The Matriarchy Debate and its Negation
Matriarchy, Patriarchy, Negation, Gender Studies
The matriarchy debate and its negation
Abstract
The interest in the matriarchy discourse can be traced as early as from the mid-19th century and still engages the minds of the scholars of anthropology, history, gender studies, kinship studies, and others. Later in the early 1970s the debate on matriarchy received a fresh impetus especially in the studies undertaken by feminist scholarship. This increasing interest in the area of matriarchal studies emerged as a result of a struggle within the mind of the feminist scholarships regarding the question of universal subordination of women. One of the reasons of this churning has been due to the belief that women’s achievements or contributions had never been recorded due to a male bias which was always prevalent in almost all disciplines. The emerging subject of modern matriarchal societies is also the investigation and presentation of societies which are non – patriarchal. It gave rise to an exploration of the past societies and also searches for alternative social structures or power dynamics which were not oppressive or exclusionary. This interest in non – oppressive social structures became even more relevant since feminist scholars were unhappy with the present structures of society which are violent and increasingly biased against women. In these and related contexts, the study of matriarchy assumes its significance today. Negation in this context refers to denying the existence of an idea or a concept or a system or tradition. An idea or a concept is negated when it is considered to be against the established norms. It can also be said that if a particular idea of practice is considered to be a threat to an existing order or as an alternative to that existing system, then it is negated. ‘Matriarchy’ as a social order has been negated from various quarters and for various reasons. The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the debate surrounding the idea of matriarchy as available in the contemporary kinship studies, gender studies, and others. This paper also examines how the concept of matriarchy has been negated from various quarters.
Volume 11
Issue 2,
February-2024
Pages : a379-a388
Paper Reg. ID: TIJER_151261
Published Paper Id: TIJER2402047
Downloads: 000339
Research Area: Social Science All
Country: Kolkata, West Bengal, India
ISSN: 2349-9249 | IMPACT FACTOR: 8.57 Calculated By Google Scholar | ESTD YEAR: 2014
An International Scholarly Open Access Journal, Peer-Reviewed, Refereed Journal Impact Factor 8.57 Calculate by Google Scholar and Semantic Scholar | AI-Powered Research Tool, Multidisciplinary, Monthly, Multilanguage Journal Indexing in All Major Database & Metadata, Citation Generator
Publisher: TIJER (IJ Publication) Janvi Wave
