Matricultural Eyes

Finding the women!

Seeing with the eyes of women. What the world looks like from the standpoint of motherlines, human networks centered on the lifegivers, the ones who hold it all up, now mostly unseen, sidelined, structurally ignored, or worse, silenced. An important part of this is mapping out worlds of Indigenous Knowledge, drawing on orature and other ways of knowing, the emerging cultural recoveries and resurgences, and what they have to teach us. The legacies of Ancestors, the relations between peoples, to the Land, and among living beings. The web of life, and the cultural webs that either sustain and inspire us, or that capture us.

And that takes us to the study of systemic domination: patriarchy, conquest, slavery, class systems, colonization, and parasitical resource extraction. So we are looking for the nectar, but do not avert our gaze from the bitter truths we need to know in order to restore justice and balance.

But the inspiration, the medicine, is in recovering knowledge of matricultural treasures: the ancient figurines and painted ceramics; the weavings and basket patterns; the Round Dances, ceremony, and regalia; symbols and the cosmology, the natural philosophy behind them. Not least the awareness of animacy, as Robin Wall Kimmerer has reconceptualized the rigid objectifying term "animism" in old anthropological theory.)

All this wraps into the medicine women, seeresses, elders and wisewomen that we will also look into, starting with the Wu of China and the Makewana of Malawi. We'll delve into women in the extremely ancient (as in 12,000-2000 bce) rock art, a crucial and rarely discussed area of world history

This course is based on my ongoing research, so part of it is what comes over the transom: new archaeological finds, historical discoveries, revelations of from new genome studies and how those illuminate and interact with another repository of Deep History, historical linguistics.

But the heart of what you'll receive here are the treasures from the cultural record, with an international view: images of sculptures, paintings, petroglyphs, weavings; photos of medicine women, female movers and shakers, and those who rebel against oppression; historic and literary texts, but also oral traditions that come more directly from the common folk, especially those centering on women.

Find out where the women are, and what's been left out: cultural riches and a much more expansive vision of history and culture.


Course Curriculum


  New Finds / Things on my radar
Available in days
days after you enroll
  Goddesses / Spirits / Ancestors
Available in days
days after you enroll
  Spiritual Leaders and Wisewomen
Available in days
days after you enroll
  Outstanding Women
Available in days
days after you enroll
  Patriarchies
Available in days
days after you enroll
  Longhouse Peoples
Available in days
days after you enroll
  Your Posts / Discussion
Available in days
days after you enroll

Your Instructor


Max Dashu
Max Dashu

Max Dashu founded the Suppressed Histories Archives in 1970 to research and document global women's history, reflecting the full spectrum of the world's peoples. She uses images to teach, scanning the cultural record: archaeology, history, art, orature, linguistics and spiritual philosophies. From her collection of some 50,000 images, she has created 130 visual talks on female cultural heritages, foregrouding Indigenous traditions, with attention to patterns of conquest and domination. She is internationally known for her expertise on ancient female iconography, matricultures and patriarchal systems, medicine women and shamans, witch hunts, and female spheres of power.

Dashu's legendary visual talks bring to light female realities usually hidden from view, from ancient female figurines to women leaders, priestesses, clan mothers, philosophers, warriors and rebels. Her courses scan the cultural record—archaeology, history, art, orature, linguistics, and spiritual philosophies—making this knowledge more accessible to all education backgrounds.

Dashu has been presenting her visual talks for more than four decades, at universities, conferences, museums, community centers, bookstores, galleries, libraries and schools, in North America, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Britain, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Austria, Australia, Mexico and Guatemala.

Max Dashu's book Witches and Pagans: Women in European Folk Religion, 700-1000 (Veleda Press, 2016) has been acclaimed as a sourcebook on European ancestral traditions. Her forthcoming book on women in Hellenic myth and history is Vol II in her 16-volume series Secret History of the Witches.

Dashu has published in various journals and anthologies, including Goddesses in World Mythology (Praeger 2010) and the Encyclopedia of Women in World Religion (ABC-Clio 2018). She created two videos: Women's Power in Global Perspective (2008) and Woman Shaman: The Ancients (2013). Her daily posts on the Suppressed Histories Facebook page are followed by 181,000 people, and 72,000 more have viewed her articles on Academia.edu.


Frequently Asked Questions


When does the course start and finish?
This 2022 course is archived for you to read the photo essays, and access links to more resources. No webcasts, however: not enough storage for them!
How long do I have access to the course?
For as long as the Suppressed Histories Portal remains on Teachable, you have unlimited access to this course for as long as you like - across any and all devices you own.
What if I am unhappy with the course?
If you are unsatisfied with your purchase, contact us in the first 30 days and we will give you a full refund.

Get started now!