Chinese Journal of Sociology ›› 2014, Vol. 34 ›› Issue (3): 1-36.

• Articles •     Next Articles

Parents and Nature: A Genealogy of Western Matriarchal Thought (II)

  

  1. WU Fei, Department of Philosophy, Peking University
  • Online:2014-05-20 Published:2014-05-20
  • Contact: WU Fei, Department of Philosophy, Peking University E-mail:wufeister@pku.edu.cn
  • Supported by:

    This paper was supported by Lai Tak Foundation, Center for Studies of Law and Politics, Peking University.

Abstract: After “The Myth of Matriarchy”, this part of the paper examines the intellectual origin of matriarchy. Among modern thinkers, Hobbes already discussed the main ideas of matriarchy. The state of nature in “Leviathan” reflected not only wars of all against all but also marriages of all with all. Hobbes clearly argued that the first human family might be headed by the mother and that because children could not identify their fathers, the motherson contract could be the first human contract. Matriarchy of the 19th century was nothing but another form of social contract from the theory of human nature and the theory of contract. Bachofen’s ideas of matriarchy followed the thinking of Hobbes’s and his interpretation that the mother represented nature whereas the father represented culture was exactly the philosophical basis for the matriarchal anthropologists even none had made an explicit statement. This thought can be traced back to Aristotle, who viewed man as a perfect human being but woman as an underdeveloped deformed man. In generation, the father provided form and the mother matter. The relationships between the two genders in both family and city were based on this philosophical principle. The understanding of gender relationships in Western traditional thinking originated from Aristotle’s theory of form and matter. With the development of Christianity, however, the gap between form and matter (or culture and nature) became bigger and bigger, and matriarchy was a result of this trend. Modern feminists have been trying in multiple ways to solve the problems of gender since Aristotle but only to get themselves into new dilemmas.