Foundational Concepts

What is Partnership?

"Human Evolution is now at a crossroads. Stripped to its essentials, the central human task is how to organize society to promote the survival of our species and the development of our unique potentials. A partnership society offers us a viable alternative." -- Riane Eisler, The Chalice and The Blade

Four Cornerstones

Throughout our history, human beings have experimented with almost every kind of society imaginable, from pacifist communities to totalitarian states, with a thousand variations in between. For all their unique peculiarities, most of our attempts at civilization have had one of two basic configurations the domination system or the partnership system. If we find ourselves in a dominator-style society, how do we transform it into a culture of partnership? We can begin to build a new structure by putting in place four cornerstones.

Partnership Language

If we hope to create a truly new paradigm based on partnership thinking, it's vital that we be aware of the underlying messages in the very words and metaphors we use to express our thoughts. If we don't, our good intentions may be undermined by the language we use to state them.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What do you mean by the term “Partnership”? Why is Partnership important now? And several other key questions are answered. Prepared by Kathleen Hermes, M.A. Transformative Leadership, California Institute of Integral Studies.

Cultural Transformation Theory

Cultural transformation theory (CTT) was introduced to a general readership in Riane Eisler’s The Chalice and the Blade (1987). It has since been the framework for many other works, including The Chalice and the Blade in Chinese History (1995) written by scholars at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing. CTT contradicts the conventional notion of a linear progression from "barbarism" to "civilization." Based on archeological and mythical data, it proposes that the earliest cradles of civilization oriented more to the partnership system until, during a period of chaos, there was shift in a dominator direction. It further proposes that today it is more urgent than ever before that we reverse that shift – and work together to accelerate the move from domination to partnership.