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MATRIARCHATE (" rule of the mother ")

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 889 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MATRIARCHATE (" See also:rule of the See also:mother ") , a See also:term used to See also:express a supposed earliest and lowest See also:form of See also:family See also:life, typical of See also:primitive See also:societies, in which the promiscuous relations of the sexes result in the See also:child's See also:father being unknown (see FAMILY). In such communities the mother took See also:precedence of the father in certain important respects, especially in See also:line of descent and See also:inheritance. Matriarchate is assumed on this theory to have been universal in prehistoric times. The prominent position then naturally assigned See also:women did not, however, imply any See also:personal See also:power, since they were in the position of See also:mere chattels: it simply constituted them the See also:sole relatives of their See also:children and the only centre of any such family life as existed. The See also:custom of tracing descent through the See also:female is still observed among certain See also:savage tribes. In See also:Fiji father and son are not regarded as relatives. Among the Bechuanas the chieftainship passes to a See also:brother, not to a son. In See also:Senegal, See also:Loango, See also:Congo and See also:Guinea, relationship is traced through the female. Among the See also:Tuareg See also:Berbers a child takes See also:rank, See also:freeman's or slave's, from its mother.

End of Article: MATRIARCHATE (" rule of the mother ")

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