Political As It Is Scientific. in the Wake of the Turbulence the Theory of Matriarchal

BASIL BLACKWELL Class, Structure and Knowledge MATRIARCHATE AS UTOPIA, MYTH, Problems in the Sociology of Knowledge AND SOCIAL THEORY NICHOLAS ABERCROMBIE The sociology of knowledge has remained largely untouched by the theoretical innovations of sociology as a whole, and remains essentially Harvey Greisman dominated by Mannheim and Marx. Here Nicholas Abercrombie brings two newer positions - phenomenology and 'structuralist' Marxism - into a Abstract After a relative silence of nearly four decades, matriarchal theory has been the debate with the traditional perspectives. subject ofrenewed interest inthe social sciences. This paper traces theorigins ofmatriarchal 208pages, hardback £10.00 (0 631 12291 5) theory to itsproximate roots in thenineteenth century speculative literature, and analyzes paperback £3.95 (0 631 12301 6) its impact on the development of Utopian models for the restructuring of society along The Politics of Social Theory feminist and humanist lines. Habermas, Freud and the Critique of Positivism RUSSELL KEAT Introduction The critical social theory of the Frankfurt School has exercised a major on or publication of influence on debates within Marxism and the philosophy of science over After halfa centuryof relative quiet, the debate over the existence of a primordial the past fifty years. Drawing on analytical philosophy, modern matriarchy has begun again. As before, the partisans of both patriarchal and psychotherapy and moral philosophy, Russell Keat scrutinizes its claims, matriarchal theories have often been caught up in a controversy which is as much concentrating particularly on the ideas propounded by Jurgen Habermas in his attempt to establish a new grounding for the aims and methods of the political as it is scientific. In the wake of the turbulence the theory of matriarchal social sciences. personal use only. Citati origins has assumed a dual character: The matriarchate is viewed by some of its (June 1981) 240pages, hardback about £12.00 (0 631 12598 1) rums. Nutzung nur für persönliche Zwecke. advocates asanactual prehistoric state ofsociety considerably moreemancipated and paperback about £4.50 (0 631 12779 8) democratic thanthe present one,and as amodelfora futureUtopia whichwillobtain tten permission of the copyright holder. only with the dissolution of the current patriarchal system. This paper proposes to Social Mobility examine the origins and ideological structure of the matriarchal theory as a social A Study of Social Control and Insatiability scientific conceptand asa Utopian vision. EARL HOPPER In his classic study of the Utopian mentality, Mannheim noted that images of Through a comparative analysis of stratification and education, Earl ancientand half-forgotten civilizations, as well as myths or traditions about former Hopper, who is a psychotherapist as well as a sociologist, examines the conditions of society, were effective mechanisms for mobilizing groups with structural sources of desire and despair, expectations and achievements. He shows how anxious feelings, such as relative deprivation, powerlessness revolutionary aspirations. The chihasm of the sixteenth-century Anabaptists drew and anomia, are manifest in crime, religious conversion, rebellion and much of itsinspiration from theaustere egalitarianism of theearlyChristians, andthe Veröffentlichungen – auch von Teilen – bedürfen der schriftlichen Erlaubnis des Rechteinhabers. Rechteinhabers. des Erlaubnis der schriftlichen – bedürfen von Teilen – auch Veröffentlichungen Propriety of the Erich Fromm Document Center. For Eigentum des Erich Fromm Dokumentationszent alienation. wri express without prohibited material socialist crusaders of thenineteenth-century wereinspired bythe supposed existence 346pages, £24.50 (0 631 11031 3) of an age of primitive communism which predated the appearance of private property and social classes.1 Extensive documentation of this tendency has been Social Conflict and the City assembled by Cohnand Remmling, the thrust of their arguments essentially being ENZO MINGIONE parallel to Mannheim's position that social groups seeking ascendancy assemble A critical and original interpretation of the main social events, and social elements of their hoped-for Utopia from mythological and scientific sources alike.2 conflict in particular, accompanying urban and regional development in The utility ofthe idea ofa matriarchate forthe contemporary consciousness lies not Europe and in general. Starting with the intellectual debate concerned with so much inthe area ofscientific vindication as it does inthescope ofusing thetheory the traditional descriptive approach of social ecology, the author provides as an outline for a coming non-patriarchal society. answers to theoretical and interpretive questions. (May 1981) 208pages, hardback£16.00 (0 631 10441 0) paperback £7.95 (0 631 12716 X) Development ofMatriarchal Theory Discussion about a primordial matriarchate was until recently generally dismissed Basil Blackwell Publisher, 108 Cowlev Road, Oxford 0X4 1JF Greisman, H. C., 1981: Matriarchate as Utopia, Myth, and Social Theory, In: Sociology, Vol. 15 (No. 3, Aug. 1981), pp. 321-336. MATRIARCHATE 323 322 HARVEY GREISMAN as anantique misconception thatshould best beforgotten. RobertH. Lowiemade the Roman Law at Basle, proposed his theory of matriarchal origins (1861). He unqualified conclusion (a fortiori) that'. a genuine matriarchate isnowhere to be Mainly was not the first to forward this view, having been pre-dated by Lucretius found'.J Others suggested thatsince menultimately replaced women as thedominant ph Lafitau (Moeurs des sauvages Ameriauains, 1724), and John Millar (Ongmofthe sex in society, it follows that there must have been something inherently weak or Action of Ranks, 1771). But his conception of matriarchy w»g^3 inefficient about the matriarchate.4 Robin Fox insisted that the idea waspure myth, different in that he premised its existence on the evidence ofmyth. Bachofen inferred since women wereincapable of rulingsociety in thefirst place.5 Muchofthe rancour from h writings of the ancient Greek commentators like Ovid, Virgil and Horace in this argument concerns the disagreements between evolutionists and Min the earlfest civilization, children were named after then^mother, Noting descnptionists in anthropology; thisis a sectarian debate, themerits of which cannot from the sketchy data on contemporary primitive societies available to hun that this be discussed here. Yet the fact remains that it was not until recently that academic rStm the case", he assumed the universality of amatriarchate. He also offered the discourse once again included discussion of a matriarchate as a serious subject.6 opinion that the rule ofwomen followed an anarchic time ofconsulate promiscuity, The genesis of modern matriarchal theory occurred in an atmosphere that was 2 that the matriarchate was the first truly durable form of ordered society. This hardly congenial to its positive reception. Nineteenth-century social thought was was aperiod in which 'God was awoman', the moon took precedence over the sun, still very much under the influence of Blackstone whose Commentaries ofthe Laws of Lri earth lorded it over the oceans, and the last born took precedence over the England (1765-69) attacked theideaofa state of naturewhichhad beena cornerstone Lt '° He forwarded aclassic image of'Amazonian assertiveness in which arace of ofFrench Englightenment thought. Inre-stating thepatriarchal hypotheses ofearlier strong, creative, and self-assured women dominated their weak, ummaginativc, and writers likeJeanBodin(SixLivres de la Republique, 1576), andSamuel Pufendorf(The Law ofNature and ofNations, 1672), he insisted that there could be no human beings "t^-^SSIon or publication of how this social order passed away to be replaced by without society, and vice versa, and thatthe basis of human society from theearliest the ctrent patriarchal system, yet imbedded in its downfall is the implication.hat it epochs to the present day was the patriarchal family. Also within the area of «ve way to amore appropriate and 'better developed' organization of society. Hi jurisprudence was Henry Sumner Maine's Ancient Law (1861): It too sought to depiction of the matriarchate is by no means flattering, and though the somewha establish the foundation of society on the patriarchal model as mirrored in the Old idiosyncratic achievement of this German-Swiss jurist cannot be classed as social Testament and early Roman law. Apart from the writings ofjurists, philosophers, personal use only. Citati evolutionism, there is in Das Mutterrecht an implicit critique ofthe gynocratic tableau and social scientists, it canbe argued that nineteenth-century European culture was that rums. Nutzung nur für persönliche Zwecke. it pictures. The role of Bachofen in the development of matriarchal theory rests generally in a less thanreceptive posture for theories of matriarchal origins. nottten permission of the copyright holder. so much in his clasS1cal scholarship (which has been criticized), or in> his use: of Althoughthe excesses of Schopenhauer's essay On Women seem faintlyamusing by preliterate ethnographic data (which was unreliable), but rather in the poetic contemporary standards, they highlighted a widespread misogyny which was originality of his own, personal vision of human origins which contributed endemic tothemiddle-and-upper classes oftheperiod. Oneneed onlyrecall thelegal incrementally to later, more politically-oriented matriarchal Utopias. barriers

Load more