Editing Matriarchy (section)

== Mythology ==
[[File:Coyolxauhqui 4095977415 b89d64f008-2.jpg|thumb|[[Coyolxauhqui Stone|Large stone disk]] depicting the vanquished Aztec goddess [[Coyolxāuhqui]]. The myth surrounding Coyolxāuhqui and her brother [[Huitzilopochtli]] has been interpreted by some feminist scholars, such as [[Cherríe Moraga]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=West-Duran |first1=Alan |last2=Herrera-Sobek |first2=María |last3=Salgado |first3=César A. |title=Latino and Latina Writers: Cuban and Cuban American authors; Dominican and other authors; Puerto Rican authors. Volume 2 |year=2004 |publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons |isbn=978-0-684-31294-1 |page=354 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uS3uAAAAMAAJ&q=Coyolxauhqui+matriarchy |access-date=8 October 2020 |language=en}}</ref> as an allegory for a possible real life shift from matriarchy to patriarchy in early [[Mexica]] society. ]]

=== Amazons ===
A legendary matriarchy related by several writers was [[Amazons|Amazon]] society. According to [[Phyllis Chesler]], "in Amazon societies, women were&nbsp;... mothers and their society's only political and religious leaders",<ref>{{harvp|Chesler|2005|pp=335–336}} (italics omitted).</ref> as well as the only warriors and hunters;<ref>{{harvp|Chesler|2005|pp=335–336}}</ref> "queens were elected"<ref>{{harvp|Chesler|2005|p=336}}</ref> and apparently "any woman could aspire to and achieve full human expression."<ref>{{harvp|Chesler|2005|p=336}} (italics omitted)</ref> [[Herodotus]] reported that the [[Sarmatians]] were descendants of Amazons and [[Scythians]], and that their women observed their ancient maternal customs, "frequently hunting on horseback with their husbands; in war taking the field; and wearing the very same dress as the men". Moreover, said Herodotus, "no girl shall wed till she has killed a man in battle".<ref>{{Cite web|title=History of Iran: Histories of Herodotus, Book 4|url=http://www.iranchamber.com/history/herodotus/herodotus_history_book4.php|access-date=2020-08-30|website=www.iranchamber.com}}</ref> Amazons came to play a role in [[Roman historiography]]. [[Julius Caesar]] spoke of the conquest of large parts of Asia by [[Semiramis]] and the Amazons.{{Citation needed|date=November 2013}} Although Strabo was sceptical about their historicity, the Amazons were taken as historical throughout [[late Antiquity]].<ref>[[Strabo]], 5.504.</ref> Several [[Church Fathers]] spoke of the Amazons as a real people.{{Citation needed|date=November 2013}} Medieval authors continued a tradition of locating the Amazons in the North, [[Adam of Bremen]] placing them at the [[Baltic Sea]] and [[Paulus Diaconus]] in the heart of Germania.<ref>[[F. A. Ukert|Ukert, F. A.]], ''Die Amazonen'' (Abhandlungen der philosophisch-philologischen Classe der Königlich Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1849), 63.</ref>

=== Greece ===
[[Robert Graves]] suggested that a myth displaced earlier myths that had to change when a major cultural change brought patriarchy to replace a matriarchy.{{Citation needed|date=November 2013}} According to this myth, in [[Greek mythology]], [[Zeus]] is said to have swallowed his pregnant lover, the titan goddess [[Metis (mythology)|Metis]], who was carrying their daughter, [[Athena]]. The mother and child created havoc inside Zeus. Either [[Hermes]] or [[Hephaestus]] split Zeus's head, allowing Athena, in full battle armor, to burst forth from his forehead. Athena was thus described as being "born" from Zeus. The outcome pleased Zeus as it didn't fulfill the prophecy of Themis which (according to Aeschylus) predicted that Zeus will one day bear a son that would overthrow him. {{Citation needed|date=November 2013}}

=== Celtic myth and society ===
{{main|Ancient Celtic women#Matriarchy}}

According to Adler, "there ''is'' plenty of evidence of ancient societies where women held greater power than in many societies today. For example, [[Jean Markale]]'s studies of Celtic societies show that the power of women was reflected not only in myth and legend but in legal codes pertaining to marriage, divorce, property ownership, and the right to rule...although this was overthrown by the patriarchy."<ref>{{harvp|Adler|2006|p=196}} (italics so in original; p.&nbsp;196 n.&nbsp;20 citing Markale, Jean, ''Women of the Celts'' (London: Gordon Cremonesi, 1975)).</ref>

=== Basque myth and society ===
The hypothesis of Basque matriarchism or theory of Basque matriarchism is a theoretical proposal launched by [[Andrés Ortiz-Osés]] that maintains that the existence of a psychosocial structure centered or focused on the matriarchal-feminine archetype (mother / woman, which finds in the archetype of the great Basque mother Mari, her precipitate as a projection of Mother Earth / nature) that "permeates, coagulates and unites the traditional Basque social group in a way that is different from the patriarchal Indo-European peoples".

This mythical matriarchal conception corresponds to the conception of the Basques, clearly reflected in their mythology. The Earth is the mother of the Sun and the Moon, compared to Indo-European patriarchal conceptions, where the sun is reflected as a God, numen or male spirit. Prayers and greetings were dedicated to these two sisters at dawn and dusk, when they returned to the bosom of Mother Earth.

Franz-Karl Mayr, this [[philosopher]] argued that the archetypal background of Basque mythology had to be inscribed in the context of a [[Paleolithic]] dominated by the Great Mother, in which the cycle of [[Mari (goddess)]] and her metamorphoses offers all a typical symbolism of the matriarchal-naturalistic context. According to the archetype of the Great Mother, this is usually related to fertility cults, as in the case of Mari, who is the determinant of fertility-fecundity, the maker of rain or hail, that on whose telluric forces depend the crops, in space and time, life and death, luck (grace) and misfortune.<ref>{{cite book |last1=José Miguel de Barandiarán |title=Euskal Herriko Mitoak |publisher=Gipuzkoako Kutxa |page=63 }}</ref>

=== South America ===
Bamberger (1974) examines several matriarchal myths from South American cultures and concludes that portraying the women from this matriarchal period as immoral often serves to restrain contemporary women in these societies, providing reason for the overthrow by the patriarchy.{{Clarify|date=February 2009}} <ref>Bamberger, Joan, The Myth of Matriarchy: Why Men Rule in Primitive Society, in M. Rosaldo & L. Lamphere, Women, Culture, and Society (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1974), p. 279.</ref>