MATRIARCATO

MATRIARCHY. – A social institution in which, by virtue of belonging to the tribe, name, or property, descent is traced through the female line.

**OUTLINE:**

I. Discovery

II. Terminology

III. Sociology

IV. Religion

V. Economy and inheritance

VI. Origin

**I. DISCOVERY.** – The discoverer of matriarchy is generally considered to be Bachofen (q.V. DIVITTO, IX. II d. presso i primitivi), but it would be more accurate to say that he rediscovered it, since, as P. Koppers has noted, the first to identify it was Fr. Lafita, a Jesuit missionary, who, while studying the culture of the Iroquois of North America, observed certain similarities with that of Hellenistic peoples, particularly the Lycians of Asia Minor.

**II. TERMINOLOGY.** – The development of ethnology in the study of the peoples of different parts of the world has led to the distinction of several forms of matriarchy and to the examination of their reciprocal and genetic relationships. There is a form of pure matriarchy and others of mixed matriarchy, i.e., combined with other characteristic features of primitive civilization. Pure matriarchy has been termed by G. Montandon “paleomatriarchal culture” in contrast to “neomatriarchal culture,” based on the temporal evaluation of matriarchal forms; by F. Gräbner: “Papuan cultural cycle”; by B. Ankermann: “West African cultural cycle,” based respectively on the geographical regions studied; by Foy-Gräbner: “culture of the two classes”; and by Fr. W. Schmidt: “exogamous matriarchal cultural cycle,” based more properly on the internal characteristics of pure matriarchy.

**MATILDE (MECHTILD) OF MAGDEBURG.** – Cistercian mystic, born of noble family in 1212, died in the monastery of Helfta in 1283. Favored, from the age of twelve, with extraordinary mystical graces, she left her family and lived, as a beguine, in Magdeburg, leading a life of assiduous prayer and heroic mortification under the guidance of the Dominicans.

There, between 1250 and 1269, she composed the wonderful book of her visions and revelations, to which the Lord commanded her to give the title *Vliesende licht miner gotheit in allu dieherzen, die da lebent ane valscheit*, commonly known as *Das fließende Licht*, and entrusted its separate pages to the Dominican Henry of Halle, who arranged them into six books; a seventh she added at Helfta, where she retired in 1270 after enduring many misunderstandings and contradictions. At Helfta she met Mechthild of Hackeborn and Gertrude the Great, younger than herself, upon whom she certainly exerted an influence through her work, especially regarding devotion to the Sacred Heart, particularly through a vision she had in Magdeburg around 1290, in which the Heart of Jesus appeared to her, wounded, as a symbol of the Redeemer’s love for mankind.

Her work, which includes prose interspersed with poetry, reveals in her a refined taste and remarkable poetic talent; but it is especially noteworthy as a precursor of intense devotion to the Sacred Heart, of which she depicted the treasures of goodness and mercy. Called a saint by several authors, Mechthild of Magdeburg was never canonized, nor is there any record of public veneration accorded to her.

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**III. SOCIOLOGY.** – Pure matriarchy is distinguished, by the division of the tribe, into two groups, members of which may not marry within their own group but only in the other, hence the two groups are called “exogamous marriage classes.” The woman enjoys marked supremacy over the man in the family and in society, a supremacy that manifests itself in the right of property over goods, in the affiliation of children, in marriage (q.V. DIVITTO, IX. II d. presso i primitivi; DONNA. VII. La d. nella etnologia), and may even extend to a true gynaecocracy, as will be seen.

Due to the great influence acquired by the woman in matriarchy, the initiation of young men falls into disuse, and emphasis is placed on the initiation of girls after the first menstruation. This initiation does not have the character it has among gathering and totemistic peoples, as the transmission of ancestral culture to the younger generation, nor does it have a political character, because it does not signify admission into the tribe, but is purely familial and individual in nature; it is a declaration of the woman’s nubility, intended to celebrate at the same time the fertility of the future mother of the family, the continuator of the lineage. On this occasion, the girl must observe certain prescriptions, and this initiation constitutes another evident sign of the fact that in this culture the woman is everything and the man is nothing. But this is manifested even more clearly in two typical customs. One is the so-called couvade, which is practiced among many matriarchal peoples: at the birth of a child, it is not the mother who observes rest and the other customary rules,

IV. RELIGION — The belief in the Supreme Being has been obscured by lunar mythology and the cult of the dead, which are cultural manifestations proper to the m. The moon is conceived as a woman and as a mother progenitor, who gives life to twin sons, one of whom is a wise hero, the full moon, the other a foolish and stupid one, the dark moon, and they are related to the class system. The full moon has then assumed many characteristics of the Supreme Being. The crescent or trident-shaped pectoral ornament is related to lunar mythology. In the intersection of m. with totemism, lunar mythology combines with the solar mythology proper to totemism. The sun takes the place of the full moon. The solar class has as its emblems solar animals, mostly birds of prey such as the falcon, sparrowhawk, eagle, but also terrestrial animals such as the lion and wolf, though less frequently; the lunar class adopts as its distinctive symbols lunar animals, such as the hare, crow, but also the serpent. In m. the so-called double burial is practiced, that is, after a certain time, when the flesh has decomposed, the corpse is exhumed, the skull is kept separately in veneration, while the rest of the skeleton is reburied.

To give an idea of what is done for the dead in a mixed matriarchal-totemist culture, here are some details from Fr. C. Salerio, a missionary of the Istituto delle Missioni Estere di Milano, on the cult of the dead among the inhabitants of Woodlark Island, east of New Guinea in Melanesia. This people has an organization of eight classes. Moredo, the village chief, the other villages have the right to plunder the village of the deceased for