Editing Matriarchy (section)

=== Words beginning with ''matri-'' ===
{{Further|list of matrilineal or matrilocal societies}}
Anthropologists have begun to use the term matrifocality.{{Citation needed|date=November 2013}} There is some debate concerning the terminological delineation between ''[[matrifocal family|matrifocality]]'' and ''matriarchy''.{{Citation needed|date=November 2013}} Matrifocal societies are those in which women, especially mothers, occupy a central position.{{Citation needed|date=November 2013}} Anthropologist R. T. Smith refers to ''matrifocality'' as the kinship structure of a social system whereby the mothers assume structural prominence.<ref name="IntntnlEncycSocBehavSci-v14-p9416">Smith, R.T., ''Matrifocality'', in Smelser & Baltes, eds., ''International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences'' (2002), vol. 14, p.&nbsp;9416 ''ff.''</ref> The term does not necessarily imply domination by women or mothers.<ref name="IntntnlEncycSocBehavSci-v14-p9416" /> In addition, some authors depart from the premise of a mother-child dyad as the core of a human group where the grandmother was the central ancestor with her children and grandchildren clustered around her in an extended family.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=reU63yfgrWIC Ruether, Rosemary Radford, ''Goddesses and the Divine Feminine: A Western Religious History''], p.&nbsp;18.</ref>

The term matricentric means 'having a mother as head of the family or household'.{{Citation needed|date=November 2013}}

[[File:Venus von Willendorf 01.jpg|thumb|Venus von Willendorf, a [[Venus figurines|Venus figurine]]]]
Matristic: Feminist scholars and archeologists such as [[Marija Gimbutas]], [[Gerda Lerner]], and [[Riane Eisler]]<ref>Eisler, Riane, ''The Chalice and the Blade'', as cited at the [http://www.rianeeisler.com/chalice.htm author's website] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100202041046/http://www.rianeeisler.com/chalice.htm |date=February 2, 2010 }}, as accessed Jan. 26, 2011.</ref> label their notion of a "woman-centered" society surrounding [[Mother Goddess]] worship during prehistory (in [[Paleolithic]] and [[Neolithic Europe]]) and in ancient civilizations by using the term ''matristic'' rather than ''matriarchal.'' [[Marija Gimbutas]] states that she uses "the term matristic simply to avoid the term matriarchy with the understanding that it incorporates matriliny."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Gimbutas |first=Marija |title=The Civilization of the Goddess: The World of Old Europe |year=1991 |publisher=Harper |pages=324}}</ref>

[[Matrilineality]], in which descent is traced through the female line, is sometimes conflated with historical matriarchy.<ref name="InvisibleSex-pp251-255-255">Adovasio, J. M., Olga Soffer, & Jake Page, ''The Invisible Sex: Uncovering the True Roles of Women in Prehistory'' (Smithsonian Books & Collins (HarperCollinsPublishers), 1st Smithsonian Books ed. 2007 ({{ISBN|978-0-06-117091-1}})), pp.&nbsp;251–255, esp. p.&nbsp;255.</ref> Sanday favors redefining and reintroducing the word ''matriarchy'', especially in reference to contemporary matrilineal societies such as the [[Minangkabau people|Minangkabau]].<ref>Sanday, Peggy Reeves, ''Woman at the Center: Life in a Modern Matriarchy'' (Cornell University Press, 2004 ({{ISBN|0-8014-8906-7}})).{{Page needed|date=November 2013}}</ref> The 19th-century belief that matriarchal societies existed was due to the transmission of "economic and social power&nbsp;... through kinship lines"<ref name="LivingLapGoddess-p152-158-161">{{harvp|Eller|1995|loc=p.&nbsp;152 and see pp.&nbsp;158–161}}</ref> so that "in a matrilineal society all power would be channeled through women. Women may not have retained all power and authority in such societies&nbsp;..., but they would have been in a position to control and dispense power... not unlike the nagging wife or the domineering mother."<ref name="LivingLapGoddess-p152-158-161" />

A [[matrilocal residence|matrilocal]] society defines a society in which a couple resides close to the bride's family rather than the bridegroom's family.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Sanctifying Misandry: Goddess Ideology and the Fall of Man|last=Young|first=Katherine|publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press|year=2010|isbn=978-0-7735-3615-9|location=Canada|pages=33–34}}</ref>{{Citation needed|date=November 2013}}