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Contrary to the declarations of some anthropologists, matriarchies do exist. Peggy Reeves Sanday first went to West Sumatra in 1981, intrigued by reports that the matrilineal Minangkabau--one of the largest ethnic groups in Indonesia--label their society a matriarchy. Numbering some four million in West Sumatra, the Minangkabau are known in Indonesia for their literary flair, business acumen, and egalitarian, democratic relationships between men and women. Sanday uses her repeated visits to West Sumatra in the closing decades of the twentieth century as the basis for a new definition of matriarchy. From the vantage point of daily life in villages, especially one where she developed close personal ties, Sanday's narrative is centered on how the Minangkabau conceive of their world and think humans should behave, along with the practices and rituals they claim uphold their matriarchate. Women at the Center leaves the reader with a solid sense of the respect for women that permeates Minangkabau culture, and gives new life to the concept of matriarchy.
What will it take to achieve gender equality in our lifetime? This is the question that kicks off a curious and winding learning journey in How to Make the Matriarchy: The Power and Promise of Prioritizing Women. Maureen Devine-Ahl explores inspiring stories, cautionary tales, and takeaway lessons from around the world on what it will take to build a more gender-balanced future, and, in doing so, quickly learns that empowering women empowers humanity. By identifying four key areas of influence for women across the globe, Make the Matriarchy serves as a valuable source of wisdom, wit, and enlightenment for anyone curious about how we break through the remaining barriers to equality, and build a better society for us all. Not only does Devine-Ahl highlight the power and potential of building an inclusive society with women at the helm, she also provides ways in which all of us can support this endeavor in our every day lives. Make the Matriarchy is more than a rallying cry, it is a hymn of hope.
This book reveals how conventional anthropology has consistently imposed European ideas of the "natural" nuclear family, women as passive object, and class differences on a continent with a long history of women with power doing things differently. Amadiume argues for an end to anthropology and calls instead for a social history of Africa, by Africans.
Includes knowledge and misrecognition; mythology and gender in Aboriginal Australia by Annette Hamilton, annotated separately.
This study explores the prevalence in German culture of myths about ancient matriarchal societies, discussing their presence in left and right wing politics, feminist and antifeminist writing, sociology, psychoanalysis and literary production. By tracing the influence of the works of the Swiss jurist and theorist of matriarchy, Johann Jakob Bachofen (1815–1887), and the controversies about the reception and interpretation of his work, this study shows how debate about the matriarchal origins of culture was inextricably linked with anxieties about modernity and gender identities at the turn of the twentieth century. By moving beyond the discussion of canonical authors and taking seriously the scope of the discussion, it becomes clear that it is not possible to reduce matriarchal theories to any particular political ideology; instead, they function as a mythic counterdiscourse to a modernity conceived as oppressive, rational and masculine. Writers considered include Ludwig Klages, Hofmannsthal, Kafka, Hauptmann, Lou Andreas-Salomé, Sir Galahad, Clara Viebig, Mathilde Vaerting, Thomas Mann, Elisabeth Langgässer, Ilse Langner, Otto Gross, Franz Werfel, and many others.
Reproduction of the original: The Position of Woman in Primitive Society by C. Gasquoine Hartley
"Overview of history from the 'Big Bang' to the present day in bite sized chunks. Because the series brings together the work of feminist historians to help address questions that many girls and women carry around unanswered for too long, I call it a herstory ... Matriarchy and the creation of patriarchy explores matriarchal cultures from around the world, and the stages by which patriarchy was first created. Understanding this herstory helps us to see ourselves and the world we live in with greator clarity, so that we can walk a path that is freedom making"--Back cover.
“I was the youngest in a family of five children. I sometimes felt I was an afterthought, and maybe Father and Mother didn’t quite know what to do with me. Also, because I was a girl after four boys they never seemed to be sure whether to buy me girls’ clothing or let me wear leftover boys’ clothing.” Young Dielieno is five years old when she is sent off to live with her disciplinarian grandmother who wants her to grow up to be a good Naga wife and mother. According to Grandmother, girls didn’t need an education, they didn’t need love and affection or time to play or even a good piece of meat with their gravy! Naturally Dielieno hates her with a vengeance. This is the evocative tale of a young girl growing up in a traditional society in India’s Northeast, which is in the midst of tremendous change. Easterine Kire writes about a place and a people that she knows well and is a part of and brings to the storytelling a lyrical beauty which can on occasion chill the reader with its realistic portrayals of the spirits of the dead that inhabit the quiet hills and valleys of Nagaland.
Are you tired of feeling like women are always winning and men are losing in today's society? Do you want to understand why women are dominating academia, the workplace, and family courts? In this highly informative and thought-provoking book, author Connie Riker delves into the rise of female supremacy and its far-reaching consequences on modern society. The Matriarchy's March offers answers to these questions and more: 1. The history of female suffrage and how it led to the rise of feminism. 2. How women's studies courses in universities have fostered an environment that disproportionately criticizes men. 3. The role of government policies and social reforms in exacerbating the breakdown o...