The Most Advanced Interpretation of the Meaning of Science: Jineolojî

Jineolojî is based on a method that allows women to establish a healthier and stronger connection with their own roots. For this reason, it has become a science rapidly adopted, especially among sectors that have suffered a break with their own roots and seek their own meaning.

The term Jineolojî is formed by the Kurdish term jin and the suffix from ancient Greek or Latin -logia. Jin means woman and has the same etymological origin as the Kurdish words jîn and jiyan (life). The suffix -logia can be translated as doctrine, reason or science. Therefore, etymologically Jineolojî means: Science of Woman and Life.

In the third volume of the “Manifesto of Democratic Civilization,” written from İmralı prison, Abdullah Öcalan speaks for the first time about developing Jineolojî. Within his critique of the patriarchal, positivist and Eurocentric approaches that dominate the understanding of social sciences, Öcalan establishes the need for a revolution in the social sciences, and states that the main task of social sciences should be to contribute to the development or revitalization of a democratic, ecological and woman-centered society. This requires exhaustive research on women’s history and a scientific methodology that can investigate the creativity and importance of women in social history, as well as the causes and consequences of their colonization, and that can establish perspectives on women’s freedom.

Jineolojî, developed under the leadership of Kurdish women over the last 12 years, reaches more women each day. Often defined erroneously as “Kurdish feminism,” Jineolojî defines itself as the science of woman and life.

Debates about developing Jineolojî as an alternative science for women and society began in 2011, in Kurdistan. Findings about pre-state communal societies in Mesopotamia and mother goddess cultures, theoretical and practical knowledge arising from the women’s liberation struggle in Kurdistan, and experiences from women’s liberation struggles at a global level, including feminism, constitute the main reference points of Jineolojî. It is based especially on the principle that life itself must be understood as a source of knowledge.

In different regions of Kurdistan, in the Middle East, Europe, Latin America and other parts of the world, more and more women have begun to participate in debates and development work on Jineolojî. These works have also been active in efforts to implement democratic confederalism and democratic autonomy in Kurdistan. Especially the Rojava revolution and the establishment of democratic autonomous administration in Northern and Eastern Syria have fostered debates about method, content and practical application. These discussions have been taking concrete form since 2015. Thus, the need for an alternative science has emerged more clearly: a science that is the horizon for women’s search for xwebûn (being oneself) in an environment of war and chaos, that strengthens self-defense consciousness, and that develops approaches to solving social problems through building social self-management structures.

The sexist character that dominates social sciences, and generally all sciences, makes women’s science necessary. Because the fact that science ignores women – does not illuminate women’s reality – not only leads to it being incomplete, but entails an incorrect way of explaining society. An important reason for the insufficiencies and inaccuracies of social sciences, whose objective is to solve social problems in areas from politics to economics, from culture to history, is that their analyses lack women’s experience. Scientific research in which we include women’s reality shows us other realities, because in the reality of socialization, women’s existence and experience are dominant. This is why we need women’s science.

If we start from Abdullah Öcalan’s definition that “science is the most advanced interpretation of meaning”, we encounter a new perspective beyond positivist science, which only reveals demonstrable data through experimental and observable methods, and is based on facts. Faced with the objectives and methods of positivism, which explains life through facts and compartmentalizes it, establishing a hierarchy, Jineolojî is a science based on the flow of life. This is the basis of the scientific understanding of the sociology of freedom.

The definition of interpretation of meaning, that has revolutionized our perception of science, entails a series of questions. If science is the interpretation of meaning, then what is meaning? How does Jineolojî define the words we frequently use like meaning; truth; life? What is meant by statements like “meaning is the potential of truth” or “truth is love, love is free life”? How can we integrate a reality built on concrete facts like science with such abstract statements?

The answer to these questions lies in the fact that Jineolojî is, essentially, the science of life. Especially nowadays, when the loss of meaning has enormously increased and life has become undefinable, Jineolojî as the science of meaning is a science that faces the responsibility of discovering and understanding the integrity of life, developing appropriate methods to understand, liberate and know it.

Current epistemologies show how women’s otherness, that is, their ontology, and their legitimation through mythology, religion, philosophy and science, largely determine research and knowledge production centered on women. Aspects like fluid energy, menstruation, or emotional intelligence are subtle expressions of women’s link with nature. However, we see that precisely these aspects are denigrated by the dominant system, shown negatively, distorted in such a way that they constitute the basis of attacks against women’s being. There is a very conscious bias against women. Women’s characteristics are used to enslave them, which is legitimized through mythology, religion, philosophy and science.

Jineolojî has the responsibility of scientifically addressing and deciphering all these negative judgments, verses or statements about women’s being, as well as reinterpreting their existence. In a system where women are conceived as goods or merchandise, that women be owners of themselves, in other words, that they be xwebûn, is also connected with these consciousness-raising processes. Jineolojî in this sense is the science of women’s xwebûn.

Regarding this topic, during training we did in Kobanê with a group of women of various ages, when we asked what xwebûn was, each woman gave different answers. The response of Rim, a teacher from Kobanê, was very striking. Rim said:

I cannot say that xwebûn is this or that. Because I am not mine. I have an owner: my father, my older brother, and when I marry, my husband will also be one. That’s why xwebûn doesn’t exist here.

The phrase “Every woman has an owner” is an example that very simply explains the reality that women belong to everyone except themselves. Jineolojî is the science that studies the reality that women are themselves, that is, xwebûn, and that defines and develops their existence.

Jineolojî is based on a method that allows women to establish a healthier and stronger connection with their own roots. For this reason, it has become a science rapidly adopted especially among sectors that have suffered a break with their own roots and seek their own meaning. Jineolojî studies connect different women’s struggles, and at the same time educate women and society. They allow them to understand that they must analyze themselves, and create and develop something new from this knowledge that already exists within them, and that they possess rich sources of knowledge.

Precisely because of this, even in places like Latin America, where as the Academy of Jineolojî we have no structured activity, women embrace Jineolojî and feel they are part of it. Likewise, many women from various European countries, after learning about Jineolojî, have undertaken a journey in search of their own history and roots. This search does not remain only as a philosophical search, but also generates politics. In this sense, we can highlight very striking examples, like the encounters in Jineolojî camps of many groups of women who had never met before. Women who intensely seek reunion with their own roots, and who have an attitude of freedom, possess the potential to transform and beautify any environment they find themselves in.

What Jineolojî does is not only destroy the scientific, patriarchal and positivist approach, but at the same time leads us to our roots. Throughout the world, women have tried to connect with these roots. Researching one’s own history, the unwritten history, traces or sources of resistance, gives us great strength. Jineolojî also offers us a common framework or common language that connects these experiences with each other; deepening and developing these aspects, also linked to a certain ethical understanding, leads us to ask ourselves why we do it, because we actually struggle for a free society, that is, for women’s freedom.

Developing Jineolojî means developing alternatives to patriarchal, statist and liberal mentality. Jineolojî is not only a theory, or something from the academic realm that stays there, but returns to society. Thus, society learns this knowledge and can use it to govern itself; be free; organize itself. It is a process of individual and collective liberation. In these times of war, injustice, global social and economic crisis, we need free thought and a common knowledge base and thought structure more than ever.

Although revolution is mostly identified with opposition to something, with overthrowing certain things, it is necessary to consider within the revolutionary scope each step, small or large, that contributes to the positive development of society. From this perspective, our revolutionary approach, beyond destroying and eliminating to build something new, is, in Abdullah Öcalan’s words, to liberate moral and political society so it can function freely. We can achieve this through building an alternative system, which develops social mechanisms that make power and the State unnecessary, and defending ourselves against their attacks.

We must speak of defense in a broad sense, which includes both protection against physical attacks and threats, as well as protection of our feelings, thoughts and way of life against neoliberal ideological attacks. We can make revolution by developing methods and forms that prevent capitalism from taking over all social tissues in a manner similar to how cancer cells spread, because the individual and social structure that capitalism creates have largely lost their revolutionary potential.

Women’s revolution aims to transform female slavery and the male domination that dominates all social relations. This includes consciousness-raising and organization that allow women to have voice and will. It also includes transformation of the family institution, of relationships between women and men, development of an economic understanding based on women’s work, development of art based on women’s freedom, rejection of militarism and violence and development of democracy. The historical approach, economic system and political style on which women’s revolution is based can be possible with the approach of a science based on the paradigm of democratic modernity; the reality of this paradigm is based on women’s freedom, ecology and democratic organization of society.

Women who acquire freedom consciousness intervene in science with awareness of their power to influence life, society, and relationships between women and men, thereby expanding the limits of knowledge. This is important because what is considered scientific knowledge has been determined throughout history fundamentally under the influence of power and male domination. Therefore, instead of establishing a fixed and absolute method, we seek an approach based on methodological richness, which takes into account the deficiencies and limitations of each method, in order to discover women’s truth and knowledge.

Jineolojî is not a recipe that produces remedies for everything, nor a magic wand. We can only realize utopias with struggle, resistance and construction of an alternative system. Jineolojî can contribute with the knowledge it generates, but even the most beautiful and correct thoughts cannot be realized if there is no one to apply them, and willing to pay the price for them. Women’s revolution is essentially an alternative system that we are realizing and building. If we can produce knowledge that contributes to this construction, and to the extent that we can be a solution to problems that arise in the process of putting that knowledge into practice, we will have made our utopias a reality.

Jineolojî is an exciting concept, but instead of being a promise of paradise, we can say that it is creating the possibilities of reconstructing life by eliminating the obstacles, barriers and dirt that stand in the way of women’s fluid energy. We can imagine it as a life where, with the radical transformation of relationships between women and men based on equality and freedom, power relations and monotony in all areas of life—love, affection, politics, economy—will come to an end.

Since Jineolojî is a science that reveals women’s connection to life and society, when we speak of “jineological life”, we envision a life in harmony with nature, colorful, productive, full of life, where all people have equal rights and build life in common by taking advantage of equal opportunities. This is not a dream, it is also a life we live.

In communes and in guerrilla life, work is carried out with the strength created by union, the desire to understand nature, the search for a solid valuation of time, the power to feel each other mutually and make each other happy, which represents the meaning of life. That is, Jineolojî also represents the search for a meaningful life. It is the science of the life of martyrs, who sacrificed themselves for life and manifested themselves in the search for a meaningful life. It becomes a life where both the balance between the individual and society, and the connection of the individual and society to life, is revealed. It also becomes the science of how a guerrilla fighter, with awareness of how she builds life by herself for days feeding from nature, is clothed with social power.

Originally published at: https://jindergi.com/yazi/bilimin-en-geliskin-anlam-yorumu-jineoloji/