Goddessing

You know, every once in awhile you get these jolts, little (or big) quanta of energy and information that buzz the chakras, give you goose bumps, or make your skin crawl.

One of the high ticket items on my wish list is an OED (Oxford English Dictionary). I don't know how I've lived so long without one. Why an OED? Ah, because it shows you where words come from, how they were first used (and when) and how they've evolved in the language. A scholar's dream tool.

My partner brought home a new dictionary from the library the other day, one that had some OED'ish features. In my word-hopping, I read that "wife" comes from weaving words (as does "witch"). Cool, I thought. How about "husband"?

Well, Dorothy, I'm here to tell you we're still in Kansas.

Would you believe they didn't have the word husband listed in that dictionary? What? How is that possible? Why?

I'd like to jump right over feminist conspiracy theorizing, but I can't ignore sexism when it trots its ugly self right in front of my face. Husband? Husband? Husband? Why in heck wouldn't you include this word in your dictionary?

Well, I think I've got it figured out. Went over to my bookshelf and picked up Barbara Walker's The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets. Aha!

Husband (excerpt)

"One bonded to the house (hus)" -- a steward or majordomo chosen to tend a woman's property, under the old Saxon matriarchate when property rights were matrilineal. A husband was not considered an integral part of the maternal clan but remained a "stranger" in the house, as in early Greece where the men's god Zeus was "god of strangers."

Walker goes on about husbands in pre-Islamic Arabia, India, Latin tribes, ancient Egypt and among the Zuni. Among Anglo-Saxon tribes, she writes:

..."husbandry" meant farm work -- as it still does -- because a husband was usually bonded to work on his wife's land.

Gives a whole new perspective on animal husbandry, doesn't it.

So, why do you think they left "husband" out of that dictionary? And do you think it's important? Was it oversight? Was it...?

You know, I could work myself into a real rant here, but I'd rather focus on something useful, or maybe even wonderful.

Let's see. It's Saturday. The snow's melting. The sun's shining. No husband around to tend my land. Guess I'll go out into this glorious day and DO IT MYSELF!

And as Meg O'Sullivan says:

"I'll be post-feminist in the post-patriarchy."

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