MATRIARCHATE ("

See also:

• RULE

rule of the

See also:

• MOTHER

mother ")  , a term used to express a supposed earliest and lowest form of family life, typical of primitive societies, in which the promiscuous relations of the sexes result in the child's father being unknown (see FAMILY) . In such communities the mother took precedence of the father in certain important respects, especially in line of descent and inheritance . Matriarchate is assumed on this theory to have been universal in prehistoric times . The prominent position then naturally assigned women did not, however, imply any personal power, since they were in the position of mere chattels: it simply constituted them the sole relatives of their children and the only centre of any such family life as existed . The custom of tracing descent through the female is still observed among certain savage tribes . In Fiji father and son are not regarded as relatives . Among the Bechuanas the chieftainship passes to a brother, not to a son . In Senegal, Loango, Congo and Guinea, relationship is traced through the female . Among the Tuareg Berbers a child takes rank, freeman's or slave's, from its mother .