The Roots of Socialism in the Culture of the Mother

Sina Wegner

Community Research Group of Jineolojî in Germany

“Olive Tree Goddess” by Ayshe Mira Yashin

Socialism is as old as the history of humanity“, Abdullah Öcalan writes in a letter for the 1st of May 2000. In his new manifesto (2025) he deepens this hypothesis by saying that the commune is the founding element of socialism and the neolithic clan is the first commune. It develops around mothers and is marked by a culture of motherliness. This is the beginning of the society, the beginning of the long tradition of communal life. It’s the beginning of the contradiction between the commune and the state, which emerges with the rise of the first hierarchal structures. Therefore we can understand all communal and self-organized forms of life and the resistance, that obtained them, as standing in one line, the tradition of socialism.

The struggles of indigenous societies that defended themselves against colonialism; the way of life of libertarian religious communities or the secret transmission of ancient knowledge by women that were burned as witches for it – in them we can see elements of the unbroken resistance of communal life. Even though the term “socialism” may only be 300 years old, we can research its roots back to the first humans on earth.

We can look back to the beginning of our existence, to the first forms of society and to the question of our nature. There are many claims and speculations about it. Theories like that of Thomas Hobbes’; that the state of nature is a war of all against all, his belief was that humans cannot live in peace without a state that over rules the people, holds them back and controls them. The image of the natural superiority of the man over the woman, which has been advocated in philosophy and sciences for thousands of years, is still influential today. We have to counter this!

Human beings are social animals

But if we look at the newest research research, one thing becomes clear: humans are social beings at the basis. To be able to survive, we lived in groups from the very beginning. Living together was characterized by cooperation and mutual support. The findings from the Shanidar-cave in South Kurdistan show for example that already among the Neanderthals not only the strongest ones survived, but also ill and disabled group members were cared for. In the consciousness of the first humans, the individual approach that says only look out for yourself, pushed by neoliberal Capitalism, was unthinkable. Whereas it was social, communicative abilities like empathy, care and cooperation made our ancestors capable of surviving. About 100.000 years ago, the first more complex cultures brought forward the homo sapiens – the species of human we are today – in Africa. When they came to Europe about 40.000 years ago, they were already carving flutes and figurines, cut and drew symbols on cliff walls, immortalized themselves with hand prints and produced clothing and jewelry. Much of this revolved around the themes of life, fertility and death.

The seemingly magical ability of mothers to create new life must have made a big impression on them. From 35,000 years ago, this is reflected in the multitude of female symbols, such as vulvas and naked bodies of women with well-formed breasts, hips, and bellies. These so-called “Venus figurines” which have been found across continents over several tens of thousands of years, have sparked much discussion and interpretation. Of course, male researchers initially saw them as sex objects. Today, they are understood as symbols that probably played a major role in human spirituality.

The Culture of the Mother and the first commune

The mother-child relationship is the first in every person’s life. In order to give birth to a child and care for it, a group is needed that surrounds the mother and child. It therefore stands to reason that the first human groups also developed around mothers. Women were at the center of the first communities. While some of them went hunting, others tended the fire, invented techniques for processing raw materials, passed on their values and culture to the children, gathered knowledge about plants, stars, birth, the body and health. They told each other stories around the nightly camp fire. The concept of fatherhood did not appear in human consciousness until much later. However, family relationships based on the maternal line were obvious. Every child knew who their mother, their mother’s mother, their siblings and aunts and uncles on their mother’s side were. Thus, the first social organization was also oriented toward mothers.

The concept of the mother-child relationship has also been applied to the relationship of humans to nature. To this day, it is called “Mother Nature” in many places. The maternal culture, which we therefore assume to be the first human culture, is characterized by the principles of care, mutual giving and taking, and love. As a culture, it is not bound to biological motherhood, but is embodied by all members of the community. Creating, caring, nurturing, loving, protecting, defending, and nourishing are the fundamental values that sustain a commune. They enabled our ancestors in the clan society to survive for thousands of centuries. We can understand their libertarian, egalitarian, and collective way of life as the first form of the socialist commune.

In all further societies that emerged from this, even after the rise of statist structures at least 5000 years ago, in which the man gradually began to dominate women, we can still recognize the culture of the mother and its defense by women. Despite conditions of oppression and enslavement, women managed to pass on their principles of life. The witch hunts at the beginning of the modern era represent a decisive break within Europe. By attacking women’s autonomy, knowledge transfer, and relationships, the backbone of society was broken and the new capitalist way of life could be imposed on it.

Toward communal socialism

Today, we have to find our way in a world where domestic violence has replaced love. Motherhood has become a burden connected to many difficulties. Instead of caring for one another, we are expected to always seek our own advantage, compete with one another, and work ourselves to the bone for the profit of others. Instead of treating Mother Nature with respect, our living environments are being increasingly destroyed. In a process spanning thousands of years, the culture of the mother is being increasingly suppressed and destroyed by the patriarchal counter-revolution.

To all of this and rebuild a communal way of life, we explore with Jineolojî our history as women, the tradition of communal life, and the values of motherliness within it. Like this, we are laying the foundations for building a new, communal socialism. The stories of goddesses from pre-patriarchal times can inspire us just as much as the stories of resistance from the past five thousand years. We can learn from matriarchal ways of life that are still practiced today and look at our own biographies and movement histories. We can learn from mothers, grandmothers, and young women around the world who welcome every guest into their homes, fearlessly stand in front of tanks rolling into their villages, and calmly plant seeds in their gardens that soldiers want to turn into battlefields. We must look to the future and have courage to find new routes, because no one has laid out the forms for what we want to create.

In order to be vanguards in this process as young women, we also have to dig deep within ourselves to find traces of the culture of the mother and the influences of the state’s male-dominated mentality. We must work together to strengthen our personalities, our connection to society and nature, our ability to think freely and express our will. We must organize ourselves, be aware of the struggle we are in, and express and live the values that enable a free and communal life in our own way.

In this time we find ourselves in, many things seem to be changing rapidly. Great opportunities are opening up and we are facing great risks. There is war in so many places and on so many levels. And at the same time, so many beautiful and hopeful things are emerging. We feel the excitement that has already made so many hearts flutter before us. We are part of a new phase of a very long and very old struggle. We are following in the footsteps of the first women who created society, the ones who defended themselves against the first attacks of patriarchy, the ones who, imprisoned within the walls of the system, did not forget their values. Those who took to the barricades for them, and those who gave their lives in the struggle.

To make their dreams come true and win a free life for those who will come after us, we have to know their stories and keep their hope alive in us. In doing so, the deeper exploration of the meaning of the culture of the mother in communal life can give us guidance.