Jineolojî – the science of women and life
The word Jineolojî is comprised of the Kurdish word for woman (jin), which has the same origin as the Kurdish word for life (jiyan) and the Greek word logos – knowledge or science. Jineolojî, which was proposed by Abdullah Öcalan in 2008, aims to establish a new science that is capable of finding answers to today’s problems and liberating all areas of life and society as a whole. We are not looking for these solutions and answers in a vacuum, but are going far back in history to understand at what point women and society lost their freedom. Feminism, women’s struggles and women’s movements worldwide as well as the Kurdish women’s movement with its leader Abdullah Öcalan are our basis. We understand the societies and struggles in which women have played an important role as a thread that continues to this day. One of the most important questions that has been asked again and again in all these struggles and which we also focus on is: “How to live?”
“The Spinner”
As the Jineolojî works developed, various academies and groups have been formed in Kurdistan, the Middle East and Europe that work within the framework of Jineolojî. In this process the need of a common symbol that expresses the core of the Jineolojî arose. With the keywords spindle, loom, weaving, ancient knowledge and women’s art, we went on a search. One woman finally came up with the idea of making the old relief “the spinner” our logo. The relief dates from the year 800 – 600 BC. It was found in Susa, today’s Iran, and shows a woman holding a spindle in her hand. It is the oldest depiction to date of a person spinning. So we decided to use this relief and the writing Jineolojî in the form of a braided plait as our sign. In these signs and our search for something that expresses our core, our connection to weaving and spinning is already visible.
Weaving and spinning is a very old tradition and dates back to the Neolithic period and the society of that time, which we describe as “natural society”. At that time, as we can see from the places where people lived, the mythologies of the time and the objects found, especially female figures, the contradictions that exist in today’s society did not exist. We assume it as a society in which the life-giving woman was at the center of society, as the people primarily organized themselves around the principle of life. We can see that people organized themselves collectively in small groups as well as in large communities and that life itself was considered as sacred. Nature was seen as something alive and although there was of course conflict, as at any time, war and mass murder were unknown in large numbers.
Weaving already played a major role at this time. The first signs of weaving date back to more than 20,000 years ago. In ancient women’s graves, women were buried with the tools they used in their daily lives. We as Jineolojî Academy came across an interesting example of this during the research we conducted in Efrîn, a region in West Kurdistan that is now under Turkish occupation. Regarding the name of Efrîn’s Cindirêse sub-district, a mother told us that the name did not come from Jandarius, the name of a Hellenic commander, but from the word jin dirêse (or cin dirêse as j and c are alternate voices in kurdish dialects), meaning ‘women are spinning’. There were people who told us that in the past women in that region were buried with their spindle.
Furthermore, Marija Gimbutas, who has carried out countless researches in the field of archaeology, especially with regard to the role of women, describes numerous looming weights found from 5,000 – 4,000 BC in connection with the bird goddess, one of the many goddesses in pre-Christian Europe. The bird goddess was a life or nourishment giver and her sign is found on looming weights. Marija Gimbutas also refers to the temple of Radingrad in northeast Bulgaria. In the upper level was an altar with a loom beside it for weaving ceremonial clothing. Marija Gimbutas sees this as an indicator that the process of weaving itself must have had a sacred meaning.
Mythological figures and goddesses
There are numerous different goddesses and mythologies in the various societies in which weaving and spinning are explicitly the craft of women.
One example is the Mayan goddess Ixchel, who dates back to 1,500 BC. She is the goddess of the moon, love, crafts and medicine. One depiction of her shows her as a woman weaving, with the thread, that is also depicted as the thread of life. As she controls everything that depends on the lunar cycle (water, fertility, harvests, pregnancy) she has the power to both give and take life.
Another example is the goddess Mokosh. She is a Slavic goddess and as a mother goddess, she was regarded as a symbol of fertility, femininity and also of spinning and weaving. She symbolizes the moist mother earth, as her name is derived from “mok” (moist). In the course of Christianization, areas that were previously under the protection of Mokosh were transferred to the saint Paraskeva, thus the goddess Mokosh was devalued. Until the 19th century, the idea remained that Mokosh was a female demon who announced her presence by the sound of the spindle. The demon was said to come into houses at night and spin with the waste produced when cleaning fibers in preparation for spinning or weaving, also spinning people in the process.
In Lithuania we find the Lauma, which are also known in Latvian and Yotvingian mythology. The Lauma are mythological figures from pre-Christian times who sometimes appear in the form of a bird. They help good people and punish lazy and evil ones. They are associated with spinning and weaving. The rainbow, for example, was described as the lost ribbon of the Lauma.
So at the time of weaving’s emergence, it was an important and sometimes sacred art and likewise women, and correspondingly life, were sacred. This sacredness of life was gradually pushed back in history for the rule of patriarchy and capital. We see that these problems began with the colonization of women several thousand years ago. When we speak of the colonization of women, we are not (only) speaking of individuals being enslaved, but of a certain way of life being oppressed and emptied out of its sacredness by, for example, putting the life-giving capacity of women at the service of the state and patriarchy. The colonization and enslavement of women has gradually spread to the whole of society and today a large part of humanity is enslaved or colonized. The sacredness that can be recognized in the goddesses and nature seems to have lost all its value today. The formerly sacred Mokosh, mother goddess, becomes a demon who spins people.
Another example for this change is the use of the word “spinning” in the German and English language. In German the sentence “she is spinning” is synonymous with “she is crazy”. In the english language saying “old spinster” is used negatively for a single old woman. This change of meaning also developed through the so-called ” spinning houses” that emerged in some parts of Europe in the 16th and 17th century. Women who were poor, begging or accused of being prostitutes were kept in these punishment houses. To discipline the women, they had to spin day in, day out. As the development of spinning houses also took place at the time of the so-called witch hunts, we can assume that these places were also used to get rid of unpleasant women. Furthermore the first spinning house was established in Amsterdam – one of the centers of the upcoming capitalism and as we know in order to establish capitalism the life-connecting women needs to be disciplined to make capitalism work. We can see the process of devaluation of female activities and women, especially old women who used to be considered as wise. There are countless examples of this and in these processes we can see the complete oppression of women and their way of life.
How and for what are we weaving today?
Our goal as Jineolojî is to restore sacredness to life and to understand how we can build a life in which the life-giving and not the life-destroying takes the central place again. But how to do that? In order to find out how and what we want to weave a look into mythology can again show us a path.
In Greek mythology, we find the story of the two sisters Philomela and Prokne. Prokne is married to Tereus for Tereus also desires his sister-in-law Philomela. One day he abducts Philomela, rapes her and finally locks her up. To prevent her from betraying him, he cuts out her tongue. Philomela was a weaver and she asked for a loom to weave a gift for her sister Prokne. She wove her story into the fabric and had it sent to her sister (in some stories it is a robe, in others a tapestry). Prokne understood the message, saved her sister and together they took revenge on Tereus. When he chases them, the gods turn the two sisters into birds to stop the killing. Here again we find a connection to the bird goddess.
To understand what we are weaving, creation myths can show us how the world can be interpreted and lived outside of patriarchy and capitalism. In the creating myth of the Hopi, a tribe from North America (turtle island), which is still matrilineally structured today, the spider woman is a central figure. She has the power to weave the different worlds together through her web and bring them to life. In some versions of the legend, she is explicitly linked to the birth of humans. The spider woman taught people to live in harmony with nature. The spider’s web symbolizes the metaphor for the balance that exists between the different elements of the world and the importance of this balance. She is also depicted as a weaver and is responsible for teaching the Hopi important skills such as weaving and agriculture.
By weaving, Philomena was able to break her imposed silence and to connect with her sister. The spider women is connecting different lives and protecting the balance. So when we talk about weaving, that’s what we as Jineolojî Academy are about – breaking the silence and oppression of women, connecting to each other and and finding our own strength. For all of this we need research but as we know the research done in the capitalist and patriarchal system is not in favor of women or oppressed people. Therefore we are building up our own research centers and groups. The topic of research can differ according to the needs of the women in different geographies. Our research is never just for the aim of accumulating knowledge. It is research in order to find deep solutions for the problems or contradictions we are facing like the impact of technology on our societies, the wrong understanding of aesthetic that is limiting women freedom or the impact of religions – just to name a few topics we researched in the last years. With seminars, camps and education we are in a constant exchange in giving back the knowledge we research but also seeing every women and her experiences, opinions and knowledge as enriching our search for truth, adding her own thread to the tapestry. By freeing our minds and thoughts, dreams and visions from the impact of patriarchy and capitalism we are able to build true alternatives.
In this sense, we also hope to bring the ancient art of weaving back to life by drawing on the wisdom and knowledge of women around the world, linking them together and using this knowledge to change society as a whole.
