This book explores the conceptualizations of female power through the notion of matriarchy in a variety of historical, cultural and epistemological contexts.
This book explores the conceptualizations of female power through the notion of matriarchy in a variety of historical, cultural and epistemological contexts.
Matriarchy has been both marginalized and even derided as an object of study, albeit consistently referred to as a symbol of female power. The lack of serious engagement with matriarchy has stifled critical inquiry into alternative ways of organizing gendered power, and this gap is what this book seeks to address. Re-examining matriarchy from a scientific and interdisciplinary perspective, this book aims to move beyond the simplistic binaries of male versus female power through diverse inquiries into the concept of matriarchy that conceptualizes power not as domination but as interconnection, nurturing and community-oriented leadership. Through this approach, the contributions examine the emancipatory possibilities of matriarchy, while also acknowledging the limitations and challenges that come with it.
An interdisciplinary approach having international scope, this work will appeal to postgraduate students and academic researchers of sociology, anthropology, archeology, history, art history, Asian studies, American studies, African American and Africana studies, women’s studies, gender studies and law.
Introduction; Part I: Matriarchal traces: Questioning the myth of
universal patriarchy;
1. The quest for prehistoric matriarchy: archaeological
perspectives;
2. Matriarchy, A Fantasized Model? Considering Indigenous
Notions of Kinship, Decision-making, and Personhood Among the Na of China;
3.
Insights into the Representations of Matriarchy in the Visual Culture of the
Medieval East; Part II: Matriarchal imaginaries of female empowerment;
4. The
Concept of Matriarchy in the Writings of Cheikh Anta Diop: Foundations,
Topicality, and Influences on Feminist Organizations in Senegal;
5. Clan
Mothers: The matriarchal figures of Mona Susan Powers stories;
6. The Myth
of Primordial Matriarchy in the Goddess Movement: Between Strategic
Mythmaking and the Construction of Artistic Matrilineage; Part III:
Matriarchal narratives and ideologies of male domination;
7. Mother Earth and
the matriarchal imaginary of environmental law: posthuman advances and
biopolitical limits of rights of nature;
8. The myth of matriarchy in the
narratives of separated fathers' associations and their influence on the law;
9. Primitive Matriarchy and the maternal self in the Takamure Itsues
Feminist Historiography
Coralie Raffenne is a senior lecturer in law at the Universite Paris Dauphine-PSL, France, and teaches on the legal aspects of corporate social responsibility, sustainable development and transition. She holds a PhD in law from the University of Warwick. Her current research explores the application of feminist approaches to environmental law and economics. Her recent publications include Cosmopolitics of CareThe State and the Company beyond the Neoliberal Anthropocene (forthcoming monograph) and La Souverainete MarchandiseeLEmpire des paradis fiscaux et le pillage environnemental (2012).
Cécile Coquet-Mokoko is a professor of US cultural history, African American studies and gender studies at Universite Versailles-Saint Quentin, France. She has 30 years of experience in historical and sociological research on race and gender relations in the United States from the nineteenth century to the present, particularly in the Deep South, and on the legacy of colonialism and slavery in interpersonal relations in France, the United Kingdom and the United States. Her recent publications in English include Love under the Skin: Interracial Marriages in the American South and France (2020).
