A short read offering clarity about how we are where we are culturally. I also have some hope that we can indeed be on the long road back to our former coherence (as Thomas Berry wrote).
This comes from the book Humanizing Health Care, by Melanie Sears, RN, MBA. (page 23). Brilliant.
What is a Domination System?
Domination structures were developed thousands of years ago when our ancestors moved from small-scale gardening to larger-scale farming. Because physical strength was needed to handle plows and other implements of mass food production, physically strong men found themselves increasingly in positions of power, and systems of domination began to evolve. A cultural spiritual shift occurred at this time away from reverence fro live and pleasure and toward domination and pain. In order to maintain rigid rankings of domination, violence and abuse became institutionalized and (as with unprosecuted mail violence of both warfare and the war of the sexes) bound up with gender-specific socialization processes.
In domination systems, there are two roles: Those who dominate and those who are dominated. Those on top control those below and benefit from their position at the expense of others. Those who are dominated often come to believe that they, too, benefit from the perpetuation of the domination system--after all, "Father Knows Best." The system is held in place through fear and force and through patters of thinking that polarize complex feelings and experiences into strict categories: right or wrong, good or bad, us or them, punishment or reward.
No comments:
Post a Comment