Matrilineal Puzzle

The Matrilineal Puzzle Was In Fact a Gender Puzzle

The Matrilineal Puzzle Was In Fact a Gender Puzzle

Introduction

There is an assumption in the patrilineal society that exists: men have a belief that they are superior as compared to women and several women agree to this belief. On the other hand, there is a puzzle exist at the heart of these societies. Women who have little power and who are strangers to ancestry however get married to the member of this lineage and give birth to the generation who is responsible for this ancestry. Paradoxically, the prospect of the patrilineage is dependent on people who are not the part of it. One more irony is that female are required to leave their own ancestry after their marriage and they give birth to the generation of someon'es else ancestry. In patrilineage societies, women are most of the time ragged in the dispute of interests and loyalty. They are in the middle that should they give support to their own kids or their father and brothers (Harrison, 2008, pp. 105-110).

In matrilineal societies there is a paradox as well, At times, this paradox is called matrilineal puzzle, and it is a disagreement between the ruler of inheritance and the rule of residence. The opposition is clear in particular societies that are completely matrilineal and they encourage women to rule the residence (Moose & Taylor, 2010, pp. 997-1007).

Discussion

The practice of tracing one's ancestry through the mother is known as matrilineal descent. This means that women are structurally central to a society, and all its members acknowledge this fact as binding legal and ideological principles. Consequently, family dynamics and gender relationships differ markedly from those in patriarchal societies (Thomas and Jones, 2004, pp. 140-56).

In matrilineal societies, children carry their mother's name, not the father's. The mother and her relatives determine the children's social and economic position in society, not the father, which makes both sexes women-defined beings. The strongest relationship is that between mothers and their children throughout their life span. The negative image of the “mama's boy” is unknown; instead, men's closeness to their mother is a societal principle rather than an idiosyncratic, emotional aberration (Harrison, 2008, pp. 105-110).

The term matrilineal must not be confused with matriarchal, which, in essence, means the rule of women. However, due to multiple definitions, there is some confusion surrounding the understanding and use of the term. While matrilineal descent and its consequences are historical fact, the same cannot be argued with respect to matriarchy (Harrison, 2008, pp. 105-110). In matrilineal societies, the prevailing idea is that men and women share power and authority. Women are dominant in the domestic sphere and can also hold position of significance in public space: the social, economic, political, and religious spheres. However, men's authority in the domestic sphere is diminished, which, according to matrilineal thinking, is the more significant arena of action and interaction (Franke & Barbara, 2010, pp. 737-39).

Examples of Matrilineal Puzzle

Adult social authority in a child's life is represented by the mother ...