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Updated: July 25, 2025
There is an intermediate stage between hetaïrism and marriage, such as the group-marriage, held by him to have been practised among barbarous peoples. “Each man has a wife, but they are all permitted to have intercourse with the wives of others.” Das Mutterrecht, p. 18. Great stress is laid on the acquisition by women of the benefits of a marriage law.
McLennan, on the other hand, regarded the custom as due to uncertainty of paternity the children were called after the mother because the father was unknown. Let us concentrate our attention on the Das Mutterrecht of Bachofen, whose work as the great champion of matriarchy claims our most careful consideration.
In a former work the fact has been mentioned that the first clue obtained by Herr Bachofen, author of Das Mutterrecht, to a former condition of society under which gynaecocracy, or the social and political pre-eminence of women, prevailed, was the importance attached to the female principle in the Deity in all ancient mythologies.
This mystical religious element, which is the essential part of Das Mutterrecht, is closely connected by Bachofen with the power of women.
Das Mutterrecht was published in Stuttgart in 1861. Primitive Marriage, published 1865. Studies in Ancient History, which includes a reprint of Primitive Marriage; 1st ed. 1876, 2nd ed. 1886. The Patriarchal Theory, a criticism of this theory is based on the papers of Mr. McLennan and edited by his brother.
That power and relationship are entirely distinct was pointed out many years ago by L. von Dargun, Mutterrecht und Vaterrecht, 1892. Spencer and Gillen, Northern Tribes of Central Australia, p. 358. Rhys and Brynmor-Jones, The Welsh People, pp. 55-6; cf. Rhys, Celtic Heathendom, p. 93. Rhys and Brynmor-Jones, op. cit., p. 214.
We may recall what Tacitus says of the Germans: Mutterrecht und Raubehe und ihre Reste im Germanischen Recht und Leben, Vol. XVI, quoted by Starcke, The Primitive Family, pp. 103 et seq.
It may be found in the clear appreciation of the superstitious and mystical element in primitive man, and their close interweaving with the sexual life. As I understand Herr Bachofen, the sex-act was the means which first opened up ways to great heights, but also to great depths. Prof. Giraud-Teulon’s La Mère chez certains Peuples de l’Antiquité is founded on the introduction to Das Mutterrecht.
Victorious fatherhood thus becomes as distinctly connected with the heavenly light as prolific motherhood is with the teeming earth.” Das Mutterrecht, Intro., p. xxvii. Here, Bachofen, as is his custom, turns to point an analogy with the process of nature.
Under these circumstances the gens of the mother would have some ascendancy in the ancient household. On such an established fact rests the assumption of a matriarchate, or period of Mutterrecht. The German scholar Bachofen in his monumental work "Das Mutterrecht" discussed the traces of female "authority" among the Lycians, Cretans, Athenians, Lemnians, Lesbians, and Asiatic peoples.
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