Documentary Review: The Gods of our Fathers

Documentary Review: The Gods of our Fathers (1994)
Directed by Anne Henderson
Script by Gwynne Dyer
Hosted by Gwynne Dyer
Run time: 50 min


“Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Welcome to civilization.” Gwynne Dyer sets the scene of the documentary The Gods of our Fathers by building upon John Dalberg-Acton’s famous quote.  Dyer follows the historic and pre-historic social organization from hunter/gatherer society to the autonomous villages to the mass state.  Dyer argues that male-domination is not natural, nor is in inevitable.  The God of our Fathers explores the evolution of patriarchy as a function of the mass state.  The modern world is changing rapidly, and Dyer suggests that it is time to find an alternative to militarization and hierarchical societies.
The God of our Fathers examines historical society in a chronological manner, starting with the hunter/gatherers.  There were very few people (approximately 10 million) populating the earth during the time of the hunter/gatherers.  People formed into small groups, and the groups behaved very differently from each other depending on circumstances.  Some cave paintings suggest that there were war-like groups that were dominated by the male hunter/warriors.  Conversely, there were groups in which the men and women were somewhat equal.
Animal husbandry and plant cultivation changed the way humans organized themselves, and the hunter/gatherers eventually congregated to become the autonomous villages.  There were no cities, no kings, no soldier, only villagers living their own quite lives.  The autonomous villages likely came to exist because of the advent of agriculture.  Agriculture is an invention that is attributed to women; this is likely because women were historically the gatherers and therefor had more knowledge of plants.  Agriculture allowed human beings to stay in one place, which presented many new opportunities for growth, such as an increased population and better nutrition.  The new organization required different ways of communication and communal forms of government.  Everybody in a village would come together and talk things over, involving all the people in the village equally.
As seemingly equal as the autonomous villages were, women had the upper hand.  The values of men steeply declined when hunting lost importance.  Everything that was involved in economics of the villages was largely dictated by women.  If the men cultivated the wheat, women would have to pick over it to be sure it was done properly.  The women also were the ones who processed the wheat into bread, which was the life source for all of the villagers.
Since it was difficult to track down who the father of a child was, but it was always known who the mother was, women possessed a huge reproductive advantage over men.  Women owned property and would pass it down to their offspring for them to prosper from after she died.  Archeologists found around 100 female fertility figures for every 1 male figure.  Fertility was the key to whether villages lived or died, and this was a very female-oriented part of the autonomous villages.
Men were never oppressed, as such, in the autonomous villages, but it is easy to see how the men may have felt marginalized in the early female-centric cultures.  Men were simply not that important in the autonomous villages, and Dyer suggests that people who feel unimportant will tend to feel resentful.  This is why the time of the autonomous villages would not last.
Around 5,000 years ago, human beings stopped merely existing in the world and started subjugating it.  The early mass states were ruled by one man who achieved his power through terror.  Terror is a primitive precursor to things that we define as masculine hegemony.  About one quarter of Mesopotamian laws were designed around the control women and their children.  Women were segregated in the house away from house guests and the rest of society, so that they would not come into contact with men other than their husband.
       From the conquering style of the Egyptians, Mayans, Incans, and many more to modern male domination, the mass state is defined by hierarchy and militarism.  Where women held power in fertility in the autonomous villages, men dominated power over women’s reproductive rights in the mass state.  A mass state is a militarized state. A militarized state needs soldiers, and lots of them.  Women know that children are a lot of work and if they were not repressed then the large family size that was historically characteristic of the mass state would not exist.
       The change of our societies over time from the hunter/gatherers to autonomous villages to the mass sate indicates how flexible human beings are, and that societal organization is not static.  Patriarchy seems to be in retreat, mostly on the micro level in the home.  Patriarchy was necessary in early societies to control the population.  With new technologies, democracy is possible and our society has the potential to value men and women equally.  Gwynne  Dyer said near the beginning of the documentary, “Change the way we live, and you may also change the way we behave towards each other.”
There were many concepts represented in The Gods of our Fathers that we have discussed in class.  The concepts that I am going to focus on are: hegemony, hegemonic masculinity, essentialism, and normalizing power.
       Militarization and patriarchy were not good for most men.  The majority of men would have become foot soldiers and likely died.  Men also loved their mothers and wives and would not want to do anything that would harm them.  The patriarchal ruler would have to exert hegemonic practices on his subjects to coerce them into participating.  Hegemony is a concept that was developed by Antonio Gramsci that suggests leadership takes into account the interests and tendencies of the group over which hegemony is being exercised.  This process involves coercion by means of police and military, as well as consent which is established by producing common knowledge.
       The social construct of hegemonic masculinity would help the ruler coerce the men and gain their consent.  Men are taught that the socially constructed ideal of male behaviour is to be violent, aggressive, and assertive.  These are all characteristics that are required of men by the mass state.  Once the idea had been entrenched in the majority of the men, it would not have been difficult to define military service as über-masculine and therefor a manifestation of hegemonic masculinity.
       Gwynne Dyer suggests that people consider patriarchy to be “natural”.  This exemplifies the idea of essentialism, which is a position that assumes that human behaviours are rooted in some inherent essence.  A large part of the discourse surrounding patriarchy has been that it is how nature intended or that it is natural in some way, and therefor will always be that way.  Gwynne Dyer has clearly demonstrated throughout the documentary that patriarchy simply is not essential, but that it was socially constructed to serve a purpose.
       The final concept that will be covered in this review is normalizing power.  Normalizing power involves making distinctions based on expectations about attitudes, beliefs and values.  It is a force in society that creates a hierarchy which differentiates, compares, and excludes individuals and groups of people.  Normalizing power changes over time as the norms and values of society change.  The current force that is operating in Western society is a patriarchal, highly militarized one.
       The Gods of our Fathers is a documentary that I have encountered many times throughout my education.  I think it is enlightening, compelling, and interesting.  Following the historic paths of our ancestors is important in understanding the evolution of our society and the values that we hold.  In years to come, Dyer says, we may have to explain patriarchy to our children, the way we learned about slavery when we were children.

Youtube links:
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jGTrnYzDCsU
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2kwmSHjxm0&feature=relmfu
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OjZq1v8Vz8&feature=relmfu
Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OjZq1v8Vz8&feature=relmfu