Is male authority absent in matrilineal society? Discuss. (2015)
Matriliny is a rule of descent: membership, property and sometimes succession pass through women. Matriarchy, rule by women, is a claim about authority. Evolutionists such as J. J. Bachofen (Mother Right, 1861) confused the two. Comparative ethnography shows that male authority is not absent in matrilineal societies. It is moved from the husband and father to the brother and mother’s brother, and it is often weaker in scope.
Why authority stays with men
- David M. Schneider, in Matrilineal Kinship (1961, edited with Kathleen Gough), set out the general principle. Adult men normally hold authority over women and children in every descent system. A matrilineal group therefore has to keep control of its in-marrying men and rely on its own brothers for leadership.
- Audrey Richards (1950) called the resulting strain the “matrilineal puzzle”. A man exercises authority over his sister’s children and her property, while living with, and feeling affection for, his wife and his own children.
- Bronisław Malinowski‘s Trobrianders illustrate it. The mother’s brother holds jural authority and provides yam gifts, while the father is an affectionate outsider.
Indian evidence
| Society | Descent and inheritance | Locus of male authority |
|---|---|---|
| Nayars (Kerala) | The taravad, a matrilineal joint family | The karnavan, the senior male, managed all property without being accountable |
| Khasi (Meghalaya) | The youngest daughter (khadduh) is custodian of ancestral property | The mother’s brother manages and decides; clan elders (Rangbah Kur) and village councils (Dorbar Shnong) are male |
| Garo (Meghalaya) | The heiress daughter (nokna) | Her husband (nokrom) manages the household and estate |
| Lakshadweep Muslims | Matrilineal taravad | Senior males; Leela Dube (Matriliny and Islam, 1969) shows Islamic law reinforcing men’s control |
Current evidence from Meghalaya:
- Only three women won seats in the 60-member 2023 Assembly election.
- The Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council’s Lineage (Amendment) Act, 2023 (assented to in October 2024) keeps clanship matrilineal but reserves Rangbah Kur leadership for men who follow the matrilineal system. An earlier 2018 bill sought to strip Khasi status from women who married non-Khasis.
- Groups such as Syngkhong Rympei Thymmai campaign to move to patriliny.
But authority is qualitatively different
- Women have secure residence, property and natal support. Brides are not strangers, dowry is largely absent, and divorce and remarriage carry little stigma.
- Authority is divided between brothers and husbands, so no single man holds the concentrated power of a north Indian patriarch.
- Peggy Reeves Sanday (Women at the Center, 2002) redefined “matriarchy” for the Minangkabau as complementary gender power grounded in maternal symbols, not female rule.
- Feminist scholars such as Tiplut Nongbri show that Khasi matriliny coexists with patriarchal ideology in politics and religion, which qualifies romantic readings of it.
Change
Colonial law, cash economies and the Kerala Joint Hindu Family System (Abolition) Act, 1975 dissolved the taravad, often shifting authority towards husbands and fathers.
Conclusion
Male authority is not absent in matrilineal societies but reallocated from father to brother. Women’s structural position there is still stronger than under patriliny. Matriliny therefore shows that descent and power are separate variables. It softens patriarchy but does not abolish it, as current struggles over Khasi women’s representation show.