At least not yet

 

“It takes a heap of sense to write good nonsense.” 

—MARK TWAIN

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

A US-based psychologist, who deals with problems including the art of the insult, has coined a new vocabulary which we won’t find in any dictionary (at least not yet): oxymoronica.

In his book (I bought for only $6; original price is $14.95 plus tax on a sale day in the Barnes and Noble bookseller in California), Dr. Mardy Grothe described it as containing “paradoxical wit and wisdom from history’s greatest wordsmiths.”

Grothe did actually define oxymoronica in the book: “(OK-se-mor-ON-uh-ca) noun, plural: Any variety of tantalizing, self-contradictory statements or observations that on the surface appear false or illogical, but at a deeper level are true, often profoundly true. See also oxymoron, paradox.

Examples: “Melancholy is the pleasure of being sad.” Victor Hugo;

“To lead the people, walk behind them.” Lao-tzu; 

“You’d be surprised how much it costs to look this cheap.” Dolly Parton.

Grothe introduced “oxymoronica” to readers in the delightful collection of 1,400 of the most provocative quotations of all time.

“From ancient thinkers like Confucius, Aristotle, and Saint Augustine to great writers like Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, and G.B. Shaw to modern social observers like Woody Allen and Lily Tomlin, Oxymoronica celebrates the power and beauty of paradoxical thinking,” wrote Grothe.

“All areas of human activity are explored, including love, sex and romance, politics, the arts, the literary life, and, of course, marriage and family life.”

He added: “The wise and witty observations in this book are as highly entertaining as they are intellectually nourishing and are sure to grab the attention of language lovers everywhere.”

He came up with the word in the early 1990s when he was working on his 1999 book Never Let a Fool Kiss You or a Kiss Fool You.

 

INVENTION

 

“A new word invention is formally called a neologism, and my dream is that oxymoronica will one day show up in a dictionary (and given the meaning "a group or collection of oxymoronic and paradoxical quotations"),” Grothe explained.

According to Grothe, The Never Let a Fool Kiss You book introduced people to the fascinating literary device known as chiasmus (ky-AZ-mus).

“Chiasmus occurs when the order of words is reversed in parallel phrases, as in Cicero's ‘One should eat to live, not live to eat’ or Mae West's ‘It's not the men in my life, it's the life in my men,’" he explained.

He revealed that even though chiasmus shows up in some of the world's most famous sayings (like John F. Kennedy's "Ask not what your country can do for you" line), the term is not well known, even among sophisticated and highly literate people.

“While compiling quotations for my Never Let a Fool Kiss You book, I kept running into many other quotations that I loved, but that didn't fit into the chiasmus theme. Some of the most fascinating quotes captured my interest because they had one special thing in common—they contained either a contradiction in terms or a contradiction in ideas:

“Be careful what you wish for, it might come true.”

“Free love is too expensive.”

“I must be cruel only to be kind.”

“A yawn is a silent shout.”

“Man is condemned to be free.”

“To lead the people, walk behind them.”

 

COLLECTION

 

As his collection of these kinds of quotes slowly grew from a few dozen to a few hundred, and then burgeoned from a few hundred to a few thousand, he needed a word to describe them.

Some contained a classical oxymoron (like silent shout) and others a classical paradox (like cruel only to be kind).

But simply calling them oxymoronic or paradoxical didn't come close to capturing their collective magic.

“Then, one cold winter day in the early 1990s, I found myself looking up the word erotica in the dictionary. I knew what the word meant, but wanted to get a precise definition. Very quickly, the entry on erotica took me to another familiar word with the same suffix: exotica,” Grothe narrated.

“Both words referred to collections of things, especially things that hold a particular fascination or interest. Just like that, a word popped into my mind.

“Oxymoronica. I tried the word out on a number of friends and it almost always brought a smile to their faces. I knew I was on to something.”

Happy Easter 2024

Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.

-- OG MANDINO :

Kindness, care, and understanding must be accorded to everyone we meet before, during, and after Easter. We can extend and sustain our kindness, care, understanding—and even love them unconditionally as long as they are alive.

-- ALEX P. VIDAL #alexpvidalquotes 

Pinay who ‘abused’ health care program flees to RP

 

“Time will inevitably uncover dishonesty and lies; history has no place for them.”

—Norodom Sihanouk

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

A 74-YEAR-OLD Filipino-American woman who has been reportedly under the radar of the federal government for “misusing, abusing, and exploiting the loopholes” in a New York state health program for several years, has “fled” to Mindanao in the Philippines in a bid to avoid prosecution.

“Na buking talaga eh (she was really caught flat-footed),” disclosed Hermie, a 72-year-old Fil-Am retiree now based in Matag-ob, a component city in Leyte, Philippines.

Hermie said Dolores availed the New York State Department of Health’s Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP) before the pandemic.

CDPAP is a medicaid program that provides services to chronically ill or physically disabled individuals who have a medical need for help with activities of daily living (ADLs) or skilled nursing services.

Services can include any of the services provided by a personal care aide (home attendant), home health aide, or nurse.

Recipients have flexibility and freedom in choosing their caregivers.

The consumer or the person acting on the consumers behalf (such as the parent of a disabled or chronically ill child) assumes full responsibility for hiring, training, supervising, and – if need be – terminating the employment of persons providing the services, according to New York State Department of Health.

 

-o0o-

 

Hermie said without Dolores’ knowledge, she was being monitored on suspicion that all the information she had provided to qualify for the program was tainted with falsehood, deceit, misrepresentation, bad faith.

Dolores hired a younger male “caregiver” under the program who turned out to be her live-in partner. The caregiver is paid to “take care” of Dolores, who took a share of the caregiver’s salary.

“They have been abusing the system and defrauding the government,” pointed out Hermie, who has been cooperating with investigators. 

New Yorkers with zero healthcare experience are allowed to care for their elderly or disabled relatives and friends — potentially earning more than $43,000 a year — under a $6 billion Medicaid program that’s been rife for fraud, abuse and overuse for years, insiders say.

The Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program, known as CDPAP, exploded several years back when state lawmakers loosened rules to make more people eligible for the government cash, reported the New York Post.

Critics argue that CDPAP, which has received huge funding injections from the state government, has been allowed to expand rapidly with little oversight — despite rampant signs of dysfunction and being a waste of taxpayer money.

 

-o0o-

 

“The program is growing many times faster than the size of the elderly population and shows no sign of slowing down,” Bill Hammond, a senior fellow for health policy at the Empire Center, an Albany-based government watchdog group, told The Post.

“It’s long past time for state officials to bring the program under control — while taking care to protect services for those who need them most.”

There are currently 250,000 New Yorkers enrolled in CDPAP across the state, the latest Medicaid enrollment report data show — up considerably from 140,000 in 2015

A CDPAP-funded home care worker in New York City can rake in as much as $21.09 an hour caring for their relatives or friends — or $43,867.20 a year based on a 40-hour work week. On Long Island, the CDPAP caregiver rate is $20.22 per hour, while in the rest of the state it’s $17.55 per hour.

The decades-old program was relatively small until legislative changes expanded eligibility by allowing family members or friends of Medicaid recipients to become CDPAP aides.

State lawmakers passed the bill, spearheaded by then-Assemblyman Joe Morelle — now a Democratic congressman for New York’s upstate 25th congressional district — in 2015 before it was implemented the following year by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Morelle said at the time that the changes, which now allowed parents of adult disabled children to be hired as their carers, would save those families from fearing for their financial security.

 

-o0o-

 

But experts warn that the vague rules for eligibility are prime for exploitation — and that the program’s flaws run deep.

“Consumer-directed personal assistance is an important and life-changing benefit when used appropriately, but it’s also highly vulnerable to overuse and fraud — and in New York’s program, all the warning lights are flashing bright red,” Hammond said.

Under CDPAP, people can choose their own, unlicensed caregivers to help assist them at home in a bid to avoid more costly nursing homes or assisted-living facilities.

But while there’s been an increase in people signing up for the program, there hasn’t been much of a change in the nursing-home resident population.

Meanwhile, the criteria to qualify for CDPAP are somewhat hazy, added the Post.

For instance, those seeking Medicaid coverage who live in a nursing home are required to have their past five years of financial records reviewed.

The list includes “bathing or showering, dressing, getting in and out of bed or a chair, walking, using the toilet, and eating,” according to the US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

In comparison, those applying for home-based care don’t have any look-back period, which means they can potentially transfer cash, or sell off assets, to relatives so they can then qualify for Medicaid.

Currently, an applicant has to undergo an assessment of eligibility, which includes, in part, having an ongoing medical condition, a need for medical assistance and a need for long-term care.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two daily newspapers in Iloilo.—Ed)

Bully Week

“My biggest piece of advice when it comes to bullying is to have an open communication about it.”

—Lizzie Velasquez

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

I HAVE warned a visiting female friend, Matutina (not the now 80-year-old former actress who starred in the “John & Marsha” comedy sitcom in the 70’s), from Mandaluyong City not to stroll around the Big Apple alone especially during nighttime.  

I didn’t want Matutina, who arrived for a short visit before the Holy Week, to end up with a black eye in both eyes after visiting the city that never sleeps. Since she is currently staying in a relative’s apartment in the Long Island, Matutina may not be able to saunter frequently in the urban jungle called the Empire City.  

While the rest of the Christian world celebrated Holy Week last week, some women—including Asians—in New York, suffered from “bully week”, or the days in one week where some of them landed in the hospital after being punched without any apparent provocation while walking in New York City streets.

As of this writing, an arrest has been reportedly made days after social media videos in which women describe being punched by a stranger in seemingly random attacks in Manhattan have sparked concerns about women’s safety during the “bully week.”

 

-o0o-

 

In one of the alleged attacks, which are reaching a vast audience beyond New York thanks to algorithmically driven social feeds, a black man was arrested by the New York Police Department (NYPD).

The alleged victims, women in their 20s and 30s, detailed broadly similar attacks in posts on TikTok and Instagram.

One of the victims, Halley Kate Mcgookin, a New York-based fashion influencer, said in a March 25 video posted to TikTok that has since been viewed 49 million times, “You guys, I was literally just walking, and a man came up and punched me in the face.”

NYPD recently arrested a suspect in Mcgookin’s alleged attack. They did not respond to direct questions about how many reports of strangers punching women they’ve received in recent weeks or whether they believe the incidents are connected.

At least two other women, online content creator Selena Pikanab and model Karina Dunford, posted videos describing similar incidents. A seventh woman, only identified by her TikTok handle, posted a video describing a similar attack before making her account private.

New York City crime data showed that while overall crime is down in the city, New Yorkers have experienced upticks in certain areas, including misdemeanor assaults and felony assaults, which increased 10 percent and 3 percent, respectively, compared to the same time last year.

 

-o0o-

 

But awareness of attacks that appear to be localized to Lower Manhattan has mushroomed across social media in the past week, largely thanks to TikTok’s unique algorithm. 

The Washington Post has reported that collectively, the initial TikTok videos of women describing their alleged attacks have been viewed more than 70 million times — a sum that doesn’t account for the creators’ follow-up videos and videos about the attacks that other content creators cite, known on TikTok as stitching.

“I think (TikTok) is pretty integral to how it happened,” said Kate Lindsey, who founded the internet and culture newsletter Embedded as quoted by Washington Post.

TikTok’s algorithm reportedly picks up videos users are interested in and curates similar ones into a moment, scooping up related videos even if they are months or years old. 

Lindsey suspects the story topic was further boosted by the fact that one of the victims is an established influencer who already had more than 1.2 million followers — and she shared several additional follow-up videos after her attack, added the Washington Post.

 

-o0o-

 

PHENYLALAINE is an essential amino acid that is a neurotransmitter, a chemical that transmits its signals between the nerve cells and the brain. It reduces hunger, increase sexual interest, improve memory and mental alertness, and alleviate depression. (Vitamin Bible)

FATAL PLEASURE. It's been estimated that the practice of autoerotic asphyxiation (temporarily suffocating yourself while masturbating) takes the lives of 250 to 1,000 people each year.

BEWARE OF MARKS. Products marked as aren't necessarily low-calorie, and some products using artificial sweeteners contain more calories than if they had natural sugar.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two daily newspapers in Iloilo.—Ed)

Coronavirus who

By Alex P. Vidal 

Who are you

Where did you come from

Why did you make my body suffer

Why did you terrorize my friends

Why do you want me to die

Who sent you to torment us

If you are a crown where is your kingdom

If you are a virus what is your purpose 

How far can you make us suffer

How soon can you stop wreaking havoc on our populace

Now that you have made your presence felt with enormous catastrophe,

Will you please walk away from our life now and set us free 

(Original poem written by Alex P. Vidal copyright 2020)

Loyalty to faith, church

“Of all losses, time is the most irrecuperable for it can never be redeemed.” 

― KING HENRY VIII

By Alex P. Vidal

AS Sir Thomas More refuses to recognize Henry VIII’s divorce and ascendancy as Supreme Head of the new Church of England, A Man for All Seasons reveals the risk of speaking truth to power and the clash that follows when fierce political will collides with deep moral conviction.

This royal adviser is already refusing to help Cardinal Wolsey pressure the Catholic Church into granting King Henry VIII a divorce. 

When Wolsey dies, More becomes Henry's new Chancellor--even though he's even less willing to help the king secure a divorce than Wolsey was.

The king visits More and isn't psyched when More demonstrates his unwillingness to break with the Church. 

Meanwhile, a sniveling upstart named Richard Rich (not to be confused with Richie Rich) is considering trying to help the shrewd adviser, Thomas Cromwell, in bringing More down.

DRAMA

When Henry decides to leave the Catholic Church in order to get his divorce, remarry, and form his own church, More won't go with him. 

He resigns his post as Chancellor, which passes to his devious rival, Cromwell. When More refuses to sign an oath swearing that the king is now the head of the Church--while otherwise remaining silent--Cromwell goes after him.

More is imprisoned for high treason and interrogated by Cromwell and More's old friend, the Duke of Norfolk. But neither Norfolk nor More's own loving family members can convince him to sign the oath.

Finally, More is charged with treason in court, where he has to defend himself against Cromwell's arguments. He seems to be doing pretty well in his own defense.

Richard Rich lies, claiming that More openly contested the king's supremacy over the Church in conversation. More's fate is sealed: he'll be put to death. 

Now free to speak, he eloquently denounces the act of Parliament that authorized the split with the Catholic Church.

Finally, More is executed by beheading, and he submits to his death peacefully and bravely, confident God will accept him. A voiceover at the end explains that More's rival Cromwell was later executed for treason, too--although his greatest betrayer, Richard Rich, died in bed of natural causes. 

So that's anticlimactic.#

Alex P. Vidal Quotes #alexpvidalquotes

Don't force someone to remember you all the time. Just stay silent let them realize how they will be without you in their life.

--ANONYMOUS :

When friends forget us, we shouldn’t magnify it into a major event. Memories malfunction from time to time. Genuine relationships need empirical evidence. It’s human nature if someone ignores us during normal times, and remembers us (when they are) in crisis and in deep shit.

--ALEX P. VIDAL #alexpvidalquotes

‘Sleepless in Dhaka’

“I decided that it was not wisdom that enabled poets to write their poetry, but a kind of instinct or inspiration, such as you find in seers and prophets who deliver all their sublime messages without knowing in the least what they mean.”

—Socrates

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

IN the course of his journey to ambassadorship, Ilonggo poet and respected lawyer-writer Leo Tito Ausan Jr. have come across countless quotes, “but only one has so leechlikely stuck in my mind,” wrote Ambassador Ausan Jr.

“It is that which is popularly attributed to the Cuban Poet and Freedom fighter, Jose Marti, that ‘if a man would like to leave a mark in this world, he needs to do at least three things: 1. plant a tree; 2. have a son; and 3. write a book’, hence today (March 25), I, celebrate and profusely thank the Lord God, our Creator, for blessing me with a good life that enabled me to realize these three during my lifetime.” While in college in 1992, Ausan Jr. disclosed “He enabled me to plant giant ipil-ipil trees in Guimaras island at the farm of erstwhile Hon. City Judge Leonardo Lozano; in 1987, He blessed my marriage to Agnes Brazas-to whom I dedicate the book, with a son, Carlyle Leo, Latte ChoCo, Clark's Dad and today, in the year 2024 a publishing press in Bangladesh delivered to me the first 100 copies of my first book, entitled ‘Sleepless in Dhaka & Other Poems’ a compilation of my poetry written in and inspired by Bangladesh.” 

 

-o0o-

In Ausan Jr.’s “humble gift to salute and honor Bangladesh and her lovely people, who are marking National Genocide Day and will be marking their 54th Independence Day tomorrow (March 26)!! Joi Bangla!!, In mid-April I shall, of course, be formally launching this book in an event, bigger than this post, for the purpose.”

Ausan Jr. wrote: “Meanwhile, I would like to take this opportunity to thank my most esteemed Bangla dual foreword writers, Bangladesh's Foreign Secretary (Senior Secretary), Masud bin Momen and Consul General in New York, USA, Najmul Huda,, for sharing their kind and inspirational insights on the book....THANK YOU DEAR LORD, FOR A LIFE THAT LEAVES AN INDELIBLE MARK...., may YOU keep on being kind to me as I continue to plod on, in the service of  my Motherland and our People, in this part of the world, this I pray, through Christ our Lord Your Son, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit as a triune Divine, Amen.”

 

-o0o-

 

1. SLEEPLESS IN DHAKA

IO, Dhaka, cradle of, Ahsan Manzil,

What’s this in me, that for thee, I feel?

Just when I thought, as a stoic diplomat, I can’t fall into this, and never will...

II

O. Dhaka, this all started on 21st March, a year ago, if thee will,

After I presented my letters of credence, at the Bangabhaban, to His Excellency, President Mhd. Abdul Hamid,

When in gracious accord, with Protocol’s courtesy to No. 32 Danmhondi, a brief visit I unexpectedly made.

III

O, Dhaka, on foot, I apprised myself with every nook and cranny of the Crime Scene, at the historic place,

Including the Sadat gifted, Holy Quran, that quietly perched on a book stand at Mujib’s Study, and the bullet hole-ridden staircase,

Where, Sheikh Mujib, the Father of thy Nation, fell and was brutally murdered years ago, so that his killers’ Master, or so he thought, can be at peace.

IV

O, Dhaka, since, then, I never again became, the same old me, And perhaps, I again, never, will ever be...

For from then on, poetry, gushed from me, profusely,

Slumber in the night, I can ‘t anymore do, as easily.

VUntil on my tablet, I’ve written down, the poem that during the day, has in one fell swoop struck me...

Your gruesome history has shocked and amazed me,

Thenceforth, struggling hard, I’ve been, sleepless for thee,

VI

It can only be, that I’m already in love with thee..!!!

Just to get my much needed sleep, simply can’t be.

O, Dhaka, because from the sky of thy forehead, you’ve transplanted on a fluttering green flag,

Your blazing sun and blood red teep...

While your nose pin, you’ve dispatched to glitter like stars in thy nightsky,

That’s cold, dark, and deep...

But each and every morning, thy beauty, and historic splendor,

Through thy saree, and warm embroidered dupatta, peep!

While THROUGHOUT, the night before, Sleepless in Dhaka, the aging me, they keep!

(Inspiration: the impending possibility of publication of this Compilation, from 1:45 am of 03 February 2024 to 2:45 of 07 February 2024, My Baridhara Residence.)

Grafters can repent not only in Holy Week

“The only vice that cannot be forgiven is hypocrisy. The repentance of a hypocrite is itself hypocrisy.”

— William Hazlitt

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

GRAFTERS in government as well as thieves, dishonest individuals, philanderers, and scam artists in society should not wait for the Holy Week to repent for their sins.

All of us sinners can actually begin the repentance process in normal weeks—even without the traditional special solemnity as a time of devotion to the Passion of Jesus Christ.

Some of us, however, will learn to repent only after we have been caught, hauled in court, and convicted in the bar of justice. Inside the jail, we make amends for our sins and serve our sentences just the same. 

When Jesus started His public ministry, He also called for repentance. Matthew 4:17 records, “From that time on Jesus began to preach, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’” Jesus says of repentance, “I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent” (Luke 15:7).

 

-o0o-

 

In Mark 6:12, the disciples also “went out and preached that people should repent.” This preaching continued in Acts. Peter preached to Jews, “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord” (Acts 3:19). Paul preached to Gentiles, “In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30). And later he testified, “I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus” (Acts 20:21). And, similarly, “First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and then to the Gentiles, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and demonstrate their repentance by their deeds” (Acts 26:20).

As demonstrated in the passages above, repentance is an important part of an initial response to the gospel, but it is also an important part of the life of the Christian. 

Writing to the church at Corinth, Paul says, “Now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended” (2 Corinthians 7:9). 

To the church at Ephesus, Jesus says, “Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first” (Revelation 2:5).

 

-o0o-

DIVIDED PEOPLE. Politics has divided the nation and will further exacerbate the tension and wrangling among political rivals now that the campaign period for the next election is coming next. More friendships will be shattered before and after the elections. Sad but true.

FILTER IT AWAY. The human body requires at least 1 gallon of water a day. If we are considering stocking up on emergency supplies, let's bear in mind that plastic bottles are thought to leach chemicals into the water if left for a length of time. Let's save space and the environment by stocking up on water filters instead.

WELCOME THE WIND. Many products can cause air pollution to build up in our home, including modern cleaners, which contain strong chemicals. Let's make sure to ventilate our home well, ensuring a through-flow of air to help reduce pollution levels and encourage good ventilation.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two daily newspapers in Iloilo.—Ed)

‘Human nature’ to blame for male supremacy?

"The great question that has never been answered, and which I have not yet been able to answer, despite my thirty years of research into the feminine soul, is 'What does a woman want?'" 

-- Sigmund Freud 

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

The research made for over 20 years by Evelyn Reed (1905-1979) on Woman’s Evolution, the book dubbed as “an impressive and absorbing reconstruction of human history” by Sociology, will give us a profound understanding why she became a veteran socialist.

Reed takes us on a million-year expedition through prehistory from cannibalism to culture and covers the world of the ancient matriarchy.

Tracing the origins of the “incest taboo,” blood rites, marriage, and the family, she reveals the leading role women once played. 

By pinpointing the relatively recent factors that led to patriarchal domination, she offers a fresh insight into the issues raised by today’s feminist movement—and refutes the myth that “human nature” is to blame for the male supremacy, greed, wars, and inequalities of modern society.

According to Reed, the early history of half the human species—womankind—has largely been hidden from view. 

“To bring it to light requires a reinvestigation of anthropology, where the role and accomplishments of women in prehistoric society are buried,” she explains. 

Her book is a contribution to unveiling that remarkable record.

 

RESURGENCE

 

She stresses that the resurgence of the women’s liberation movement in the 70’s has thrown the spotlight on certain dubious assumptions and disputed questions regarding the past. 

Foremost among these is the subject of the matriarchy. Reed asks, “Was there a period in history when women held a highly esteemed and influential place? 

If so, how did they lose their social eminence and become the subordinate sex in patriarchal society? 

Or is the matriarchy, as some say, a myth that has no historical basis?”

She contends that the matriarchy is one of the most hotly contested issues in a hundred-year controversy between contending schools in anthropology. 

Reed’s book affirms that the maternal clan system was the original form of social organization and explains why. 

It also traces the course of its development and the causes of its downfall. 

Such partisanship on the side of the matriarchy would alone make her book controversial. 

But it contains other challenges to long-held opinions on prehistoric society.

“Disagreements are to be expected in a field that covers so vast a stretch of human evolution, extending from the birth of our species to the threshold of civilization, and where the available data derived from biology, archeology, and anthropology is fragmentary and uncoordinated,” Reed writes.

 

SCIENCE

 

Anthropology was founded as a distinct science in the middle of the 19th century. 

Most of the founding fathers (women entered the profession only later) had an evolutionary approach. Reed says Morgan, Taylor, and other pioneers regarded anthropology as the study of the origin of society and the material forces at work in its progress. 

They made brilliant beginnings in illuminating the main stages in human development.

Reed says Morgan delineated three great epochs of social evolution—from savagery through barbarism to civilization. Each was marked off by decisive advances in the level of economic activity. 

The most rudimentary stage, savagery, was based on hunting and food-gathering. 

Barbarism began with food production through agriculture and stock-raising. 

Civilization crowned the development of the ancient world by bringing it to the point of commodity production and exchange.

These three epochs, she explains, were of extremely unequal duration. Savagery is sometimes differentiated into an earlier “primeval” and a later “primitive” stage, both of these rested upon a hunting and gathering economy. Savagery had a span of million-odd years, comprising more than 99 percent of human existence. 

Barbarism began about 8,000 years ago; civilization only three thousand years ago.

 

SAVAGE

 

The early investigators of savage society, to their own surprise, came upon a social structure totally different from ours, adds Reed.

“They found a clan and tribal system based on material kinship and in which women played a leading role,” she elaborates. 

“This stood out in sharp contrast with modern society which features the father-family and male supremacy. Although they were unable to tell how far back the maternal system went, we propose to show that it dates from the beginning of humankind.”

They made other astonishing discoveries. 

They observed that savage society had egalitarian social and sexual relations, arising from collective production and communal possession of property.

Reed says these features too were at odds with modern society, based on private property and class divisions. 

Thus the maternal clan system, which gave an honored place to women, was also a collectivist order where the members of both sexes enjoyed equality and did not suffer oppression or discrimination.

“Subsequently, these discoveries evoked doubts and resistance from the schools of anthropology that became dominant in the 20th century,” Reed points out. 

“There arose a deep division between evolutionists and anti-evolutionists that has persisted to the present day. It is only through the evolutionary approach, however, that the concealed history of women –and of men—can be uncovered.”

 

UNIVERSAL

 

The principle of universal evolution had already been applied to the problem of the genesis of Homo sapiens with the publication in 1871 of Charles Darwin’s book The Descent of Man.

After he demonstrated that the earliest sub-humans, the hominoids, arose out of the anthropoids, the question was posed: How did this transformation come out? In the following decades, biology, archeology, paleontology, and anthropology jointly assisted in the detective work required to clarify this problem.

Reed’s book adheres to the evolutionary and materialist method in utilizing these findings.

It also presents a new theory about totemism and taboo, among the most enigmatic institutions of primeval and primitive society. 

Anthropologists of all persuasions have held the view that the ancient taboo on sexual intercourse with certain relatives, like our own taboo, arose out of a universal fear of incest. 

Reed’s book challenges that assumption. The ancient taboo existed—but it was primarily directed against the perils of cannibalism in the hunting epoch.

 

THEORY

 

Reed says the elimination of the theory of a universal incest taboo removes one of the most serious obstacles to understanding other savage institutions, such as the classificatory system of kinship, exogamy and endogamy, segregation of the sexes, rules of avoidance, blood revenge, the gift-exchange system, and the dual organization of the tribe. 

It clears the way toward an understanding of how society arose--and why it arose in no other from than the material clan system or matriarchy.

“The question of the matriarchy is decisive in establishing whether or not the modern father-family has always existed. The very structure of the material clan system precluded it,” Reed explains. 

“Instead of being the basic social unit from time immemorial, as most anthropologists contend, it is a late arrival in history, appearing only at the beginning of the civilized epoch.”