The concept of matriarchy

The concept of matriarchy

Matriarchy (from the Latin word mater – mother and the Greek word αρχή – beginning, power) is an early period in the history of the primitive communal system, characterized by the equal and then predominant position of women in the economy and society. The term "matriarchy" also refers to the social system of the early period of the primitive communal system.

All the peoples of the globe have passed the stage of matriarchy, coming immediately after the epoch of the primitive herd and dating archaeologically to the late Paleolithic.

The matriarchy has a huge archaeological extent from the late Paleolithic to the developed Neolithic. The Paleolithic (ancient Stone Age) lasted from the emergence of man (about 1 million years ago) until about the 10th millennium BC. The period of existence of fossil man, who used chipped stone, wooden and bone tools, engaged in hunting and gathering, learned to use fire. The Neolithic (New Stone Age) lasted from the 10th to the 3rd millennium BC. The period of transition from the appropriating economy (hunting, fishing, gathering) to the producing one (agriculture, cattle breeding).

Matriarchy is characterized by the multifaceted development of productive forces. The economy is developing along the lines of hunting, fishing, hoe farming and breeding of domestic animals. The basis of industrial relations is public ownership of the means of production.

Early matriarchy and advanced matriarchy should be distinguished. The first corresponds archaeologically to the Late Paleolithic and Early Neolithic. This stage was occupied in the recent past by the indigenous population of Australia and some parts of Africa and South America. In the field of economy, the early matriarchy is characterized by gathering, hunting, primitive fishing; at the same time, gathering is a female branch of labor, hunting is a male one, both sexes are engaged in fishing. This period is characterized by the equal position of women and men, which follows from their approximately equal share in the economy. The main social unit is the maternal gens, connected with another gens through dual exogamy (mandatory marriage only between members of these two gens). There is no consolidated tribe. The account of kinship is maintained on the maternal side. Group marriage is preserved, which turns into a more developed form – a pair marriage, as well as a separate (dislocal) settlement of the spouses, which is replaced by their settlement in the generic group of the wife (matrilocal).

Group marriage is the oldest form of marriage that arises during the transformation of a primitive herd into a tribal community at the boundary between the Lower and Upper Paleolithic as the first form of ordering of marital relations. In this type of marriage, the tribe was divided into 2 groups ("marriage classes"); each man of one group could be the spouse of each woman of another group, marriage between members of the same group was prohibited. In fact, a group marriage was a marital cohabitation of a couple of spouses, which was more or less permanent, but easily dissolved and accompanied by temporary marital ties. This marriage gave rise to a group, or classification, kinship, in which kinship relations extended to groups of relatives (a person called father not only his real father, but also all men who were in the father's marriage group; accordingly, all women who were in the mother's marriage group were "mothers" for him; all members of his own marriage group the bands were brothers and sisters to him).

Pair marriage is a form of marriage that existed under the primitive communal system, associated with the development of matriarchy. As society developed, marriage changed in the direction of narrowing the circle of those marrying; cohabitation in couples, which at the early stages of the primitive communal system, with group marriage was only very brief, during the heyday of the primitive communal system becomes the main form of marriage. Being already monogamous, the family in a couple marriage, however, was not an economic unit of society. Each member of the married couple continued to be firmly connected with their ancestral community. The married couple did not have a separate household, had no property. In this regard, this marriage was not stable, marital cohabitation was easily terminated. The children were connected with the mother's ancestral community and remained in it in case of divorce. This was a pair marriage among the Australians, as well as among the Iroquois and many other Indian tribes back in the 18th and 19th centuries. Since pair marriage originated in a matriarchal tribal community in which women played a large role in production, the wife was equal to her husband and held a high position. The transition from paired marriage to monogamy with an intermediate form of patriarchal family is due to the beginning of the decomposition of the primitive community, the emergence of private property, which led to the separation of the family from the genus and the transformation of the family into an independent unit with the authority of the father of the family – the owner.

The developed matriarchy archaeologically corresponds to the late Neolithic. In the field of economy, it is characterized by the predominance of hoe farming, in the field of public – the predominant position of women in society, women in production played a major role, they performed the main functions, and men hunted and fished. This stage is also characterized by the development of a dual organization into a phratry, the transition from strict dual exogamy to generic exogamy, and the strong consolidation of the tribe. The pair marriage becomes dominant, the dislocal settlement is replaced by a strong matrilocality. The further development of productive forces, in particular the transition from breeding domestic animals to cattle breeding and from hoe farming to plow farming, in which the main role belongs to the man, determines the transition from matriarchy to patriarchy – the last period of the primitive communal system.

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