The Lessons of Gobekli Tepe
February 24, 2010 5:00 PM   Subscribe

Laying bare the gratuitous assumptions of the patriarchal historical narrative. A weblog entry from the Aristasian Empire, of which a history and some kinnies [NSFW]. • Gobekli Tepe [previously] • Aristasia [previously]
posted by tellurian (31 comments total) 9 users marked this as a favorite
 
Their matriarchal website broke my patriarchal browser. What is a "patriarchal narrative of history"? The idea that time (I guess "man-time") progresses and that things come after other things and events are preceded by other events?
posted by turgid dahlia at 5:11 PM on February 24, 2010 [4 favorites]


The idea that time (I guess "man-time") progresses and that things come after other things...

Well, if the "other things" are male... no. No they won't.
posted by Bathtub Bobsled at 5:17 PM on February 24, 2010


There are a lot of really good female web designers out there. For some reason it looks like none of them got involved with these projects. Golly, I wonder why.
posted by gurple at 5:18 PM on February 24, 2010


Elektraspace?
posted by brundlefly at 5:19 PM on February 24, 2010


I am so not getting it.

Is this viral marketing for a femdom porn site or something?
posted by Joe Beese at 5:19 PM on February 24, 2010


Well, if the "other things" are male... no. No they won't.

Touche.
posted by turgid dahlia at 5:20 PM on February 24, 2010


Man-time has 4 corners? Girl-time has... none?
posted by GuyZero at 5:23 PM on February 24, 2010


No offense, but this is total fucking bullshit, I kept expecting the lizard people to pop up. It's written by someone who clearly has no knowledge of history, archaeology, anthropology or even basic sociology.

The presumption that historians do not debate historical discourse is the one with "child-like naivety".

I dont' know whether you posted this to make fun of it. I kinda hope so; the thought anyone takes this seriously depresses me. There are great discussions about sexism in history, pre-history, and academia. This is not even close to it.
posted by smoke at 5:26 PM on February 24, 2010 [2 favorites]


I think I prefer my own personal patriarchal narrative of history anyway because I tend to forget stupid arguments but by god she can recall the exact time, date and place of the tiniest and most insignificant incident ("We were on the bus six Thursdays ago and you didn't comment on the shade of my lipstick, which was imperceptibly different from the shade of the lipstick I was wearing three weeks prior to that, which you also didn't comment on!"), which leads to a whole other series of incidents which generally result in me sitting on the front steps with my headphones on while she makes a lot more noise than is strictly necessary with the washing-up...which I had already done.
posted by turgid dahlia at 5:26 PM on February 24, 2010 [3 favorites]



Is this viral marketing for a femdom porn site or something?


Doubtful. That's the sort of thing that sells itself.
posted by Bathtub Bobsled at 5:31 PM on February 24, 2010 [1 favorite]


That's a lot of tags! Yow! but I still think it needs a "WTF" tag...
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 5:32 PM on February 24, 2010


That's why they call it "HIStory" and not "HERstory," duh.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 5:34 PM on February 24, 2010


GuyZero: "Man-time has 4 corners? Girl-time has... none?"

Girl time is obviously curved.
posted by jefeweiss at 5:34 PM on February 24, 2010 [2 favorites]


Why am I thinking that this is the location of that crazy machine that told those women to take Spock's brain?
posted by chambers at 5:34 PM on February 24, 2010


Just for some context on Göbekli Tepe, here are a Newseek article and an apparently knowledgeable Redditor's responses thereto, which I found pretty fascinating.
posted by Nomiconic at 5:39 PM on February 24, 2010 [2 favorites]


So this is effectively a creationist/God-in-history/schizo-syncretist "critique" of science-lite as reported by Newsweek, only the scorned god in this instance doesn't have a dick. Somewhere, the failboat is leaking oil onto a pristine coral reef.
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 5:40 PM on February 24, 2010 [2 favorites]


I am the reason they call it history.
posted by herodotus at 5:41 PM on February 24, 2010 [10 favorites]


>: Man-time has 4 corners? Girl-time has... none?

Girl-time is made up of curves.
posted by dunkadunc at 5:47 PM on February 24, 2010


You guys are pretty square. This is fantasy history, essentially take Gorish sadomasochism, add the 1950s and subtact men.

It's not even in the same universe as the word 'accurate'. I've been into this online alternative world for a while and even without my admittedly strong prurient feelings I still think it's more benign sex weirdness than something we need to mock (unlike furries, which like, I mean come on what?).
posted by Potomac Avenue at 5:57 PM on February 24, 2010 [2 favorites]


Joe Beese: Is this viral marketing for a femdom porn site or something?

No. Aristasia is a community of women who play at being in a different, non-male world (not unlike Joanna Russ' Whileaway). The most famous Aristasian goes by the name Miss Martindale and is an advocate of discipline, the D in BDSM, but not into bondage or sado-masochism.

Also, the Gobekli Tepe article is on a completely different, non-Aristasian website (as far as I can tell).

Potomac Avenue: This is fantasy history, essentially take Gorish sadomasochism, add the 1950s and subtact men.

As far as I know, most Aristasians are not into discipline or bondage or anything like that. Aristasia is a fantasy world that some women enjoy creating and playing in. It's not Gor and Aristasians are not a female-restricted version of Goreans.
posted by Kattullus at 6:04 PM on February 24, 2010 [2 favorites]


This is fantasy history, essentially take Gorish sadomasochism, add the 1950s and subtract men.

Why was Margaret Thatcher the image I got when I computed this equation in my head?
posted by Bathtub Bobsled at 6:08 PM on February 24, 2010 [1 favorite]


"some women enjoy creating and playing in"

That was supposed to say: "some women enjoy living and playing in"
posted by Kattullus at 6:09 PM on February 24, 2010


Some context would have been uber-helpful.
posted by smoke at 6:17 PM on February 24, 2010


Why would such a complex and elaborate structure be the first ever built just because it is the earliest so far found? The faith that the current state of patriarchal Western knowledge represents the boundaries of all knowledge is almost touchingly childlike.

Nothing like grinding your axe on a wheel of cheese.
posted by three blind mice at 6:38 PM on February 24, 2010


Elektraspace?
posted by brundlefly

Not just Elektraspace, Tellurian Elektraspace, apropos one is now cognisant of the fact that one's user name cannot be used as a tag.
posted by tellurian at 7:08 PM on February 24, 2010


I went through the same phases as smoke: "No, no, no ... wait, what?" Once I sussed out that it's essentially LARPing, I found it interesting, so thanks for the post, but yeah, it could have used a little more context.
posted by Amanojaku at 7:38 PM on February 24, 2010


So, the assumptions are bared so that they can be caned by Mistress Martindale, right? (And, Kattullus, if you think the Aristasians aren't into discipline, you haven't watched their videos.)
posted by CCBC at 12:59 AM on February 25, 2010


Kattullus: Source for Gorean parallels (probably nsfw). It's not strictly S&M based but neither is Gor. Both, let us say, have sub/dom relationships accounted for in their metaphysics.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 11:57 AM on February 25, 2010


Well, I'm probably wrong then. When it was explained to me it was stressed that BDSM was very incidental to Aristasia and that only a small portion of the community took part in it. I may be wrong about Goreans but my impression is that BDSM is quite central to that.
posted by Kattullus at 3:44 PM on February 25, 2010


The Good News of God the Mother
posted by tellurian at 9:35 AM on March 16, 2010


Collyridian Episcopate of Saint Brigid 'a church that proclaims a vision of the world without patriarchy'.
posted by tellurian at 10:40 AM on March 16, 2010


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