Family Values in Ancient Times:
Many people of the present make some very grave and disturbing
assumptions about prior unethical behaviour by humans. My
theories may be biased and overly appreciative of a time before
Empire and there is less data due to the destructive power of
Empire and the hegemony to go on. However, that data is more
pure and less likely to have been promoted or propagandized for
the interests of power-mongers. Top scholars and those who are
regarded as great academics still debate whether women ever had
equal rights and some state there never were matriarchal
societies of great note. It would be a surprise for me if there
were not many different approaches used in various cultures and
millennia before the Ice Age we just experienced and thereafter,
leading up to what we call history. Much of history today has
all the markings of hegemony akin to the Middle Ages according
to John Ralston Saul who says it “has come to resemble the
obscure and controlling scholasticism of the Middle Ages.” (1)
Could it be that ethics and moral behaviour had higher
importance in the communal houses of the Kelts and North
American Indians, as well as other societies throughout this
awesome world? We now know it has been traversed by ancient
humans who loved and played all over the place for a far longer
period than we have been lead to believe even though many may
not be aware of these facts. Is it possible that basic
principles were easily communicated and respect was the goal of
people long ago? Why even debate the point about power and money
– they had little need of it. Western society still has much of
the ingrained misogyny of millennia of macho Mediterranean mores
and the rest of the world is far worse. What greater issue is
there than incest and family violence? It rots the fabric of
families and society as a whole. This quote from respected
anthropologist Carlton Coon about the ‘hunting societies’ of
prehistory sets a stage we need to appreciate and evaluate.
“While under certain circumstances, in some societies, a young
man may marry a woman past menopause, he may manage to have
sexual relations with other women, and may eventually get a
nubile second wife.” (2)
This seems a workable arrangement that includes education and
the planning of families to avoid unnecessary abortion or mouths
who aren’t truly cared for, doesn’t it? The older woman
presumably would be able to satisfy the early sexual energy of
the young man, without leading their social or tribal culture
into all the problems associated with children having children
such as often happens today. The young man might even develop
some sexual techniques and understand his urges better than pure
lustful infatuation or the need to run off to fight in order to
get rape and pillage payment for some Lord or Caesar. Then when
financially and emotionally prepared for parenting he might
actually do a decent job. Coon was able to observe this still
exists in some Neolithic societies of the present day. When the
second wife arrived it might present some problems but in most
cases the first wife would probably enjoy helping the new wife
to understand her opportunities better. Yes, I do overstate the
case, I suppose, but in the Keltic clandoms it was even better
than I am suggesting.
Kids were a resource and source of pride for the whole clan. In
the dynamic of raising a child this allowed for many things to
occur in a more mature environment with less emotional
blackmail. That does not lessen the aspirations parents have for
their children but it makes for a lot less vicarious pressure,
as parents have to spend all their waking hours attending to the
needs of kids; who see a way to get what they want by playing to
the unrealistic parents who have yet to learn what they need to
know. There are aspects of North American Indians tribes that
show a similar approach to child-raising. The Stadacona Indians
sent some of their children with Cartier, much as the Kelts
shared educational opportunities with trading partners. Aunts
and uncles do the disciplining of children among the Cree. The
extended family and communal living is very clannish and even
Gibbon noted there were heraldic Indian regalia that mirrored
those of British heraldry.
The Hurons and Iroquois are most like the Irish or Norse Kelts
in their social structure. Crimes committed by a member of a
family or clan (tribe) are paid for by the whole family. With
this kind of policing or morals bureaucracy would starve for
want of something to do. The compassion and behaviour
modification of a family is better than that of the police or
prisons, I think. The women of the Iroquois were the decision
makers in most cases except the daily running of a war once it
was approved. These women owned the assets or leaseholds. No one
owned land just as was true in the land use laws of the Kelts
which the English had to expunge along with all other just and
fair culture when they finally forced Ireland under their rule.
The Indians still practice Potlatch or the giving of respect and
assets despite the 1920s law against it in Canada. We can all
imagine the Tax collectors don’t like this kind of custom. It
was much more than mere taxes the government sought and the
Supreme Court has ruled the government and Catholic Church were
intent on the total destruction of Indian beliefs, in recent
rulings.
“In any event, the incest tabus recognized in any given hunting
society bear some relationship to his choice (or to his and/or
her parents’ choice) of a marital partner. Of these prohibitions
there are three basic and quite different incest tabus,
prohibiting intercourse between father and daughter, mother and
son, and brother and sister. These prohibitions are not based on
instinct or the inductive experience of the genetic consequences
that sometimes result {Like the idiots and haemophiliacs or
sexual deviates who lead us as a result of ‘noble’ heritage – to
war and other great heroic endeavours.}. Some individuals
violate them, but if so the violations do not result in marriage.
To a considerable extent these primary incest tabus are based
on two kinds of antisocial results. Parent-child intercourse
would disrupt the lines of authority between generations, lines
that hold the family together. Brother-sister intercourse during
adolescence would inhibit intermarriage between families,
reducing their interdependence. Were a married woman to have
intercourse with her brother, it would create a state of serious
conflict between her husband and his brother-in-law, two kinsmen
by marriage who, in certain cultures, might need each other’s
confidence and help.” (3)
The ‘controlling scholasticism of the Middle Ages’ referred to
by Ralston Saul was part of the continuing effort to destroy
these real family values. The marriage laws of the Kelts had to
be eliminated because these laws were equitable and fair to
women and children. Bastards were not ever possible in Keltic
society and the idea of a single mother was totally different
than it is today. Of course, the payment of mercenaries
including the rape and pillage which enabled men to gradually
lose all decent tabus or constructs based on the ancient means
of care for each other that were part of all the systems
Brotherhood developed, through common sense. The elevation of
Gods from the state of hero (mere human) to Divine Rights and
separate from Nature, is at the root of a lot of it. Heyerdahl
thinks Odin was a Keltic king in southern Russia around the time
of Christ and I find that entirely likely. When man began to say
other men were unable to comprehend nature and needed an
interpreter for the collective soul of humanity and all life,
things began the downward drift to the hegemony that often even
denies man has a soul.
The extent of character assassination by academics that do not
delve into the reasons for Caesar’s propaganda or quote others
who did not employ due diligence is as evident today as it ever
was. The people who focus on Keltic sacrifices and trophy head
customs are telling a fact but not the whole truth. What is
abortion and capital punishment if not sacrificing the life of
people, perhaps for a common good? Victorian prudishness
developed the ‘sins and demons’ fear-mongering of Jehovian greed
even further. In fact the Western Tradition has succeeded in the
destruction of all Ancient Knowledge if you were to believe what
is allowed to be disseminated through ‘official’ or educational
channels. The Temples of Saphos and Mesopotamia joined all
Mediterranean cultures in some form of forced prostitution for
women, while the Biblical ‘Devoted Ones’ were sacrificed when
the priest or his cronies were through with other obvious and
disgusting uses of them. Often the orphans and waifs caused by
the changing laws and racial unrest and prejudice fomented in
these times, led souls to a place worse than the Hell ruled by
the Catholic created Satan. The excellent book called The Golden
Bough by Sir James Frazer gives ample evidence from credible
sources about burning Red Heads and women of all classes being
forced to sell their bodies and give the money to the Temple. It
may have started with Abraham (and other Ur-Story proponents
with their harems) and his baby-factories but it was certainly
not the way of ancient Kelts even after his time. The Indians of
North America and the natives of Hawaii are ample testimony of
the diversity of Keltic egalitarian approaches.