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For instance, he accepts, without any doubt, the existence of the Amazons; and believes that the myths which refer to them record “a revolt for the elevation of the feminine sex, and through them of mankind.” It is on such insecure foundations he builds up his matriarchal theory. There is, however, an aspect of truth in Bachofen’s position, which becomes plain on a closer examination.
But even a religion which is thus unflatteringly described is based on the cardinal doctrines of sin and sacrifice for sin. How man fell into sin is not stated, but it is certain that he did fall. The cock then appears as a mediator between God and man. The use of the feminine ka blei is no doubt due to matriarchal influences.
Or, to express the thing by a familiar phrase, the highly organised, scientific state we desire must, if it is to exist at all, base itself not upon the irresponsible man-ruled family, but upon the matriarchal family, the citizen-ship and freedom of women and the public endowment of motherhood.
"If there is such a place and there does seem some foundation for believing it you'll find it's built on a sort of matriarchal principle, that's all. The men have a separate cult of their own, less socially developed than the women, and make them an annual visit a sort of wedding call. This is a condition known to have existed here's just a survival.
In the midst of their technological revolution they were still living in their ancient superstitions. Still the old awe of the Word of the matriarchal, matrilineal church. Still the compulsion to have their little gold symbols of rank sanctified and made real.
Descent is traced through both the male and female lines, and inheritance is likewise through both sexes. There are no distinguishing terms for relations on the father's or mother's side, nor are there other traces of matriarchal institutions.
But from the standpoint of modern idealism matriarchal polygamy seems to be a very low estimate of moral conduct; and from the standpoint of sexual idealism it is a low standard; a standard only a degree higher than that of patriarchal polygamy a standard which is the lineal descendant of the ethics of the marriage-by-capture period of human evolution, and from which we are today by no means free, owing to economic, religious, and ethical conditions.
They afford the strongest evidence of the early privileged position of women in the relationships between the two sexes. It is, I think, impossible to avoid giving to this a matriarchal interpretation. For it is by contrasting the religious-sex standpoints of the maternal and the paternal ideals that the inferior position of women under the later system can be demonstrated.
She was originally only virginal in the sense that she rejected marriage, being the goddess of a nomadic and matriarchal hunting people who had not yet adopted marriage, and she was the goddess of childbirth, worshipped with orgiastic dances and phallic emblems. See, e.g., Nicomachean Ethics, Bk. iii, Ch. De Civitate Dei, lib. xv, cap. Summa, Migne's edition, vol. iii, qu. 154, art.
The evidence from myth and legend. The evidence from direct historical statements as to the prevalence of the matriarchal family, and inheritance through the maternal line. To take these various testimonies in their order, let us begin with That this form survived in Sparta, Crete, in Hindoo law, in the traditions of Ireland, in the popular rustic customs of Wales, is not denied.
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