Beginning in the Bronze Age, societies shifted from egalitarian, earth-centered cultures to hierarchical, male-dominated systems.
Over time, these structures expanded through conquest, colonization, and organized religion. Women’s and earth-centered spiritual practices, Indigenous land-based traditions, and community healing roles (midwives, herbalists, ritualists) were violently destroyed and then institutionalized.
Understanding this history is essential. It shows how modern gender inequality, cultural erasure, and the devaluation of earth-based wisdom are the direct result of systemic patterns established thousands of years ago. Dismantling these systems requires recognizing their origins and consciously choosing new models rooted in equity and reciprocity.