No Country for Old Women

(disappearing the grannies)

Among whales and elephants, and humans too, the presence of a grandmother in the community assures a certain level of social well-being. These wise old women keep adolescents from going rogue, soothe overwhelmed mothers, and discipline the men who get out of line. These cultures were usually matrilineal, or maybe matrispherical, in that the maidens and the mothers and the crones stuck together—and it was the husbands and the fathers who would leave the clans of their birth behind. The grandmothers circled their communities with perspective, wisdom, and care.

Before they were disempowered and disappeared.