Jessica Wynn

This is when a couple marries.

The husband moves into the wife's family home.

Again, this is all about structure, not authority.

Yeah, he's matrilocal.

And then there's matrifocal, which are households centered around the mother as the primary social and emotional anchor.

This brings women high status, and they often wield a lot of influence.

Still not the same as political authority or any formal power, though.

Which leaves us with matriarchy proper.

So this would mean women hold primary political, social and moral authority.

All formal power structures are female dominated.

The problem here is that this kind of society is extremely hard to find.

Yeah, well, there's a few possibilities, one being that pure matriarchy might not exist.

Or it's possible we've been looking for the wrong thing when we say matriarchy.

Or maybe the historical record we're using wasn't written by people interested in recognizing matriarchy when and if it did ever exist.

Yeah, all three might be partially true, which is really uncomfortable.

Yeah, it matters because the confusion distorts real societies.

So from the Menangkabau in Indonesia or the Kasi in northeastern India, they're constantly being misrepresented.

A Western journalist visits, sees property passing through women and the family name coming from the mother, and then writes a piece about the world's largest matriarchy.

People there read it and think, that's not what's happening here at all.

They might be flattered, but they are bewildered.