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Mother Earth, today, is perhaps best known as a magazine—;specifically, "America's leading magazine about sustainable, self-reliant living." But the term was used by the legendary Emma Goldman as the title for different sort of publication more than a century ago. Here's how PBS explains it: "The first issue of Mother Earth, with a print run of 3000 copies, hit newsstands in March 1906. For a dime, readers got a showcase of anarchist and radical writings on current events, as well as poetry and fiction. Editor Emma Goldman kept the monthly in circulation until August 1917, despite conflicts with the US Postal Service and law enforcement authorities who found its content 'treasonable'."
Of course, the more generic usage of Mother Earth (or Mother Nature) highlights a matriarchal view of our planet—;something not lost on your average spotted hyena. Anne Engh, a Michigan State University graduate student who studies the animals, says female hyenas dominate males in almost all encounters. "The youngest female can bite the legs of the oldest male, and he has to take it," says Engh, who explains how a strict hyena hierarchy exists under an alpha female and all males rank below all females. Sure, male hyenas have their own hierarchy—but it's usually set up by the alpha female who installs her sons at the top.
