Ancient matriarchy

Johann Jakob Bachofen before 1888.

The ancient matriarchy is a discredited view that ancient human cultures were matriarchal. Some feminists claim that these ancient matriarchal cultures were taken over or defeated by aggressive patriarchal cultures and that evidence of the past matriarchy was systematically hidden by The Patriarchy.

Some proponents of ancient matriarchies have claimed that ancient human cultures did not understand the connection between sexual intercourse and pregnancy. Modern research has completely debunked this. There are no known human cultures, today or in the past, that did not know of the connection between sexual intercourse and pregnancy.

The notion of the ancient matriarchy was invented by Johann Jakob Bachofen and then further developed by other 19th-century European men. The ancient matriarchy is a variant of the now-discredited (and generally regarded as racist) notion of the noble savage.

The ancient matriarchy was popular among feminists from the 1970s to the 1990s. Most feminists today that have heard of it are aware that it is untrue, although they are often unaware of its origins.

Any society claimed to be matriarchal is some combination of matrifocal, matrilineal and matrilocal.

See Also

• Johann Jakob Bachofen

External Links

• The Myth of Matriarchy: Why Men Rule in Primitive Society: Bachofen and Mother Right: Myth and History
• https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences-and-law/anthropology-and-archaeology/anthropology-terms-and-concepts/matriarchy
• https://www.nas.org/articles/Unearthing_Matriarchy
• Straight Dope