Social contracts have existed since the beginning of social
living. They are the agreements, stated or implied, between any one
person and the group or village or tribe. In the United State the social
contract is failing-and it will take all of us to fix it.
Here's a current example: there is a contract between a town and the parents who live in that town regarding the provision of schools to educate the children in the ways of the society so that all children may be literate and able to succeed. The parents pay a school tax. The town builds schools and hires teachers. Yet the public school system today is failing to prepare our children for life. Only children from families who can supply the missing guidance are likely to get ahead.
In a hunting society there is an expectation that a hunter hurt by a wild boar or such will be carried home and every effort made to heal his wounds. Each hunter realizes that could have been me.
Social groups have many agreements, often so ingrained that they are hardly noticed except in the breach. If a woman refused to prepare hides and make clothes for her family, others would press her to change her mind-the family would not survive without adequate clothing. Because this was obvious; such a refusal must have been rare indeed. The survival of the tribe required that everyone do their part. And if there were idle times telling stories around the winter fires or play at the summer swimming place, all shared these, too.
Clearly, in any society where there are great disparities of wealth, with some on the fringes barely getting by while others live in luxury, some part of the social contract has lapsed-or, likely, been deliberately broken. Some people use others without respect for their humanity. Slavery and prostitution are examples. Nowhere is the story of social breakdown more poignant to me than in the plight of women who were not allowed the means or skills to care for themselves. Even in recent history, a woman was barred from owning property. If her husband beat her, and even if he hurt the children, she had no way to escape, no place to turn.
In her historical novel Daughter of the Red Deer, Joan Wolf has given us a look at two tribes with different social contracts. In one, women are allowed to hunt. In the other, they are not.
A woman from the Red Deer tribe speaks with a man of the Horse tribe about a group of women who have been ostracized for leaving their husbands or being unfaithful. Both speakers agree the behavior of the women was not the best, but when the man of the Horse says they betrayed their tribe and "brought it on themselves," the woman points out that these are women who have not learned to hunt and care for themselves. She argues that as part of their social contract the women agreed to gather food and care for the children while the men did the hunting. "These women did not betray their tribes, their tribes betrayed them."
Because the woman is from a tribe where women are allowed to hunt, she understands how crippling it would be to be forbidden to hunt and how such women would be at the mercy of men. She argues that instead of being sent away, the women could be cleansed and the social contract honored. In so arguing, she places the contract with the tribe above the marriage contract. A marriage may dissolve, she suggests, but all the more should the tribe keep its promises.
We live in a time when many such promises have long been reneged upon. When we argue about the effects of divorce on children, we are forgetting the effects of the many other breakups-wars dividing us, tribes splitting apart to follow different leaders, extended families fighting and parting ways. As a result, people have become more and more alienated from any group that could help and guide them. Today we split mothers from their infants. New mothers must go to work for wages, putting infants in daycare, and creating in these infants, more disorder, more bad results.
Anytime someone is thrown away, trust is shattered and self-trust sacrificed. This gives us a window into the condition we are in today, with many people lacking the confidence to help heal our world. Let us gather our confidence from wherever is has flown, honor one another, and exact from our leaders and from one another a repair and fulfillment of our social contract.
Article by Patricia Lapidus, author of the memoir SWEET POTATO
SUPPERS: A Yankee Woman Finds Salvation in a Hippie Village. Patricia is
a writer, editor, teacher, and an encourager of writers. Books include
SWAMP WALKING WOMAN, a mythic fairy tale about women's strength, and
GIDEON'S RIVER, a novel dedicated to all who live with a temper, their
own or someone else's. Note: SWEET POTATO SUPPERS is due out soon in a
second edition. This memoir is for those interested in communities, in
spiritual hippies, and in the personal journey of discovery.Here's a current example: there is a contract between a town and the parents who live in that town regarding the provision of schools to educate the children in the ways of the society so that all children may be literate and able to succeed. The parents pay a school tax. The town builds schools and hires teachers. Yet the public school system today is failing to prepare our children for life. Only children from families who can supply the missing guidance are likely to get ahead.
In a hunting society there is an expectation that a hunter hurt by a wild boar or such will be carried home and every effort made to heal his wounds. Each hunter realizes that could have been me.
Social groups have many agreements, often so ingrained that they are hardly noticed except in the breach. If a woman refused to prepare hides and make clothes for her family, others would press her to change her mind-the family would not survive without adequate clothing. Because this was obvious; such a refusal must have been rare indeed. The survival of the tribe required that everyone do their part. And if there were idle times telling stories around the winter fires or play at the summer swimming place, all shared these, too.
Clearly, in any society where there are great disparities of wealth, with some on the fringes barely getting by while others live in luxury, some part of the social contract has lapsed-or, likely, been deliberately broken. Some people use others without respect for their humanity. Slavery and prostitution are examples. Nowhere is the story of social breakdown more poignant to me than in the plight of women who were not allowed the means or skills to care for themselves. Even in recent history, a woman was barred from owning property. If her husband beat her, and even if he hurt the children, she had no way to escape, no place to turn.
In her historical novel Daughter of the Red Deer, Joan Wolf has given us a look at two tribes with different social contracts. In one, women are allowed to hunt. In the other, they are not.
A woman from the Red Deer tribe speaks with a man of the Horse tribe about a group of women who have been ostracized for leaving their husbands or being unfaithful. Both speakers agree the behavior of the women was not the best, but when the man of the Horse says they betrayed their tribe and "brought it on themselves," the woman points out that these are women who have not learned to hunt and care for themselves. She argues that as part of their social contract the women agreed to gather food and care for the children while the men did the hunting. "These women did not betray their tribes, their tribes betrayed them."
Because the woman is from a tribe where women are allowed to hunt, she understands how crippling it would be to be forbidden to hunt and how such women would be at the mercy of men. She argues that instead of being sent away, the women could be cleansed and the social contract honored. In so arguing, she places the contract with the tribe above the marriage contract. A marriage may dissolve, she suggests, but all the more should the tribe keep its promises.
We live in a time when many such promises have long been reneged upon. When we argue about the effects of divorce on children, we are forgetting the effects of the many other breakups-wars dividing us, tribes splitting apart to follow different leaders, extended families fighting and parting ways. As a result, people have become more and more alienated from any group that could help and guide them. Today we split mothers from their infants. New mothers must go to work for wages, putting infants in daycare, and creating in these infants, more disorder, more bad results.
Anytime someone is thrown away, trust is shattered and self-trust sacrificed. This gives us a window into the condition we are in today, with many people lacking the confidence to help heal our world. Let us gather our confidence from wherever is has flown, honor one another, and exact from our leaders and from one another a repair and fulfillment of our social contract.
Note that this author has posted many short video clips on You Tube and on her website to discuss issues from how to create a satisfying community to how not to wimp out in front of a bossy toddler. Among the personal journey clips are several about the stages of growth in ancient fairy tales, stages still useful today.
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