@solarsupermama

Well, now. I have stumbled on some interesting research for this one. This is the ecoTrain question of the week and is a follow up to our question about patriarchy. This was harder than answering what patriarchy is. I think that is mostly the case because we live in a patriarchy. You can sort of feel your way through the question.

Not surprisingly there is a shitload of dissent about what a matriarchy is and whether or not one has ever actually existed. Ill give you the brief overview of the rabbithole i fell in yesterday and today.

In the late 19th century, there were some prehistoric artifacts discovered that sort of started to shake things up, namely art that seemed to revere women, particularly for the magical power of their bodies in birthing children. That was used to make a few assumptions and further some agendas. Some used it to say that patriarchy was an evolution from matriarchy. I know. Charming, right?

@sharoonyasir

Being on the @ecotrain is amazing for many reasons and one of the top ones being that you get to really shake your mind, put a thinking cap on and give your two cents on an interesting question every week. We have had questions based on spirituality, influential and important events in our lives, child protective services and several other important and great topics that really make us think hard. This time too, we have a great question to answer which is a sequel of the previous question that focused on a patriarchal society.

The question this week is as mentioned in the title:

What is matriarchy? What do you think a matriarchal society would look like?

Here's my take on it.

Honestly, matriarchy was a very new concept to me when @clara-andriessen suggested this question as the question of the week (QOTW). The question before this one revolved around patriarchy and what is it rooted in so when i wrote on it, I thought that a matriarchal society would be the opposite of a patriarchal one. So at that time, I believed that a matriarchal society would be one where women would rule unlike the patriarchal society. I also thought that it would be as strong and stereotypical like a patriarchal one. Like men rule and dominate everyone else who seems powerless to them and because they believe they are worthy of dominating others in a patriarchal society, I thought that a matriarchal one would be somewhat similar too with the difference that women would be in power and would rule and govern everyone. So yes, at that time I thought that just like a patriarchal society is full of stereotypes and cliches that we badly wish to escape, a matriarchal one would be similar too.

@likedeeler

Matriarchy, for lack of a better word, is good. - Gordon Gekko

With this fake quote, film aficionados might know the real one, I like to start off my post, refering to one theory that the word matriarchy itself is the product of a translation mistake.

When Johann Jakob Bachofen wrote his seminal work “Das Mutterrecht“ the direct but clumsy translation Mother Right was soon replaced with the term matriarchy in English then retranslated as Matriarchat into German and voila!, a star was born.

Ethnologists usually prefer the term matrilinear, describing societies, where land and property is owned and passed on among the females of a family, from mother to daughter, and husbands sometimes are mere visitors into the household of their wife, their social obligations remaining more to their own mother´s family than to that of their wife and the most important male figure for a child being not the own biological father but the eldest brother of its mother, the maternal uncle, since he is the one man permanently present in the child´s family.

I think this arrangement has a certain natural logic and charm to it.
Like the bee, which is needed to pollinate the apple blossom, but the apple stays with the apple tree, the male is only needed to impregnate the female and for genetic reasons this must be a man from another family, but the child stays in the mother´s family, like the apple stays with the apple tree.

@mountainjewel

Foremost, an interesting thought that has been crossing my mind that was also expressed in @trucklife-family's post and that is that really most of us haven't experienced Matriarchy so it's difficult to write about or imagine.

That being said, some cultures still have Matriarchal societies to this day in which the land, family name, assets and ownership of the home is passed down through the female line. It's a really interesting concept for those of us in the West because we literally don't see this anywhere en masse.

Matriarchal or Patriarchal - these really boil down to societal organization methods. How will we sculpt the idea of ownership, property, etc.

But more than that, the underlying reasons for one system to dominate another and take precedence has always interested me. Why is there male rule and domination in our cultures? Why is the masculine prioritized? The first-born son the chosen and hoped for one?

Has it always been this way?
And if not, how and why did it change and what was it like before?

@sagescrub

This is my response to the #ecoTrain question of the week "What is a Matriarchy?"

Thank you to @clara-andriessen for posing the question - and - for providing your own wise response to the question: What is matriarchy? What do you think a matriarchal society would look like? ecotrain question of the week

I am so glad to be asked this question because it got me thinking about what is a matriarchy. To be honest it is a difficult question because all I have known in my life is patriarchy. I grew up in a patriarchal family in a patriarchal culture.

Today, in shaping my own idea of a matriarchy I looked to the women in my life. What are the feminine qualities they embody, embrace, excel at and are proud of that could transfer to a culture?

All Children Are My Children

I see this attitude in mothers; being ready to care for other children. Whether it is a moment at the playground sensing danger for a child, a child's plea for help or doing a favor for another mother. A mother knows what it is like to have a child. Her love for her child can not be outshined.

CREDITS

Thumbnail Image Used With Thanks To:
https://rowettes.deviantart.com/art/Matriarchy-688228429