Matrilocal residence
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| - | '''Matriarchy''' is a [[social system]] in which females (most notably in mammals) hold the primary power positions in roles of political leadership, [[moral authority]], [[social privilege]] and control of property at the specific exclusion of males — at least to a large degree. | + | In [[social anthropology]], '''matrilocal residence''' or '''matrilocality''' (also '''uxorilocal residence''' or '''uxorilocality''') is the [[Society|societal]] system in which a married couple resides with or near the wife's parents. Thus, the female offspring of a [[mother]] remain living in (or near) the mother's [[house]], thereby forming large [[clan]]-families, typically consisting of three or four [[generation]]s living in the same place. |
| - | While those definitions apply in general English, definitions specific to the disciplines of [[anthropology]] and [[feminism]] differ in some respects. Most anthropologists hold that there are no known anthropological societies ''that are unambiguously matriarchal'', but some authors believe exceptions may exist or may have. | + | == Description == |
| + | Frequently, [[visiting marriage]] is being practiced, meaning that [[husband]] and [[wife]] are living apart, in their separate birth families, and seeing each other in their spare time. The [[child]]ren of such marriages are raised by the mother's extended [[matrilineal]] clan. The father doesn't have to be involved in the upbringing of his own children; he does, however, in that of his sisters' children (his [[niece]]s and [[nephews]]). In direct consequence, [[property]] is [[inheritance|inherited]] from generation to generation, and, overall, remains largely undivided. | ||
| - | Matriarchies may also be confused with [[matrilineality|matrilineal]], [[matrilocal residence|matrilocal]], and [[matrifocal family|matrifocal]] societies. A few people consider any non-[[patriarchy|patriarchal]] system to be matriarchal, thus including genderally equalitarian systems ([[Peggy Reeves Sanday]] favors redefining and reintroducing the word matriarchy, especially in reference to contemporary matrilineal societies such as the [[Minangkabau people|Minangkabau]]), but most academics exclude them from matriarchies strictly defined. | + | Matrilocal residence is found most often in [[horticulture|horticultural]] societies. |
| + | == List of matrilocal societies == | ||
| - | In 19th-century Western scholarship, the hypothesis of matriarchy representing an early, mainly prehistoric, stage of human development gained popularity. Possibilities of so-called primitive societies were cited and the hypothesis survived into the 20th century, including in the context of [[second-wave feminism]]. This hypothesis was criticized by some authors such as Cynthia Eller in ''[[The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory]]'' and remains as a largely unsolved question to this day. Some older myths describe matriarchies. | + | * [[Bribri]] |
| - | + | * [[Filipinos]] (both matrilocal and patrilocal) | |
| - | Several modern feminists have advocated for matriarchy now or in the future and it has appeared in [[List of feminist literature|feminist literature]]. In several theologies, matriarchy has been portrayed as negative. | + | * [[Garo (tribe)|Garo]] |
| - | == In popular contemporary fiction == | + | * [[Hopi]] |
| - | :''[[Amazons in popular culture]]'' | + | * [[Iban people|Iban]] (both matrilocal and patrilocal) |
| - | Among popular writers, the idea of peaceful matriarchal civilizations being destroyed by [[patriarchal]], nomadic barbarian invaders has lived on as a powerful literary [[Trope (literature)|trope]]. | + | * [[Iroquois]] |
| - | + | * [[Synteng|Jaintia]] | |
| - | [[Mary Renault]]'s [[historical novel]]s about [[Greek mythology]] and history such as ''[[The King Must Die]]'' combine motifs of political conflict between goddess and god worshippers with ''[[The Golden Bough]]'s'' academic hypothesis about [[dying and reviving god]]s. The patriarchal conquest of matriarchy motif is found in dozens of [[fantasy]] novels, from [[Marion Zimmer Bradley]]'s historical revisions of [[Matter of Britain|Arthurian romance]] and the [[Trojan War]] to works such as [[Guy Gavriel Kay]]'s ''[[A Song for Arbonne]]''. Gender roles and the conflict of patriarch vs. matriarchy is a major theme in the ''[[The Wheel of Time|Wheel of Time]]'' books by [[Robert Jordan]]. | + | * [[Karen people|Karen]] |
| - | + | * [[Kerinci people|Kerinci]] | |
| - | The remake version (not the original) of ''[[The Wicker Man (2006 film)|The Wicker Man]]'', starring Nicolas Cage, takes place within a fictional matriarchy in the state of [[Washington]]. The society, Summersisle, is modeled after a biological precedent, honeybee culture and behavior. | + | * [[Khasi people|Khasi]] |
| - | + | * [[Marshallese culture|Marshallese]] | |
| - | ==Twentieth century uses== | + | * [[Minangkabau people|Minangkabau]] |
| - | + | * [[Mosuo]] (separate residence; each lives in mother's household) | |
| - | Austrian writer [[Bertha Diener]], also known by her American pseudonym, Helen Diner, wrote ''[[Mothers and Amazons]]'' (1930) which was the first work to focus on women's cultural history. She is regarded as a classic of feminist matriarchal study. Her hypothesis is that in the past all human cultures were matriarchal and had distinct advantages, then, at some point, most shifted to patriarchal and degenerated. | + | * [[Nair]] people of [[Kerala]] |
| - | + | * [[Puebloan peoples|Pueblos]], among whom "matrilineality ... seemed to be associated with matrilocality" | |
| - | The controversy was reinforced further by the publication of ''[[The White Goddess]]'' by [[Robert Graves]] (1948). He also published a comprehensive translation of Ancient Greek mythology, ''The Greek Myths'', that included many cross cultural comparisons and explications. He asserted that the remaining fragments of the earliest vestiges of Greek mythology led him to believe that the classical Greek mythology dating from 500 B.C. and later showed signs of having been rewritten after a profound change in the religion of Greek civilization that occurred within its very early historical times, or because of misinterpretations after knowledge of the original religious concepts was lost. | + | * [[Siraya people|Siraya]] |
| - | + | * [[Tlingit people|Tlingit]] | |
| - | From the 1950s, [[Marija Gimbutas]] developed a theory of an ''[[Old European culture]]'' in [[neolithic Europe]] which had matriarchal traits, and was replaced by the patriarchal system of the [[Proto-Indo-Europeans]] with the spread of [[Indo-European languages]] beginning in the [[Bronze Age]]. | + | * [[Vanatinai]] |
| - | + | * [[Sinixt]] | |
| - | During the 1970s these academic ideas were taken up by popular writers of ''[[second-wave feminism]]'' and, expanded with the speculations of [[Margaret Murray]] on ''[[witchcraft]]'', by the [[Goddess movement]], [[feminist Wicca]], as well as work by [[Elizabeth Gould Davis]], [[Riane Eisler]], and [[Merlin Stone]]. The concept of a matriarchal ''golden age'' in the Neolithic has been denounced as feminist wishful thinking in ''[[The Inevitability of Patriarchy]]'', ''[[Why Men Rule]]'', more recently by Philip G. Davis ''Goddess Unmasked'', 1998, and Cynthia Eller, professor at Montclair State University ''[[The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory]]'', 2000. According to Eller, Gimbutas had a large part in constructing a ''myth of historical matriarchy'' by examining Eastern Europe cultures that she asserts, by and large, never really bore any resemblance in character to the alleged universal matriarchal suggested by Gimbutas and Graves. She asserts that in "actually documented primitive societies" of recent (historical) times, paternity is never ignored and that the sacred status of goddesses does not automatically increase female social status, and believes that this affirms that ''utopian matriarchy'' is simply an inversion of [[antifeminism]]. The ''feminist scenarios'' of Neolithic matriarchy have been called into question and are not emphasized in [[third-wave feminism]]. | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | The original evidence recognized by Gimbutas, however, of Neolithic cultures being more [[egalitarian]] than the latter Bronze Age Indo-European and Semitic patriarchies remains valid. Notably, Gimbutas has not described these societies as "matriarchal", preferring the term "woman-centered" or "matristic". | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | Del Giorgio in ''The Oldest Europeans'' (2006) insists on a matrifocal, matrilocal, matrilineal, [[Paleolithic]] society. [[Kurt Derungs]] is an author advocating an "anthropology of landscape" based on alleged matriarchal traces in toponymy and folklore. | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | Feminist authors adhering to the [[Modern Matriarchal Studies]] school of thought consider any non-patriarchic form of society as falling within their field, including all examples of [[matrilineality]], [[matrilocality]], and [[avunculism]], regardless of discussions on the extent of "matrifocality". | + | |
| == See also == | == See also == | ||
| - | *''[[Gynecocracy (novel)]]'' (1893) - anonymous | + | * [[Gharjamai]], a South Asian term that refers to a man who lives with his wife's family |
| - | * [[Matriarchal religion]] | + | * [[Matrifocal family]] |
| - | * [[Çatalhöyük]] | + | * [[Neolocal residence]] |
| - | * [[Gender role]] | + | * [[Patrilocal residence]] |
| - | * [[Goddess movement]] | + | |
| - | * [[Feminist anthropology]] | + | |
| - | * [[History of feminism]] | + | |
| - | * [[Amazons]] | + | |
| - | * [[Amazon feminism]] | + | |
| - | * [[Patriarchy]] | + | |
| - | * [[Marianismo]] | + | |
| - | * [[Mother Goddess]] | + | |
| - | * [[Black matriarchy]] | + | |
| - | * [[Venus figurines]] | + | |
| - | * ''[[The First Sex]]'' | + | |
| - | * ''[[When God Was a Woman]]'' | + | |
| - | * ''[[Isis]]'' | + | |
| - | * ''[[The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory]]'' | + | |
| - | * ''[[The Hebrew Goddess]]'' | + | |
| - | * [[Domestic violence]] | + | |
| - | * [[Sexual violence]] | + | |
| - | * [[Rape]] | + | |
| - | + | ||
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In social anthropology, matrilocal residence or matrilocality (also uxorilocal residence or uxorilocality) is the societal system in which a married couple resides with or near the wife's parents. Thus, the female offspring of a mother remain living in (or near) the mother's house, thereby forming large clan-families, typically consisting of three or four generations living in the same place.
[edit]
Description
Frequently, visiting marriage is being practiced, meaning that husband and wife are living apart, in their separate birth families, and seeing each other in their spare time. The children of such marriages are raised by the mother's extended matrilineal clan. The father doesn't have to be involved in the upbringing of his own children; he does, however, in that of his sisters' children (his nieces and nephews). In direct consequence, property is inherited from generation to generation, and, overall, remains largely undivided.
Matrilocal residence is found most often in horticultural societies.
[edit]
List of matrilocal societies
- Bribri
- Filipinos (both matrilocal and patrilocal)
- Garo
- Hopi
- Iban (both matrilocal and patrilocal)
- Iroquois
- Jaintia
- Karen
- Kerinci
- Khasi
- Marshallese
- Minangkabau
- Mosuo (separate residence; each lives in mother's household)
- Nair people of Kerala
- Pueblos, among whom "matrilineality ... seemed to be associated with matrilocality"
- Siraya
- Tlingit
- Vanatinai
- Sinixt
[edit]
See also
- Gharjamai, a South Asian term that refers to a man who lives with his wife's family
- Matrifocal family
- Neolocal residence
- Patrilocal residence
Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Matrilocal residence" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.
