Matriarchal Societies and Family Structures

Today's "modern family" is of a monogamous family structure and is though to have always existed this way across all cultures. However, the “contemporary monogamous, nuclear family has only been around for about 200 years (or less) […] at around the time of the industrial revolution” (Lecture 9, Slide 6). This family structure features “monogamous heterosexual parents and their offspring living in a house of their own with a male head of house and non-working mother” (Lecture 9, Slide 6). Today’s monogamous “family structure is based on a patriarchal model, with the male/patriarch head of house as the primary breadwinner and mediator between the private space of the nuclear family and the public space of work, economics, politics, and society” (Lecture 9, Slide 7). 

Although today's monogamous family structure is based on a patriarchal model, originally, the family was based on a matriarchal model where “the women - the mothers – [were] held in high respect” (Engels, 89). Even though Western cultures has since switched from a matriarchal model, other cultures and family structure still embrace this model. 

For example, Bonobos embrace the matriarchal model within the family structure. Bonobos “are our closest living relatives in the animal world” and shares 98% of human DNA (Lecture 2, Slide 12). Bonobo's society is "dominated by females" who use each other to express power (Seigel, 46). Within their society, "unrelated females seemed to prefer each other's company to males" and the "guys seemed out of the loop" (Seigel, 46). The females can be lovers, as well as fighters who will "fight each other to protect their sons," whose "life depends on their mothers" (Seigel, 47). Young daughters within Bonobo families often leave to join other colonies. Females take on other male tasks like hunting and choosing a mate. Although the males are larger in size, the bonds the female Bonobos form "gives them an incredible power base" to control the males. With DNA so close to our own, Bonobos' matriarchal model society and family structure can be used as a model for our own society and family structure. Bonobo society and family structure is a "revolutionary twist on long-held beliefs about what's 'natural' in terms of sex roles" (Seigel, 46).


Matriarchal society and family structure is not just a thing of the past or only limited to our primate relatives. Many modern societies also embrace the matriarchal model. The Mosuo women in China, live in "a place know as the Kingdom of Women," they have no words in their language for "father" or "husband," and they do not get married, but instead have many lovers (Koch). In the Mosuo culture, "property is

handed down through the female line and there’s no stigma in not knowing who a child’s father is" (Koch). This is contrary to Western society where property was handed down through male line, which “made the man’s position in the family more important than the woman’s” and it allowed men to control women's sexuality in order for men to be certain the next of kin was theirs, creating the monagomous family structure (Lecture 9, Slide 21).

Other examples of matriarchal societies and family structures is the Aka in Africa's Congo Basin and India. In Africa, the Aka "women hunt, the men cook," and "fathers offer their nipples as pacifiers to their babies when mum isn't around" (Koch). In Meghalaya, India, women "own land and property" and the "youngest daughter in the family inherits all the property as well as acting as caretaker of aged parents and unmarried siblings" (Koch). 

The traditional patriarchal model of the monagomous family structure's gender roles, sex, love, and power are vastly different than those within the matriarchal model of the family structure within Bonobo society and other cultures. 

Sources:
Bredin, R. (2016). Lectures 2 & 9. 

Engels, F. The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State. Boston, MA: New England Free Press.

Koch, C. (2013). Where women rule the world: Matriarchal communities from Albania to China. Retrieved from http://metro.co.uk/2013/03/05/where-women-rule-the-world-matriarchal-communities-from-albania-to-china-3525234/

Seigel, J. (2005). Secrets of the Bonobo Sisterhood.