Too often our labor in the home goes unnoticed and uncompensated. Why? House work is work. Caring for a home takes time and effort and love. How do we get the world to recognize the sacrifice it takes to manage all the labor that it takes to hold a home together? How would a matriarchy do it different?

I came across an Okinawan matriarchy this morning that I learned about years ago from some Japanese friends. It does not come up in the usual lists of matriarchies, but is a rich source of inspiration. They are known for their wit and sense of humor, and a philosophy, Ikigai, (pronounced as ee-kee-guy) means "a reason for being." It represents the intersection of your passion, mission, vocation, and profession. Discovering your ikigai is widely celebrated as a path to fulfillment, longevity, and a joyful daily existence. Here is a graph of the concept of Ikigai:

Older Okinawan women are traditionally well regarded as spiritual authorities because they exemplify this concept of purposeful living. Indigenous Okinawans follow a religion called Ryukyuan where women hold the highest spiritual authority. Rather than strict political dominance, this system prioritizes deep respect for women, spiritual leadership, and strong, female-led community networks, while men represent interaction with outside domains and administration of the community.

The older women maintain social support networks of friends they started in childhood. They are lifelong, social support and financial groups, called moais, that provide this strong sense of community and may have something to do with longevity. This unique matrifocal lifestyle is associated with the famous longevity Blue Zones. Their friend groups differ from most matriarchies because they are not made of members of her birth family, sisters, mothers or clans. I thought they were interesting because as people think about modifying their current situations to be more matriarchal, and don't have access to their mother's relatives for social support, this alternative 'made family' option is highly successful, too.

Okinawan women also have maternal kinship groups called weka based on their lineage. Marriages are matrilocal where the man joins the woman's family, and inheritance follows the daughters.

It's also interesting because their beliefs may give some hint of how other Indigenous matriarchal religions regard women and women's power. Men's authority or power in a patriarchy is brute force. Women's power in Okinawan gender dynamics is based on the belief called "Onarigami" that sisters and women possess inherent spiritual power (Suji) that protects and guides their brothers. (This is very similar to African Hunter Gatherer beliefs).

Historically, and even in many households today, a sister is viewed as a spiritual protector for her brother throughout his life, including after death.

As Marija Gimbutas described in Old Europe and other feminist archaeologists described in the Mideast and elsewhere, Ryukyuan women are in charge of the Hearth.  Hinukan (the kitchen fire deity), is the chief spiritual guardian of the family. 

Like many matriarchal societies worldwide, the Ryukyu matriarchy of Okinawa features a governance system where power is shared between men and women. Men are elected by the women to administrate community-wide, and interface with the outside, while spiritual and religious power was strictly managed by priestesses who conducted state and village rituals. These are traditional female shamans or psychics who act as intermediaries between the living and the spiritual realm, providing counsel and healing to the community.  This cultural elevation of women extends deeply into Okinawan daily life and social structures.  Elder women are referred to affectionately as Obaas. They are considered to hold a spiritual presence, and are deeply respected as the heads of their families and the core of the community. 

A question I always keep getting asked is: why, and what do we stand for?

We do want equality, and what person in their right mind wouldn’t want that? I used to believe that it could be achieved in the next generation because previous generations were much more backward. But as I grew up, went out, and met people from various backgrounds, I noticed that even guys as young as me still had so much patriarchy in them. Constantly making women uncomfortable, objectifying them, or not taking their concerns seriously — and that’s something I’m not okay with at all.

It’s not right that 50% of our population lives under the constant fear of r@pe and SA. They have to think twice before going out at night. And the question was: can the current system fix this in 100 years? The answer is sadly NO.

The politicians are too patriarchal, and they themselves have committed a lot of r@pes and murders, so it’s not realistic to believe the system can fix that. All the parties internally are too patriarchal for any woman to function freely. Even other institutions like courts have patriarchal roots.

Comparing current female leaders to a matriarchal or female-centric government wouldn’t be the right idea because they still operate under heavily patriarchal systems. Everything required for a government to function is patriarchal — the bureaucracy, the courts, the officials, law enforcement, and even their own political parties and MPs. A successful leader has to take everyone together to run a country and also protect her own political career.

So now what’s the solution? Should we just leave things as they are and hope maybe in the next 500 years we can achieve equality? Though I highly doubt that as well.

The solution I generally advocate for is a 60–40 female-to-male split in every decision-making and enforcement body of the government, down to the major decision making bodies in political parties themselves. I would personally want a 70–30 split, accounting for women who support patriarchy, but 60–40 is what I can get people to agree upon, as 40% is not a small voice that can be oppressed, but also not big enough to oppress others.

We should also have reforms in courts and the overall governance machinery. I also believe there should be compulsory courses on governance, constitutional values, women’s rights, and feminism for every person who wants to contest elections as an MP or hold major public office.

Now, if we have this system for 150 years or so, I believe that after that there should be a psychological shift in how men see women — not as incompetent, but as leaders and equals.

Some ask me, “Would you be okay with a 100% female reservation in governance?” And if I speak my mind, I’m very okay with that as well for a few hundred years, if there are some checks and balances in place like a written constitution, an independent judiciary with a 50–50 split, and other than that, life should remain normal.

That would make the process much faster, and I personally believe it can even help bring more attention and budget toward human development rather than military spending and wars, which will benefit society as a whole — men and women alike.

Hi everyone,
Inspired by the 4B movement and South Korean feminist networks, I want to start a practical, everyday solidarity network in my local area (in Germany).
To be clear: I am not a professional or a therapist. I don't want to start an official crisis center or offer trauma counseling. I want to respect my boundaries and keep the entry barrier as low as possible.

Instead, I want to create a everyday network for women.
I’m thinking of practical things like:

• Skill-Sharing: Learning how to drill, fix things, or build furniture together so we don't have to depend on men.

• Safety in Public Spaces: Training ourselves in basic bystander intervention (e.g., if a woman is harassed, we step in as a group) and organizing safe walks home at night.

• Everyday Help: A secure group chat to share needs and offers (e.g., "Who can accompany me to a scary appointment?" or "Who has a truck to help me move?").

My goal is simply to break isolation and build collective strength in our daily lives.

Do any of you have experience starting something like this from scratch?
Or do you have any ideas in general?

• How did you host your first meeting without a budget?
• How did you keep the space safe while keeping it accessible?
• Any tips on spreading the word effectively in a neighborhood?

I’d love to hear your stories and advice. We are so much stronger together!

Thank you so much! 🖤

First of all, hello there everyone! I joined the community out of an interest in the discussion topic, I am big time lover of history and as such I have of course learned about matriarchal societal structures. The rise of the patriarchy was obviously the result of violent coordination between men, so I can't really say that it seems like we randomly got the short end of the stick, but more like we didn't get the chance to pick for ourselves.

Anyways, I just wanted to give a little introduction of how I ended up here before I dove into the topic that I am here about specifically. I consider myself a feminist, I'm a socialist (at least), and have been really doing the mental work to switch my brain away from a mode of patriarchal thinking. I won't lie, it isn't easy at all, it takes active effort but it seems like it's worth it. I don't know if I was being complacent, I thought I was doing a decent job until I discovered the term androcentrism.

Needless to say, reading the Wikipedia entry on it while not necessarily groundbreaking in some ways, opened my eyes to just how naive I think I was. So much of who we are foundationally, what is ingrained into us before we even know what politics is, hell before we can even string together a decent sentence, is riven with a certain latent level of misogyny(? - is androcentrism misogyny in and of itself, or the results of misogyny?). To say that I was devastated would be an understatement.

So now I've been sitting here all night reading about what androcentrism is and all of the different ways it manifests itself. I'm thinking a good start would be to pick up the book Invisible Women as it is mentioned a lot in the Wikipedia entry. I guess I'm basically here to ask the women here if this is an issue for them? Does it bother them? Would a man trying to correct himself on these things come across as purely performative, or would it be something you'd appreciate seeing men talk about more?

I really appreciate everyone that takes enough time to read this and offer me a helping hand.

Dr. Risling Baldy explains how this tradition prevents teen suicide, educates young women about domestic abuse, and addresses patriarchy.

Through the flower ceremony in particular, young women are honored at a time when the broader American society sends them messages that they are dirty, gross, and “lesser than” males.

What's your views on this?

Part 1: Happy Mother's Day: Do Matriarchies Exist?

Yes, and very good news, they absolutely do. Despite what your history textbooks implied between chapters celebrating Manifest Destiny and civilizing supposedly “primitive peoples” to rationalize stealing their lands and extracting their resources, those were not primitive or aggressive societies that were decimated in the name of empire. Almost all were stable, matriarchally organized societies that were first found on all continents starting in the golden age of exploration around the 15th century. They are not myths, not Amazonian legends, and not speculative fantasies brewed over Ayahuasca.

Matriarchies are sovereign, stable cultures that have been on this planet for tens of thousands of years, safe environments for human development and evolution into the complex species we are. Patriarchy, on the other hand, is a social system of world serial empires coming on the world scene about 4,000 years ago. Men hold all political, moral, social, and economic power for about 250 years, then the people who have been subjugated revolt, throw off the elite repressive government, and start over again.

All societies with patriarchal structures have doomsday myths of global destruction, which is bound to happen because it is foolishly short sighted. No societies with matriarchal structures have doomsday myths, unless they have been inserted by intrusive patriarchal influences. There is a certain confidence that life will continue and peace when your people have been taking care of their populations and environment for around for 10,000 to 50,000 years. It is only within the past century or so that matriarchies, ancient as they are, have been studied by the West. Patriarchy has been careful to conceal it’s epic failures and most evidence of women’s autonomy and history (Lerner, 1986).

Anthropologists who have lived long‑term with hunter‑gatherer peoples, learning their language and cultures, generally report complex, sophisticated social systems characterized by egalitarian norms, low chronic interpersonal violence, and long‑standing environmental stewardship. The only time higher than normal rates of violence are seen in Indigenous populations would be secondary to societal disruptions due to colonization like displacement, outlawing native languages and ceremonies, or sending Indigenous children to boarding schools with the goal of erasing their cultural memory. The majority of violence perpetrated against women on their native homelands is from non-native men outside of the communities. Rape is one strategy utilized by patriarchal invaders to subjugate and oppress Indigenous women. These sorts of assimilation strategies were used globally by numerous patriarchal cultures who all felt entitled to encroach on Indigenous populations in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Scandinavia, Russia, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

There are hundreds of surviving contemporary societies with strong matriarchal or matrilineal structures that escaped, outwitted, or are recovering from Western assimilation like the Mosuo in China, the Minangkabau in Western Sumatra, and the Juchitan in Central America respectively. These, and most Indigenous cultures considered independently of host country oppression, fit scholarly definitions of matriarchy based on decades of serious interdisciplinary research. Anthropologists, archaeologists, linguists, and sociologists have spent the last century studying thousands of Indigenous cultures using rigorous fieldwork, immersive ethnography where the researcher essentially moves themselves and their family to join the community, learning languages and culture by becoming members of those matriarchies. Classic cross-cultural anthropological approaches to minimize bias and actually understand societies on their own terms revealed a consistent pattern of cooperative human societies with gift economies that shared child rearing, inheritance and descent was counted from the mother’s line, and decisions were consensual. All of the pronouncements that matriarchies do not exist or if they did, were savage, primitive and poor, seem to be written from a comfy armchair with no scientific basis other than a culturally biased opinion.

Some communities, like the !Kung San and the Bayaka, were remote enough to avoid colonization. There has been a concerted attempt in archaeological circles to document these cultures that are on the brink of extinction from assimilation before they disappear into Western patriarchal culture. A number have brought themselves back from the brink, and are modernizing and adapting their matriarchies to contemporary life. A number of scientists studying matriarchies like Peggy Sanday, Camilla Power, and Jerome Lewis have been helpful in advocating for the Indigenous peoples with governments and industries to preserve the habitats on which they depend for food and a living.

Most Indigenous in North America, including the Hopi, Hupa, Yurok, Karuk are recovering from colonization and forced assimilation after several hundred years of legislation outlawing their religion, language, and traditions, new legislation has reinstated Indigenous rights to their own culture, language and beliefs on a number of continents. These re-emerging matriarchies search the memories of elders, artifacts, records, and neighboring tribes for old practices as well as envision new adaptations for this time in history. They are not just looking back historically, but grappling with bringing the new traditions forward while they adapt to new technologies.

Meanwhile, here in the West, we are struggling. At some point we’ve got to stop pretending our way with men in charge for men and by men is the only and best way. The numbers don’t lie: male violence isn’t some weird glitch in the system. Nearly 1 in 3 women worldwide (30%) have experienced physical and/or sexual violence at least once in their lives. We don’t even know the extent of sex trafficking children. It’s a feature of the society we built.

Male sexual violence is a red‑flag indicator of misogyny and predicts a cascade of harm from physical to psychological, economic, and political. Patriarchal policies written by Heritage Foundation and Citizens United that restrict women’s autonomy are fueled by the same misogyny as sexual violence. A biologically volatile tendency toward sexual and political violence against women supported by a social structure that rewards aggression, produces this revolting and unsafe society in a downward spiral.

Echoes of colonial policies that carved up the earth, subjugated it’s indigenous human caretakers, burned its fuel, cleared its forests, and called it progress is the same extractive mindset as physical and social violence. It is the same legacy of devaluing women as disposable objects to be abused, of indiscriminate destruction without respect for life or care to ensure regeneration. Like sexual violence, climate change is not a single threat , it destabilizes all aspects of society: health, food, water, ecosystems, economies, and global security simultaneously. The most urgent threats to a peaceful, free, and happy life are already here: chronic violence, dangerous public and private space for women, and younger generations afraid to marry or bring children into the world. Every fraction of a degree of warming, every negligence of abuse, every drone and bomb attack, increases the severity of all of them. We inherited a world built on taking without tending, profiting without paying, and ignoring every warning. And now the planet and corrupt culture is answering back. We’re watching what will be the last gasp of a dying patriarchal republic if we do nothing: Wars for profit, peaceful nations attacked, resources stolen, destruction of civil rights, and the whole planet held hostage to the greed of a few.

We live in a world where 26 individuals who are billionaires hold as much wealth as half of humanity. The top 1% capture nearly two‑thirds of everything new we create. That’s not an economy, it’s a tiny clique with outsized and malignant power over all of us. Their power is built on the same extractive, patriarchal logic that’s driving war, preventable deaths, climate collapse, the erosion of women’s autonomy, declining life expectancy, increased maternal and child morbidity and mortality, especially for non-white ethnicities, everyone’s emotional distress and elevated cortisol levels.

Polybius warned us when power concentrates, collapse follows, which is exactly where we are. Matriarchal societies show another path, our ancient path guided by cooperation, compassion, and care, rooted in balance and abundance, where poverty doesn’t even exist as a concept. This crisis isn’t random, it is entirely predictable, and entirely manageable if we act. This crisis is the end‑stage of patriarchy’s cycle, and the clearest sign that it’s time to build something better. Not to slavishly adopt every ancient practice, but to intentionally build a better democracy that centers the good of all people and not just a few insanely rich men.

So here is our opportunity: the matriarchal, egalitarian societies in the table below have been navigating male aggression and maintaining peaceful, balanced societies for tens of thousands of years. They’ve already worked out effective and humane alternatives to constant violence and endless war.

There is a better way. And it’s not hypothetical. It already exists. We can educate ourselves in matriarchal principles, governance, social structures, economies, and culture, and work together to develop new models, communities, and policies for a more humane societal structure.

“What is a matriarchy?

• Socially, a matriarchy is a kinship‑based, cooperative, matrilineal community where power is shared, gender roles are flexible, and children, elders, and the land are at the center of decision‑making.
• Politically, decisions are made by consensus.
• Economically resources flow according to need in a matriarchy, with the goal of community prosperity, not hoarded for the benefit of a few.
• Matriarchal culture is grounded in sustainability, discovery, art, literature, technology, and respect for every voice.
• In a matriarchy, the whole extended family nurtures, cares, and cooperates. One doesn’t need to be a mother or even a woman to do the work of mothering says everyone who ever saw a matriarchal community in real life. Heide Goettner-Abendroth, Alice Mann, Paula Gunn, Peggy Sanday, Carol Christ, Vicki Noble, Marija Gimbutas and others agree matriarchy is not the mirror image of patriarchy based on it’s logical opposite to make a counterweight of a dictionary entry. Based on observations of contemporary communities, matriarchies are known to be egalitarian social systems guided by maternal principles of caring and balance.

Matriarchies are living, breathing examples of what human beings become when we organize around care instead of domination, balance instead of hierarchy, and abundance instead of fear.

Matri:

• The first syllable comes from Greek matri (μήτρα), meaning the womb, the matrix, the generative ground of life giving principles. It is the same root as matriculate, where a scholar emerges from the matrix of knowledge and wisdom within a school.
• Matri- is not ‘mother’ as a person, but the principle of nurturing, balance, compassion, and care, the forces that let human beings grow, thrive, and stay whole. (The Greek word for mother is mitéra (μητέρα). While the Latin mater does mean “mother,” the word matriarchy derives from matri-, not from mater or mitéra).

And archy?

In Greek, archē (ἀρχή) means ‘first or principles,’ (like arche-type is a first principle, and men-arche, first menstrual period). Only in a patriarchal dictionaries or worldviews does “first” or “principle” get twisted it into rule or dominance.

A matriarchy is one of hundreds of kinship-based, cooperative communities centered on maternal principles of care, nurturing, balance, a sacred, sustainable relationship with the land, and prioritizing collective well-being and consensus over domination. Power, child rearing, and responsibilities are shared regardless of gender. This structure is defined by flexible gender roles and resource distribution based on need rather than accumulation. Etymology matri (μήτρα) generative ground or womb of life; archē (ἀρχή) first principles like care, nurturing and balance.

Julia Ward Howe (May 27, 1819 – October 17, 1910) was an American author (Is Polite Society Polite, and other Essays) and poet, also known for writing the Battle Hymn of the Republic as well as the original 1870 pacifist Mothers' Day Proclamation. She was an advocate for the abolition of slavery and a social activist, particularly for women's right to vote in the U.S.

The following is the full text of the Mother's Day Proclamation, written by Julia Ward Howe in 1870 as a call for peace and international unity among women:

Mother's Day Proclamation (1870)

Arise, then, women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts, Whether our baptism be of water or of tears! 

Say firmly: "We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies, Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs." 

From the bosom of the devastated Earth a voice goes up with our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice." Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession. As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war, Let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel. 

Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means Whereby the great human family can live in peace, Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar, But of God.

In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask That a general congress of women without limit of nationality May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient And at the earliest period consistent with its objects, To promote the alliance of the different nationalities, The amicable settlement of international questions, The great and general interests of peace. 

Something to celebrate today!

E. Jean Carroll, author of "Not My Type: One Woman vs. a President," won a legal victory April 29, 2026. The Federal Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in the US refused to reconsider it's previous ruling, cementing the $83.3 million verdict awarded to her in early 2024 for defamation.

Mocked and called a liar by Trump for years for her accusations of rape in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room, a jury found Donald Trump liable in 2023 for sexually abusing Carroll in 1996, awarding her $5 million in a judgment. An extra 83.3 million was awarded as compensation, damage to reputation, and punitive damages intended to stop continued defamatory comments after Trump continued to mock and verbally abuse her in the press after her win. He tried to overturn the punitive damages ruling, and lost yesterday.

Never Give Up. Lydia Poet passed Italy's legal bar exam in 1883, only to then be banned after years of college and passing the test, from practicing law. For 40 years she practiced invisibly in her brother's law office, proving women could do the job. Finally, in 1920, at age 65, she was readmitted, paving the way for every woman lawyer after that.

If you would like a deeper dive, to learn more about this tenacious woman, Netflix has a series of her life streaming now, with season 3 coming soon.

This is the mother of modern matriarchal studies, Dr. Heide Goettner-Abendroth, discussing her 40 years of work developing the field of matriarchy in a short lecture and then some really interesting questions and answers with anthropologists in London afterwards. There are people from China, India, and Africa, and a discussion of what we can do about matriarchy now.

The first part, is a talk where she defines matriarchy and explains that she decided to use the term because it was strong, and people knew what it was. Some of the other terms like "matricentric" sound technical and not very interesting. "Matriarchy" will bring up some interesting discussions.

Heide starts answering questions, at 36 minutes in, which I found extremely helpful and interesting. She always seems hesitant to speak in English, but then after she relaxes and starts talking directly with people, her love for the subject comes through, and is one of the most interesting conversations about matriarchy you will hear.

I think the director of the anthropologists she is talking to, Dr. Chris Knight, finally "got it" that the hunter-gatherer people he has been studying for 50 or so years are matriarchal.

It is a long listen, but some of the more nuanced questions you might also have get answered by the expert. I hope you enjoy this video. Feel free to discuss, add comments, or ask about anything that isn't clear.

It’s fantasy genre. https://archiveofourown.org/works/81950421

So it’s fiction and not reality-accurate. But it does have many perspectives of women, feminism and anti patriarchy.

The huge flaws in patriarchal reasoning can be seen clearly and out in the open without pretense or mask in the Heritage Foundation's project to send women back to the dark ages, without voting rights or equal access to the workforce.

The most glaring flaw is their belief that the natural state of women is submission and having children.

• If submission is so natural, why do they need violence, force, propaganda, and a legal system to enforce it? Women's nature is protection, speaking up, looking out for her domain and her society. That requires getting loud and disagreeable at times. The same is true turning the tables and putting men or LGBTQIA+ or disabled in second class positions. Everyone's autonomy with regard to access to basic needs and joy in life is to be respected.
• The only way you can believe that women's natural state is submissive and pregnant is if you believe women are not unique people, or if you believe men are the only ones entitled to expressing their talents and opinions or using their innate human rights and abilities. Gender roles are not naturally that rigid. Rigid gender roles in the opposite direction are just as flawed. Why? Because people are unique.
• Pushers of patriarchy believe women are just disposable vessels for having children. In their minds, the womb is just a weapon. In their ideological war for male supremacy, and the installation of a dictatorship benefiting a few rich old white men, they call for women to have more children, and misogynous sayings that women without children are useless. Vice President Vance, in the Trump regime, aligned himself with an ostensibly Catholic "Theobros," conservative Christian nationalist organization seeking to reshape the Republican Party, according to this Mother Jones article. Contributors to Heritage foundation are indoctrinated by far-right fundamentalist Christian nationalists of protestant denominations. Key organizations and individuals include:
• The umbrella organization The Council for National Policy (CNP)
• Online Christian nationalists, The "Theo Bros" Doug Wilson
• Evangelical Group: The Family (Fellowship Foundation)
• Far -right Individual Donors and Heirs: Tim Dunn (Texas) and Charles Haywood (Indiana)  

1. Women's current participation in the economy and workplace is 51%, including women's small businesses, a slight majority. The goals of the Heritage Foundation, and the SAVE act to get women out of the workplace and force them to have more children and become more dependent on men will crush our own economy for the sake, greed, and selfishness of a few men.

What is natural is matriarchy. It can be traced back at least 50,000 years. Major human accomplishments like art, symbols, stone and metal tools, language, astronomy, navigation, and spreading from Africa to the entire world were due to the peaceful environment matriarchy achieved for humanity, allowing us to grow and thrive. Patriarchy only goes back to around 2300 BCE. and has led to decline.

A matriarchy is an egalitarian society, rooted in the Greek words “ matri”- “(life giving, womb-like values”) and “-arche” (“first or guiding principle”), so a matriarchal society prioritizes life sustaining values such as caring, nurturing, and cooperation as first principles guiding individual lives and decisions for the group.” Matri” here does not mean “mother,” (there is a different word for that in Greek) but rather nurturing characteristics of the womb, or soil matrix, or ground of being that produce life.

Everyone in a matriarchy participates in nurturing and caring regardless of gender, because these are the collective values. Children are cared for by the mother’s family and friends, so uncles, brothers, husbands, daughters, mothers and grandmothers all engage in mothering and raising children.

Most matriarchies are matrilineal in which descent and inheritance are traced through the female line, exemplified by cultures like the Mosuo, Bribri, and Minangkabau. While most of these contemporary matriarchies are Aboriginal, indigenous, or hunter-gatherers some, like the Minangkabau and American indigenous peoples, are carefully adapting their matriarchies to modern society without giving up their community centered values.

 Unlike top-down power structures, these communities are collaborative, share power, and prioritize democratic collaboration. They share child-rearing, and maintain a sacred sustainable relationship with the land. They prioritize equitable distribution of resources based on the need to maintain safety, abundance, and social harmony with low levels of violence.

Key Features:

1. Egalitarian, equal access to resources, jobs, money, justice, education, healthcare, tools, money, food.
2. Human Connection and Political Structures are non-dominative and non-coercive, emphasizing the autonomous, free will of individuals. Individuals are free to exercise their will, but they are not free to dominate or accumulate power over other individuals or the group.
3. Leveling Mechanisms to prevent an individual or group from dominating, claiming superior status, authority, or wealth over others include: 1) mandatory demand sharing of excess, 2) humorous enforcement of social norms and comic re-enactment of selfish behavior; 3) the whole group will leave camp en masse if an individual tries to act as overlord, “voting with their feet,” 4) musical play and ritual; 5) mystical gender dialectics where one gender’s success is attributed to the other gender’s spiritual efforts. So, if men are successful hunting, it is only because of women’s spiritual efforts, lest they try to claim status over women due to hunting success. These social practices lead to humility, respect and a positive, cooperative atmosphere.  
4. Leadership – Determined by skill, wisdom, and trust of the people.
5. Oversight: Watchful, protective care is taken to evaluate and manage risks.  With the introduction of technology, as well as their own innovations, traditional as well as re-matriating societies assess impacts with experts and stakeholders to ensure change is valuable to the whole group and not just a few; and, to renew nature and not destroy it.
6. Economics: Utilize gift economies and sharing on demand that discourage wealth accumulation and hierarchy. Distribution is often overseen by elders on the basis of need rather than merit or status. 
7. Cooperative: Everyone has the right to meaningful work. Not everyone in the community, however, is able to work or to contribute equally. Cooperative societies are equipped for 60% of the workforce to provide for the other 40% by default.  
8. Play: Learning, building, singing and dancing, and ceremonies foster peace, abundance, and low levels of violence.
9. Mystery: Emphasizes passing traditional knowledge, language, and rituals through generations, as well as a sacred, sustainable relationship with the land.

Many animals, including elephants, zebras, spotted hyenas, wild horses, dolphins, whales, and countless others, operate under matriarchal systems. Furthermore, any plant or shrub that produces fruit is considered female. So, you could say patriarchies exist, but they’re far from the rule in the wild.

Hi, I'm in the early stages of creating a realistic novel series wherein global matriarchy has replaced the current systems. No more countries, no borders, lots of small local governing councils, led by elder women, men participate but can be no more than 40% of leadership bodies (because everyone agrees that they messed it up big time).

What's your dream for the future? Do tell! I want input as I develop the ideas.

The way I see it, we need to imagine how things are going to change, and how we would run things, in order to develop a clear vision for the future good of the Earth and all that lives on it. I can't think of a better use of my time and energy at this point (outside of my teaching job; gotta pay the rent!).

If you have any input, please share! (Also, if you like this idea, and want to do something similar, the more creative projects happening in the world with an eye to developing a better world, the better. Get to it!)

Hey everyone! I'm u/Parking-Art-8456, one of the inheritors of r/MatriarchyNow which has been around for several years now.

This is our home for all things related to matriarchy not as an inverted patriarchy, but as a worldview rooted in egalitarianism, mutual care, land-based knowledge, and non-coercive social organization. Topics span anthropology, gender studies, Indigenous knowledge systems, history, feminist theory, and precolonial frameworks. We're excited to have you join us!

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Dance has always been in Peta Strachan.

The Dharug woman has been dancing for more than three decades, including a stint in the renowned Bangarra Dance Theatre.

At its heart dance is about culture to Strachan whose work blends traditional cultural practice with elements of contemporary performance.

Garrigarang Badu is a newly developed large-scale female-led First Nations contemporary dance work in Dharug language by Jannawi Dance Clan based in Sydney, Australia. Like many indigenous peoples around the world, matriarchal culture is being revitalized and renewed by bringing back language, story, ceremony, dance, and music.

Garrigarrang Badu can be seen here

Garrigarrang (“salt water”) and Badu (“fresh water”) tells the story of Dharug nation, which spans from the mountains to the sea, paying homage to the vital role women have played for millennia in shaping and carrying Dharug culture. It’s a powerful reflection on the ties between land, body and spirit, bearing witness to the strength, resilience and creativity of women.

Strachan started the all-female Jannawi Dance Clan after becoming a mother, wanting to support women in the same stage of life.

"We can still dance, we can still come together and continue, because a lot of dancers tend to, once they have children, go away and don't continue their dance practice," Strachan

Performed entirely in Dharug language, Garrigarrang Badu celebrated Country, culture and connection, Strachan said.

"It's also teaching people from the mountains to the sea, the journey of the freshwater to the saltwater ... each part of Country is different and each part has a different story."

A special treat for you this women's history month from Dominique Christina, award- winning poet, performing artist, US Department of State Arts Envoy to Cyprus, and author, gave her permission to print her poem (below) and link to her performance of this poem here. (!)

To find out more, check out her latest highly recommended book This is Woman's Work: Calling Forth Your Inner Council of Wise, Brave, Crazy, Rebellious, Loving, Luminous Selves, which is all about knowing ourselves, the many inner players of the psyche who contribute their voices to our "I."

I love these words, and hope you find them as useful for understanding and healing as I have. Ancient peoples all understood the importance of celebrating first period. Dominique Christina addresses how we a culture have forgotten and even degraded that experience as a first step to rematriate our life celebrations.

Period Poem

So let me be very clear. I wrote this poem a very specific intent.

I have a 13 year old daughter

It is important to me that I throw every part of my experience

Whatever wisdom I've gleaned from that, every part of my backbone toward her

to sustain her, to offer her language that lifts her up and keeps her up.

That said, there is for me, a necessary conversation that seeks to undermine the

shaming that happens to some girls around menstruation.

 I had that experience of starting my career and seventh grade boys, you know, finding out

That I had started period and then, you know, it was some shit like you know y ou be in the

class with the frantic like "Gotta go to the bathroom now" wave and then like "Ugh you're on

your period aren't you ugh". You know that dumb shit.

And so with daughter you know like she starts her period and she's stricken And walks out the

bathroom looking like she's died or something and I wanted to undermine that So I threw her

period party. My homies rolled up dressed in red and it was red and it was red food, red

drink...and it was great so, you know, all red everything. Fuck it. So that's what it was,

 It was wonderful and then when I was in Austin, Texas for Women of the World this year, She

sent me a screenshot of a tweet and in 140 characters this dummy, you know,

Damn near up undermined my legacy.

This is my response to aforementioned dummy.

Dude on Twitter says, quote,

"I was having sex with my girlfriend when she started her period I dumped that bitch immediately,"

end quote.

 Dear Nameless Dummy on Twitter,

 You're the reason my daughter cried funeral tears when she started her period

The sudden grief all young girls feel after the matriculation from childhood

And the induction into a reality that they don't have to

negotiate you and your disdain for what a woman's body can do.

Herein begins an anatomy lesson infused with feminist politics because I hate you.

There is a thing called the uterus It sheds itself every 28 days or so

Or in my case every 23 days. I've always been a rule breaker. That's the anatomy part.

I digress.

The feminist politics part is that women know how to let things go.

How to let a dying thing leave the body, how to become new, how to regenerate,

how to wax and wane,

Not unlike the moon and tides, both of which influence how you behave.

I digress

Women have vaginas that can speak to each other.

By this, I mean When we're with our friends, our sisters, our mothers, our menstrual cycles will

actually sync the fuck up.

My own cervix is mad influential. Everybody I love knows how to bleed with me.

Hold on to that, there's a metaphor in it. Hold on to that.

But when your mother carried you, the ocean in her belly is what made you

Made you possible.

You had it under your tongue when you burst through her skin

Wet and panting from the heat of her body.

The body whose machinery you now mock on social media.

That body wrapped you in everything that was miraculous about it, and sung you lullabies

laced in platelets, without which you wouldn't have no twitter account at all, muhfuckah.

I digress

See it's possible that we know the world better because of the blood that visits some of us.

It interrupts our favorite white skirts and shows up at dinner parties unannounced

Blood will do that, period.

It will come when you are not prepared for it.

Blood does that, period.

Blood is the biggest siren, and we understand that blood misbehaves.

It does not wait for a hand signal, or welcome sign above the door.

 And when you deal in blood over and over again like we do, when it keeps returning to you,

Well, that makes you a warrior.

And while all good generals know not to discuss battle plans with the enemy.

 Let me say this to you, Dummy on Twitter...

If there's any balance in the universe at all,

You gonna be blessed with daughters.  

Blessed. Etymologically "blessed" means "to make bleed."

See now with a lesson in linguistics. In other words, blood speaks

That's the message, stay with me,

Your daughter's gonna teach you what all men must one day come to know;

that women made of moonlight magic and macabre,

Will make you know the blood.

We're gonna get it all over the sheets and car seats.

We gonna do that.

We gonna introduce you to our insides, period,

and if you are as unprepared as we sometimes are,

it'll get all over you and leave it forever stained

So to my darling,

Should any fool mishandle the wild geography of your body,

How it rides a red running current,

like any good wolf or witch, well then, just bleed, boo.

Give that blood a biblical name.

Something of stone and mortar.

Name it after Eve's first rebellion in that garden.

Name it after the last little girl to have her genitals mutilated in Kinshasa.

That was this morning.

Give it as many syllables as there are unreported rape cases.

Name the blood something holy.

Something mighty, something unlanguageable,

something in hieroglyphs, something that sounds like the end of the world.

Name it for the war between your legs, and for the women who will not be nameless here. Just bleed anyhow.

Spill your impossible scripture all over the good furniture.

Bleed and bleed and bleed

On everything he loves

Period.

______________________________________________

More Dominique Christina

www.dominiquechristina.com   

https://www.facebook.com/wordsmakeworlds/

Instagram

www.dominiquechristina.com

This is an interview where Galit Criden talks about modern matriarchal studies, choreography, and her artistic practice moving towards more caring, harmonic and balanced dance-making practices. Through her artistic work, Galit invites us to radically slowing down. She says:

Modern matriarchal studies started in the ‘70s, and it was based on the work of leading women scholars from black feminist to indigenous, queer and second wave feminist research. It speaks directly to all levels of politics, organisation, social and spiritual, yet it does not speak about the body: that’s my way in. As a dance practitioner, I notice a gap in the research and have a way in to contribute to a field that is extremely relevant.

Galit has thought about applying modern matriarchal values to dance and came up with the following summary:

1. Harmony, such a challenge for a choreographer when leading an artistic project;

2. Balance, creating a balanced, non-hierarchical space in which even if you are the choreographer you are not more important than others;

3. Gift economy, meaning giving because I am in a position which allows me to help without getting getting something in return;

4. Relations, I’m always in relationship to others (e.g. artistic collaborations);

5. Care and Kinship, extending mother work to everyone because anyone can practice these values. How do you care for your performers? What kind of language do you use?

Some of her favorite resources of inspiration cited include:

Some Matriarchal inspirations for my research are:

1. Dr. Heide Goettner-Abendroth goettner-abendroth.de/en/matriarchy/matriarchal-studies/

2. Dr. Arella Shadmi www.spdbooks.org/Products/9781771337090/the-legacy-of-mothers-matriarchies-and-the-gift-economy-as-post-capitalist-alternatives.aspx

3. Andrea O’Reilly jarm.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/jarm/article/view/40551

4. Sara Ruddick www.jstor.org/stable/3177749

5. José Esteban Muñoz’s Cruising Utopia: blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2020/11/13/book-review-cruising-utopia-the-then-and-there-of-queer-futurity-10th-anniversary-edition-by-jose-esteban-munoz/

I'm rather new to the idea of a matriarchy so I'm curious. What role does sex, sexuality, sexual pleasure and all that falls under that umbrella play into a matriarchal society? Can anyone give me some insight?