Patriarchy, discrimination and violence against women have existed since the creation of humanity

Patriarchy is a form of domination that supposes the subjugation, exploitation and alienation of women by men. (Escoriza 2002).

History has been created by and for men, positioning them in a superior and dominant position with respect to women. Taking into account the phrase “History is written by the victors” by George Orwell (1944), we can ask ourselves: what part of the history that we study in schools is real and, what part can be a simple invention or modification made by the victors? “winners”?

From the beginning, women have been presented to us as “bad”, this can be explained by the interpretation that historians have created of the Bible and the paintings of Adam and Eve. The story we have been taught relates how Eve bit into the forbidden fruit, and later piously tempted Adam to eat as well. But what if we said that the Bible, many paintings and sculptures do not really tell the story as it has been explained to us?

In the Bible it can be seen how the serpent goes towards the two, tempting them both. Eve takes the forbidden fruit, tastes it, and passes it to Adam. But nowhere is it detailed that Adam did not want to try it, or that Eve had to convince or force him. In the paintings it is observed how when God discovers the sin, Adam points to Eve as the guilty one, and she points to the serpent. Because of the accusation of Adam (the man) towards Eve (the woman), Eve became the wicked one who allowed herself to be seduced by the devil and later managed to seduce Adam.

With this I wanted to conclude that the culprit of the elimination of the humans from paradise is not Eva, but with the passage of time history has been changing and thus making Eva the culprit, which is a sign of the beginning of discrimination against women.

Referring to the article “Gender Inequalities in Neolithic Iberia” and the doctoral thesis (Gender Inequality in the Prehistory of the Iberian Peninsula. Cintas-Peña, M. 2018.) I wanted to highlight through research it has not been possible to verify the existence of strong inequality or gender violence in prehistory. What is curious to me is that in the history of archeology there have been finds of skeletons with scars and there has also been evidence that the cause of death of these corpses had been violence. These corpses help support the hypothesis that humans are descended from the “killer ape.”

What would happen if these corpses are really the result of strong gender violence or racism, as anthropologist Raymond Corbey suggests? He says: “inner savagery” could be an “imaginary social construction influenced by 19th-century ideologies driven by racism or eugenics.”

According to the book How compassion made us human, it is explained how archaeological evidence has been able to detail that evolution made our ancestors sociable, even before language emerged. Which leads me to think that the hypotheses that defend that humans have a biological gene that leads us to be violent are simple inventions to be able to make an excuse for violence. Apart from that, these studies also lead me to think that humans are afraid to accept that our skills of empathy, cooperation, esteem… have been lost and that compared to apes we are becoming worse.

I have come to the conclusion that science currently has many means to be able to thoroughly investigate this issue, and it is necessary to continue analyzing the data of our ancestors and also try to find new evidence, in order to determine if our ancestors were really violent. between them or not, in order to change history and make our descendants know the true history.

SCIENTIFIC ARTICLES:

Anguiozar, M.D.L.G. (2021). History versus reality: “The historical patriarchy” and the symbology of the serpent before and after Christianity. Journal of Socio-educational Studies. Thirsty, (9). https://revistas.uca.es/index.php/ReSed/article/view/7204

Cintas-Peña, M. and García Sanjuán, L. (2019). Gender Inequalities in Neolithic Iberia: A Multiple Proxy Approach. European Journal of Archaeology, 22(4), 499-522. doi:10.1017/eaa.2019.3. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-journal-of-archaeology/article/gender-inequalities-in-neolithic-iberia-a-multiproxy-approach/7CA3A7DB7D56AFF67784371206E1D86C

Cintas-Peña, M. 2018. Gender Inequality in the Prehistory of the Iberian Peninsula. A Multi-Variable Approach (unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Seville).https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/dctes?codigo=150590

Spikins, P. (2015). How compassion made us human: the evolutionary origins of tenderness, trust and morality. Pen and Sword. https://books.google.es/books?hl=es&lr=&id=bEvdCQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA8&dq=How+compassion+made+us+human+(2015)&ots=7E71DF_aVg&sig=YrWG3M6XjfIcgnJI45MIpjYA9Gk#v=onepage&q=How%20compassion%20made%20us%20human%20(2015)&f=false

Schug, G. R., Gray, K., Mushrif-Tripathy, V., & Sankhyan, A. R. (2012). A peaceful realm? Trauma and social differentiation at Harappa. International Journal of Paleopathology, 2(2-3), 136-147. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1879981712000599?via%3Dihub

Vandkilde, H. (2003). Commemorative tales: archaeological responses to modern myth, politics, and war. World archaeology, 35(1), 126-144. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0043824032000079189