The two identifying cultures of Europe. Towards a renewal of the education system

TitleThe two identifying cultures of Europe. Towards a renewal of the education system
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2012
AuthorsTugnoli C
JournalInterdisciplinary Journal of Family Studies
Volume17
Issue2
Pagination25-34
Date Published12/2012
PublisherPadova University Press
Place PublishedPadova, IT
ISSN Number2282-2011
Keywordseducation, partnership and androcratic model, sacrifice, scapegoat
Abstract

Summary. The partnership model and the hierarchical and authoritarian model are the two basic alternatives for human relations. They correspond to the culture of Old Europe and to the Indo-European one, respectively. The archaeological findings expertly interpreted by Marija Gimbutas, illustrating the lack, in the Paleolithic and Neolithic society, of the victim/sacrificial system, allows us to review the Girardian theory of the scapegoat. In androcratic culture, the killing of a regular victim is the physiological way to expulse violence. In the victim/sacrificial system, which one can define hetero-sacrificial, the relationship to the other is indeed an appeal to its causal responsibility for the recurring crises. Conversely, in the culture of the Goddess, sacrifice is intended as self-sacrifice. The crisis which humanity is going through, shows the unsustainability of the androcratic model. The change required to achieve this target should happen in the field of education, the only field that can «make it possible for today's and tomorrow's children to see that we can create a more equitable, peaceful, and sustainable future − once we acquire the knowledge and skills to do so» (Eisler, 2000, p.130).

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