Gynecocracy

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Gynecocracy ( German  "Frauenherrschaft" ) is a term that is rarely used today for the rule of women not only in the family , but also in the state .

General

The word is made up of ancient Greek γυνή (gyné) for "woman" and ancient Greek κρατεῖν (kratein) for "rule". The term matriarchy used today (“mother rule”) was introduced after 1880 to differentiate it from “gynecocracy”, but gynecocracy and matriarchy are not synonymous, because mothers represent only a part of women. In 1816 the book “Gynecocracy or the government of women and virgins ”, which the gynecocracy understood as a form of government . Only under a gynecocracy could marriage become “the closest connection between a virtuous virgin and a virtuous young man”.

history

The term gynecocracy comes from antiquity , when it appeared in the philosophical literature of the 4th century BC. In his criticism of the political situation in Sparta, Aristotle understood the term as a loss of control over women and slaves and associated it with a lack of orientation towards the common good . In late antiquity , gynecocracy was used to defame the striving for power of individual women in the Roman imperial family . The gluttony at the court of the Ptolemies by Marcus Antonius is said to have led to the gynecocracy of Cleopatra .

Johann Jakob Bachofen is considered to be the founder of the modern history of matriarchy , who in 1861 published the book “The mother's right: An investigation into the gynecocracy of the old world according to its religious and legal nature”. "The woman chooses the man over whom she is called to rule in marriage". However, he never used the word matriarchy, but spoke of motherhood, mother right or gynecocracy.

Content and today's meaning

For Bachofen, the gynecocracy was the rule of women in the family and the state, the sole right of inheritance of the daughters and the right of women to choose a partner . In his view, this was always associated with a political preponderance in society with the rule of women over men.

The gynecocracy can still be found today among many indigenous peoples of the non-European world, and its traces among the civilized peoples of the ancient world go back to the distant past. "Bachofen drafted a - today discarded - theory of the three stages of human development: hetarian gynecocracy ( hetarianism ), marital gynecocracy and paternal law ."

literature

  • Heath miracles , gynecocracy. In search of a lost concept of early modern political language , in: zeitenblicke 8, 2009, no.2

Individual evidence

  1. Beate Kortendiek / Birgit Riegraf / Katja Sabisch (eds.), Handbook Interdisciplinary Gender Research , 2019, p. 211 f.
  2. Carmen Schiede, Gynaikokratie or the government of women and virgins , 1816, p. 76
  3. Carmen Schiede, Gynaikokratie or the government of women and virgins , 1816, p. 76
  4. Beate Kortendiek / Birgit Riegraf / Katja Sabisch (eds.), Handbook Interdisciplinary Gender Research , 2019, p. 212
  5. Aristotle, Politiká , 1269b, 23-34
  6. ^ Prokopios of Caesarea , HA 5 , 26
  7. ^ Plutarch , Antonius , 10
  8. Johann Jakob Bachofen, Das Mutterrecht: An examination of the gynecocracy of the old world according to its religious and legal nature , 1861, p. 92
  9. this as only after 1880 neologism appeared
  10. Johann Jakob Bachofen, Das Mutterrecht: An investigation into the gynecocracy of the old world according to its religious and legal nature , 1861, p. 397
  11. Uwe Wesel , Der Mythos vom Matriarchat: about Bachofen's mother law and the position of women in early societies before the emergence of state rule , 1980, p. 33
  12. Gender and Society (Ed.), Gestalten und Gesechlechten , Volume 6, 1911, p. 531
  13. Hannelore Vonier: Women's rule does not exist (confusion with matriarchy). In: matriarchat.info. Archived from the original on July 31, 2015 ; accessed on November 27, 2019 .