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HUMANITY'S RELATION-
SHIP with animals is surely a
fit subject for reflection, since
it affects all of us,

You cannot live ina city without
encountering animals, whether free-
ranging or leashed or caged or in
tanks. And you cannot live in the

countryside without encountering
what Fe arley Mowat calls “The
Others": the birds and snakes and
raccoons and bears.

Mast of us. | would guess, hive
some kind of nonhuman creature liv-
ing with us. If we don’t, too bad,

“because having animals around
demonstrably keeps you alive longer,
whether because they make yeu
happy or just keep you interested,
nobody knows. But it works.

In his books Aa Unnatural Order,

Uncovering the Roots of Our
Domination of Nature and Each
Other, Americes philosopher Jim
Mason argues. convincingly, that our
relationship with animals is central to
our very being.
Avis quite simple, really, tf we
c treat animals poorly, we tend to treat
people poorly.
’ ». He makes a fascinating — and
_ horrifying — case that with the
domestication of animais, male
‘herders gained the upper hand in
What fiad previously been forager
societies, and, perhigs because they

—* now anderstood ar) could control

/ aniinal breeding, ceased to believe

 that' women Were possessed of spe-
cial powers, and begun to treat them
“like animals.”

: At the same time, agriculture was
demystitying that awesome natural
world which women personified
through giving birth. A rather

’ intriguing thought Mason tosses in is ,

that it might have been very late in

* the game, after a few million years, |

that anybody made the connection
between coitus and procreation.

It was probably noticed in ani-
mals first, and, certainly, once ani-
mat husbandry began, all the sexual
Bae ea would have been made.

Where this initially happened was ---

‘, the Middle East, cradle of Western
civilization and i its key Patriarchal’
“religions...

' It occurred i in the agricultural -
period because farmers could use the
labor of children to increase produc-
tion and accumulate surpluses.
Gradually, men came to have fights
over women that women did not

‘have over men.,

“Women themselves became a
resource, acquired by men much as
the land was acquired by men.
Women were exchanged or bought
in marriages for the benefit { their
families; Jater, they were conquered
or bought. in slavery, where their sex-

ual services were part of their labor
and where their children were the.
property of their masters.

“According to (Gerda) Lerner,
this process took about 2,500 years.
from approximately 3000 to 500 BC.
Lerner shows us that the first steps
toward male rule were taken about
the ime writing (and history) began,
and that it was consolidated by the
time male-only ‘democracy’ began
in Athens, Greece,”

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STRICTLY PERSO\:A if

Mason quotes numerous feminist
writers, such as Kate Millett, who
have theorized that patriarchal reli-
gions got their start by discrediting
and demoting goddesses in favor of
male supremist postulants, “attribut-
ing the power of life to the phallus
alone.”

What he wonders about is why
these same writers avoid speculation
of the connection between humani-
ty's changing attitude toward ani-
mals and nature and the rise of patri-
archy. At Jeast one feminist thinker.
Peggy Reeves Sanday, author of
Female Power and Male
Dominance, was right on the money,
however, when she wrote that female
principles are more important in
plant-based societies and male prin-
ciples ure more important in animal-
based ones.

In cultures marked by macho val-

- ues of toughness and male suprema-

cy, these values are strangest in soci-
eties where large animals are the
main prey. !

“The sexes ure most likely to be

equal,” Sanday wrote. “In gathering,

fishing and shifting cultivation —
economies (with) the sexes tending
to be. unequal i in animal husbandry
societies.” > _
Mason pos s the question: :

_*When it is arguéd, then, that animal |
-exploitation has benefited himanity,

we need to ask: In what sense? We

can say that it has benefitted us mate-
rially, economically, but we must
also take into account that it has
damaged us psychically, spiritually,
emotionally and socially.”

He notes that it isn't only the
oyth of Adam and Eve that casts the
female character in the role of the
bad influence who leads to “Man's”
expulsion (rom parad

Inthe Greek fable of Pandora’s
Box, which, when opened, released
evil into the world, we actually have
a tale designed to diseredit Pandora,
one of the early fertility goddesses.

The timing of the emergence of
expansionisic. individualistic, mili-
laristic, arrogant, male-dominated,
patriarchal cultures which were the

‘basis of the Judeo-Christian Islamic

worldview and the tearing down of
the egalitarian, goddess-worshipping
societies is too critical to be ignored.

- And at its core, Mason insists, the
birth of monotheistic patriarchies
was bused squarely on domination of
animals,

I really recommend this book, the
substance of which J only have space
to touch on here. Best of all, even
though Mason has to wade through
the gore and horror of our twisted
history to get to it, he finally reaches
a point where some light begins to
shine: namely, now. :

“Ido not bash all of men, male-
ness and manhood,” he writes. “Tam
suggesting that we focus on those
few values and ideals of the old
patriarchal culture that have made
men grow up tough, mean and dis-
tant.

“These are hardly needed today.
We don't need to be tuming out
hunters, warriors and herders in this
day and age. These strands of male

culture are irrelevant and destructive,

and a progressive men’s movement.
would pluck them like weeds.”

But the reshaping of men’s con-
sciousness won't come so long as we
ignore the true bestiality in our treat-
ment of the beasts. Nor will men and
women be able to find some rap-
prochement in their relationships
unless we all learn to re-examine the

profound alienation we have allowed. .

to develop between us and The
Others.

North Shore Credit Union is pleased to introduce
’ the followirig members of the credit union who
formed the new Board of Directors April 26, 1994
at the 53rd’ Annual General Meeting.

Jack Bright returns as Chair along with directors
Gerald Brewer, Roger Lundie, Dennis Humphries,
Fyfe Brown, Henry Bow, Brian Comey and
Doug Deeks. New to the Board is Neil McAskill.

North Shore Credit Union has been a key
partner in the growth and development of the com-
munity since 1941, It presently serves over 40,000
members through nine branches and four NORCU

Insurance offices.

Recently, MemberCARE Financial Services
was introduced which provides a no-fee financial
planning service co credit union members and

non-members alike.

Jack Bright, Chair.of the Board, is also
pleased to announce reaching che significane mile-
stone of a half billion dollars in assets during the

second quarter of (994,

Front top left: hack Bright - Chair, Gerald Brewer -Vice Chair

Roger Lindie ~ Executive Commitee, Dennis Humphries, Fyfe Brown, Henry Row,

Dong Deeks - Executive Commtitee, Brian Comey, Neil MeAskill

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1,000's to
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North: Shore;
SuperStore ; i?

4 T We ich St
Ree Stee ott

TO THE RESIDENTS OF THE
CITY AND DISTRICT OF NORTH VANCOUVER
AND THE DISTRICT OF
WEST VANCOUVER

1994
SPRINKLING REGULATIONS

In support of the Greater Vancouver = {
Water District's Water Shortage
Response Plan, the following .
sprinkling regulations are in effect as .
of May 28th, 1994 until September 30,
1994.

EVEN numbered addresses may

use. sprinklers:
Saturday and Wednesday
between :00am and 9:00am
and between 7:00pm and 10:00pm

ODD numbered addresses may use
Sprinklers: .
Sunday and Thursday 7
between 4:00am and 9:00am
and between 7:00pm and 10:00pm: «—

Special permits for new. landscaping
are available at your Municipal. Hall to
allow sprinkling outside the restricted
times.

“GM.Gale, Biv:3.
"* Gity of
North Vancouver -

. Ew. Bremner,P Eng.
’.. District of
North Vancouver

“Barry Lambert, P Eng

[NORTH SHORE
Es CREDIT USION

Pitas: in oie Communit