Welcome to the second question of the week on the theme of Patriarchy and Matriarchy. In this second question @clara-andriessen has asked what we think a matriarchy would look like. To me this was a really hard question, so hard in fact that I felt unqualified to write on it. I have learned SO much reading these answers, every single post on this question is a jewel!
Before I started reading the answers to this question, I had in mind an idea of basically swapping the role of a man out for a woman, and hey presto that was matriarchy! Boy was I wrong! As many of us have said, that is patriarchy overlaid on top of matriarchy! Real matriarchy is REALLY the opposite of Patriarchy, which means the embodiment of feminine traits such as caring, nurture and abundance. When we imagine a matriarchy it is hard to even imagine how things would be because its so hard to find good example of matriarchy in the world.
I would like to share one example of how a Matriarchy could differ to a Patriarchy, and then I would like to share the beautiful and really stunning posts by the @ecoTrain passengers on the subject.
In a matriarchal society, if someone is too poor to feed or look after their children properly, rather than social services take the kids away to a foster home and devastate the entire family, they would instead bring food and support! What a difference!! It would probably cost less to send food for the whole year than it would to run the social services organisation, by a long shot!
So, a BIG Thank you to all the @ecoTrain passengers who wrote on this QOTW. Your answers were just awesome! Please find a synopsis of each one and links to the full posts below:
@clara-andriessen
Matriarchy is a social system in which the 'mother' is leading.
Or in my opinion: Matriarchy is a social system in which the maternal qualities are leading.
So that means it can be both women and men leading in that sense, as long as they do it from their feminine qualities.I'm saying 'leading' and not 'ruling' as it would not be a matriarchy if there was 'ruling' going on by whomever, men or women, because 'ruling is a masculine trait and that would make it a patriarchy, even if it was 'ruled' by women.
Women ( and men) who are well in tune with their feminine qualities see a position of leadership as a service instead of a privilege and therefore are in the modus of 'giving' instead of 'taking'.
This is because of the care for all of life that comes inherently with the feminine qualities. In fact 'care for life' is the core of everything feminine.
The feminine works in a totally different way then the masculine does. It is not logical, or structured in a logical way.
@sashagenji
First of all, I would like to thank two amazing women, who made this post possible at all and be done the way I really wanted it to be. @clara-andriessen, an amazing woman, who happens to be my fellow #ecoTrainpassenger and who constantly surprise me with different ideas. She might see majestic meaning in water lilies in her Water lily Oracle or write a beautiful poetry and she will be the one to ask: ‘What is matriarchy? What do you think a matriarchal society would look like?” - this week’s @ecotrain question of the week (click here to read @clara-andriessen's amazing answer)
The second woman I want you to get to know is Jan Campbell, an amazing woman and artist who lives in County Mayo in the West of Ireland. I get across her Instagram a few months ago and was absolutely stunned by the beautiful creations she makes! Jan creates Avocado Stone Faces, a one of a kind art that transform an avocado stone into a small figure or an object. Her works are absolutely stunning and you can check them yourself on her web-page, Facebook or Instagram) At the same time the reason I chose Jan’s work to be represented in this article is that for me she is a kind of a women who in my opinion live in full harmony with her balanced Divine Feminine Energy - the base a matriarchal society can be built upon.
@trucklife-family
What is Matriarchy?
Matriarchy for me, does not mean the opposite of Patriarchy.
However you do need to look, at the other end of Patriarchy though, to get to Matriarchy.
For me Matriarchy is the middle road, it is the meeting point.
Everyone is equal. Everyone has their role to play and it is not based on gender.
Warriors were both male and female. There is no room for dominant behaviour.
It is a way of life that recognizes that we are part of Mother Earth and what we do to the earth we do to ourselves.
Ireland the last Matriarch Society in Europe
Ireland was the last Matriarchy Society in Europe. It is where I grew up and because of that I always felt a huge connection with the earth. If you go to Ireland, you will find that a lot of people when talking about themselves will always let you know, where exactly they come from, this tie with the land is still strong. You will also always hear them talking about the weather, it's a slight obsession we have and o.k it does rain a lot but it goes deeper than that, it is a topic that once again really connects one with their natural environment.
@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.
Even though it is likely the original social structure of humans.
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
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.
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Thumbnail Image Used With Thanks To:
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