m m  Controversy Over DeMeo’s Saharasia hypothesis  Max Dashu  I
felt impelled to write down my thoughts about the controversy
that erupted on the last day of the World Congress on Matriarchy
in Luxembourg, 2003. An outcry followed James De Meo’s
presentation, which proposed that patriarchy arose in
“Saharasia” because of desertification. Many people were upset
that the moderator cut off his responses. Others, including me,
were much more disturbed at the content of the presentation
itself, and felt that De Meo, even before his responses were
interrupted, wasn’t addressing the concerns being raised.
Unfortunately there was no time for most critics to voice our
objections.  The North African women felt that De Meo’s analysis
seriously misrepresented the Saharan cultures. Malika Grasshoff
spoke quite passionately in defense of her Kabyle culture.
Helene Claudot-Hawad (who married into a Tuareg community)
rejected the presentations as “essentialist.” It collapses the
origin of patriarchy down to a single factor,