Lectures from the Allen Room & Wertheim Study: The Future : a Female Civilization Again?

While researching the histories of love and sexuality for his novel La Gula del Picaflor (The Gluttony of the Hummingbird, 2003) Juan Lechin found interesting clues of what appears to be the existence of lengthy cycles in history which go from female civilization to male, and, currently, heading back to a female era.  The female societies of common property have been permanently overlooked, even though the very long processes of agriculture and animal domestication were some of their exceptional achievements.  On its side, male civilization starts with the creation of marriage and private property.  Wrath and anger become core values, and upon these, different types of hierarchical ruling monarchies were constructed.  A large transition happened after women, their values and Goddesses weakened, those of males consequently strengthened.  The symbolic peak of male triumph appears during monotheism where a male God creates human life without female participation.  Sensuality — one of woman’s strongest powers is suppressed, and virginity imposed.  The exhaustion of such a male cycle will appear with clarity in the 21st century due to an increased prominence of inherent female values – by re-establishing sensuality as a normality, and by undermining the values of male physical strength and anger.  If a female civilization is on the rise again, women will develop, in their image and likeness, values, religion, art, logics and technology.  Historical coincidence or need, nature will have a better chance with a gender that has an inherent sense of life and its preservation.

Juan C. Lechin, a writer in residence in the Library’s Wertheim Study, is a graduate in economics, cum laude, of Boston University, and has taught political economy and public policy at the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, Bolivia.  He has advised the National Institute of Pre-investment and later, at Gravetal-Bolivia; managed several companies, among them Sun-Plast SRL, Harlequin Productions and Dairy Industries Andina SA.  His first novel, The Celebration of Desire won the Second Prize of the Erich Guttentag competition, and The Gluttony of the Hummingbird won the National Novel Award in 2004.  The Mask of Fascism (2011) is a comparative analysis of fascist and communist leaders and their march to absolute political power.  His fiction has appeared in anthologies and magazines, and his articles have been published in various media such as El Comercio (Peru) and Clarin (Argentina) as well as Venezuela's El Nacional and Tal Cual.