British archaeologist James Mellaart, for example, reported a Neolithic site with many female images and no signs of destructive warfare for almost 1000 years.
[1] For thousands of years, people lived in these peaceful partnership societies, until warlike nomadic tribes disrupted the balance with their dominator cultures.
Surveys by anthropologists Peggy R. Sanday and Scott Coltrane support this connection, showing the correlation between a society's structure and the expectations for men and women.
[5] Theorist bell hooks has expanded on this, indicating that dominator culture "teaches us that we are all natural-born killers but that males are more able to realize the predator role.
Although Eisler often distinguishes between the two models on the basis of gender, she also applies these hierarchies more broadly to other societal constructions of power, like race, class, and age.
[8] Supporting this interpretation, Eisler argues that society's requirement of children to be submissive and obedient to their parents reflects the influence of dominator culture.
"[3] Dominator culture has had varying manifestations in society throughout the course of human history, from the prehistoric warlike tribes of the Neolithic era to present-day displays.
Other authors have used, expanded on, and interpreted Eisler's idea of dominator culture to apply it to a wide range of fields, as far-reaching as nursing, war, language learning, economics, and ecofeminism.
[9][10] Author Malcolm Hollick cites Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia, and Islamic fundamentalist states as modern, though severe, examples of dominator societies.
[6][better source needed] The Nazi claim to power, for example, was also accompanied by the call for women's return to "traditional", or subservient, places in family structures.
[11] The term has been used and expanded upon by other writers, such as[citation needed] Despite the stability and fairness characteristic of partnership society, dominator culture often still takes precedence.
She states that love—the "longing to connect with someone radically different"—led people to overcome dominator thinking in action, whether the issue was "ending racism, sexism, homophobia, or class elitism.