 Click to Order |
Welcome to the
S A H A R A S I A The 4000 BCE Origins of Child Abuse,
Evidence for a Worldwide,
James DeMeo, PhD Director, Orgone Biophysical Research Lab.
|
 Natural Scientist, Author and Discoverer of the Saharasian Geographical Pattern |
See here for an
Interview With James DeMeo, PhD, on the Saharasia Discovery.
Please Help Support James DeMeo's
Research and Educational Programs.
Donations are IRS Tax-Deductible.
Thank you!
All text and graphics in this publication are Copyrighted © 2000 and may not be duplicated or otherwise copied or used without written permission of the author.
The Human Species is By Nature Loving, Cooperative and Peaceful.
There is a Real Early Peaceful Period in the Archaeological Record.
The Concept of a "Naked Violent Ape" or "Violent Genes" is a Modern Fantasy-Falsehood.
Early Climate Change Towards Saharasian Deserts at c.4000 BCE led to the Those are the findings from James DeMeo's Saharasia!
James DeMeo's Saharasia is the largest and most in-depth scholarly study on human behavior and social violence around the world which has ever been undertaken. The findings summarized in Prof. DeMeo's book cover the entire globe, from early prehistory into modern times, integrating on world-maps a full sweep of standard research data from the fields of archaeology and history, plus an in-depth cross-cultural review and mapping of data from over 1000 distinctly different human societies, from standard anthropological data bases. It employed standard cross-cultural correlation tables on over 60 different variables, plus geographical mapping and quadruple blind research procedures to insure objectivity, and all the basic starting assumptions are clearly elucidated in advance. The work also incorporates his own personal field research in the deserts of the Middle East and Southwestern USA. No great knowledge of maths or scientific methods is required to follow the logic and research to their conclusions, though the book is clearly written for scholars. An early period of generally peaceful social conditions is documented in prehistory, but with a major shift towards patriarchal-authoritarian and decidedly violent social conditions across the Saharasian region after a major climate-shift from wet grassland-forest conditions towards harsh desert conditions at c.5000-4000 BC. Major epochs of cultural diffusion are also presented on maps, showing how violent patriarchal authoritarian, sex-repressive and child-abusive behaviors were carried outward from their Saharasian origins to nearly every corner of the globe. It presents previously-unknown geographical patterns in dozens of different human behaviors, beliefs and social institutions representative of human violence and warlike aggression, such as slavery, castes, genital mutilations and a low women's status. The findings have been praised by many, published in scientific journals and magazines, cited repeatedly, but in largest measure have been willfully censored out of the discussion by most within the editorial power-circles of modern academics and mainstream journalism, which continues to embrace the flawed and disproven theories of "violent genes" or other "original sin" concepts. None of those theories, nor anything like them, can stand in the face of the new evidence presented in Prof. DeMeo's Saharasia.
First Widespread Appearance of Violent Human Societies, who have
Favorably Perpetuated Themselves over the Centuries by Conquest of more Peaceful Societies.
Welcome to the Summary Webpage for the Saharasia Discovery. Below you will find weblinks to articles, books and resources relating to the findings of James DeMeo on Saharasia. (Pronounced: SA-HA-RAY-SEE-A)
Click on any of the following items for more information:
* For a Research Summary on Saharasia
You can also purchase Saharasia from Amazon.com or from BookDepository.com -- for destinations outside the USA, they offer a much better shipping rate, or sometimes free shipping. Be aware, if you purchase a used copy from them, it will probably be the first edition, and lack the additions and revisions of the second edition.
BOOK REVIEW BY PETER ROBBINS:
"Occasionally a book is published which is so unique in its concept, and so remarkable in the originality of its research and findings, that I feel compelled to bring it to your attention. Saharasia is just such a book. Very few individuals that I am aware of have the abilities necessary to undertake such a challenging project, and fewer still possess the capacity to successfully complete same. This author, however, is in something of a class by himself.
Dr. James DeMeo did his undergraduate work in Environmental Science and holds a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Kansas. His research in subjects ranging from early childhood development to UFO's is deeply rooted in his extensive knowledge and understanding of the life, work and discoveries of the late Dr. Wilhelm Reich, a scientific giant whose work and findings have probably been the subject of more distortion and vilification than those of any scientist of the last several hundred years. Dr. DeMeo has more than thirty years of experience investigating and extending Dr. Reich's original findings in both the social and natural sciences.
He is also the Director of the Orgone Biophysical Research Laboratory, located in the beautiful, vibrant and pristine mountain country outside of Ashland, Oregon. The Lab, also known as the Greensprings Center, was founded in 1978 and is a non-profit science research and educational foundation which over the years has supported various laboratory and field projects, educational lectures and seminars both here and abroad.
In Saharasia, Dr. DeMeo has done a quietly stunning job of overlaying original, painstakingly gathered research (and extremely well-documented research at that) across a field of established findings, and in the process has created an entirely new way of looking at the evolution of social and familial violence. Like a combination detective/explorer/scholar, the author lays out for us how 6,000 years of climactic changes centered in what is now the Sahara and Asian Deserts have paralleled crucial changes in human behavior. It may sound like a gross oversimplification, but the fact is that as this region evolved from a fertile, green center of emerging cultures into an arid, inhospitable desert, a similar phenomenon was occurring in the human psyche: the growth of violent, sexually repressive, male-dominated societies paralleled the growth of the region's deserts.
Rooted in the pioneering work of the late Dr. Wilhelm Reich, Saharasia is, in addition to the sum of its fascinating contents, one of the most beautifully designed and richly illustrated books on any subject that I have seen in a long time. Its large format, original, easy-to-read layout and print quality make it a pleasure for the eye as well as the intellect, and at $39.00, the privately published trade paper edition is a bargain. If you are a student of history, the Middle East, psychology, anthropology, archeology, climatology, child development, women's studies, pre-Biblical cultures, or just plain curious about how the world has gotten into the state it is currently in, do not hesitate to order your copy of Saharasia: you won't be disappointed. I wasn't."
You can also purchase Saharasia from Amazon.com -- they obtain the book from us, so there is no advantage in time, but for destinations outside the USA, they often can offer a much better shipping rate. Be aware, if you purchase a used copy from them, it will probably be the first edition which lacks the additional new appendix materials of the second edition. We most strongly recommend the Second Revised Edition.
Click here for Front Cover Enlargement (72k).
IF YOU ALREADY OWN THE FIRST EDITION OF SAHARASIA (1998), you will want to see the following new material:
* The article "Update on Saharasia: New Findings Since the First Printing", by James DeMeo, which appeared as a new Appendix in the Revised Second Edition of the Saharasia book. 22 pages of text with citations, new maps and graphics, 870 KB download.
* The "Preface to the Revised Second Edition" of Saharasia. 2 pages of text with citations, 16 KB download.
FORTHCOMING LECTURES & SEMINARS BY JAMES DEMEO:
* See the listings at this webpage.
ON-LINE SUMMARY ARTICLES ON SAHARASIA:
* By James DeMeo: "The Origins and Diffusion of Patrism in Saharasia: Evidence for a Worldwide, Climate-Linked Geographical Pattern in Human Behavior", Previously published in: Kyoto Review 23: 19-38, Spring 1990 (Japan); Emotion 10, 1991 (Germany); World Futures: The Journal of General Evolution, 30: 247-271, 1991; and Pulse of the Planet 3:3-16, 1991.
(If you can volunteer to translate this summary article into other world languages, please contact us through the email below. We are now seeking translators for Arabic, Farsi, Urdu, Hindi, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, Portuguese, Chinese and Japanese versions.)
OTHER PUBLISHED OR FORTHCOMING ARTICLES AND BOOK-CHAPTERS ON SAHARASIA:
* Book Chapter: James DeMeo "Saharasia: The Origins of Patriarchal Authoritarian Culture in Ancient Desertification", presented to the Societies in Balance: Gender Equality in Matrilineal, Matrifocal, Matriarchal Societies, First World Congress on Matriarchal Studies, Luxemburg, Sept.5-7 2003. This article now published in German-Language, in the book Gesellschaft in Balance: Dockumentation des 1. Weltkongresses fuer Matriarchatsforschung 2003 in Luxemburg. Available through the International Akadamie HAGIA: http://www.hagia.de The English-language version of this article is also posted online here.
* Book Chapter: James DeMeo "Peaceful Versus Warlike Societies in Pre-Columbian America: What Does Archaeology and Anthropology Tell Us?", in Unlearning the Language of Conquest, Scholars Expose Anti-Indianism in America, Four Arrows (Don Jacobs), Editor, Univ. Texas Press, 2006.
* Book Chapter: James DeMeo "The Saharasian Origins of Patriarchal Authoritarian Culture", in The Rule of Mars: Readings on the Origins, History and Impact of Patriarchy, Christina Biaggi, Editor, Knowledge, Ideas and Trends Publisher, Conn., 2006.
* Book Chapter: James DeMeo "Saharasia: The Origins of Patriarchal Authoritarian Culture in Ancient Desertification", in Societies of Peace: Matriarchies Past, Present and Future, Edited by Heide Goetner-Abendroth, Ianna Publications, Ontario, 2009.p.407-423.
ON-LINE BOOK REVIEWS OF SAHARASIA:
* Saharasia Review by Paul Von Ward, in AHP Perspective, June/July 2000:
* Saharasia Review by Steve Taylor: "Where Did It All Go Wrong? James DeMeo's Saharasia Thesis and the Origins of War", Journal of Consciousness Studies, Volume 9, No. 8, August 2002.
* Saharasia Review at Geopolitical Review
* Saharasia Review at Matriarchy.info
SAHARASIA: SCHOLAR'S ABSTRACT
Global geographical patterns of repressive, painful, traumatic, and
violent, armored, patrist behaviors and social institutions, which thwart
maternal-infant and male-female bonds, were correlated and developed through
a systematic analysis of anthropological data on 1170 subsistence-level
cultures. When the behavior data were mapped, the hyperarid desert belt
encompassing North Africa, the Near East, and Central Asia, which I call
Saharasia, was found to possess the greatest areal extent of the most extreme
patrist behaviors and social institutions on Earth. Regions farthest removed
from Saharasia, in Oceania and the New World, were found to possess the
most gentle, unarmored, matrist behaviors, which support and protect maternal-infant
and male-female bonds. A systematic review of archaeological and historical
materials suggests that patrism first developed in Saharasia after c.4000
BCE, the time of a major ecological transition from relatively wet grassland-
forest conditions to arid desert conditions. Settlement and migration patterns
of patrist peoples were traced, from their earliest homelands in Saharasia,
to explain the later appearance of patrism in regions outside of Saharasia.
Prior to the onset of dry conditions in Saharasia, evidence for matrism
is widespread, but evidence for patrism is generally nonexistent. It is
argued that matrism constitutes the earliest, original, and innate form
of human behavior and social organization, while patrism, perpetuated by
trauma-inducing social institutions, first developed among Homo Sapiens
in Saharasia, under the pressures of severe desertification, famine, and
forced migrations. The psychological insights of Wilhelm Reich provide
an understanding of the mechanism by which patrist (armored, violent) behaviors
become established and continue long after the initial trauma has passed.
SAHARASIAN RESEARCH ISSUES:
The following article addresses one consideration which has occasionally come up as regarding the original anthropological data of G.P. Murdock, used for construction of most of the Saharasian behavior maps: "Maps From the Ethnographic Atlas Data: A Defense of the Cross-Cultural Codes and Data Base of G.P.Murdock and the Quadruple-Blind Control Procedures Used in my Saharasia Research", by James DeMeo, PhD.
This article also should be of interest: "The First World Congress on Matriarchal Studies in Luxemburg, 2003: Personal Observations and Reflections, And a Response to Criticism," by James DeMeo, PhD.
Curious about conditions in Saharasia Today? Interested to understand the connection between Islamic Saharasia and international terrorism? After you have read the book or summary article, periodically review these weblinks which offer materials almost always censored out of the mainstream media, or deliberately distorted for reasons of "multicultural sensitivity":
JihadWatch: Robert Spencer
* CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE the comprehensive book Saharasia: The 4000 BCE Origins of Child Abuse, Sex-Repression, Warfare and Social Violence, In the Deserts of the Old World, by James DeMeo, Ph.D. 464+ pages, over 100 maps and illustrations, with comprehensive bibliography and index. SHIPPING THE UPDATED SECOND EDITION.
ON SALE FOR $19.95 Plus Shipping (Usually $34), THROUGH THE END OF THE YEAR! Click the Above Weblink.
From Pulse of the Planet #5:258, 2002.
* CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE the comprehensive book Saharasia: The 4000 BCE Origins of Child Abuse, Sex-Repression, Warfare and Social Violence, In the Deserts of the Old World, by James DeMeo, Ph.D. 464+ pages, over 100 maps and illustrations, with comprehensive bibliography and index, and a new Appendix "Update on Saharasia" addressing more recent archaeological findings on the subject of human social violence and war.
NOW SHIPPING THE REVISED SECOND EDITION!
Click here for Rear Cover Enlargment (72k).
Click here for Saharasia Table of Contents.
* For the summary article (above) in English
* For the summary article (above) in French
* For the summary article (above) in German
* For the summary article (above) in Greek (1 MB PDF). A Greek web-browser version is available here, but many people report it is incompatible with their browsers.
* For the summary article (above) in Italian
* For the summary article (above) in Korean (1 MB PDF)
* For the summary article (above) in Russian
* For the summary article (above) in Spanish
* For the summary article (above) in Turkish (1 MB PDF)
Atlas Shrugs: Pamela Geller
Frontpage Mag: David Horowitz
The Religion of Peace - Terror Monitoring
Gatestone Institute
MEMRI: Middle East Media Research Institute
MEMRI Arab TV Monitoring Project
Honest Reporting
Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting
Germany: Politically-Incorrect News
After start, click
"Watch on YouTube"
or as "Full Screen".
Additional Articles and Materials:
Under development, the new
SAHARASIA SINCE 1900 Project
(click to enter)
* Click here to review and/or purchase books and videos
on Anthropological/Archaeological issues related to Saharasia, including on peaceful societies.
* Click here to review and/or purchase books and videos
on Saharasia Today, addressing the sex-economic dimensions of modern world problems.
* The Orgone Biophysical Research Lab: James DeMeo's Comprehensive Research Website.
* The Complete OBRL / Natural Energy Works On-line Bookstore and Product Shop
Please Help Support James DeMeo's
Research and Educational Programs.
Donations are IRS Tax-Deductible.
Thank you!
Return to Articles Page
Return to James DeMeo's
Visitor Count: