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#matriarchy

3 posts3 participants0 posts today
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DoomsdaysCW

So, I've been thinking a lot about #matriarchy and groups of people. From my own experience, sometimes groups with even the best of intentions can turn into pools of #ToxicMasculinity when males with egos start trying to run things and boss everyone around. I saw that happen with my own coven, when a member of #AIM started having the final say about everything -- often overriding our High Priestess (he was her consort). From what I've read about AIM on a national level (including excerpts from #KleeBenally's book, #NoSpiritualSurrender and #MaryCrowDog's #LakotaWoman), it seems to have been pretty commonplace. So much for Iroquois matriarchy, eh? (The coven-mate in question was Mohawk).

Public
DoomsdaysCW

The Role of Women in #Iroquois Society

May 26, 2024

Learn about the #matrilineal structure and the influential roles women play in governance and daily life.

"Women in Iroquois society held significant power and influence, a reflection of the matrilineal structure of their clans. This matrilineal system meant that lineage and inheritance were passed down through the mother’s line, which was relatively unique among Native American cultures.

Political Influence

"Iroquois women had a decisive role in the governance of their communities. #ClanMothers, the eldest women in the clan, had the authority to nominate and depose the male leaders, or #sachems, who represented their clans in the Grand Council. These women were highly respected and played a key role in ensuring that the leaders acted in the best interests of the people."

Read more:
inkg.org/the-role-of-women-in-

#matriarchy#NativeAmericans
Public
DoomsdaysCW

Another passion of mine is the history of #Çatalhöyük site - and whether or not it had a #MatriachalSociety!

Ancient city possibly ruled by females living in a "matriarchal society" more than 9,000 years ago, researchers say

By Cara Tabachnick
June 28, 2025

Excerpt: "We need to move away from our Western bias that assumes all societies are #patrilineal. Many cultures, including some #IndigenousAustralian groups, pass identity, land rights, and responsibilities through the mother's line — a #matrilineal system,' study co-author Dr. Eline Schotsmans, a research fellow at Australia's University of Wollongong's School of Science, said in a statement.

"These findings come several months after researchers studying social networks in #CelticSociety in Britain before the #RomanInvasion gathered genetic evidence from a late Iron Age cemetery and found that women were closely related, while unrelated men tended to come into the community from elsewhere, likely after marriage.

"Using an examination of ancient DNA recovered from 57 graves in #Dorset in southwest England, their study, published in the journal Nature, shows that two-thirds of the individuals were descended from a single maternal lineage. This suggests that women had some control of land and property, as well as strong social support, researchers said.

"Researchers said upon the release of their findings, 'It is possible that maternal ancestry was the primary shaper of group identities.' "

Read more:
cbsnews.com/news/ancient-city-

Original paper:
science.org/doi/10.1126/scienc

CBS News · Ancient city possibly ruled by females living in a "matriarchal society" more than 9,000 years ago, researchers sayBy Cara Tabachnick
#History#Histodon#Matriarchy
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RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist

As a #feminist and #gender #fiction #writer, I know words and wording matter. They shape the information flow and the emotions of the reader.While the linked article is excellent, I especially commend the Live Science columnist, Kristina Killgrove, for including the meta byplay amongst scientists pointing out how the study authors used language to hedge admitting to discovering a real life instance of matriarchy. They didn't want to offend some overly sensitive patriarchal man. I'm quoting the section below from the article.

"We preferred using 'female-centered' instead of matrilineal because the latter is about how people define kin," Somel [the study's author] said. "Çatalhöyük households could have been matrilineal, but we think using more general terms might be preferable. It is always good to be cautious," he said.

But Benjamin Arbuckle, an archaeologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who was not involved in the study, wrote in a perspective in Science that "if the sex patterns were reversed, there would likely be little hesitation in concluding that patriarchal power structures were at play."

The columnist goes on to include this:

"This is reflective of the difficulty that many scholars have in imagining a world characterized by substantial female power despite abundant archaeological, historic, and ethnographic evidence that matriarchal fields of power were and are widespread," Arbuckle said.

If you find yourself censoring so as not to offend, don't do that. It will ruin your work and give you a bad rep. Use the right words, then explain why they are right and why others might mistakenly see them as inflammatory.

livescience.com/archaeology/an

#BoostingIsSharing

Live Science · Ancient 'female-centered' society thrived 9,000 years ago in proto-city in TurkeyBy Kristina Killgrove
#WritersOfMastodon#WritingCommunity#Archaeology
Public
RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist

#EngenderedWriting 92 — How would it change society if women were and had always been physically stronger than men? CW: Patriarchy dissected.

It's a fun idea, and I know authors who are making it work. Still, my opinion, if strength is the only factor I am not sure it would have resulted in a society substantially different than our own. I'll analyze it for you authors so you can rewrite history.

It takes more than strength to make two people evenly matched. (I've been researching prizefighting.) Arm reach is the difference between your punch being blocked and being able to hit with few injuries. Speed and stamina matter. Weight and inertia matter. Think wrestling. All are more important than quantitative strength. This is why there are weight classes in most combative sports.

Unfortunately, women have a smaller stature on average. Weapons are an equalizer here, especially if women can wield heavier weapons than their male opponents. In a fantasy context, magic could be an equalizer. The male tendency toward aggression in aggregate could tip the scales if overwhelming force is applied.

The Indo-Europeans might have invented the concept of controlling women's sexuality to ensure a man could guarantee the paternity of a child and thus make passing property only down the male line arguably reasonable. This usurps matriarchy. This is the true definition of patriarchy. Theories are that Indo-Europeans attacked pre-existing matrilineal societies. There is archeological evidence of prior societies that seem to have been lead by women. Their demise might be the genocides hinted at in the Bible. Who would win (or would have won) if women were significantly stronger?

Women do have their advantages. Arguably speed due to less inertia, especially with added strength. Not natively aggressive in general, they might be better able to pick the winnable fights while angry men might be thinking emotionally. Flexibility. A greater biological investment in offspring might make women less likely to look at fighting as a game, the way men to this day are prone to do (not all of them, of course). For men, fighting can be fun. The danger is a gamble, but we understand the psychology of gambling, too.

For women a fight that includes protecting genetic family from child killers is never a game. Remember that paternity is imperative to a patriarch, more than life itself. A woman, especially one who's stronger than a man her size, might fixate on the death of an attacker and become ruthless. Protecting one's child changes the concept of mercy and surrender. Are either even reasonable?

We aren't those precursor matrilineal people anymore, so it's hard to characterize what could have happened were women stronger. I didn't address women's language skills or diplomacy as these aren't strength dependent, and did not prevent the obliteration of matrilineal societies by the Indo-Europeans. What I've listed are things I'd consider if I were to rewrite history with only one change: Women being stronger.

[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing and #CommentingIsCool

#gender #fiction #writer #author
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#fighting #prizefighting #indo-european #strength #women #matrilineal #matriarchy #patriarchy

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maschmi

Imagine the surprise when they found out #bees have a #matriarchy.

"For as long as two hundred years, natural philosophers and even beekeepers were willing and even eager to distort their closely observed accounts of bee sociality in the service of maintaining the power of the bee “polity” to analogize, and thereby to authorize, prevailing norms such as gender hierarchy in government, the superior usefulness of male labor, or the chastity and monogamy of women."

folger.edu/blogs/shakespeare-a

www.folger.eduThe political insect: Bees as an early modern metaphor for human hierarchy | Folger Shakespeare LibraryFolger Shakespeare Library is the world's largest Shakespeare collection, the ultimate resource for exploring Shakespeare and his world. Shakespeare belongs to you. His world is vast. Come explore. Join us online, on the road, or in Washington, DC.
Public
Levka

#Celts #matriarchy #archeology

"Celtic society in England was female-focused 2,000 years ago, a genetic study of Iron Age skeletons reveals. DNA analysis of dozens of ancient burials uncovered a community whose lineage could be traced back to one woman, and showed that men joined the group upon marriage."

livescience.com/archaeology/we

Live Science · Were the Celts matriarchal? Ancient DNA reveals men married into local, powerful female lineagesBy Kristina Killgrove
Replied in thread
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RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist

@rspfau
I disagree with your interpretation of the word "marriage" as an inexact word, or it being cited as shorthand in the article for monogamy—the one I cited or the one you cited. Good article, so thanks for the link.

Even the article finds itself using modern examples of "mating systems" and trying to apply it to ancestral human groups, but acknowledging it was failing as we can only speculate what does or doesn't apply to the past without data. Even sampling primates and other mammals gives a mixed signal which is also noise, giving unconvincing permission to apply what we are used to rather than what our society sees as radical and dangerous.

Early Middle Eastern archeological finds imply women dominated societies (see When God was a Woman by Merlin Stone), and admittedly this may be wrong, too. What was, and what we think it was, could be different things—though I'm convinced otherwise.

Marriage serves one purpose: guaranteeing paternity (theoretically) for the purpose of transferring property down the male line. As the article points out, other social groups like siblings, those related through the mother (cousins, uncles, aunts), groups of unrelated women, even tribes can handle child care without invoking marriage or involuntary monogamy to have husbands provide labor.

We must be careful not to assume what we were taught was true in our society describes what was true before patriarchal societies conquered the world.

#Archaeology#Maternity#Matriarchy
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RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist

Good article worth reading, demonstrating modern researcher #bias, however. The article states that DNA and individual gender frequency at the Celtic burial site correlates with female dominance in society, but:

"This tells us that husbands moved to join their wives' communities upon marriage..."

Husbands? From a woman researcher! From what data?

The researchers are focusing through a modern patriarchal lens positing a modern assumption that might have been valid ONLY after the Roman patriarchal invasion this find predates.

Was there any need at all for marriage for pre-Roman #Celtic societies?

Marriage and forced female fidelity is how a patriarch guarantees her child is his. A woman always knows the child is hers. There is never a question that the children she lets inherit her property are actually hers.

sciencealert.com/iron-age-dna-

#BoostingIsSharing

ScienceAlert · Iron Age DNA Reveals Women Dominated Pre-Roman BritainAround 2,000 years ago, before the Roman Empire conquered Great Britain, women were at the very front and center of Iron Age society.
#engenderedWriting#Gender#Writer
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