'Matriarchy' is a term, which is applied to form of
society, in which leading role is with the
female and especially with the
mothers of a community.
[1] Some authors consider it as hypothetical. There exist many matriarchal animal societies including
bees,
elephants, and
killer whales. The word ''matriarchy'' is coined as the opposite of ''
Patriarchy'', from
Greek '' "mother" and '' "to rule". When related to humans, the term literally meaning "wife's rule", '''' (), is sometimes used synonymously.
Primarily "matriarchy" is a family rule. The main aspect of matriarchy is economical and communal property of the family. The term "matri-archy" expresses its tough tie with family rule: its root is "matri" ("mother"). The main semantic load of the term is not only "power of female" but also "power of female as a mother". Woman's power is given to female only because of her motherhood and her maternal status in community.
Though many modern anthropologists and sociologists assert that there are no known examples of human matriarchies from any point in history,
[2][3][4][5][6][7] there is no consensus about this question. Encyclopædia Britannica lists matriarchy as a "
hypothetical social system".
[1], yet some examples of matrifocal societies are listed in "Existing matrifocal societies" section of this article. The Britannica article goes on to note, "The view of matriarchy as constituting a stage of cultural development is now generally discredited. Furthermore, the consensus among modern anthropologists and sociologists is that a strictly matriarchal society never existed."
[1] For more information see the appendix
Patriarchies in dispute.
There is also dispute about matrifocality (see Matriarchy vs. matrifocality). Matriarchy is distinct from
matrilocality, which some
anthropologists use to describe societies where maternal authority is prominent in domestic relations, owing to the husband joining the wife's family, rather than the wife moving to the husband's village or tribe, such that she continues to be in possession of the family property, while the husband serves as a consort. Socially, the wife is supported by her extended family, and husbands tend to be more isolated.
Matriarchy is also distinct from
matrilineality. While there are existing matrilinear and matrilocal societies, such as those of the
Minangkabau or
Mosuo, no matriarchal societies are known, and the historical reality is a disputed topic (see ''
The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory''). Strongly matrilocal societies are also known as 'matrifocal', and there is some controversy concerning the terminological delineation of matrifocality from "actual" matriarchy.
Matriarchal animals (non-human)
There are many animal societies that are matriarchal, these include:
★
Ants- The head of an ant colony is the queen. The worker ants are all female, including those that fight in war.
★
Bees- The head of the bee colony is the queen.
★
Bonobos
★
Elephants
★
Killer Whales
★
Spiders
★
Spotted Hyenas
History of the concept in relation to humans
The notion of prehistoric matriarchy and of its replacement by
patriarchy can be linked to the historical "inevitabilities" which the
nineteenth century's concept of progress through
cultural evolution introduced into
anthropology.
Friedrich Engels, among others, formed the notion that some primitive peoples did not grasp the link between
sexual intercourse and
pregnancy. They therefore had no clear notion of
paternity, according to this
hypothesis; women produced children mysteriously, without necessary links to the man or men they had sex with. When men discovered paternity, according to the hypothesis, they acted to claim power to monopolize women and claim children as their own offspring.
This belief system was the result of errors in early
ethnography, which in return was the result of unsophisticated methods of
field work. When strangers arrive and start asking where babies come from, the urge to respond
imaginatively is hard to resist, as
Margaret Mead discovered in Samoa. In fact, while prior to the discovery of
egg cells and
genetics there have been many different explanations of the ''mechanics'' of pregnancy and the relative contributions of either sex, no human group, however primitive, is unaware of the link between intercourse and pregnancy. The fact that each child has a single father has come more recently, however; Greek and Roman writers thought that the seed of two men might both contribute to the character of the child. By the time these mistakes were corrected in anthropology, however, the idea that a matriarchy had once existed had been picked up on in
comparative religion and
archaeology, and was used as the basis of new hypotheses that were unrelated to the postulated ignorance of primitive people about paternity.
Archaeological hypotheses
Whether matriarchal societies might have existed at some time in the distant past is controversial. The controversy began in reaction to the book by
Johann Jakob Bachofen ''Mother Right: An Investigation of the Religious and Juridical Character of Matriarchy in the Ancient World'' in 1861. Several generations of ethnologists were inspired by his pseudo-evolutionary theory of archaic matriarchy. Following him and
Jane Ellen Harrison, several generations of scholars, arguing usually from myths or oral traditions and Neolithic female cult-figures, suggested that many ancient societies were matriarchal, or even that there existed a wide-ranging matriarchal society prior to the ancient cultures of which we are aware (see for example ''
The White Goddess'' by
Robert Graves).
Marija Gimbutas from the 1950s developed a theory of an "
Old European culture" in
neolithic Europe which had matriarchal traits, replaced by the patriarchal system of the
Proto-Indo-Europeans with the spread of
Indo-European languages from the
Bronze Age.
These ideas were taken up by
second-wave feminism and, conflated with speculations of
Margaret Murray and
Robert Graves on "
witchcraft", by the
Goddess movement (
feminist Wicca) from the 1970s (
Elizabeth Gould Davis,
Riane Eisler,
Merlin Stone). From the 1970s also, the concept of a matriarchal "golden age" in the Neolithic has been denounced as feminist wishful thinking (''
The Inevitability of Patriarchy'', ''
Why Men Rule''), more recently by Philip G. Davis (''Goddess Unmasked'', 1998) and Cynthia Eller, professor at Montclair State University (''
The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory'', 2000). According to Eller, Gimbutas had a large part in constructing a "myth of historical matriarchy" by examining Eastern Europe cultures that, by and large, never really bore any resemblance in character to the alleged universal matriarchality of Gimbutas and Graves. She demonstrates that in "actually documented primitive societies" paternity is never ignored and that the sacred status of feminine goddesses does not automatically increase female social status, affirming that utopian matriachy is simply an inversion of antifeminism.
While the feminist scenarios of neolithic matriarchy have been discredited, and are de-emphasized in
third-wave feminism, at least in their extreme manifestations in authors like Gould Davis (who could go as far as claiming "the first males were mutants, freaks produced by some damage to the genes") or Stone (who concluded that
Hebrew priests must have been Indo-Europeans, not Semites, because they were so patriarchal) the original evidence recognized by Gimbutas of neolithic society being more
egalitarian than the Bronze Age Indo-European and Semitic patriarchies remains valid. Del Giorgio in ''The Oldest Europeans'' (2006) insists in on a matrifocal, matrilocal, matrilineal
Paleolithic society.
Matriarchy versus matrifocality
Due to a lack of any clear and consistent definition of the word 'matriarchy' the term 'matrifocality' has began to be preferred by several anthroplogists to refer to societies with focus on women and especially mothers though not necessarily dominated by women or mothers.
[10] Anthropologist R. L. Smith (2002) refers to 'matrifocality' as the kinship structure of a social system where the mother assumes structural prominence.
[10] The
Nair community in
Kerala in
South India is a prime example of matrifocality.This can be attributed to the fact that the community being warriors by profession were bound to lose male members at a youth leading to a situation where the females took up the role of running the family.
The Wemale culture of western
Seram, studied by A.E. Jensen during the
Frobenius Institute expedition of 1938, is often indicated as an example of matriarchy. See:
Karl Kerenyi noted in passing (introduction to ''Eleusis : Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter'' 1967, p. xxxii). On the other hand, anthropologist Donald Brown's list of "human universals" (i.e. features shared by all current human societies) includes
men being the "dominant element" in public political affairs (Brown 1991, p. 137). He refers the opinion of mainstream
anthropology.
Feminist Joan Bamberger notes that the historical record contains no reliable evidence of any society in which women dominated (Bamberger 1974), though there are many known
matrilineal societies. The
Trobriand Islands were considered a matriarchy by anthropologist
Bronisław Malinowski, however, Malinowski defined matriarchy as the rule of a the family by the wife's male relatives, such as her brothers, rather than literal patriarchy, the rule of the family by its father; the dispute this view has engendered is discussed at that entry. Peter N. Stearns and other historians have speculated as to whether or not agricultural
Japan was a matriarchy prior to contact with patriarchal
China. (Stearns 2000, p. 51). On the other hand, anthropologist Peggy Reeves Sanday favors redefining and reintroducing the word matriarchy, especially in reference to modern, matrilineal societies like the
Minangkabau. This group lives in
West Sumatra and numbers about four million; it is considered the largest and most stable matrilineal society in the modern world. Sanday argues that this society is a modern matriarchy defined not in polar opposition to patriarchy, but on unique terms. A clear and consistent definition has been given by Heide Goettner-Abendroth, who did cross-cultural research on all of the still existing matriarchal societies of today (in her major work on matriarchy). Her viewpoint is close to that of Sanday. One of her examples are the
Mosuo people of Southwestern China. Furthermore, the
Minicoy islanders are also considered to be one of the living matrilineal societies today. Regardless, the existence of any true matriarchal societies (as opposed to matrilineal or matrifocal societies) remains controversial among scholars.
Some traditional matrifocal societies have been presented by scholars and indigenous speakers at two
World Congresses on Matriarchal Studies. The first one was held in 2003 in Luxembourg, Europe; it was sponsored by the Minister for Women's Affairs of Luxembourg,
Marie-Josée Jacobs, and organized and guided by Heide Goettner-Abendroth. The second one took place in 2005 in San Marcos, Texas/USA, it was sponsored by Genevieve Vaughan and again led by Heide Goettner-Abendroth.
Existing matrifocal societies
★ The traditional
Nair community in Kerala,
South India is matrifocal by their definition of 'matrifocality'. (Nowadays this system is rarely practiced. The members of the Nair community now live in nuclear families). A traditional Nair matrifocal family is called a Tarawad or Marumakkathayam family. A traditional Nair Tarawad consists of a mother and her children living together with their mother's surviving eldest brother or eldest surviving maternal uncle who is called ''Karanavan''. The Karnavan exercises full powers over the affairs of the family. Till recently, the main significance of this system was that the heirs to the property were the women in the family and the men folk were only allowed to enjoy the benefits during their lifetime. The naming system of the Nair community had the prefix of their mother's 'family name' and they adopted the maternal uncle’s surname. The Marumakkathayam system of Kerala was a legal right which determined inheritance through the female line. Thus if a family property was to be partitioned all female members would receive one share and all male members who were direct offspring of the family name would receive one share. Thus a brother might receive only one share while his sister and her children (and grandchildren by her daughters) would each receive a share. This right was removed by the Kerala Joint
Hindu Family System (Abolition) Act, 1975.
★
Mosuo people - Lugu Lake, bordering between
Yunnan &
Sichuan province,
China.
★ The people of
Western Sahara (the former
Spanish Sahara), occupied by
Morocco retain semi-matriarchal customs.
[1]. See also
Polisario Front.
★ The people of the Bolama archipelago in
Guinea-Bissau[2].
★ Guajiro tribes - inhabiting the
Guajira Department in
Colombia and the adjacent region in the
Caribbean coast in
Venezuela,
South America. Children are raised not by their father but by their mother's brother (
avunculism).
The meaning of the term in the works of classics
Matriarchy was discovered by J. Bachofen ("Das Mutterrecht") and was deeply investigated by
Lewis H. Morgan, LL. D [12]. Many researchers studied the phenomenon of matriarchy afterwards, but the basis was laid by the classics of sociology. In their works Bachofen and Morgan used such terms and expressions: mother-right, female rule, gyneocracy, female authority.
All these terms meant the same: the rule of female (mother, wife).
The next fragments from Morgan's "Ancient Society" will explain the usage of the terms:
"In a work of vast research, Bachofen has collected and discussed the evidence of female authority (mother-right) and of female rule (gyneocracy)."
"Common lands and joint tillage would lead to joint-tenement houses and communism in living; so that gyneocracy seems to require for its creation, descent in the female line. Women thus entrenched in large households, supplied from common stores, in which their own gens so largely predominated in numbers, would produce the phenomena of mother right and gyneocracy, which Bachofen has detected and traced with the aid of fragments of history and of tradition.".
Though Bachofen and Morgan confined the "mother right" inside households, it was the basis of female influence upon the whole society. The classics never thought that gyneocracy could mean "female government" in polity. They were aware of the fact that sexual structure of government had no any relation to domestic rule and to roles of both sexes.
Matriarchies in mythology
One area where written myths are available from an early period is the
Aegean culture-zone, where the
Minoan Great Goddess was worshipped in a society where women and men were allegedly equals.
A famous legendary gynecocracy on the edges of the Greek cultural horizon was
Amazon society, which took shape in the imaginations of classical Greeks, based on reports of
Scythian and
Sarmatian female status and even female warriors.
Bamberger (1974) examines several matriarchal myths from South American cultures, and concludes that, by portraying the women from this period as evil, they often serve to keep women under control.
Historian
Ronald Hutton has argued that there is no necessary correlation between the worship of
female deities and relative levels of social or legal egalitarianism between the sexes, ostensibly in the
Greek and
Roman religion, where goddesses play an important role, but Hutton has also pointed out that in more recent European history, in
17th century Spain, there were many religious institutions staffed exclusively by women.
In popular culture
The idea of peaceful matriarchal civilizations being put to the torch by
patriarchal, nomadic barbarian invaders has lived on as a powerful literary
trope. The
Nazi ideology of a
master race of
Aryan patriarchal conquerors was based in part on Müller's hypothesis about conquering Aryans being the founders of the European race.
More recent uses of the theme share essentially the same narrative.
Mary Renault's
historical novels about
Greek mythology and history such as ''The King Must Die'' combine motifs of political conflict between goddess and god worshippers with ''
The Golden Bough's'' hypothesis about
dying and reviving gods. The patriarchal conquest of matriarchy motif is found in literally dozens of fantasy novels, from
Marion Zimmer Bradley's historical revisions of
Arthurian romance and the
Trojan War to works of pure
fantasy such as
Guy Gavriel Kay's ''
A Song for Arbonne''. Gender roles and the conflict of patriarch vs. matriarchy is a major theme in the ''
Wheel of Time'' books by
Robert Jordan (fantasy).
In the ''
StarCraft'' universe, the Dark Templar Tribes of Shakuras are ruled over by Matriarch Raszagal. Near the end of , she is killed, and names her
Prelate, Zeratul (a male), the new leader of the Dark Templar, thus ending the Dark Templar matriarchy.
In the expanded universe of
Star Wars, the women of Dathomir are portrayed as the ruling sex. Another matriarchy is the Hapan Consortium, a cluster of 63 planets, that are all ruled by the Queen Mother of Hapes.
In the fantasy world of
Forgotten Realms, the evil
Drow race is a ''highly'' matriarchial society. The females rule drow societies—a gynocracy; males are merely servants and are regarded as pets. The same goes for the aptly-named ''gynocracy of Telchos'' in the
Lone Wolf setting.
The
webcomic Sinfest sometimes parodies
The Matrix as "The Matriarchy."
''
Dreamfall'', a game by Funcom, features a Goddessiworshipping Matriarchal people, the Azadi. Men are described as having less freedom than women, but are in no way regarded as pets. The Azadi, though very religious with a very strict code of honor, have taken to conquering other races. Though their intentions are good, their "the cause justifies the means" attitude and their discrimination against Magicals make them responsible for many horrible crimes, as well as good deeds.
''
The Wicker Man'', starring Nicolas Cage, takes place within a fictional matriarchy in the state of
Washington. The society, Summersisle, is modeled after honeybee culture and behavior.
In the
Warcraft Universe, the
Night Elves lived in a highly matriarchial society, due to the fact that almost all men became
druids and spent large amounts of their time in meditative slumber, leaving the women to protect them and serve their goddess. This has changed in the recent game
World of Warcraft, with gender roles being abolished due to a dip in population.
References
1. 'Matriarchy', ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 2007.
2. Steven Goldberg, ''The Inevitability of Patriarchy'', (William Morrow & Company, 1973).
3. Joan Bamberger,'The Myth of Matriarchy: Why Men Rule in Primitive Society', in M Rosaldo and L Lamphere, ''Women, Culture, and Society'', (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1974), pp. 263-280.
4. Robert Brown, ''Human Universals'', (Philadelphia: Temple University Press), 1991.
5. Steven Goldberg, ''Why Men Rule'', (Chicago, Illinois: Open Court Publishing Company, 1993).
6. Cynthia Eller, ''The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory: Why an Invented Past Won't Give Women a Future'', (Boston: Beacon Press, 2001).
7. Jonathan Marks, 'Essay 8: Primate Behavior', in ''The Un-Textbook of Biological Anthropology'', (Unpublished, 2007), p. 11.
8. 'Matriarchy', ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 2007.
9. 'Matriarchy', ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 2007.
10. Smith R.T. (2002) Matrifocality, in International encyclopedia of the social and behavioral sciences (eds) Smelser & Baltes, vol 14, pp 9416.
11. Smith R.T. (2002) Matrifocality, in International encyclopedia of the social and behavioral sciences (eds) Smelser & Baltes, vol 14, pp 9416.
12. L. Morgan, "Ancient Society Or Researches in the Lines of Human Progress from Savagery through Barbarism to Civilization"
1. 'Matriarchy', ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 2007.
2. Steven Goldberg, ''The Inevitability of Patriarchy'', (William Morrow & Company, 1973).
3. Joan Bamberger,'The Myth of Matriarchy: Why Men Rule in Primitive Society', in M Rosaldo and L Lamphere, ''Women, Culture, and Society'', (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1974), pp. 263-280.
4. Robert Brown, ''Human Universals'', (Philadelphia: Temple University Press), 1991.
5. Steven Goldberg, ''Why Men Rule'', (Chicago, Illinois: Open Court Publishing Company, 1993).
6. Cynthia Eller, ''The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory: Why an Invented Past Won't Give Women a Future'', (Boston: Beacon Press, 2001).
7. Jonathan Marks, 'Essay 8: Primate Behavior', in ''The Un-Textbook of Biological Anthropology'', (Unpublished, 2007), p. 11.
8. 'Matriarchy', ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 2007.
9. 'Matriarchy', ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 2007.
10. Smith R.T. (2002) Matrifocality, in International encyclopedia of the social and behavioral sciences (eds) Smelser & Baltes, vol 14, pp 9416.
11. Smith R.T. (2002) Matrifocality, in International encyclopedia of the social and behavioral sciences (eds) Smelser & Baltes, vol 14, pp 9416.
12. L. Morgan, "Ancient Society Or Researches in the Lines of Human Progress from Savagery through Barbarism to Civilization"
★ Bamberger, Joan. (1974). '"The Myth of Matriarchy: Why Men Rule in Primitive Society," in ''Women, Culture, and Society'', edited by Michelle Zimbalist Rosaldo and Louise Lamphere, pp. 263-280. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.
★ Brown, Donald. (1991). ''Human Universals''. Philadelphia: Temple University Press
★
Czaplicka, Marie Antoinette. (1914). ''Aboriginal Siberia, a study in social anthropology''. Oxford. Clarendon press.
★ Davis, Philip, ''Goddess Unmasked'', Spence Publishing, New York, 1998. ISBN 0-9653208-9-8; review: R. Sheaffer, Skeptical Inquirer (1999)
[3]
★ del Giorgio, J.F. (2006). ''
The Oldest Europeans''. A.J.Place, ISBN 978-9806898004.
★
Eller, Cynthia (2001).
The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory: Why an Invented Past Won't Give Women a Future. ISBN 0-8070-6793-8
★ Finley, M.I. (1962). ''The World of Odysseus''. London. Pelican Books.
★
Gimbutas, Marija (1991). "The Language of the Goddess".
★
Goldberg, Steven (1993) ''Why Men Rule: A Theory of Male Dominance'', rev. ed. ISBN 0-8126-9237-3
★
Hutton, Ronald (1993). ''The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles'' ISBN 0-631-18946-7
★
Lapatin, Kenneth (2002). ''Mysteries of the Snake Goddess: Art, Desire, and the Forging of History''. ISBN 0-306-81328-9
★
Sanday, Peggy Reeves. (2004). ''Woman at the Center: Life in a Modern Matriarchy''. Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-8906-7
★
Stearns, Peter N. (2000). ''Gender in World History''. New York Routledge. ISBN 0-415-22310-5
★ Smith R.T. (
2002) Matrifocality, in International encyclopedia of the social and behavioral sciences (eds) Smelser & Baltes, vol 14, pp 9416.
★ Yoshamya, Mitjel & Yoshamya, Zyelimer (2005). ''Gan-Veyan: Neo-Liburnic glossary, grammar, culture, genom.'' Old-Croatian Archidioms, Monograph I, p. 1 - 1224, Scientific society for Ethnogenesis studies, Zagreb.
See also
★
Abrahamic religion
★
Moisés EspÃrito Santo
★
Patriarch
★
Patriarchy
★
Patriarchs (Bible)
★
Matriarchs (Bible)
★
The First Sex
★
The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory
★
Zygarchy
External links
★
www.hagia.de
★
www.goettner-abendroth.de
★
www.second-congress-matriarchal-studies.com
★
Matriarchy.Info: ancient and contemporary matriarchal societies
★
''Cattle ownership makes it a man's world'' New Scientist (1. October 2003): A new study claims to demonstrate that early female-dominated societies lost their power to men when they started herding cattle.
★
Radical Goddess Thealogy A blog discussing the Goddess and the ancient Matriarchy
★
The Myth of the Myth of Matriarchy: Defense of the theory of historical matriarchy
★
Matriarchy Planet (Science fiction trope on SF wiki)
★
Matriarchy in USSR
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