When Women Gathered
WHGHB: Chapter 1 - The History of Women's Gatherings
This is Chapter 1 of We Have Gathered Here Before, a book serialised here on Substack that explores the history and future of women’s gatherings, and how female connection just might be able to change the world for the better. You can read the introductory post here.
Women’s circles might seem like the hot new trend right now, but they’ve existed for thousands of years.
The records and details of women’s gatherings are limited, because history is written by those in power, and, since written records began, women haven’t had too much of that. But there is evidence to suggest that women have been gathering - in circle or otherwise - since prehistoric times.
Humans in general have come together in circle since our earliest days on this planet. This was driven by largely practical reasons - a circle around a fire meant that everyone could share in its light, heat and protection from predators. But the circle has also long been regarded as a sacred shape - a symbol of infinity, renewal and the cyclical nature of life and the seasons.
But when, and why, did women begin to gather separately?
Menstrual huts
One major reason for women taking time together away from the rest of the community was menstruation and fertility cycles. Archaeological evidence has been uncovered that indicates the presence of a menstrual hut - a space for women to retreat to while they were bleeding - around 4,000 years ago.1
As Dulcie Newbury2 points out, it’s entirely possible that huts have been unearthed but not identified as menstrual huts, or that such structures have been ignored altogether because archaeologists simply aren’t looking for them. This is partly due to male bias in what subjects are considered worth investigating, but also down to the stigma around menstruation that still exists today. As Newbury writes, “If society is reluctant to discuss menstruation, how can we expect it to be studied archaeologically?”
We’re missing a great deal from our view of history - and of the world in general - of the experience of women, of the lives of women. Of what it is to be a woman.
Anita Diamant’s novel The Red Tent brought the idea of menstrual huts to the public consciousness, and popularised a view of them as spaces of sisterhood and empowerment. But how much of that view is accurate, and how much are we glamorising and rewriting the experiences of our ancestors?
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