Mind States January 2008
Community and Clan
by Jesse Wolf Hardin
We have all seen those hand painted wooden Russian Matroyshka dolls—where the smallest figure is nested inside the hollow center of a slightly larger doll, which in turn fits inside the next largest and so on. Similarly, we as individuals nest within a family that naturally exists within a clan or clans of sorts. And the clan we nest within is in turn an element of a vast human society, existing in relationship to the larger community of all life on earth.
The word “community” comes from a Latin term meaning
“common.” The glue binding any village or culture together is made of those
things its residents and participants have in common: place or purpose,
traditions or goals, and a shared body of ideas that profoundly affect
both the way we live and the quality of our lives. The more defining those
shared elements are, the more cohesive (and usually smaller) a grouping
becomes. Thus, we have the highly self-identified members of geographical
regions, tribes, subcultures, associations, families and clans.
Clans have been vilified in the media for contributing to divisiveness
in places like Africa and the Middle East, where clan loyalties are stronger
than any sense of national identity. Clans in some parts of the world also
enforce a rigid moral standard that is misogynist and overbearing. At the
same time, clans have the greatest chance of preserving cultural diversity
and maintaining endangered languages and dialects. A healthy clan can be
entirely voluntary and develop naturally, calling together those of like
heart or focus, excited by common threats or hopes, restored by periodic
gatherings or the sharing of a common neighborhood or territory. A clan
can be an activist affinity group, a prayer circle, or a rock-climbing
posse. Whenever individuals not only share ideas or place but are willing
to take risks for and come to the aid of others, a clan is created. Clans,
founded in conscious dedication as well as intrinsic connection, can be
an opportunity to recover the most meaningful aspects of human purpose
and relationship.
The mores and cooperation of a holistic and healthful clan result not from
repression and enforcement but from conscious interaction and communication
and the awareness of connection and context. Rather than having a formal
system for selecting leaders and decision makers, leadership is contextual,
naturally assumed at any point by those most informed or gifted in each
circumstance. Often this leader will be an experienced elder or crone.
Other times, leadership may need the fresh perspective of a child. In every
case, it will land on the shoulders of the one most able and willing to
serve, the one who is motivated by love, empowered by their conviction
and the connection to what matters.
For decades, my partners and I have accepted the assignment of tending to the needs of a particular piece of inspirited land, and making available the insights and lessons that have come through here. Ownership of this property and development of the Anima’ Learning Center have proven useful, but our engagement and guardianship has been more the result of the devotion of a focused resident clan: wonder-filled Loba, singing prayers to the sacred cliffs; Kiva, gladly shouldering the Kokopellic burdens of the Medicine Woman; the interns that have come and gone, but who were, in their time, integral parts of the whole; our nonresident extensions, aiding this place while remaking their lives in the image of their reawakened dreams; and all the students who have become teachers in their own right, traveling the globe on errands of service without ever losing their sense of alliance with this teaching, this place and us.
Each of us can be cognizant of associations that are wider than the biological family and far more intimate and significant than nationality, alumni or race. A clan can be a club, but only if its members truly work in alliance with one another, and share growth and struggle as well as activity and pleasure. This alliance may be named—or simply assumed like a tightly interwoven fabric of friends who can be counted on to be there for you and you for them. Always, it is caring response and kept promises that make the difference. Conscious clans, with their deep familiarity and strong bonds, may yet prove to be the essential building blocks of a diverse, restored and restorative world community.
Jesse Wolf Hardin is an acclaimed teacher of Animá earth-centered practice and the author of five books including Gaia Eros (New Page 2004). He and his partners offer inspiring online Animá and Medicine Woman correspondence courses, as well as host students and guests for wilderness retreats, personal and couples counsel, vision quests, internships and events in their enchanted river canyon and ancient place of power: Animá Wilderness Retreat Center & Women’s Sanctuary, Box 688, Reserve, NM 87830, www.animacenter.org