Disconnection Sample Letter

The debate on the Cantabrian matriarchy.

Today we recover one of the great debates of historical anthropology. "There was a matriarchy in pre-Roman societies of Northern Peninsular?

The idea of \u200b\u200bthe existence of a matriarchal system among the Cantabrian and, by extension, among all peoples of the North in Roman times, is based, first, in the famous passage of Strabo (3, 4, 18): "For example, between the Cantabrian men give dowry to women, the daughters are the ones who inherit and women looking for his brothers, this seems to be a kind of gynaecocracy (women's domain ), a scheme which is certainly not civilized "; And, secondly, on the assumption of evolutionary theory of the nineteenth century, led by anthropologists Morgan, Bachofen and Engels, who argued that patriarchal societies are the product of an evolution primitive matriarchal societies.

Due to the abandonment of evolutionary theory and a better understanding of ancient societies of the western Mediterranean, the thesis "matriarchal" of each fewer arguments when trying to establish the characteristics of the social organization of Cantabria in ancient times. For the data offered Strabo, the only thing that can try to rebuild the marriage system in this town.

JC Bermejo, after analyzing the specific value of the terms used by Strabo in the passage above and taking into account its historical and cultural context must be said that there was a structural trend cross-cousin marriage. This system of marriage would be like "matrilineal", ie group members are female identity via through his mother. And again, the pattern of residence postmarital would possibly "uxorilocal" (marriage sets up his residence with relatives of the wife).

Strabo's description of the type of marriage between the Cantabrian is not sufficient to prove the existence of a "gynaecocracy" or "matriarchy" because, although women played an important role in marriage exchanges (the sisters are his brothers wife), do not forget that men "endowed women, which indicates that man has an important economic role in society Cantabria. To this must be added that both the military and the political power in the hands of men. This made it impossible to continue to maintain, from Strabo's text, the existence of a matriarchy, regime in which the economic role, political, legal and religious women would be prominent, considering the etymological sense of the term.


can speak of the presence of some matrilineal traits, as appears from the type of marriage and kinship system in a very concrete. But it can not infer the existence of a matriarchy, a society in which women have in their hands the political, economic and religious. Was there ever a matriarchy? Will we see the end of patriarchy?

What will be ... that has to be will be ...