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  • From: J Hobbs <hobbsj@efn.org>
  • To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [permaculture] thoughts and references
  • Date: Fri, 1 Oct 2004 09:38:33 -0700


--
Hello All,

I'm back reading this list after several months absence. Here are a few thoughts and references...

* Quite the verbiage surrounding the cost/pay of a PDC...seems the key is no dogma- no absolutes-- what works with one region/person will not in another.

* I appreciate reading about the life of Meg in Kansas--we need examples of how these whole integrated systems work... beautiful-- thanks, Meg.

* References for Anne:
* Water For Every Farm. P. A and Ken Yeomans.
* Earth Ponds. Matson, Tim. Countryman. in McClarney

* Response to Sandra regarding the question: Who was the seed Keeper? (Sandra Beerman)

Below is an excerpt of an article I wrote for Oregon Tilth's In Good Tilth 2004 summer publication.
Women on the Land
"..... My curiosity of what roles women played in agriculture have led me to this research....
In developing tribes and nations the cultivation of soil was primarily in women's hands. Many ancient religious myths credit the invention of agriculture to the goddess. For example, in Egyptian records the goddess Isis is referred to as the inventor of agriculture and in Mesopotamian the goddess Ninlil was revered for teaching people to farm. The ancient Greeks called Gaea the Earth goddess and "Great Mother," and the Romans called her "Terra Mater," the earth mother.
As you see, many names represent women's connection to the land. Scientist Nancy Tanner wrote that in earliest civilization, "Women were the gatherers," which played a critical role in the evolution of the species. The children of these women shared food and improved gathering techniques. Women planted seeds in their encampments and began to tame young animals as they did their children.
This evolutionary period represents the birth of agrarian culture. As food gatherers, inventions attributed to women include the digging stick, carrying sling, sickle and other knives. Other discoveries connected to food processing and preservation were the mortar and pestle, drying, roasting, grinding and fermenting technologies, and the storage of food in baskets or clay-lined storage pits. Women also discovered propagation by shoots and cuttings, seed selection and the construction of seedling beds. Cultivation methods credited to women include the use of ash as fertilizer, work tools such as the hoe, spade, shovel and simple plough, fallowing and crop rotation, mulching, terracing, contour planting, irrigation and land restoration through tree planting. Women are known for domesticating the eight most important grains: rice, maize, barley, oats, sorghum, millet, rye and wheat.
According to Murdock's ethnographic atlas, in one half of the 142 advanced horticultural societies, farming was the exclusive domain of women. Women have tended the soil, garden and farm since the earliest societies."......

A few resources:
With These Hands: Women Working on the Land by Joan Jensen, 1987
The Chalice and the Blade Our History Our Future Riane Eisler
'Standard cross-Cultural Sample', Ethnology, Vol. 8 No. 4,pp.329-369, 1969 G.P. Murdock & D.C. White.
'Daughters of Isis, Daughters of Demeter: When Women Sowed and Reaped, A. Stanley, in J . Rothschild (ed.)
Women, Technology and Innovation, New York: Pergamon, 1982
Staying Alive Women, Ecology and Development Vandana Shiva
)The Farm Bureau through Three Decades O.M. Kile The Waverly Press


* Also: I recently was asked to do a Permaculture Design in Western Kentucky-- I'd rather refer them on to someone who lives in that area... any recommendations?


In hopes of Peace and a sane outcome for the U.S. election,
Please VOTE!

Jude
Agro-Ecology Northwest Oregon www.cascadiapermaculture.com






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