Democratic and egalitarian
forms of community living are considered to be features found in societies with
matrilineal clans. These societies are found in parts of Africa, Asia, and
North America. The features have sparked debate among scholars: did women in
these matrilineal clans live a better and more gender-equal life than their
sisters in patriarchal societies or were they just as oppressed? On the other
hand, were there any past patriarchal societies where women had economic or
political power?
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| Bunda Kanduang of W. Sumatra (Wikipedia) |
First, about terms. The term
matrilineal is frequently confused with the term matriarchy. Matrilineal refers
to a social system where children are linked to the maternal line of the family.
Mirroring ‘patriarchy’ which is popularly defined as the ‘rule of the father’,
matriarchy has been misunderstood as meaning the ‘rule of women over men’. This
definition of matriarchy becomes problematic when it is applied to a context, as
no society had fit the description of a society where women ruled over men.
Many feminists have suggested
decades ago that the term matriarchy refers to a women-centered or
women-focused society, where women take up important roles and where more power-sharing
between the sexes are evident in the society. Thus, some feminists have used
the term ‘women-centered society’ instead of matriarchy to refer to such
societies. Much of what is considered to be women-centered is especially found
in societies with matrilineal kinship, although some of its features may be
found in other types of kinship as I will also discuss.
General
Features of Matrilineal Societies
Below are features that
studies conclude are often found in so-called matrilineal societies.
- There tend to be a relatively equal distribution of wealth and basic needs
- There is a distribution of gender roles which are defined for each sex within a relatively gender-balanced social arrangement
- Children are born into the mother’s clan
- Decision-making is community-based with senior members having the say
- Senior women hold decision-making roles
- Women own property
- People live and carry out activities in longhouses which shape social interactions that reflect communal living and democratic practices
I will begin with a brief
illustration on women in two matrilineal societies—the Iroquois of Northeastern
America and the Minangkabau people of West Sumatra, Indonesia.
The
Iroquois League and Minangkabau People
The Iroquois League or the
Haudenosaunee (people of the longhouse) as they called themselves, is a classic
example often used to describe a matrilineal society having the features above.
The League, which they call the Kanonsionni, comprises tribes which
have existed since at least 1000 CE—the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida,
Mohawk, and Tuscarora—in Northeastern US and Ontario, Canada.
Like the Iroquois League,
the Minangkabau society of West Sumatra has long been a major subject of
discussion in regard to matriarchal and matrilineal societies. Minangkabau is
considered to be the largest existing matrilineal society today. According to
anthropologists, the Minangkabau people came from the Malay Peninsula and
settled in West Sumatra about 1000—2000 BC.
If we look at both
matrilineal societies, women and men actually had very defined roles, where
women’s roles were largely limited to domestic and caring roles. I look at the
various spheres below to get a better glimpse of women’s position in relation
to men in the history of both society as well as historical events that may have
impacted on gender relations.
Marriage and the Family
Matrilineal societies are
known to be extended family oriented, where women’s nurturing roles are
considered important and respected. As children are born into the female clan,
raising children and their education become women’s responsibility.
In the Iroquois League, the
longhouses were where children were born and raised into future generations of
leaders. Tribes lived communally and the longhouses connected the tribes. Food
and basic needs were distributed equally among the families in the longhouse.
Nurturing was connected to economic well-being and political unity, hence the
Iroquois did not live under a public/private split and hierarchy as known in
our society today, even though women and men had specialized roles.
Similarly, in the
Minangkabau community, women’s specialized roles were nurturing and educating
children, aside from cooking and taking care of domestic tasks. Young men left the village to seek for better economic opportunities (merantau). In the absence of their husband, women managed the
economic well-being of the family.
Marriage in both societies was
mainly a family arrangement to maintain or strengthen family/tribal and
economic ties. However, in contrast to most societies of the past and some even
today, women were allowed to seek divorce.
Governance
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| Inside the Iroquois longhouse (www. pinterest.com) |
The traditional village structure
of West Sumatra, known as the nagari,
was led by the elected male elite (penghulu
and datuk). Together with these
male leaders, highly respected senior women called the Bundo Kanduang played an
important role in community decision-making, although some sources say the
women did not have equal power with men in the political sphere.
Women’s Economic Role and Rights
Women also had access to
economic power as they can own land and other properties. In fact, Iroquois women
were responsible for maintaining crops and agricultural land for the
agricultural-based community, so it seemed natural that women had control over
the land.
In the Minangkabau society, land,
longhouses, farms, and other economic resources, were passed down through the
mother’s side, and were managed with the help of the mamak (the mother’s brother). Women who were the Bundo Kanduang had
an important economic role of looking after and managing economic resources.
According to custom, women
“hold the keys” to the family’s assets, particularly when the men are living
and working outside the village. During this time, women played a leading role in
the economic affairs of the family. To generate income, women made and sold
handicrafts, traditional clothes, etc.
Impact of Historical Events
Social arrangements
experienced major changes with the spread of Christianity. The Iroquois belief
system worships spirits. Many missionary efforts were carried out by the
Europeans to convert them to Catholic. In the 17th century, French Jesuit
Missionaries converted many Iroquois to Catholic. Some Iroquois incorporated
Christianity into their spiritual belief system.
In 1798, the work of a
Quaker delegation caused significant changes in the gender division of labor.
While teaching modern methods of farming, men were instructed to farm, a role
that women traditionally held. Gradually, private ownership of land in place of
commonly held land became accepted. With changes in land ownership and farming
responsibilities, families began to live on separate farms, thus disintegrating
the collective social arrangement of the longhouse.
The people of Minangkabau
originally practiced animistic beliefs and a communal village life. When the
Adityawarman kingdom ruled over the villages in the 14th century,
Hinduism (or Buddhism), an autocratic mode of leadership, and a patrilineal
kingdom structure were introduced and coexisted with village collective life.
With the arrival and
widespread of Islam in the 18th and throughout the 19th century, the
patriarchal organization of life brought by Islam was introduced by the
sultanate of Aceh and further strengthened by the Padri movement and war to
secure Islam. Male leadership within the household and male inheritance entered
the Minangkabau socioeconomic life. Islamic law became a dominant norm
alongside adat (customary) law. However,
core elements of the adat, such as its matrilineal structure remained strong,
even throughout Dutch occupation and even after independence.
The Dutch had modified the
traditional villages, but it was during the authoritarian rule of the New Order
government in 1979, that the traditional village structure was abolished to
develop a uniform structure throughout Indonesia. This period marked the
weakening, if not the obstruction of forms of relatively democratic and
egalitarian community life, particularly one where women played a significant
role. Even with the rise of decentralized government in 2000, traditional
village roles, especially that regarding the important position of the Bundo
Kanduang have yet to recover. Nevertheless, matrilineal social arrangements
continue to survive until today.
Viking
Society
The Viking society is known
to display strong characteristics of a patriarchal society. Children belonged
to the father’s family, where the oldest son took over the farm. Chieftains were
all men. Despite this, the society shared many characteristics with matrilineal
societies, such as community-based decision-making, ownership of property by
women, and the importance of longhouses as the center of extended family and
collective life.
Viking society was a
self-regulated society independent of the authority of the state. Although
collective, it was a class society. Farmers were the majority, kings and earls
were the highest class, and slaves constitute the lowest class. Despite being
far less egalitarian than the matrilineal societies discussed above, many
studies have shown that Viking women had rights that no European women had in
medieval period which secured them with a degree of independence.
Although still debated, it
is said that some Viking women were spiritual leaders and some were warriors
who fought in battles side by side with the men. Scholars are divided, some
view that Viking women were oppressed by patriarchal institutions, while some
see them as independent, as they held power in various spheres of life:
economic, political, and spiritual.
Let’s look further into
this.
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| Viking shieldmaiden, Lagertha (www.pinterest.com) |
Marriage and the Family
Marriage was arranged by the
family, and mainly the father’s responsibility. Marriage was a social,
political, and economic arrangement, where extramarital sex is common practice
among men. A marriage agreement involved a bride price and a dowry which was paid by the bride’s father. There are scholars who conclude that women had no
say about the marriage agreement imposed on them, while others believe that in
pagan marriage women did have a say. Women can also easily seek divorce as
married women still belonged to her childhood family.
A man’s life was in the
public sphere; outside the longhouse, on the farm and in the community, or in
other lands. Women conducted domestic tasks that lie inside the longhouse, caring
for children and the elderly, cooking, preserving food, and weaving. Women,
however, ran the farm when the men were trading, hunting, or on raids. Despite
a strict public/private split, women were considered valuable. Symbolic of
their important position, women wore the keys to the family supply chest around
her waist.
Governance
There was law and government
in the Viking Age even with the absence of written law. The village assemblies
(‘Thing’) were held regularly at the local, higher, and national levels to
formulate laws and settle cases. Free members of the community had a say, but
most likely decisions were dominated by local powerful families.
Violence against Viking
women was punishable by law, including within marriage.
Women’s involvement in these
assemblies is inconclusive among scholars, from whether only women with higher
social status can participate to the extent that all women were excluded.
Women’s Economic Role and Rights
In general, Viking women had
more rights than European women of their period. Women owned property and could bring and keep it in marriage and could pass it down to her children. When women
divorce their husband, they can take their property with them.
Aside from taking care of
the farm in the absence of men, women also traded their handicraft work. In poorer families, the gender division of
labor was less strict and men and women both worked on the farm as they did not
own servants and slaves.
Impact of Historical Events
There was a relatively
peaceful converse from paganism to Christianity. Missionaries were present as
early as the 700s—800s, but conversion took place over centuries while paganism
and Christianity were practiced alongside each other.
There are scholars who
believe that the consent doctrine for women in marriage was brought by
missionaries which caused changes in Viking marriages. Other scholars believe
that women’s consent was already part of pagan marriage arrangement and was not
introduced by missionaries.
As in any patriarchal
society, Viking women and men suffered from oppression as a gender. But Viking
women were not completely shut out from all economic and maybe even political
resources which would serve them some degree of independence.
Not
Equal but Not Powerless
Women in the two matrilineal
societies discussed had many rights compared to other societies then and even
today. While women were confined to the domestic sphere, matrilineal societies
operated on a social arrangement that had a relatively more balance of power
between women and men. Women had access to and shared control over economic resources,
and although limited, women exercised political power.
It can be argued that the
two matrilineal societies were women-centered societies which provided women
with some source of power; however the society itself may not display
considerable gender equality, especially in the Western-liberal sense of the
phrase, where individuals should have the same rights to various resources in
society.
However, the matrilineal
clans of the Iroquois and Minangkabau societies, and even the Viking patriarchal
society, touch benchmarks generally used to measure gender equality. These are:
women’s rights in the private sphere
(women’s right to seek divorce, gender violence punishable in Viking marriage);
women’s access to, and to some extent, control over economic resources
(women’s ownership of property); and women’s
access to political power (involvement in community decision-making, although there is still debate
surrounding this).
Because men dominated important institutions within matrilineal societies, often political
institutions, women were considered to be oppressed. For many scholars, these
societies are far from any instances of powerful matriarchies. Rather, like the Viking
society, they are viewed as examples of the diverse forms of patriarchy which
coexist throughout the world.
Historical events have
altered collective and egalitarian forms of life as well as the belief system
of matrilineal societies. Thus, for a few scholars, the matrilineal systems
that are still found today are considered to be remains of a once existing
matriarchy. But this would take us to another highly debated topic.
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Revised 20 November 2016
