Matriarchal/female-centric societies

I've written about a lot of matriarchies (it's basically all I write) and would be happy to help you brainstorm some ideas. As I recall, from when I asked the same question a very long time ago, there's little anthropological evidence for matriarchies, so you have a lot of freedom with sort of making it work however you need it to work. But maybe someone will come along with some real examples.

As for books . . . are you looking for other fiction books which feature matriarchies, or only non-fiction?

I haven't read it but The Chalice and the Blade is supposed to be a classic.

Becca, I took a cultural anthropology class a while back and we briefly discussed matriarchal societies. They're not all that common. Surprise! Lol. But they do exist. Here's a link to a matriarchal society in Mexico. I even made a brief reference to it in a book. Hope this helps!

The Mosuo culture in China... and I know there are some past and present matriarchal cultures from Africa but I can't remember any names. Just explore on Wikipedia and Google and I'm sure you'll find all kinds of interesting stuff.

I think in many ways modern American culture is becoming more and more matriarchal... not necessarily a bad thing in my opinion....

Becca C. said:

Any kind of book recs would be awesome! I want to make this world as detailed and layered as possible -- I don't want the society to be exactly like normal, but with a lady in charge. If women had been at the wheel since the dawn of this civilization, there would doubtless be some huge differences. So yeah, if there's any kind of book that has that element, I'd be super interested.

I'll definitely PM you when I have more concrete questions.

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A Brother's Price -- This is a romance in a lot of ways, but is really good.
God's War -- This one is awesome, and should be better-known.
The Labyrinth series by Pearl North -- This reads like YA, which is hurting my head, so I haven't actually gotten to the damn matriarchy description yet. Apparently they go more in-depth in the second book about that society.
Carnival by Elizabeth Bear -- This is on my TBR list, but definitely features a matriarchy. No idea how good it is.
Amberlight -- This just came up when I was googling looking for the titles of the other matriarchy books I've read and can't currently recall the names of. So no idea if it's any good, but it has a matriarchy.

There are some other older ones I've read, but they were truly horrible, so I'm not going to list them, lol. There are a couple more good ones, but I guess I'll have to wait until my family's awake and I can get to the rest of my books to look at their titles.

ETA: I second what others have said about typing "matriarchy" into Wikipedia and reading what comes up. They had some interesting descriptions of theoretical matriarchies, IIRC.

My problem with researching this has always been that, after reading for about 10 minutes, I throw the source across the room and shout "the Greek Amazons were more interesting!". I'm too personally obsessed with that myth to pay much attention to other inspirations, lol.

Don't forget The Mists of Avalon. If it feels cliche and trite it's only because it damn near invented the genre.

There was a good discussion on this not so long ago in the 'Accidental Feminist Propaganda' thread.

Melanie Rawn did a series, I think it was called the Ruins of Ambrai, where she did a switcheroo with the gender roles. It's a kind of medieval setting, I think, with a slightly more modern feel, but she did a good job with picking out details from our society and turning them on their head.

I may not be remembering correctly but this reminds me of the Illyrian pirates that Rome ultimately crushed

If women had been at the wheel since the dawn of this civilization, there would doubtless be some huge differences.

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From what I remember of Social Anthropology at university patriarchal societies are actually a fairly recent development in terms of the totality of the development of human society (from about 2-3 million years ago) and their relative dominance is generally thought to have begun only once societies were well settled and agrarian (about 12,000 years ago).

Certainly in the archaeological record the only depictions of humans as objects of veneration prior to 10,000 years ago or so are carvings of the earth goddess, which would tend to suggest that it was females rather than males who were in a position to commune with the almighty and were thus in power. The evidence of prior female dominance in spiritual matters is everywhere you look in patriarchal societies- in the belief in witches, the dangerously magical power of menstrual blood (with its links to the cycles of the moon) and even the belief in the virgin mother in Christianity- a concept from deep in the heart of pagan times when woman was deemed potentially powerful enough to conceive and create without the input of men. Indeed creation has always been seen as the preserve of the female until the recent growth of the Abrahamic religions and it's still there in our psyches with concepts such as mother Earth.

There is also reasonably respectable scientific speculation that the male of the species could become genetically redundant. It is already technically feasible to produce male gametes from stem cells taken from women. It is also certainly the case that as human society develops to give more and more value to the interpersonal and communication skills at which women seem superior to men that men may soon become socially redundant.

One could argue in fact (and from memory a lot of anthropologists have) that the historically brief period of male dominance of society has been nothing more than a rearguard action against the fundamental dominance of the female in human society.

So there you go. Maybe not strictly fantasy at all, what you're writing.

I recall something from a NatGeo series (the older version of Taboo, not the recent one) on a matriarcal culture in the Tibet/China area. I think it was on the topic of either marriage or coming of age, can't remember which.

anguswalker said:

From what I remember of Social Anthropology at university patriarchal societies are actually a fairly recent development in terms of the totality of the development of human society (from about 2-3 million years ago) and their relative dominance is generally thought to have begun only once societies were well settled and agrarian (about 12,000 years ago).

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Yeah, I've definitely heard similar to this. Patriarchal societies have not been around since the dawn of civillisation, and plenty of cultures treated both sexes (reasonably) equally up until a relatively recent point in history.

(Disclaimer: My historical knowledge is lacking, especially compared to many other members of this AW.)

anguswalker said:

From what I remember of Social Anthropology at university patriarchal societies are actually a fairly recent development in terms of the totality of the development of human society (from about 2-3 million years ago) and their relative dominance is generally thought to have begun only once societies were well settled and agrarian (about 12,000 years ago).

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This is a popular theory, but without much evidence.

Keep in mind that when we find 10,000-year-old female carvings, it's pure speculation that they were "earth goddesses" and objects of veneration, and it's even more speculative that this indicates paleolithic matriarchies.

There is also reasonably respectable scientific speculation that the male of the species could become genetically redundant. It is already technically feasible to produce male gametes from stem cells taken from women. It is also certainly the case that as human society develops to give more and more value to the interpersonal and communication skills at which women seem superior to men that men may soon become socially redundant.

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Uh, what? There is no evidence that interpersonal and communication skills are linked to chromosomes.

One could argue in fact (and from memory a lot of anthropologists have) that the historically brief period of male dominance of society has been nothing more than a rearguard action against the fundamental dominance of the female in human society.

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One could argue all kinds of things. Anthrolopology is worse than psychology when it comes to people picking up on half-understood crack theories and presenting them as if they've actually been scientifically vetted.


Getting back to the issue of matriarchal societies in fiction, one book that hasn't been mentioned is Sherri S. Tepper's The Gate To Women's Country, as well as the works of Suzette Haden Elgin. Both of them write about "stealth matriarchies" which exist within what are ostensibly patriarchies. I wouldn't say either of them are particularly subtle (they kind of fall into the MZB cliche of "Women=wise and spiritually connected and empathic and good, Men = bad murderous penises"), but their takes are interesting.

half-understood crack theories

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Now now. Of course it is speculation that ancient statues of fecund women were objects of veneration, since the carvers unaccountably omitted to enclose explanatory leaflets when they buried them. It does seem reasonable speculation though. There is certainly no evidence that I know of that pre-agrarian societies were patriarchal in their social structures.

The OP was not asking about matriarchal societies in fiction btw but about experience/knowledge of matriarchal societies in reality.
My dad spent 17 years amongst the Tsimihety in Madagascar, and though their society wasn't exclusively matriarchal it was a lot less patriarchal than we have got used to over the last 2,000 years in Europe, the Middle East and societies with their historical roots there. Occult/spiritual knowledge was certainly seen there as being more the preserve of women than of men. There was also a mythic history of great queens.

anguswalker said:

Now now. Of course it is speculation that ancient statues of fecund women were objects of veneration, since the carvers unaccountably omitted to enclose explanatory leaflets when they buried them. It does seem reasonable speculation though.

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Sure, but people have a habit of extrapolating from there to "Paleothic society was a global matriarchy ruled by priestesses of the Earth Goddess and patriarchy and warfare and humans using physical strength to dominate the weak only happened when we invented agriculture." Which I find risible, to say the least.

Lots of really oppressive, patrarchal societies have venerated goddesses. So the presence of "goddess" figures hardly suggests a matriarchy.

There's a difference between *archy and *-dominated. There have been plenty of matriarchies that were male dominated. (Although I've never heard of a female-dominated patriarchy.)

There's a difference between matrilineal (tracing lineage and/or inheritance through the female line, as Jews do even today), matrifocal (women/mothers are the center of the culture and society in terms of emphasis but they are not automatically in power in terms of law) and matriarchal. This is a matrifocal culture. Women who are the focus of commerce and culture within a society do not mean that the society is matriarchal; the culture emphasizes women but does not remove power from men. Technically, it is matrifocal.

Matriarchy like patriarchy emphasizes one sex having power and control to rule the other sex.

The idea that early Neolithic cultures were matriarchal is not supported at all by the evidence. It's a myth. The idea of a universal goddess religion is not supported by scholarship—and don't get me started about Gimbutas; I know a hell of a lot more about her research than anyone else who didn't also have her on a dissertation committee.

The Neo Pagan wishful thinking about early Celtic cultures as matriarchies and goddess-centric, and pre-modern witchcraft is wishful thinking. It is not at all historically accurate.

Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

As a former anthropology major, I can tell you that in matrilineal cultures (not necessarily matriarchies, but it's a start), the dominant male in a child's life isn't the father, but the mother's brother. That's not true of Jews, but it is true of most other matrilineal societies.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

Siri Kirpal said:

As a former anthropology major, I can tell you that in matrilineal cultures (not necessarily matriarchies, but it's a start), the dominant male in a child's life isn't the father, but the mother's brother. That's not true of Jews, but it is true of most other matrilineal societies.

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The emphasis on a sister's son is one of the prevailing markers for I.E. cultures as well, in part because the maternal line is way easier to trace.

woozy said:

Don't forget The Mists of Avalon. If it feels cliche and trite it's only because it damn near invented the genre.

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Oh, yeah. *smacks forehead* My mom still loves those books, though I think some of their edginess has been dulled by time.

Medi already posted the definitions of matriarchy/matrifocal etc. I'm not 100% sure if you want a matriarchy or a matrifocal society from the OP. You can have a matrifocal society arise naturally without needing huge amounts of explanation, but matriarchies require a little more tinkering.

I can easily imagine a society of seafaring merchants/troubadours led by matriarchs, but the idea of pirates sounds odd to me.

When I think of matriarchy, the first thing that comes to mind is "more sex, less violence." Warrior societies are naturally dominated by men, who are taller, stronger, and more dangerous overall in a pre-industrial world. You would have to find a way to level the field (magic, power suits) or make them indispensable in some other way (only women can navigate, or tame kraken, or resist a siren's song.)

What Medievalist said.

I'm a sociologist by training. There's some overlap with anthropology. There have been very few -- if any -- matriarchal societies. There are a number of varying explanations for this. I think, to make your world believable, you might want to research explanations for contemporary forms of patriarchy.

There are many, many, many examples of matrifocal cultures which appear matriarchal, but really aren't.