Saturday, January 02, 2020 (18 days until Biden is confirmed)
It’s a short wait for Biden’s confirmation, but meanwhile on Sunday (tomorrow), the House will vote on its next speaker. Pelosi’s spot is up for grabs, she’ll likely keep it. In 2020, she did a masterful job of keeping the House together, and achieving legislation designed to help a majority of Americans. The Senate’s McConnell consistently has blocked most legislation from the House.
My sense of what’s optimal ahead is: Go, Georgia Dems!
Shifting to what seems a related editorial in today’s New York Times. Annalee Newitz reports on “What New Science Techniques Tells Us About Ancient Women Warriors”. What’s new is that long-held beliefs about so-called natural gender roles in ancient history are challenged recently by archaeological studies. Scientists increasingly are finding evidence of women as leaders, warriors and hunters for thousands of years.
The remains of a 9,000-year-old big-game hunter buried in the Andes, like others of the period, was buried with a specialized tool kit for stalking large game. It had projectile points, scrapers for tanning hides and a tool that looked like a knife. Scientists long had assumed the hunter was male. They recently applied a method used in forensics to analyze tooth enamel, finding a female version of a protein called amelogenin. That identified the hunter as a woman.
The researchers then re-examined evidence from 107 other graves in the Americas, from roughly the same period. They discovered, among 26 graves with hunter tools, that 10 were women. Experts say the findings show that women have always been able to, and have hunted. This crumbles a long-held theory, of men and women in ancient societies having strictly defined roles. Men hunting, and women gathering.
Newitz points to the misguided theory of a “new evolution” of women in leadership roles. Her editorial enlightens, and forces readers to consider accomplishments by modern women, like Pelosi, Harris, Abrams. And, to recognize the extent to which AOC, whose career just has begun, sparks in younger generations courage and activity.
America is being forced to recreate itself in essential ways, in order to maintain its large populations, sprawling cities, connective infrastructures, and methods of processing for adequate production and distribution.
Of course, the future isn’t just about women. Men are adapting to new needs, by recognizing the need to to modify old, ancient and stubborn world views. Male leaders are starting (again?) to team visibly with women.
Here’s a link to the Newitz article: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/01/opinion/women-hunter-leader.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
Dear Friends: We hope with bated breaths for “a best-leadership team” this New Year. Diana
Diana's Morning Blog 