we have to look beyond the names of our vices - beyond 'islam' and 'christianity' and 'marxism'

the vices we deal with: hate, envy, supremacy, have no names. that is why we have been dealing with them in every culture, every religion, every institution since the beginning of mankind.

but religion is not the total story.

Other factors that may play a role:

(i) The human tendency to form groups,
(ii) Property, and
(iii) The emergence of Hierarchies in society.

But see what a large role religion plays in the inequity of the sexes:

Religion and Morality

In all the major religions of the world. Women have occupied a secondary position vis-a-vis men. From China came ancestor worship - male ancestor of course. From India came Rama and Sita and the concept of woman's virtue and the idea that a woman is guilty until proven innocent and even then guilty. From Judea came the idea of woman being created from man's rib for the sole purpose of keeping him entertained. From the sands of Arabia came the purdah and the value of a woman's testimony being worth half of that of man's.

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There are huge obstacles that women face, but progress is taking place but ever so slowly and speaking as a woman it's frustrating. Guess who got to be the hunter and who was the gatherer and why one role was considered superior to the other. There are matriarchies in the world by the way, they're just relatively rare.

PrairieStateBlue

Fraudian slip - "Sub/Dem"?

But religion is the cause of war. There are no atheists in the foxholes.

The reason women can't testify is that they lack testicles. (Testify: from the Roman practice in court of grabbing their testicles and swearing to tell the truth (before bible swearing, of course.))

an existing matariarchal society where the relationship between the sexes is seen as being on an equal footing, egalitarian, or "linked" rather than "ranked," in a "partnership" rather than a "dominator" relationship. This characterization fits the Minangkabau as many of the anthropologists who have studied them have been at pains to point out. From the book entitled, Women at the Center: Life in a Modern Matriarchy.

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For two decades, Ms. Sanday, a professor of anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, has been studying gender in West Sumatra, Indonesia. In her new book, she argues that the Minangkabau ethnic group, which encompasses four million people, represents an underappreciated female-centered model of social relations. The Minangkabau's land and property are handed down matrilineally, and the group upholds a strong ethic of nonviolence and consensus-building.

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The Minoa religion was polytheistic and matriarchal, that is, a goddess religion Many religious and cultural scholars now believe that almost all religions began as matriarchal religions, even the Hebrew religion (where Yahweh is frequently referred to as physically female), but adopted patriarchal models in later incarnations.

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Women in Minoan Culture

Urbanization dramatically changes social relations. In place of real, biological relationships based on kinship, urbanized cultures organize themselves around more abstract, less stable, and inherently unequal lines. In particular, urbanized society is organized around "class," that is, economic function, rather than kinship. Economic function produces a kind of social inequality, as administrators, kings, and priests, come to occupy economically more important roles (distribution and regulation) than others. While there is really no such thing as social mobility in the ancient world, class is inherently unstable as a way of organizing society. Urbanization also produces a split in human experience; life is divided into a public and a domestic sphere. In small tribal societies, this split is non-existent or barely evident, but urbanization produces a marked distinction between these two spheres. Almost universally, men dominate the newly formed public sphere: administration, regulation, and military organizations. Social inequality, then, gets established along sexual lines as well as economic function. This is a dramatic and traumatic change for any society to go through; literally, the entire world view has to adapt dramatically to account for this new inequality. For instance, most religions probably began as goddess religions; the new urbanized societies, however, develop god religions in their place.

The adoption of a sedentary lifestyle because of agriculture may have fundamentally reoriented society towards patriarchal organization and the subsequent rethinking of goddess religions. It is certain, however, that urbanization dramatically precipitated gender inequality as human life suddenly assumed a double quality: public life and private life. The domination of public life, that is, administration, rule, and military organization, by men certainly produced a reorientation of religious beliefs. The Cretans, however, do not seem to have evolved either gender inequality nor adapted their religion to a male-centered universe. The legacy of the goddess religion seems to still be alive today. Both Greece and Crete are Greek Orthodox Christian. In Greece, however, only women regularly swear by the name of the Virgin Mary, while in Crete both men and women swear by her name, particularly the epithet, "Panagia," or "All-Holy."

Some other matriarchal societies

The example you gave From the Sands of Arabia seems to be somewhat of a pattern. Early religions were matriarchal and became patriarchal in later times (not for the advancement of societies I might add.) I seem to recall that North American indian tribes trace their ancestry through the mother which makes more sense actually, because the woman who bears the child is of more certain parentage especially before DNA became a verifiable source.

with my helen thomas interview and this construction project i've got going, i don't have time to properly respond to this. so instead i'll offer up a short comment.

religion is understood by the religious as "the most important" thing in life. you've got to be "right" with your religion all the time, to be properly religious. (i'm going to leave out the question of 'what is a religion' for now) religion plays a key role in your life, and has an impact on everything you do, are, fuck, eat, etc.

the vast majority of religions in the world posit inequality between male and female. not just humans, but the object of religious worship. buddhists believe that female people cannot reach enlightenment and must be reborn as males for that to happen. the monotheistic faiths all (now) posit that "god" is male, even though there is some tricksy theology that attempts to get around that, the plain fact is that god is addressed as "he" and the practical effects of that are major. most religions grant more moral, intellectual and social authority to male priests, and many don't let women become "real" representatives of the god(s) at all.

so as a woman, i was forced into atheism pretty quickly in my life. any ideology that posits i have less (intellectual, spiritual, social, etc) value because i was born with a pussy and not a cock is just bunk. but your point about misogyny predating and stemming from non-religious sources, i ask you this: would that misogyny be as long lasting and widespread without the additional authority granted to it by religion?

there are pigs, and then there are pigs who stand on two legs and tell all the other pigs what to do and dress in clothes and live in the master's house. religion is one really important way those latter pigs get there.

i'm a "scholar of religion" (master's and doctoral work at UChicago div school on ancient religions) and i don't believe that "most" religions were originally matriarchal. that's another long, long post, but the minoan example is not representative of the majority of ancient religions of that time or before it, and most definately not after it. my dissertation was on women's religious traditions in sumeria (ancient iraq) and trust me when i say that the ancient world was not a matriarchal one, not in the period where there was writing. there have been matriarchies, but relatively speaking they are few and rare and often only described as such by some feminists who play fast and loose with the evidence.