Editing Matriarchy (section)

=== By chronology ===

==== Earliest prehistory and undated ====
The controversy surrounding prehistoric or "primal" matriarchy began in reaction to the 1861 book by Bachofen, ''Mother Right: An Investigation of the Religious and Juridical Character of Matriarchy in the Ancient World''. Several generations of ethnologists were inspired by his pseudo-evolutionary theory of archaic matriarchy. Following him and [[Jane Ellen Harrison]], several generations of scholars, usually arguing from known myths or oral traditions and examination of Neolithic female cult-figures, suggested that many ancient societies might have been matriarchal, or even that there existed a wide-ranging matriarchal society prior to the ancient cultures of which we are aware. After Bachofen's three-volume ''Myth, Religion, and Mother Right'', classicists such as Harrison, [[Arthur Evans]], [[Walter Burkert]], and [[James Mellaart]]<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=reU63yfgrWIC Ruether, Rosemary Radford, ''Goddesses and the Divine Feminine: A Western Religious History''], p.&nbsp;15.</ref> looked at the evidence of [[matriarchal religion]] in pre-Hellenic societies.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=3qhQuWPNUckC&q=bachofen Bachofen, Johann Jakob, ''Myth, Religion, and Mother Right''].{{Page needed|date=November 2013}}</ref> The concept was further investigated by Lewis Morgan.<ref>[http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/morgan-lewis/ancient-society/ancient-society.zip Morgan, L., ''Ancient Society Or Researches in the Lines of Human Progress from Savagery through Barbarism to Civilization''].</ref> According to Uwe Wesel, Bachofen's myth interpretations have proved to be untenable.<ref>Wesel, Uwe, ''Der Mythos vom Matriarchat. Über Bachofens Mutterrecht und die Stellung von Frauen in frühen Gesellschaften'' (Frankfurt/M.: Suhrkamp, 1980).{{Page needed|date=October 2013}}</ref> According to historian [[Susan L. Mann|Susan Mann]], as of 2000, "few scholars these days find&nbsp;... [a "notion of a stage of primal matriarchy"] persuasive."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Mann |first1=Susan |title=Presidential Address: Myths of Asian Womanhood |journal=The Journal of Asian Studies |date=November 2000 |volume=59 |issue=4 |pages=835–862 |doi=10.2307/2659214 |jstor=2659214 |s2cid=161399752 }}</ref>

[[Kurt Derungs]] is a recent non-academic author advocating an "anthropology of landscape" based on allegedly matriarchal traces in [[toponymy]] and folklore.<ref>{{cite book |last1=von Stuckrad |first1=Kocku |author1-link=Kocku von Stuckrad |chapter=Constructing Femininity – the Lilith Case |pages=67–92 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CjZWZt_Xs34C&pg=PA67 |editor1-last=Platzner |editor1-first=Robert Leonard |title=Gender, Tradition and Renewal |date=2005 |publisher=Peter Lang |isbn=978-3-906769-64-6 }}</ref>

==== Paleolithic and Neolithic Ages ====
[[Friedrich Engels]], in 1884, claimed that, in the earliest stages of human social development, there was group marriage and that therefore paternity was disputable, whereas maternity was not, so that a family could be traced only through the female line. This was a materialist interpretation of Bachofen's ''Mutterrecht''.<ref>{{harvp|Engels|1984}} {{Page needed|date=October 2013}}</ref><ref>Bachofen, Johann Jakob, ''Das Mutterrecht. Eine Untersuchung über die Gynaikokratie der alten Welt nach ihrer religiösen und rechtlichen Natur. Eine Auswahl herausgegeben von Hans-Jürgen Heinrichs'' (Frankfurt/M.: Suhrkamp, 1975 [1861]).{{Page needed|date=October 2013}}</ref> Engels speculated that the domestication of animals increased material wealth, which was claimed by men.{{Citation needed|date=October 2013}} Engels said that men wanted to control women to use as laborers and to pass on wealth to their children, requiring monogamy;{{Citation needed|date=October 2013}} as patriarchy rose, women's status declined until they became mere objects in the exchange trade between men, causing the global defeat of the female sex<ref>{{harvp|Engels|1984|p=70}}</ref> and the rise of individualism and competition.<ref>{{harvp|Engels|1984|p=204}}</ref> According to Eller, Engels may have been influenced with respect to women's status by [[August Bebel]],<ref>{{harvp|Eller|2011|p=115}}</ref> according to whom matriarchy naturally resulted in [[communism]], while patriarchy was characterized by exploitation.<ref>Bebel, August, ''Die Frau und der Sozialismus. Als Beitrag zur Emanzipation unserer Gesellschaft, bearbeitet und kommentiert von Monika Seifert'' (Stuttgart: Dietz, 1974 (1st published 1879)), p.&nbsp;63.</ref>

Austrian writer [[Bertha Eckstein-Diener|Bertha Diener]] (or Helen Diner), wrote ''Mothers and Amazons'' (1930), the first work to focus on women's cultural history, a classic of feminist matriarchal study.<ref name="Dinner party">[http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/dinner_party/heritage_floor/helen_diner.php ''Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art: The Dinner Party: Heritage Floor: Helen Diner'' (Brooklyn, N.Y.: Brooklyn Museum, last updated March 27, 2007)], as accessed March, 2008, & November 15, 2013.</ref> Her view is that all past human societies were originally matriarchal, while most later shifted to patriarchy and degenerated. The controversy intensified with ''[[The White Goddess]]'' by [[Robert Graves]] (1948) and his later analysis of classical Greek mythology, focusing on the reconstruction of earlier myths that had conjecturally been rewritten after a transition from matriarchal to patriarchal religion in very early historical times.

From the 1950s, Marija Gimbutas developed a theory of an ''[[Old European culture]]'' in Neolithic Europe with matriarchal traits, which had been replaced by the patriarchal system of the [[Proto-Indo-Europeans]] in the [[Bronze Age]]. However, other anthropologists warned that "the goddess worship or matrilocality that evidently existed in many paleolithic societies was not necessarily associated with matriarchy in the sense of women's power over men. Many societies can be found that exhibit those qualities along with female subordination."<ref>{{harvp|Epstein|1991|p=173}}</ref> According to Eller, Gimbutas had a large part in constructing a myth of historical matriarchy by examining [[Eastern Europe]]an cultures that never really resembled the alleged universal matriarchy. She asserts that in "actually documented primitive societies" of recent (historical) times, paternity is never ignored and that the sacred status of goddesses does not automatically increase female social status, and she interprets utopian matriarchy as an invented inversion of [[antifeminism]].{{Citation needed|date=November 2013}}

From the 1970s, ideas of matriarchy were taken up by popular writers of second-wave feminism such as [[Riane Eisler]], [[Elizabeth Gould Davis]], and [[Merlin Stone]], and expanded with the speculations of [[Margaret Murray]] on [[witchcraft]], by the [[Goddess movement]], and in [[feminist Wicca]]. "A Golden Age of matriarchy" was prominently presented by [[Charlene Spretnak]] and "encouraged" by Stone and Eisler,<ref>{{harvp|Epstein|1991|pp=172–173}}</ref> but, at least for the [[Neolithic]] Age, it has been denounced as feminist wishful thinking in works such as ''[[The Inevitability of Patriarchy]]'', ''[[Why Men Rule]]'', ''Goddess Unmasked'',<ref>Davis, Philip G., ''Goddess Unmasked'' (N.Y.: Spence Publishing, 1998 ({{ISBN|0-9653208-9-8}})); [http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-54600098.html Sheaffer, R., ''Skeptical Inquirer'' (1999) (review)].</ref> and ''[[The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory]]''. The idea is not emphasized in [[third-wave feminism]].

J.F. del Giorgio insists on a matrifocal, matrilocal, matrilineal Paleolithic society.<ref>del Giorgio, J.F., ''The Oldest Europeans'' (A.J.Place, 2006 ({{ISBN|978-980-6898-00-4}})).</ref>

==== Bronze Age ====
{{More citations needed section|date=October 2013}}
According to Rohrlich, "many scholars are convinced that Crete was a matriarchy, ruled by a queen-priestess"<ref>{{harvp|Rohrlich|1977|p=36}} and see p.&nbsp;37 ("Minoan matriarchate" (subquoting, at p.&nbsp;37 n.&nbsp;7, Thomson, George, ''The Prehistoric Aegean'' (N.Y.: Citadel Press, 1965), p.&nbsp;450)), Baruch, Elaine Hoffman, ''Introduction'', in Pt. Four (''Visions of Utopia''), in {{harvp|Rohrlich|1984|p=207}} ("matriarchal societies, particularly Minoan Crete"), and {{harvp|Rohrlich|1984|p=6}} ("the Minoan matriarchy" & "Minoan Crete").</ref> and the "Cretan civilization" was "matriarchal" before "1500 BC," when it was overrun and colonized by the patriarchy.<ref>Three quotations: {{harvp|Rohrlich|1977|p=37}}</ref>

Also according to Rohrlich, "in the early Sumerian city-states 'matriarchy seems to have left something more than a trace.{{'"}}<ref>{{harvp|Rohrlich|1977|p=39}}, quoting Thomson, George, ''The Prehistoric Aegean'' (N.Y.: Citadel Press, 1965), p.&nbsp;160.</ref>

One common misconception among historians of the Bronze Age such as Stone and Eisler is the notion that the [[ancient Semitic-speaking peoples|Semites]] were matriarchal while the Indo-Europeans practiced a patriarchal system. An example of this view is found in Stone's ''[[When God Was a Woman]]'',{{Page needed|date=July 2013}} wherein she makes the case that the worship of [[Yahweh]] was an Indo-European invention superimposed on an ancient matriarchal Semitic nation. Evidence from the [[Amorites]] and [[pre-Islamic Arabia|pre-Islamic Arabs]], however, indicates that the primitive Semitic family was in fact patriarchal and patrilineal.{{Citation needed|date=August 2023}}

However, not all scholars agree. Anthropologist and Biblical scholar [[Raphael Patai]] writes in ''[[The Hebrew Goddess]]'' that the Jewish religion, far from being pure monotheism, contained from earliest times strong polytheistic elements, chief of which was the cult of [[Asherah]], the mother goddess. A story in the Biblical Book of Judges places the worship of Asherah in the 12th century BC. Originally a [[Canaan]]ite goddess, her worship was adopted by Hebrews who intermarried with Canaanites. She was worshipped in public and was represented by carved wooden poles. Numerous small nude female figurines of clay were found all over ancient Palestine and a seventh-century Hebrew text invokes her aid for a woman giving birth.<ref>{{Harvp|Patai|1990|pp=38–39}}</ref>

[[Shekinah]] is the name of the feminine holy spirit who embodies both divine radiance and compassion. Exemplifying various traits associated with mothers, she comforts the sick and dejected, accompanies the Jews whenever they are exiled, and intercedes with God to exercise mercy rather than to inflict retribution on sinners. While not a creation of the Hebrew Bible, Shekinah appears in a slightly later Aramaic translation of the Bible in the first or second century C.E., according to Patai. Initially portrayed as the presence of God, she later becomes distinct from God, taking on more physical attributes.<ref>{{Harvp|Patai|1990|pp=96–111}}</ref>

Meanwhile, the Indo-Europeans were known to have practiced multiple succession systems, and there is much better evidence of matrilineal customs among the Indo-European [[Celts]] and [[Germanics]] than among any ancient Semitic peoples.{{where|date=July 2022}}

Women ruled [[Sparta]] while the men were often away fighting, or when both kings were incapacitated or too young to rule. [[Gorgo, Queen of Sparta]], was asked by a woman in [[Attica]] "You Spartan women are the only women that lord it over your men", to which Gorgo replied: "Yes, for we are the only women that are mothers of men!"<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Moralia/Sayings_of_Spartans*/Lycurgus.html#13.Gorgo|title=Plutarch • Sayings of Spartans — Lycurgus|website=penelope.uchicago.edu|access-date=2019-02-21}}</ref>

==== Iron Age to Middle Ages ====
Arising in the period ranging from the [[Iron Age]] to the [[Middle Ages]], several [[northwestern Europe]]an mythologies from the [[Irish mythology|Irish]] (e.g. [[Macha]] and [[Scáthach]]), the [[Brittonic languages|Brittonic]] (e.g. [[Rhiannon]]), and the Germanic (e.g. [[Grendel's mother]] and [[Nerthus]]) contain ambiguous episodes of primal female power which have been interpreted as folk evidence of matriarchal attitudes in [[Iron Age|pre-Christian]] European Iron Age societies. Often transcribed from a retrospective, patriarchal, Romanised, and [[Catholic]] perspective, they hint at a possible earlier era when female power predominated. The first-century historical British figure of [[Boudicca]] indicates that Brittonnic society permitted explicit female autocracy or a form of gender equality which contrasted strongly with the patriarchal Mediterranean civilisation that later overthrew it.{{Citation needed|date=December 2013}}

==== 20th–21st centuries ====
The [[Mosuo]] people are an ethnic group in southwest China. They are considered one of the most well-known matriarchal societies, although many scholars assert that they are rather [[Matrilineality|matrilineal]]. {{as of|2016}}, the sole heirs in the family are still daughters.<ref name=":02">{{Cite news |title=The Place In China Where The Women Lead |language=en |website=NPR |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2016/11/26/501012446/the-place-in-china-where-the-women-lead |access-date=2021-05-11}}</ref><ref name=":1">"Mosuo People Maintain Rare Matriarchal Society (2)." Xinhua News Agency – CEIS, Jun 11 2000, p. 1. ProQuest. Web. 18 Apr. 2021.</ref> Since 1990, when foreign tourism became permitted, tourists started visiting the Mosuo people.<ref name=":02" /> As pointed out by the Xinhua News Agency, "tourism has become so profitable that many Mosuo families in the area who have opened their homes have become wealthy."<ref name=":1" /> Although this revived their economy and lifted many out of poverty, it also altered the fabric of their society to have outsiders present who often look down on the Mosuo's cultural practices.<ref name=":02" />  

In 1995, in [[Kenya]], according to Emily Wax, [[Umoja, Kenya|Umoja]], a village only for women from one tribe with about 36 residents, was established under a matriarch.<ref name="PlaceWhereWomenRule-WashPost-p1">[https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/08/AR2005070801775.html Wax, Emily, ''A Place Where Women Rule'', in ''The Washington Post'', July 9, 2005, p.&nbsp;1 (online)], as accessed October 13, 2013.</ref> It was founded on an empty piece of land by women who fled their homes after being raped by British soldiers.<ref name=":2">{{cite news |last1=Karimi |first1=Faith |title=She grew up in a community where women rule and men are banned |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2019/01/30/africa/samburu-umoja-village-intl-asequals-africa/index.html |work=CNN |date=30 January 2019 }}</ref> They formed a safe-haven in rural Samburu County in northern Kenya.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|title=In Kenya's Umoja Village, a sisterhood preserves the past, prepares the future|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/kenya-s-umoja-village-sisterhood-preserves-past-prepares-future-n634391|access-date=2021-05-11|website=NBC News|date=September 9, 2016 |language=en}}</ref> Men of the same tribe established a village nearby from which to observe the women's village,<ref name="PlaceWhereWomenRule-WashPost-p1" /> the men's leader objecting to the matriarch's questioning the culture<ref name="PlaceWhereWomenRule-WashPost-p2">[https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/08/AR2005070801775_2.html Wax, Emily, ''A Place Where Women Rule'', in ''The Washington Post'', July 9, 2005, p.&nbsp;2 (online)], as accessed October 13, 2013.</ref> and men suing to close the women's village.<ref name="PlaceWhereWomenRule-WashPost-p2" /> As of 2019, 48 women, most of whom who have fled gender-based violence like female genital mutilation, assault, rape, and abusive marriages call Umoja home, living with their children in this all female-village.<ref name=":2" /> Many of these women faced stigma in their communities following these attacks and had no choice but to flee.<ref name=":3" /> Others sought to escape from the nearby Samburu community, which practices child marriage and female genital mutilation.<ref name=":3" />  In the village, the women practice "collective economic cooperation."<ref name=":3" /> The sons are obligated to move out when they turn eighteen.<ref name=":2" /> Not only has the Umoja village protected its members, the members have also done extensive work for gender equity in Kenya.<ref name=":3" /> The message of the village has spread outside of Kenya as member "Lolosoli's passion for gender equity in Kenya has carried her to speak on social justice at the United Nations and to participate in an international women's rights conference in South Africa."<ref name=":3" />

The [[Khasi people|Khasi]] people live in [[Northeast India]] in the state of [[Meghalaya]].<ref name=":4">{{cite journal |last1=Banerjee |first1=Roopleena |title='Matriarchy' and Contemporary Khasi Society |journal=Proceedings of the Indian History Congress |date=2015 |volume=76 |pages=918–930 |jstor=44156662}}</ref> Although largely considered [[Matrilineality|matrilineal]], some women's studies scholars such as Roopleena Banerjee consider the Khasi to be matriarchal.<ref name=":4" /> Banerjee asserts that "to assess and account a matriarchal society through the parameters of the patriarchy would be wrong" and that "we should avoid looking at history only through the colonizer/colonized boundaries."<ref name=":4" /> The Khasi people consist of many clans who trace their lineage through the matriarchs of the families.<ref name=":4" /> A Khasi husband typically moves into his wife's home, and both wife and husband participate equally in raising their children.<ref name=":4" /> A Khasi woman named Passah explains that "[The father] would come to his wife's home late at night... In the morning, he's back at his mother's home to work in the fields," showing how a man's role consists of supporting his wife and family in Khasi society.<ref name=":5">{{Cite web|last=Rathnayake|first=Zinara|title=Khasis: India's indigenous matrilineal society|url=https://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20210328-why-some-indians-want-more-mens-rights|access-date=2021-05-17|website=www.bbc.com|language=en}}</ref> Traditionally, the youngest daughter, called the Khadduh, receives and cares for ancestral property.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":4" /> As of 2021, the Khasi continue to practice many female-led customs, with wealth and property being passed down through the female side of the family.<ref name=":5" />

Spokespersons for various [[indigenous peoples]] at the [[United Nations]] and elsewhere have highlighted the central role of women in their societies, referring to them as matriarchies, in danger of being overthrown by the patriarchy, or as matriarchal in character.<ref>Tamang, Stella, ''Indigenous Affairs'', vols. 1–2, no. 4, p.&nbsp;46.</ref><ref>''Six Nations Women's Traditional Council Fire Report to CEDAW'', p.&nbsp;2.</ref>