Understanding matriarchy, and other systems

Q1: How does matriarchy work?

What are its social structures, values, and household dynamics across cultures?

Things to study:

  • Matrilineal inheritance structures (e.g., Minangkabau)
  • Consensus-based governance (e.g., Iroquois Confederacy)
  • Household authority dynamics (e.g., elder women as stewards but not rulers)
  • Economic design (e.g., gift economies, subsistence co-stewardship)

Q2: What is the role of the woman in the household within patriarchy?

How is domestic power constructed, permitted, or contained under patriarchy
  • The “patriarchal bargain” (Deniz Kandiyoti)
  • Victorian domesticity (e.g., Angel in the House, Gilded Age)
  • Indian grihini models—how women have status within the home but not beyond it
  • The homemaker as “compensated” through symbolic power (moral authority, ritual role, control over aesthetics, etc.)

Note to self: This stuff may end up in the power or civic prep module but placing it here to study it. It will feed an essay in WIMTS on control + be kind of a fun essay or module in itself.