The matriarchal societies around the world that embrace the power of womanhood

A look at the inspirational matriarchal societies across the globe.
March 04, 2021

Tribal Khasi maiden
Getty Images.


Breanna Robinson

A few days ago, I was scrolling through YouTube videos in the spirit of women's history month and all of the empowering and amazing things that women have and continue to do. As a result, I stumbled across VICE Life's mini-documentary titled "The Land Of No Men: Inside Kenya's Women-Only Village."

I was instantly intrigued by the documentary, which chronicled women who found refuge, inspiration, and community amongst each other on the quest for independence.

When I finished watching the segment, my eagerness to find out if any other societies around the world are matriarchal was in full momentum. And the findings were exquisitely powerful and humbling.

Below are some matriarchal societies around the world that embrace the power of womanhood.

Umoja

For over 500 years, the Samburu people in northern Kenya have maintained a strictly patriarchal society.

That all changed in 1990 when Rebecca Lolosoli, a Samburu woman, founded the Umoja village. The village, which is essentially a no man's land ( men are permitted to visit but aren't allowed to live there), serves as a haven for women and girls who no longer wanted to suffer from abuses such as forced marriages to men that may be older than them, genital mutilation, and violence against them for going against the grain.

When finding out the word Umoja, which means unity in "Swahili," it made me think of the lengths women embark on to become a united force which is a beautiful thing.

Mosuo

For over 2,000 years, the Mosuo people, one of the 56 recognized ethnic groups in China, have lived in the Sichuan and Yunnan provinces.

One Mosuo woman is elected as the head matriarch of a household, that is usually made up of several families. The Women within the households carry on the family name. Additionally, the head matriarchs of each village govern the region by committee. We love to see women in governance!

However, another unique and interesting cultural tradition of the Mosuo people is zouhun, or "walking marriages."



Why Women's History Month is in March conversations.indy100.com


After a coming-of-age ceremony in adolescence, the Mosuo females have the right to choose their lovers and the free will to have as many lovers as they want throughout their lives.

In these "marriages," the men visit the woman's home by invitation and stay the night in a designated flower room. The men then leave at daybreak to return to their own home as couples don't live together.

If babies are produced, they are reared exclusively in the woman's family, with her brothers and uncles playing the fatherly role.

There are reportedly 56,000 Mosuo people in China's general population of 1.3 billion.

BriBri

The BriBri people are an indigenous group of people that live in the Talamanca region in the Limón province of Costa Rica. Known as " hidden people," they are isolated from the rest of the country deep in the rainforest and are considered the largest indigenous population in Costa Rica.

The women are the only ones to traditionally inherit land and prepare the sacred cacao drink used for religious purposes in this society. Men can only be an "awa"(shaman) in these spiritual practices.

Furthermore, a smaller population lives in Bocas del Toro, Panama.

Khasi

In Meghalaya, northeast India, the Khasi people are an indigenous tribe known for their matriarchal society. The women work outside while men are supposed to stay inside and tend to the house duties. When it comes to children, only mothers and mothers-in-law are allowed to look after the children. Men aren't even supposed to come to family gatherings.

Similar to the Mosuo, when a Khasi woman gets married, she keeps her last name instead of changing it to her husband's.

The Khasi are also located in the bordering state of Assam and certain areas in Bangladesh.

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Astronaut who saw 9/11 from space recounts horrific attack in moving video
Clara Hill@clara_ish

3/12/2021


Amazing footage has re-emerged of an astronaut sharing his experience of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in outer space.

TikTok users have been sharing the video, originally posted by @footage_of_the_wtc. It is an excerpt from the 2014 documentary Astronauts: Houston We Have a Problem.

At the time, Frank Culbertson was the only American not on Earth when the planes hit the Twin Towers. and in the video, he speaks about what it was like to watch the events of 11 September 2001.



“The weather was perfectly clear that day. I could easily see New York City - a big black column of smoke coming out of the city, and as I zoomed in with the video camera, I could see this big grey blob enveloping southern Manhattan,” he said to the camera.

What he was describing was the second tower coming down. Apart from the Twin Towers at Ground Zero, The Pentagon was attacked also that day.

Aside from talking about what he saw from space, Culbertson also spoke about how he wishes the attack would not hinder the chances of making the US a place, speaking movingly about talking to a school in the local area.

“It’s important to continue to learn the lessons from this and make sure we are in fact making ourselves a better country as a result of it, not regressing or turning inward or changing into a society we won’t be proud to pass on to our grandchildren or great-grandchildren.”

He also bonded with military veterans about seeing attacks on Afghanistan while floating in space.

Culbertson was commanding the International Space Station with two other Russian space explorers at the time.

NRA mercilessly mocked after House passes Biden’s gun control bills
Conrad Duncan@theconradduncan
3/12/2021
UPVOTE

(REUTERS)


The NRA has been mercilessly mocked after the Democrat-controlled House passed two bills backed by Joe Biden to introduce stricter gun control laws in the US this week.

Democrats are pushing to enact the first major new legislation on gun control in more than two decades and passed bills on Thursday to require background checks on all firearms sales and transfers, and to allow an expanded 10-day review for gun purchases.

However, the bill will need bipartisan support in the Senate to become law – which is unlikely when Democrats control the upper chamber by the narrowest of margins.

That’s because gun control legislation requires a 60-vote majority in the Senate, unlike other fiscal-related measures which can be passed with just a simple majority of 51.

Nevertheless, the House’s decision to pass the bills has riled the NRA, who have consistently opposed attempts to introduce stricter gun laws in recent years…

The organisation received little support from some social media users, especially as the gun control group March for Our Lives notes that background checks for all gun buyers are widely-popular with voters…

This appears to be a reference to a 2013 Quinnipiac University telephone poll, which found 92 per cent of voters supported background checks compared to just 7 per cent who opposed them.

So even if these bills don’t pass the Senate this time, it looks like this issue is a losing battle for the NRA

On Wednesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she and her colleagues had promised survivors of shootings and family members who have lost loved ones to gun attacks that they would not give up until the background checks legislation was passed.

“The gun violence crisis in America is a challenge to the conscience of our country – one that demands that we act,” Pelosi told Congress.

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“These solutions will save lives.”

Covid-19: European countries suspend use of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine after reports of blood clots

BMJ 2021; 372 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n699

(Published 11 March 2021)

Cite this as: BMJ 2021;372:n699

Jacqui Wise

Author affiliations

Denmark has temporarily suspended use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca covid-19 vaccine as a precautionary move after reports of blood clots and one death. However, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the UK’s regulatory body have said that there is no indication that vaccination is linked to thromboembolic events.

Eight other countries—Norway, Iceland, Austria, Estonia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Italy, and Latvia—have also suspended use of AstraZeneca’s vaccine. The decisions are a further setback for Europe’s vaccination campaign, which has struggled to pick up speed, partly because of delays in delivering the AstraZeneca vaccine.

The Danish Health Authority said that one person in Denmark had died after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine and that it would suspend the drug’s use for two weeks while the case was investigated. “It is important to point out that we have not terminated the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine—we are just pausing its use,” said the Danish Health Authority’s director, Soren Brostrøm.

On 10 March the EMA said that Austria had suspended the use of a batch of AstraZeneca vaccines after one person had multiple thrombosis diagnosed and died 10 days after vaccination. Another person was admitted to hospital with pulmonary embolism after being vaccinated and is now recovering. The EMA said that two other reports of thromboembolic event cases had also been received from that batch, which was delivered to 17 EU countries and comprised a million doses.

Close review

The EMA’s safety committee is reviewing the issue but said that there was currently no indication that vaccination has caused these conditions, which are not listed as side effects. It said that the information available so far showed that the number of thromboembolic events in vaccinated people was no higher than that seen in the general population. It said that, as of 10 March, 30 cases of thromboembolic events had been reported among the five million people given the AstraZeneca vaccine in the European Economic Area.

Phil Bryan, vaccines safety lead for the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, said, “More than 11 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine have now been administered across the UK. Reports of blood clots received so far are not greater than the number that would have occurred naturally in the vaccinated population.” He added that the agency was keeping the issue under close review but that available evidence did not confirm that the vaccine was the cause.

A spokesperson for AstraZeneca said, “Patient safety is the highest priority for AstraZeneca. Regulators have clear and stringent efficacy and safety standards for the approval of any new medicine, and that includes Covid-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca.

“An analysis of our safety data of more than 10 million records has shown no evidence of an increased risk of pulmonary embolism or deep vein thrombosis in any defined age group, gender, batch or in any particular country with Covid-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca. In fact, the observed number of these types of events is significantly lower in those vaccinated than what would be expected among the general population.”

Disease related clotting

Commenting on the decisions, Stephen Evans, professor of pharmacoepidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said, “The problem with spontaneous reports of suspected adverse reactions to a vaccine [is] the enormous difficulty of distinguishing a causal effect from a coincidence.” He highlighted that covid-19 disease was very strongly associated with blood clotting and that there had been hundreds, if not many thousands, of deaths caused by blood clotting as a result of covid-19.

Adam Finn, professor of paediatrics at the University of Bristol, said, “The position with the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine at the moment is that there is no sign anywhere, including the UK where very large numbers of doses have now been given, that blood clot related illnesses are happening any more frequently than usual.

“That’s reassuring, because it means either that the vaccine doesn’t cause blood clots at all or, at the very worst, that it’s an extremely rare event.”

Footnotes
Addendum: We amended this article on 12 March 2021 to add Italy to the list of countries mentioned in paragraph 2 and to include an updated statement from AstraZeneca in paragraphs 7 and 8. Paragraph 8 replaces the original sentence, “The safety of the vaccine has been extensively studied in phase III clinical trials, and peer reviewed data confirms the vaccine has been generally well tolerated.”

That dirty melting snowpack could  SHOULD Be considered a "chemical soup" 

Duration: 02:24 3/12/2021

Not only an eyesore but a possible source of allergies! Piles of melting snow are everywhere, Rachel Schoutsen looks into why one chemist has called them a "chemical soup".

Add atmospheric drying – and potential lower crop yields – to climate change toll

Drier air brought on by climate change could put a dent in crop yields, triggering smaller and slower-growing plants, a new study says.

“Globally, the atmosphere is drying as the climate warms up,” said Danielle Way, an associate professor of biology at Western University. “That’s been correlated with reduced crop yield.”

Because air wants to hold as much water as possible, it starts to pull moisture from plants as its dries, with potentially devastating impacts on crops and vegetation.

Way, working with researchers at the University of Minnesota, studied 50 years of data and 112 plant species, including wheat, corn and birch trees, to assess how they're affected by drier air.

The recently published findings show plants react to atmospheric drying — even if they don’t lack water in the soil — by triggering a drought-like response, growing smaller, shorter and slower.

“Basically, they’re trying to reduce how much leaf surface there is for the water to evaporate off of,” Way said. “They’re acting like they’re drought-stressed.”

It’s that phenomenon that could result in hiked-up farming costs and decreased crop productivity, Way warns, with spinoff effects on food costs and availability.

Green spaces and trees are also at risk of the phenomenon.

“This actually might be just as significant as having dry soil,” Way said.

While the study noted impacts on crops from India to the midwestern United States, Way said Southwestern Ontario’s farm belt would also be impacted by increased dry air.

“Northern countries like Canada are particularly at risk from climate change,” she said, adding the country’s temperature could rise six degrees Celsius in the next 80 years.

Atmospheric drying has been observed worldwide for the past 20 years and is expected to rise as global warming intensifies.

Although dry soil is still a challenge for farmers, Way said irrigation can address that issue. But there’s no way to humidify the air, making atmospheric drying a big risk.

On the positive side, Way said her research could be used in the development of crops more resistant to atmospheric drying. Within the study, the team found some plants, including certain varieties of wheat, are less stressed by dry air than others.

“That variation is something we can use to breed more drought-tolerant crop species to minimize the effect” of atmospheric drying, she said.

But the long-term and essential solution is to combat climate change, Way said, adding her research highlights some of the less visible impacts of global warming.

“The way to tackle this is to tackle climate change at that large scale,” she said.

Max Martin, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, London Free Press