The World Peace Diet: Eating For Spiritual Health And Social Harmony

Our Culture’s Roots / 21
mals (for meat, cheese, milk, hides, and so forth) as practically the sole
source of survival, one can more easily become habituated to view the
enslavement of other human beings as acceptable. 9
Whether there actually were earlier cultures that were more peaceful,
partnership-oriented, and egalitarian, as Eisler and many others
assert, or whether violent conflict, males, and competition have always
dominated human socioeconomic cultural structures is still a hotly contested
issue among academics. What seems undeniable, though, is the
effect on human consciousness of commodifying and enslaving large
animals for food. Jim Mason takes Eisler’s work farther in this regard,
developing some more historical and psychological connections
between domination of animals and domination of other people. He
points out that the agricultural revolution introduced profound changes
into the ancient forager cultures, transforming their relationship with
nature from one of immersion to one of separating from and attempting
to control her. Out of this separation, two types of agriculture
emerged—plant and animal—and the distinction between them is significant.
Growing plants and gardening is more feminine work; plants are
tended and nurtured, and as we work with the cycles of nature, we are
part of a process that enhances and amplifies life. It is life-affirming and
humble (from humus, earth) work that supports our place in the web of
life. On the other hand, large animal agriculture or husbandry was
always men’s work and required violent force from the beginning, to
contain powerful animals, control them, guard them, castrate them and,
in the end, kill them.
Mason also emphasizes the important influence that animals seem to
have in human psychological development and health, as well as the violent
psychosocial characteristics researchers find in observing cultures
around the world that herd large animals. Citing anthropologists Paul
Shepard and Anthony Leeds, he notes that Shepard
. . . ticks off the mainstays of herder cultures the world over:
‘Aggressive hostility to outsiders, the armed family, feuding and raiding
in a male-centered hierarchical organization, the substitution of