Page 10 - Lesson Notes

2. Matriarchal
Power and authority is given to the female of the house.
Matrilineal and Matriarchal Society is found in Meghalaya-Khasi, Jaintia, Garo
tribes
Kerala – Nayyar family
• Property goes from mother to daughter inheritance (mother to daughter)
control (uncle to nephew)
Matriarchy – unlike patriarchy – has been a theoretical rather than an empirical
concept. There is no historical or anthropological evidence of matriarchy – i.e.,
societies where women exercise dominance. However, there do exist matrilineal
societies, i.e., societies where women inherit property from their mothers but do
not exercise control over it, nor are they the decision makers in public affairs.

Contradictions in matrilineal systems

1. Arises from the separation of the line of descent and inheritance on the
one hand and the structure of authority and control on the other.

2. The former, which links the mother to the daughter, comes in conflict
with the latter, which links the mother’s brother to the sister’s son.

3. A woman inherits property from her mother and passes it on to her
daughter, while a man controls his sister’s property and passes on control
to his sister’s son.
4. Thus, inheritance passes from mother to daughter whereas control passes
from (maternal) uncle to nephew.

Intense role conflcit in the Khasimatriliny system
1. Generates intense role conflict for men. They are torn between their
responsibilities to their natal house on the one hand, and to their wife and
children on the other.

2. The strain generated by such role conflict affects Khasi women more
intensely. A woman can never be fully assured that her husband does not
find his sister’s house a more congenial place than her own.
3. Similarly a sister will be apprehensive about her brother’s commitment to
her welfare because the wife with whom he lives can always pull him
away from his responsibilities to his natal house.

4. The women are more adversely affected than men by the role conflict
generated in the Khasi matrilineal system not only because men wield
power and women are deprived of it, but also because the system is more
lenient to men when there is a transgression of rules.