Matriarchy is a mysterious page in the history of mankind. It is generally accepted that all developed cultures, the material of which researchers can now have at their disposal, were patriarchal. However, not everything is so simple.
Matriarchy myth
Doubts about the eternal patriarchal order of all cultures manifested themselves most fully in the 19th century. Some researchers believed that at the early stage of human development, there was matriarchy in society, that is, the power of women, expressed in the transfer of property through the female line, the right of women to children or their dominance in the field of obtaining food. Gathering, which was a female occupation, gradually developed into mainly hoe farming, which increased the social status of women. Later, with the transition to arable farming, women lost their high position in society.
Periods
The Swiss scientist I. Ya. Bachofen was the first to seriously talk about the problem of matriarchy on the material of ancient Egypt. In his opinion, the feminine principle - Isis, the supreme Mother, dominated the masculine - Osiris, her husband and brother. Despite the fact that the term "matriarchy" itself is never found in his work, as it was invented a little later, Bachofen speaks of the predominant position of women in Egypt and uses the terms "ginocracy" and "maternal law". The scientist divided the early history of mankind into several periods.
The first of these was heterism - a state of society in which promiscuity was considered normal, and a large role was given to the image of a woman-mother and the goddess Aphrodite. This stage was characterized by the complete absence of the institution of marriage and casual sex.
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Bachofen calls the second period ginocracy - a form of relationship in which marriage becomes important, but the woman's advantage remains. The scientist calls Ginocracy the era of Demeter, the goddess responsible for marriage and agriculture, which became more and more relevant. Demeter, as the goddess of the earth and fertility, personified the functions of women in society, primarily associated with motherhood. Symbolically, the woman was represented as an analogue of the land bearing fruit, and the man became a kind of plowman, fertilizing her.
Motherhood riot
Bachofen explained the transition from one phase to another by Amazonianism, "the rebellion of motherhood, which opposed its highest law to the sexual violence of men." After being forced to submit to the whims of lustful men, women took power into their own hands in order to streamline life and improve the conditions of motherhood.
One of the main archaeological evidence for the existence of matriarchy, on which Bachofen relied, is the numerous Minoan statuettes of the Mother Goddess. However, the absence of any written evidence of the dominant role of this goddess in the pantheon does not give the right to draw conclusions regarding the structure of Minoan society. The same conclusions are valid for the oldest statuette discovered in Siberia in 1935, depicting a woman, about 80 thousand years old.
Bachofen's theory is currently regarded as a historical myth that strongly influenced further historiography, as well as the feminist movement. This myth was continued in the works of F. Engels, but most serious researchers already in the 19th century criticized or completely ignored Bachofen's extravagant generalizing speculations that were not based on serious historical evidence or archaeological finds. However, despite the fact that ubiquitous matriarchy did not exist as a stage of human development, in some cultures to this day, a woman plays a major role.