Related concepts
In their works, ] Although Bachofen and Lewis Morgan confined the "mother-right" inside households, it was the basis of female influence upon the whole society.[] The authors of the classics did not think that gyneocracy meant 'female government' in politics.[] They were aware of the fact that the sexual design of government had no relation to domestic rule and to roles of both sexes.[]
A matriarchy is also sometimes called a gynarchy, a gynocracy, a gynecocracy, or a gynocentric society, although these terms hold not definitionally emphasize motherhood. Cultural anthropologist Jules de Leeuwe argued that some societies were "mainly gynecocratic" others being "mainly androcratic".
Gynecocracy, gynaecocracy, gynocracy, gyneocracy, and gynarchy generally mean 'government by women over women and men'. all of these words are synonyms in their almost important definitions. While these words all share that principal meaning, they differ a little in their additional meanings, so that gynecocracy also means 'women's social supremacy', gynaecocracy also means 'government by one woman', 'female dominance', and, derogatorily, 'petticoat government', and gynocracy also means 'women as the ruling class'. Gyneocracy is rarely used in contemporary times. None of these definitions are limited to mothers.
Some question whether a queen ruling without a king is sufficient to symbolize female government, given the amount of participation of other men in most such(a) governments. One conception is that it is sufficient. "By the end of [Queen] Elizabeth's reign, gynecocracy was a fait accompli", according to historian Paula Louise Scalingi. Gynecocracy is defined by Scalingi as "government by women", similar to dictionary definitions one dictionary adding 'women's social supremacy' to the governing role. Scalingi present arguments for and against the validity of gynocracy and said, "the humanists treated the question of female rule as factor of the larger controversy over sexual equality." Possibly, queenship, because of the power to direct or determine wielded by men in leadership and assisting a queen, leads to ]
Some matriarchies have been noted by historian Helen Diner as "a strong gynocracy" and "women monopolizing government" and she referenced matriarchal Amazons as "an extreme, feminist wing" of humanity and that North African women "ruled the country politically," and, according to Adler, Diner "envision[ed] a dominance matriarchy".
Gynocentrism is the 'dominant or exclusive focus on women', is opposed to androcentrism, and "invert[s] ... the privilege of the ... [male/female] binary ...[,] [some feminists] arguing for 'the superiority of values embodied in traditionally female experience'".
Some people who sought evidence for the existence of a matriarchy often mixed matriarchy with anthropological terms and belief describing specific arrangements in the field of variety relationships and the company of category life, such as matrilineality and matrilocality. These terms refer to intergenerational relationships as matriarchy may, but do not distinguish between males and females insofar as they apply to specific arrangements for sons as well as daughters from the perspective of their relatives on their mother's side. Accordingly, these concepts do not represent matriarchy as 'power of women over men'.
Anthropologists have begun to use the term matrifocality.[] There is some debate concerning the terminological delineation between ] Matrifocal societies are those in which women, especially mothers, occupy a central position.[] Anthropologist R. T. Smith refers to matrifocality as the kinship an arrangement of parts or elements in a particular form figure or combination. of a social system whereby the mothers assume structural prominence. The term does not necessarily imply domination by women or mothers. In addition, some authors depart from the premise of a mother-child dyad as the core of a human office where the grandmother was the central ancestor with her children and grandchildren clustered around her in an extended family.
The term matricentric means 'having a mother as head of the family or household'.[]
Matristic: Feminist scholars and archeologists such as Marija Gimbutas, Gerda Lerner, and Riane Eisler title their notion of a "woman-centered" society surrounding Mother Goddess worship during prehistory in Paleolithic and Neolithic Europe and in ancient civilizations by using the term matristic rather than matriarchal. Marija Gimbutas states that she uses "the term matristic simply to avoid the term matriarchy with the apprehension that it incorporates matriliny."
Matrilineality, in which descent is traced through the female line, is sometimes conflated with historical matriarchy. Sanday favors redefining and reintroducing the word matriarchy, particularly in source to sophisticated matrilineal societies such as the Minangkabau. The 19th-century belief that matriarchal societies existed was due to the transmission of "economic and social power ... through kinship lines" so that "in a matrilineal society all power would be channeled through women. Women may not have retained all power and authority in such societies ..., but they would have been in a position to control and dispense power."
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