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CHAPTER I

MATRIARCHY

It is not in the plan of this book to give a detailed account of the structure of primitive society. At the same time a knowledge of the salient features of kinship as reflected in the biblical records is of first importance because of their direct bearing on the subject of property and its distribution. Property rights are necessarily determined by relationship.

Sociologists have long maintained that the metronymic group represents an earlier form of social integration than patriarchy. Under the maternal system the mother takes precedence of the father in the determination of kinship. Names are given to the children by the mother. This virtually implies that the children are henceforth looked upon as belonging to the mother's clan. As the nearest of kin the 'maternal uncle' occupies a position of supreme authority over the mother and her children. Inheritance is from brother to brother and from maternal uncle to nephew.2

Survivals of matriarchy are to be met with in some of the oldest portions of the Pentateuch. Wellhausen observes that the J document may be distinguished in many cases from the priestly code in that the former reckons descent through the

1

Giddings, F. H., Principles of Sociology, 158 f.

Wellhausen, J., Die Ehe bei den Arabern, Götting. Gel. Nachrichten (1893), 474 f.

3

mother; the latter, through the father. The existence of ancient words denoting relationship derived from the mother points to a primitive kinship through the mother. It is but reasonable to suppose that female tribal names, such as Hagar and Keturah, Leah and Rachel, Bilhah and Zilpah, owe their origin to a rule of female kinship.5 Names are given to the sons of Jacob-Israel by Leah and Rachel, the wives of Jacob. A like prerogative is accorded the mother in Judg. 13: 24; 1 Sam. 1:20; 4:21. Even women in attendance may exercise this right. The ceremony of adoption by which Bilhah's children are acknowledged by Rachel as her own is another indication of the presence of matriarchy. Furthermore, Rebekah appears to be under the special guardianship of her brother. Laban's insistence on his right to retain the wives of Jacob and their children remains unintelligible unless we assume a type of beena marriage of which this is a remnant. After serving Laban for twenty years Jacob endeavors to carry away his wives and children by stealth. When finally overtaken, Laban reproves Jacob for his act, inasmuch as the daughters and children are his. "And Laban answered and said unto Jacob, The daughters are my daughters and the children are my children. ''10 Mr.

3 Wellhausen, J., 478, note 2.

Smith, W. R., Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia, 32, 38 f.

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Benzinger, I., Hebräische Archäologie (ed. 2), 104.

Gen. 29: 31 f.; chap. 30; 35: 18.

Ruth 4: 17.

s Gen. 30: 3.

Gen. 24:50-55.

10 Gen. 31: 43.

Giddings observes that "the wife and children in beena marriage always belong to the horde of the wife. If the husband chooses to go back to his own people, he must leave his family and property unless he can get them away as plunder, as Jacob did when he left Laban."'11 Abimelech's career is rendered possible by 'his mother's brethren . . and the family of the house of his mother's father,' who enable him to carry out his plot against the house of Gideon. The sole basis of appeal, apart from mere ambition, is maternal relationship.12

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The extant evidence, it may be noted, is in the main rather of a suggestive than convincing character. More than this cannot be affirmed as to the existence of matriarchy even among the Arabs13 and Babylonians.

There is a strong probability that uterine ties alone once constituted kinship in Arabia.14 Temporary monandrous marriages or marriages of the mut' a type between individuals of exogamous groups may be instanced as a survival from the period of matriarchy.15 Marriage among the Saracens appears to have been of this character. Ammianus Marcellinus relates that "to give the union

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14 W. R. Smith, Kinship, 177 f., 203, 213; Wellhausen, Ehe, 478; Kohler, J., Zeitschrift für vergleichende Rechtswissenschaft, v. 8, pp. 240 f.; Bertholet, S.I.J.F., 57; Day, E., The Social Life of the Hebrews, 24, 238; Benzinger, op. cit., p. 103.

15 W. R. Smith, op. cit., 85, 91; Wellhausen, op. cit., 474; Kohler, J., op. cit., p. 382.

an appearance of marriage, the wife offers her spouse a spear and a tent by way of dowry.''16 Where this type of marriage prevails, the woman is a free agent, disposing of herself as she pleases. The children of the union belong to the mother's clan, the father's relation to his children being of no consequence. It appears that the mother has a right to give names to her own sons.17 In the usual preliminaries to a marriage contract the maternal uncle often plays a prominent part.18

The fact that a number of ancient words expressive of the bonds of kinship are derived from the mother, furnishes additional data in favor of the onetime existence of mother-kinship in early Arabia. Thus the Arabic equivalent for uterus,19 a word frequently used for kinship, affords an instructive example of the case in point. Batn, another Arabic word, has a variety of meanings, viz. venter, uterus, race, clan. In its more specific sense the word refers to descent through the female line.20 So again the word for breast in Arabic is generally applied to relationship. Umma, a derivative of umm, mother, also comes to mean people, nation, community.21

By the side of male eponyma numerous female tribal names are found.22 "The two great branches

16 Kinship, 81; Ehe, 445: "dotis nomine futura coniunx hastam et tabernaculum offert marito."'

17 Ehe, 478; Kinship, 124.

18 Ehe, 477 f.

19 Rahim, womb; cf. Kinship, 176, Ehe, 475.

20 Ibid., 475, note 3.

21 In Arabic umma sometimes appears in the sense of religious community. Cf. Kinship, 32, n. 2.

22 Ibid., 29 f., 204; Ehe, 476; Kohler, op. cit., 240.

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