by Heide Goettner-Abendroth:
The subject of matriarchy has a long tradition in the German-speaking region of Europe (Switzerland, Austria, Germany), which began in 1861 with the work of J. J. Bachofen.
As a philosopher trained in the logic of interpretation (the topic of my Ph.D. dissertation), I realized that a complete definition of matriarchy had not been done, especially from a nonpatriarchal viewpoint. Such a definition is necessary as a scientific tool in order to provide a clear foundation for revisioning the history of humankind.
I insist on using the controversial term matriarchy instead of other words such as gylanic or matristic because I think that female researchers should use the strongest and most provocative words for their task; it helps to prevent their work from being ignored.
(For further discussion on the use of the term matriarchy, see my dialogue with Joan Marler in the winter 1998 issue of ReVision, vol. 20, 110. 3.)
In my view, nonpatriarchal societies were the norm for most of human history, and extant matriarchal societies are the most accessible examples. Excellent interdisciplinary research is already available but we still lack the complete world history (or herstory) of nonpatriarchal societies.
The articulation of a universal theory of matriarchy is the aim of my present work.
The following is a brief sketch of the structural definition of a matriarchal society, which is the core of my theory of matriarchy. This overview is not offered as a deductive axiom, although it is presented here in a concentrated, abstract way.
This cross cultural research covers India, Eastern Asia, Indonesia, the Pacific Islands, South/Central and North America, and Africa. A detailed discussion of my theory of matriarchal societies is published in the multivolume work, "Das Matriarchat" (1988, 1991, 1995, 2000, and forthcoming).
A brief, structural definition of matriarchy includes criteria on four levels:
economic
social
political
cultural
Economic Level:
Societies of Reciprocity
Matriarchies are most often agricultural societies in which women have control of the means of production. The technologies of agriculture developed from simple gardening (horticulture) to field agriculture with the plow, which further led to the large irrigation systems of the earliest urban cultures.
In matriarchal societies, goods are distributed according to an egalitarian system that is identical with the lines of kinship and the patterns of marriage.
From a political point of view, these are societies with perfect mutuality, where principles of equality are consciously maintained. The advantages and disadvantages concerning the acquisition of goods are adjusted by social rules.
If wealth begins to accumulate in certain areas of the society, rituals of redistribution take place.
For example, a village festival will be organized in which wealthy clans are obliged to distribute their riches to all inhabitants of the village. For this they gain great honor.
On the economic level, matriarchies are societies of reciprocity.
Social Level:
Societies of Kinship
On the social level, people live together in clans that are formed according to the principle of matrilinearity in which kinship, clan names, social positions, and political titles are passed on through the female line.
A matriclan consists of at least of three generations of women:
the clan-mother,
her daughters, and
granddaughters and
and the men who are directly related:
the brothers of the mother,
her sons, and
grandsons.
Generally, the matriclan lives in one big clan house, which often holds from ten to more than eighty persons, depending on its size and architectural style.
The women live permanently in the clan house of their mothers, since they are not required to move to the homes of their husbands. This is called matrilocality.
Women control the sources of nourishment and have the power of disposition over the goods of the clan, which ensures their strong social position. This distinguishes a matriarchal society from one that is only matrilineal.
The distinction between matrilineal and matriarchal societies has never been made in anthropology/ ethnology. A fact that has caused a great deal of confusion.
The matriclans are self-supporting groups and are connected to other clans by patterns of marriage. Most common is the system of mutual marriage between two clans within the same village, which leads to communal matrimony. For example, young men from clan-house A marry young women from clan-house B, and vice versa. In this way, everyone becomes related to everyone else by birth or by marriage. Therefore matriarchies are societies of kinship.
After marriage, the young men temporarily leaves the house of his mother, but does not have to go very far. In the evening he goes to the neighboring house where his wife lives, and he returns at dawn. This form of marriage is called visiting marriage, and is restricted to the night. The matriarchal man has no right to live in the house of his wife. The home of the matriarchal man is the clan-house of his mother, where he has rights and duties. There he is expected to do agricultural and other work and to take part in the decisions of the clan.
In this system, biological fatherhood has no social relevance. A matriarchal man never regards the children of his wife as his children, because they do not share his clan name.
Instead, a matriarchal man is closely related to the children of his sister, his nieces and nephews, who have the same clan-name as he. He devotes his care for their upbringing as a form of social fatherhood.
Political Level:
Societies of Consensus
The process of making political decisions is organized along the lines of matriarchal kinship. In the clan-house, women and men meet in a council that discusses domestic matters.
No member of the household is excluded.
After thorough discussion, a decision is reached by mutual agreement. The same is true for the entire village:
Delegates from every clan-house meet in the village council when matters concerning the whole village must be discussed. The council may consist of the oldest women of the clans (the matriarchs) or the brothers and sons they have chosen.
No decision concerning the whole village can he made without the consensus or every clan house. The delegates who discuss the matter are not the ones who make the decision, since the delegates function only as hearers of communication.
If all clan-houses do not yet agree, the delegates must return home to discuss the matter further. In this way, consensus is reached in the whole village, step by step.
The same is true for the entire region. Matriarchal people living in a larger region make decisions in the same way. Delegates from all villages meet to communicate the decisions made by their communities. Men are elected for the tasks as delegates, because the women do not usually leave their clan's house and land.
Ethnologists have often assumed incorrectly that males are the primary decision makers. Instead, all clan-houses in every village are involved in the process of decision making until consensus is reached on the regional level.
Therefore, from the political point of view, I call matriarchies societies of consensus.
This pattern of consensus does not allow the accumulation of political power!
In exactly this sense, the people are free from domination. They have no class of rulers and no class of suppressed people who must be controlled.
Cultural Level:
Sacral Societies
On the cultural level, matriarchal societies have a complex religious system that must not be characterized as a "fertility cult".
The fundamental concept expressed in myths, rituals, and spiritual customs is the concrete belief in rebirth. Every person knows that after death she or he will be reborn as a child into the same clan. Women in matriarchal societies are greatly respected for their ability to give birth to the ancestors and to renew the life of the clan.
This concept is the basis of the matriarchal view of life, which honors the cycles of growth, death, and the return of life within the cycles of nature. The Earth is venerated as the Great Mother who grants rebirth and nurtures all.
The cosmos is perceived as the Great Goddess of Heaven and all Creation. It is she who gives birth to the stars in the east and allows them to move over the sky (her celestial body) until they return to her in the west through her power of death.
A good example of this concept of the cosmos is the Egyptian Nut, the Goddess of Heaven. She gives birth to her son Re, the sun, every morning and devours him every evening, only to give birth to him again at the next sunrise. All celestial bodies rise, set, and return in this same way each day and night.
Human existence follows the same rules and is not separate from the cycles of nature. The matriarchal concept of the human and natural worlds lacks the dualistic, patriarchal way of thinking that separates "nature" from "culture." Furthermore, it lacks the dualistic concept of morality that defines what is "good" and splits off what is "evil."
From the matriarchal perspective, life brings forth death, and death brings forth life again in its own time.
The opposition of "good" and "evil" makes no sense. In the same way, the female and the male are a cosmic polarity. It would never occur to matriarchal people to regard one sex as inferior to or weaker than the other, as is common in patriarchal societies.
In that nondualistic view of the world, no principal distinction is made between time profane and the sacred. The entire world is divine and therefore sacred to the people.
They respect and venerate all of nature as holy and would never exploit or destroy it.
Every house is also sacred and has its holy hearth in a place where the living people and the ancestors meet. Each everyday task and common gesture has a symbolic meaning; every action is ritualized.
Therefore, on the cultural level, I call matriarchies sacral societies, and cultures of the Goddess.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
