Feminist cultural historian Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum caps her previous work with The Future has an Ancient Heart, a scholarly study of the transformative legacy of African origins and values of caring, sharing, healing, and vision carried by African migrants throughout the world. Birnbaum focuses on the long endurance of these values from the first human communities in south and central Africa, ones that Africans manifested in the region of the African mediterranean landmass that later separated Africa from Europe and Asia when the ice melted and waters rose. These migrants reached every continent and later became spiritual as well as geograpical migrations back to Africa, from ancient times to the transformative present. Using the same methods as her teaching, Birnbaum employs a mutual learning process in her work to help us think about our own ancestral story, adding to the wisdom we need to surmount contemporary crises and give us the energy to help bring a more equal and just world into being. Her methodologies are grounded on empirical techniques of science and the social sciences and yet leave openings for the liminal knowledge that resides underneath and beyond boundaries of established religions, secular ideologies, and conventional science. A true work of transformation, The Future has an Ancient Heart opens the door to new possibilities within our world. THE FUTURE HAS AN ANCIENT HEART LEGACY OF CARING, SHARING, HEALING, AND VISION FROM THE PRIMORDIAL AFRICAN MEDITERRANEAN TO OCCUPY EVERYWHERE By LUCIA CHIAVOLA BIRNBAUM iUniverse, Inc. Copyright © 2012 Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum All right reserved. ISBN: 978-1-4759-3260-7 Contents prologue......................................................................................................................................................................................xinote on style.................................................................................................................................................................................xxiiidedications...................................................................................................................................................................................xxviikudos.........................................................................................................................................................................................xxxiiichapter one story. methodologies of many ways of knowing, scholarly integrity and world justice and peace....................................................................................1chapter two biography and genealogy..........................................................................................................................................................33chapter three african wisdom. views of diverse others........................................................................................................................................74chapter four greek/european suppression of african origins; surfacing of submerged beliefs...................................................................................................90chapter five Spain. primordial dark mothers and killing dark others..........................................................................................................................119chapter six France: primordial african signs of dark mothers in cave art, healing water rituals, heresies, and an unfinished revolution. enduring legacy of the cathars......................130chapter seven mediterranean migrant women's conference, Rome, Italy..........................................................................................................................148chapter eight the gift economy...............................................................................................................................................................161chapter nine "Another world is Possible" world Social Forum, January 20-25, 2007, Nairobi, Kenya.............................................................................................172chapter ten cells, stories, time, forgiveness and healing. feminist conference, 2008, Palermo, Sicily........................................................................................184chapter eleven Sicily and the south of Italy in the african mediterranean mothers of all lands...............................................................................................192chapter twelve shores of god the mother. mothers of all lands................................................................................................................................207appendix......................................................................................................................................................................................239select bibliography..............................