Riane Eisler - Nurturing Our Humanity

Riane Eisler – Nurturing Our Humanity: How Domination and
Partnership Shape Our Brains, Lives & Future

Aired Thursday, September 19, 2019 at 4:00 PM PST / 7:00 PM
EST

Everywhere we turn these days, from the news to books and movies,
we are bombarded with the same hackneyed message: human nature is
inherently bad… just look at all the senseless violence, greed,
murder, rape, & war. We humans it seems are genetically wired,
for selfish, cruel behavior. Or are we? Are violence, greed,
domination and control really a fundamental and ineradicable part
of “human nature?”

“Absolutely not,” says cultural historian, social systems
scientist, and author Riane Eisler, whose international best
seller, The Chalice and the Blade, has been hailed as the most
important book since Origin of Species.

In her latest book, Nurturing Our Humanity: How Domination and
Partnership Shape Our Brains, Lives and Future, Riane Eisler
explains that” Neuroscience shows that the human brain is flexible.
Through the interaction between genes and our lived experience,
behavior patterns become woven into our individual and social
fabric over time. To move toward the pro-social, cooperative,
nurturing behavior that brain scans show we are inclined toward
requires a shift from a system of “domination” to one of
“partnership.”

Riane Eisler joins Sandie this week to upend age-old assumptions
about human nature. Topics include:

• How research demonstrates that the tragic shootings of recent
months and years may well stem from the impact of growing up in a
“domination” culture or family that is held together by fear and
force.

• Witnessing or experience violence causes significant stress and
leaves a powerful psychic imprint on children, which in turn can
lead to violent behaviour

• Neuroscience shows that caring behaviour is actually humanity’s
default tendency

• The blueprint for ending domination and violence at home and in
society at large, and weaving non-violent behaviour patterns into
our individual and social fabric over time.

• And more…

RIANE EISLER is a social systems scientist, cultural historian, and
attorney whose research, writing, and speaking has transformed the
lives of people worldwide. She is President of the Center for
Partnership Studies (CPS) and Editor-in-Chief of the
Interdisciplinary Journal of Partnership Studies.

A refugee from Nazi Europe as a child, she has addressed the UN
General Assembly, the US Department of State and Congressional
Briefings, and authored over 500 articles published in outlets
including The Christian Science Monitor, Human Rights Quarterly,
and International Journal of Women’s Studies. Her book The Chalice
and The Blade: Our History, Our Future is an international
bestseller.

Connect her at: www.rianeeisler.com and
www.centerforpartnership.org