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The Term Matriarchy
Description of Matriarchy
Ecourse Matriarchy

"Today's Matriarchies From the Newest View"

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7 course segments,
1 email per week




Table of Contents

Click the red topics for an excerpt

  1. Where are there currently matriarchies?
  2. ... How can a society be documented as a matriarchy, if the term is not clearly defined?  Here we meet with one of the fundamental problems in matriarchy research. [...] H. L. Morgan described “Mother Right” among the matriarchal Iroquois of North America, and spoke, like Bachofen, of a “gynecocracy” (the rule of women) in the early cultural phases of humanity.  Although it would therefore appear as if Bachofen or Morgan were the discoverers of matriarchy, neither of them employed this concept! ...
  3. ... Namely, the idea that the right of the mother represents “an early cultural phase of humanity.” Bachofen, for example, connected Mother Right with pre-antique peoples, and the patriarchal model with the “more highly developed” Greek culture which sprang from them. ...
  4. ... In the 1960s, the agrarian sociologist Christian Sigrist employed the term of “regulated anarchy” as a book title, used previously (in 1921) by Max Weber (legal expert, economist, sociologist) for “primitive communities.” In his book Regulated Anarchy: Inquiries into the Absence and Origin of Political Government in the Segmentary Societies of Africa, the author points to the main characteristic of these societies: the lack of government. Here he examined the inter-relations that ...
  5. ... The social structures of a culture which is foreign to us cannot be perceived from without. This also holds for matriarchal societies. The characteristics of their life as a group become noticeable only when one lives among the people of such a society. This happened to the artist Antje Olowaili, who in the early 1990s lived for one year among the matriarchal Kuna (in Panama), and became aware of this fact only when, upon her return, she ...
  6. The use of authentic sources
  7. ... Harmony and reciprocity between men and women is an important feature of these societies. Matriarchies are societies in balance. This means that the relationship between man and woman is no “battle of the sexes,” no “marital war”; there are no hen-pecked husbands, bridled by some “Xanthippe,” no women’s shelters offering refuge to abused women. How, then, does it work? And what does a couple’s relationship look like? ...
    ... The anthropologist Dr. Shanshan Du investigated four socio-cultural frameworks for the equality of the sexes, which ...
    1. mother-centeredness
    2. the complementariness of the sexes— “different, but equally valuable”
    3. the meaninglessness of the sexes— the exact opposite to our society
    4. ... “Everything comes in pairs, there is no such thing as being alone!” Or, as is claimed in an oft-cited metaphor, which refers to the unity of spouses: “Chopsticks only work in pairs!” The same contribution, during a meal, of each stick in a pair of Chinese chopsticks reflects the joint roles of the sexes in all areas. This includes pregnancy and birth— here, the male spouse serves as midwife—, raising of children, housework, agricultural subsistence economy, and tasks of leadership. ...
  8. ... The circle is a typical symbol for tribal societies, which is often found in the architecture. The frequently encountered circular encampment, the circular structure of the settlement is an especially obvious architectonic possibility for the expression of social equality. ...
  9. Segmentary Societies — Another Concept for Matriarchy
  10. ... You have heard over and over again in this course that there is no rule in matriarchy, no single person who bears the responsibility or leadership. But how then is everyday life ordered? How are decisions taken? Who determines where the new granary should be built? Or, how is an answer found to important questions, which concern the entire tribe: should one sign a contract with representatives of the occupying power, form an alliance with the colonists, or enter into a relationship with the missionary station? Actually, the question is: How are politics conducted, in small matters and in large? ...
    1. What Are the Advantages of the Consensus-Principle?
    2. Consensus is Reflected in Language
  11. The Origin of Language and Self-knowledge
  12. The art of life: the balance between egoism and altruism
  13. ... Ethnologists have designated actions which benefit the group as “altruistic.” They have also labeled them as “selfless” actions, or actions “for the good of others” or “for the common good.” In doing so, they have chosen a concept which brings to mind a form of human behavior which is loaded with ethical connotations. That is, a moral standard is conveyed along with the concept.
    On the other hand, one hears that Darwin’s point of view amounts to the “law of the jungle,” according to which every individual, egoistically, at the cost of others, and in ruthless competition, looks after his own interests. This view of animal life as egoistic is false in two regards. ...

Literature and sources used

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Peaceful Societies

You can call them "Segmentary Societies" like Emile Durkheim, "Regulated Anarchies" like Max Weber, "Peaceful Societies" like on the Website mentioned below or "Matriarchy", like German Scholars define it (not to confuse with Bachofen, goddess movement or FemDom). It all is the same kind of society with the same patterns. Basically:

  • No violence
  • Sexual freedom including all ages
  • Decision making by consensus
  • Living in clans and/or tribal communities
  • Veneration of the ancestors
  • Close integration/interaction with nature

"Peaceful societies are contemporary groups of people who effectively foster interpersonal harmony and who rarely permit violence or warfare to interfere with their lives. This website serves to introduce these societies to students, peace activists, scholars and citizens who are interested in the conditions that promote peacefulness. It includes information on the beliefs of these peoples, the ways they maintain their nonviolence, and the factors that challenge their lifestyles."

Go to Peaceful Societies Website.

 
Women Are More Powerful
Thought forms or spiritual insight, the biological ability to endure pain and a lot of other abilities make women more the cause of man's insecurities than he would like to admit. This article will focus on the psychic nurturing side of women that the vernacular lingo calls 'women's intuition'.
Read more...
 
Justice and the Face of the Great Mother (East and West)

By Donna Marie Giancola
Suffolk University

The purpose of this presentation is to examine the role of justice as it emerges in the early mythic and philosophical traditions of ancient Greece and India. Specifically, my paper will focus on the relationship of justice to the Great Mother as the Divine Creatrix and final judge of all Reality. It is my thesis that there were really two notions of justice which began to emerge in the ancient world. The older view (the one that we have almost forgotten) was rooted in the early Goddess religions where Justice was seen as the avenging/mediating force of the Great Mother. The other view developed later in the dominant patriarchal Aryan culture of norms and laws, and provides the basis for our modern day conception of justice as an abstract principle.

Before commenting on these various images of justice, it might be helpful to outline its emergence and subsequent transformations. The notion of justice as a dynamic, cosmic principle, alive and divine, and manifest in nature is part of the great mythical and historical heritage of both ancient Greece and India. The situation in the Aegean basin, the cradle of Greek thought, parallels in many ways that of early India which, in the late Neolithic Age saw a migration of semi-nomadic herding, androcratic-warrior Aryans into an area whose indigenous population was primarily agricultural and gynocentric. But, as the modern science of ethnology is revealing, indigenous cultures are not so easily obliterated: the world-view and ways of a subjugated people, as preserved in their art and religious rituals and especially their myths, is not so easily erased.

We know that one the very earliest appearances of justice in ancient Greek civilization was as a Goddess. Her function was to judge humans; either to punish or reward conduct in relation to the Divine Principle. This may be called the "religious face" of justice. We also know that quite a different notion of justice became explicit in Classical times. It was centered in human law and quite likely was first articulated by the mathematico-pragmatic (in contrast to the religeo-mystical) wing of the Pythagoreans; certainly most clearly articulated by Plato and Aristotle. This scientific-rational view of justice is culminating today in the conception of humans as isolated observers of an impersonal cosmos.

The earliest religion of the ancient Greeks was centered on the worship of a single "Triple-Goddess," so called because of her three phases of maiden, nymph and crone corresponding to the three seasons of spring, summer and winter. Since the reproductive cycles of plants and animals are governed by these seasons, she was also identified with Mother Earth. As W. K. C. Guthrie puts it: "The Mother-Goddess is the embodiment of the fruitful earth, giver of life and fertility to plants, animals and men." (1) While it is arguable whether or not the tribe was ruled by a matriarch, it is fairly certain that a moon-priestess, with her sister nymphs, presided over tribal worship. (2) This Neolithic civilization, centered on agriculture with a corresponding gylanic (emphasizing fertility) and peaceful culture, was subjected to a series of invasions, beginning about 3,500 B.C., by herding peoples whose culture was basically androcratic: patriarchal, patrilineal and militaristic. (3) Thus, from 3,500 B.C. on, the history of this region can be viewed as the struggle of an indigenous people to preserve their customs, religion, art and mythic lore in the face of successive waves of invaders. For example, in relation to the Goddess Athene, according to Robert Graves:

J. E. Harrison rightly described the story of Athene's birth from Zeus's head as "a desperate theological expedient to rid her of her matriarchal conditions. It is also a dogmatic insistence on wisdom as a male prerogative; hitherto the Goddess alone had been wise." (4)

It would appear that the ancient cult of the Mother-Goddess (in her role as Maiden) in Athens was tolerated by the Greeks at this price: she must be born of Zeus alone, she must be "Zeus's obedient mouthpiece, and deliberately surpress her [true] antecedents. She employs priests, not priestesses." (5) Originally, all of the images of Athene were those of an unadorned woman whose peaceful character, wisdom and nurturing heart were symbolized by the olive branch and the owl. It was not until Phidias portrayed her as a warrior in the great cult-statue which he made for the Parthenon at Athens (c. 430) that the conventional image of Athene became that of a woman's head surmounted by a war helmet, and not as the protectress, as was her original role. Thus, we can see how the earliest Greek myths testify to the struggle of the Aryan patriarchal culture to subdue the matriarchal elements of the indigenous tradition. (6)

Justice, in its earliest religious-mythical origins was one the faces of the great Goddess. The oldest "recorded" appearance of justice in ancient Greece is found in the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer. Homer uses the Greek words ("dike ") and ("themis ") with which it is associated, to designate "custom" or "way of behavior" that accords with what is ordained by law, with emphasis on human decrees. (7) Thus, there is to be found in Homeric mythology the notion of justice as a regulative principle or law which encompasses the social and moral order of human affairs. At the same time, however, Homer preserves the tradition of the primal Mother-Goddess under the guise of "Fate." It is she who rules the universe and whose power binds both humans and gods. The primal Mother-Goddess is still preserved in Homer. Her power, if ignored or challenged, brings retribution. Thus, Themis/Dike represents a force higher than the law, and higher even than the decisions of the gods.

By way of contrast, the Homeric notion of justice as law or judicial decree finds its philosophical expression in Plato and Aristotle as universal ideal and standard of virtue. Their world-view, however, stands in contrast with the earlier indigenous culture worship of the "Great Mother" and which, according to Guthrie, "was utterly different from the masculine, Homeric relationships between man and god and its shadowy, bloodless life and death." (8) Thus, along with "justice" as an abstract law or ideal there was another justice, very much alive, and so much part of the character of the Mother-Goddess that it was not until very late that she was separated-out and perceived as a distinct identity.

[...]

It is evidently with Solon that the laws of the king/state first become codified and objective; justice, thereby, is no longer seen as aspect of the living earth Mother-Goddess, but as the superimposition of human law. Dike comes to be seen in the workings of human affairs within the context of law, as universally applied equality. (12) However, as Martin Heidegger has pointed out, if Dike is taken for the modern abstract term "justice," i.e., as moral or judicial, it misses the original metaphysical sense of that ancient Greek word. (13)

[...]

In Parmenides, we find that the thoroughly feminine symbolism of his poem (especially the person of the Goddess) attests that he is a defender of the values of the Neolithic subculture which were in danger of being further eclipsed by the recent scientific outlook being propagated by the Pythagorean movement. (17) It is the oneness/unity of Being which Dike as the face of the Great Mother-Goddess must ensure. The ancient conception of justice as maternal measure, as the law of life, stands in contrast to our modern separation of society and nature. Dike , then, originally encompassed the whole order of living things and was the very measure of Being. As Heidegger points out, "Dike is the overpowering Order." (18)

It is this mystical notion of measure and harmony that we find in the Eastern tradition of the Vedas in the concept of Rta, as "what is adjusted, fitted together." (19)

[...]

It should be remembered that the gods/goddess of Vedic myths and hymns, like those in Homeric Greece represented a superhuman/cosmic order, and were the recipients of prayers, rituals, and sacrifices. (21) In India, however, the notion of the gods/goddess as separate and different deities representing the manifold aspects of the universe developed into an understanding of the one deity that subsumed the various aspects of polytheistic deities into a comprehensive unity. The personification of Justice as a separate deity does not exist in early Vedic mythology. Justice is seen as a function within the role and symbolism of the Great Mother traditions.

The early pre-history of India corresponds in many ways with that of ancient Greece, where, again, the Aryans ("the people of sky") invaded the early matriarchal gynocentric culture of the Dravidians which can be traced back as early as 3,000 B.C. Here we can see the similarities in terms of their matriarchal beliefs and rituals in their Paleolithic caves and mounds. The earliest Great Mother cults of Asia were earth-centered, focusing on fertility and life-giving energy. Their rituals included celebrations of nature and the offering of plants and herbs to the source of creation. With the conquest of the Aryans, the religious focus shifted from that which was immanent in nature to the transcendent sky gods with rituals involving fire and smoke. The early Goddess religions attempted to assimilate the patriarchal gods into their culture and, for some time after the initial invasion, the Goddess was worshipped as one of the primary deities. Yet, as was the situation in ancient Greece, this adaptation soon gave way to the superimposition of patriarchal gods and conception of Brahman as ultimate reality. With the conquest of the Aryans, Rta as the way of nature became subsumed under the law of karma.

The concept of Rta as the unity of nature/order was instrumental in providing the early Vedic thinkers with a regulative principle of cosmic order and righteousness that later would merge into a comprehensive morality. The role of Rta as regulative moral principle came to be symbolized in the recurrent activities of man and nature, where "the river flows Rta," "the year is the path of Rta," "the gods themselves are born of Rta," and "the sun is called the wheel of Rta." The wheel best symbolizes the regular reoccurrence of the order and right of Rta. (22) Thus, we can see the importance of Rta for the ethical formulation of the dharma, as "what holds together." (23)

In Indian philosophy, the Vedic and early Buddhist schools have much the same notion of as that of the ancient Greeks where justice, as dharma/karma, is a living-ethical force inherent in the structure and creation of the universe. In the Eastern schools of Non-dualism, Maya is traditionally understood as illusion, as unreality. However, Maya is identical to Brahman, understood as manifesting (as well as partially revealing) various "levels" of Being. Maya also has the connotation of discrimination or measure. As Zimmer explains "Maya from the root ma, 'to measure, to form, to build." (24) In Maya, we find the image of the World-Mother as the cosmic "second" which conceals and reveals all divine experience. As the "Mother of all Life energy," she is the discerner and judge as to whether the one seeking enlightenment is deserving of the full truth. There are innumerable manifestations of this play of Maya as the World Mother.

[...]

In Tibetan Buddhism we find the notion of the "Mother of the Buddhas" (Prajna Paramita) "Womb of the Tathagata." One of the more meaningful points that has arisen from the feminist analysis of Buddhism has been the emphasis on the interconnectedness and dynamic of all reality. Here, the Earth-Mother is seen as essential emptiness which is the basis for all identity and relation. While the Buddhists would readily recognize that the basic ground is neither male nor female, the symbolism is meant to refer to the feminine principle of creativity and birth, or perhaps more specifically as pure potentiality or empty space. As Tsultrim Allione claims:

The essential emptiness is the primary matrix of existence and is therefore called the 'Mother of Creation.' It is the basic space that permeates everything and undermines the ego. Voidness is an expression of space. The Great Mother principle is the space that gives birth to the phenomenal world. (30)

[...]

It should be noted that, as Maya is not mere illusion, the primordial mother of Tantra Buddhism is not mere emptiness. As Anne Klein states: "here the ultimate empty nature itself is filled with positive potential." (32) Emptiness is the ground of all possibilities, of enlightenment, of life, of interdependence. All things are the "active play of the female creative principle." (33)

The Womb of the Tathagata, or as Anne Klein asserts, "the womb that is reality," (34) is the measure of all life. In Tantric thought, she continues, "creation is time- the Goddess in her function of 'measurer' (maya: mens: moon) weaves the substance of events." (35) One may recall the Hindu goddess Kali who rules death and "all devouring time." The Great Mother principle is considered through her symbolism (the downward pointing triangle) and her creative powers to be the source of all dharmas. (36) As such, she not only creates good and evil, but is their very manifestation. Her's is not only the "gate of birth," but also the dharma gate of enlightenment itself, the perfection of "profound cognition." (37) The principle of judgment based on primordial emptiness/fullness of Being is present within the essence of the great-mother. In the Great Cosmic Mother, Monica Sj?? states that "this form of the Goddess is always the law giver, the order of time, the judge of dead, the eternal source of wisdom and ecstasy." (38) As the primordial mother of all life energy, her justice, like that of the ancient Greeks, is organic and alive.

[...]

If we trace the roots of Justice to its early mythical Indo-European sources, we find the face of the Triple-Goddess in both traditions. The pre-historical sources confer that one of the functions of the great Cosmic-Mother is as the guardian/manifestation/mediator of Being. This is where I believe the concept of measure occurs in both traditions. It has been suggested, although I doubt that it has been taken very seriously, that women were the first to deal with numbers and astronomy by counting menstrual cycles and charting the path of the moon in correspondence with their biological calendar.

[...]

As we have also seen, the great Mother Goddess is portrayed in both cultures as the "gate keeper," to truth, enlightenment, being and non-being. She is the giver of life, and as such the law-giver. Her law is the law of creation and cannot be superimposed as an objective standard, indeed, her law is beyond convention, where Dike is the avenging force of Fate, and Kali wears a necklace of human skulls to remind us of the didactic power of creation. In ancient Greece, the ordinance of the Goddess superseded even Zeus, and in India, it was Earth Mother herself who sanctioned the Buddha's enlightenment.

[...]

It should go without saying that, traditionally understood, the origin of law has been patriarchy. Cosmic law codes are firmly established in all of the meta-cosmic religions and their cultures. They are, by authority, eternal, immutable, and not subject to human will. Their violation results in moral/karmic consequences. They are said to be based on a sense of cosmic harmony. Justice thereby becomes a set of standard universalized abstract rational principles. They are, in fact, androcentric principles. As Rita Gross states: "to a greater of lesser degree, most religions include a complex code of behavior considered to be divinely revealed or cosmically given that regulates daily life, including gender relationships." (39)

[...]

The feminist objection to patriarchal conceptions of law is based on the androcentric insistence of universality of the male, the disregard of emotions and the supremacy of abstract principles over notions of relations and interconnections. The face of the Earth Mother in both traditions stands prior to such patriarchal articulations. The pre-patriarchal nature of justice, we find in the Great Mother (Triple Goddess), is not androcentric, not universal, not abstract. Her judgment is not so much about principle, but about concrete relations, relations of humans to each other, to animals, to plants to the reality of nature. Today, feminist philosophers are attempting to reconstruct a new vision of global community, global ethics and eco-justice. But, as many are discovering, this is problematic within the present paradigm. Rosemary Radford Ruether in her work on Gaia and God, calls for a new vision for understanding human relations and nature, for eco-justice. She states:

"If dominating and destructive relations to the earth are interrelated with gender, class and racial domination, then a healed relation to the earth cannot come about simply through technological "fixes." . . . In short it means that we must speak of eco-justice, and not simply of domination of the earth as though that happened unrelated to social domination." (41)

With all the work being done in the ancient Goddess religions and feminist spirituality, the idea of the angry, the energetic, the avenging aspect of the goddess is still a taboo. In reconstruction of the role and symbols of the Great Mother, modern day literature has tended to focus more on her positive nature, wisdom/compassion, creation and interconnection, Hence, to a certain extent they have perpetuated the false dichotomy of opposites. Again to quote Ruether; "ecofeminist theology and spirituality has tended to assume that the goddess we need for ecological well-being is the reverse of the God we have in Semitic monotheistic traditions. . ." (42) The Great Mother is not the polar-opposite of the patriarchal god. She is, in principle, beyond all opposites, containing them with herself. Her justice demands that we take the duality of nature as primordial emptiness or unity. Part of her triple function is as the avenging force of creation and destruction, and good and evil, life and death. Her function as Justice is severe and horrific. This is the "dark side" of the Mother. This dark side of the Great Mother is veiled, hidden, concealed she is not referred to as dark to indicate color or evil, but rather to stress the primal nature of her being, that which is unmanifested. She is the force which adjusts internal relations to the external world. In the Indo-European origins of both ancient Greece and India we find this notion of the "dark side of the Mother." Today, Justice no longer stands as an autonomous figure as a divine face of the Great Mother. In India one may still finds traces of her avenging nature. For example, according to the Hindu tradition of time, we are in cycle of Kali Yuga or age of destruction.

In both ancient Greece and India the message is clearly articulated that Justice is the way of Being. As an original manifestation of the Great Mother her role was to stress the non-duality of what is. Her presence indicates that Justice is not seen as separate from reality, nor as imposition but indeed as the necessary limit/measure of creativity, not fragmented as part of a social construction, but as the whole embodiment of energy. This idea runs through all the earliest manifestations of Indo-European pre-history and indigenous religions. Further, as we have seen her role as the avenging Goddess is to ensure the dynamic of Being, as the initiator of judgment. Her pronouncements ensure not just cosmic order but meta-cosmic relations, indeed in the unity which encompasses all opposites. Justice itself is beyond the duality of good and evil, beyond that which is manifested and concealed. As the embodiment of the creative of principle it is not only centered on existence, but mediates that which is beyond existence and non-existence, including pure potentiality. She covers the expanse of discriminating and non-discriminating awareness, as something which we can barely recollect, what one might call, Non-dualistic Justice.

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Source:

This is an excerpt of the fascinating original article you can find here. All sources and literature are also on this website. I highly recommend to read the whole work of Donna Marie Giancola!

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The Mosuo as a living matriarchal society

Article en français: Les Mosuo une société matriarcale vivante 
Excerpt of the french articel: The Mosuo are a non-Chinese ethnic minority living within the boundaries of China. They are considered by Chinese anthropologists to be matriarchal, because they are still living in accordance with the patterns of matrilinearity and matrilocality.

It occupies the entire valley and is surrounded by high mountains, one of which is called Gun mu, "Mother Mountain", the protective Goddess of the Mosuo. All persons within each clan-house have the clan name of the eldest woman, the clan mother.

The names, as well as the common ownership of the house and the land, are exclusively inherited through the female line. At about thirteen years of age, after the ceremony of initiation, girls are considered to be full members of the clan and are given the key to their own rooms.

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Where girls can do anything - About the matriarchal Mosuo of China, Background Facts, Interviews and a 20 Min. Video to watch.

 
Do scientists deny matriarchy?
Boris wrote: In Encyclopedia Britannica I found this statement:
"Like other elements of the evolutionist view of culture, the notion of matriarchy as a universal stage of development is now generally discredited, and the modern consensus is that a strictly matriarchal society has never existed." (source Britannica) How come?

Read more...
 

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