorea
This is actually the right answer. In fact, the only answer 🩸🩸🩸
Call for #sexstrike by US #women. This was what made the #humanrevolution 160,000 years ago across the entire African continent.
We need to do it again.
Tonight in London, UK 👇👇👇
We are FREE, LIVE @UCLAnthropology and on ZOOM on
Tuesday Sept 26, 6:30pm (London time)
For
'The Sex-strike Theory of Human Origins'
With #ChrisKnight and #CamillaPower
to talk about how human culture began on the picket line!! ✌️✌️✌️
#symbolicculture #femalestrategies #humanevolution #sexstrike #humanrevolution #menstruation
Sign in to Eventbrite for ZOOM ID (sent on the morning)
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/radical-anthropology-talks-tickets-707087105567
In the three decades since its publication, the #sexstrike model has been developed and tested by Knight's colleagues #IanWatts and #CamillaPower (researchers with @RadicalAnthro )
Ian has switched the focus in Knight's original book from Europe in the Ice Age to recognise that #symbolism arose with our speciation in #Africa. He has documented the record of #redochre use through the Southern African #MiddleStoneAge as the residue of ritual bodypaint traditions.
Camilla has brought evolutionary theory of #sexualconflict signalling and communication to the model, which is now usually called #FemaleCosmeticCoalitions theory. AFAIK, there is no other evolutionary account of what all the blood red pigment is doing there.
Here is a useful wiki on Female Cosmetic Coalitions/Sex Strike with recent references and predictions from the model.
#redochre #MiddleStoneAge #sexstrike #femalecosmeticcoalitions
Sam van Haaster
Radical Anthropology
Jonathan Emmesedi
Martin S 🚩❤️✊ 🇵🇸🇺🇦