Angela
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Is matrilinearity more linked to farming than to pastoralism, and why? I've been reading some interesting facts about it on another site.
The matrilineal belt in Africa:
"In anthropology, the matrilineal belt is an area in Africa south of the equator where matrilineality is predominant. The matrilineal belt runs diagonally from the Atlantic to the Indian oceans, crossing Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The belt is linked to horticultural household economics, and Bantu groups that have embraced pastoralism have tended to lose matrilinearity.[1]The region stands out for its high degree of paternity uncertainty and adolescent promiscuity both of which are alleged to be linked to matrilinearity. As inheritance is mainly through the descent of women, there is little incentive to know the identity of the father of a child. Men's inheritance therefore seldom passes to his wife's children but stays within what is for sure his biological family.[2]
Ideas linking the matrilineal belt to a supposed matrilineal Bantu expansion have been rejected as lacking evidence.[3]
There are papers which ascribe the change to patrilinearity to the introduction of cattle.
"Results support the hypothesis that adopting cattle leadsto the loss of matriliny"
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1691535/pdf/14667331.pdf
Several factors are cited as to why herding was a "choice" by men: herds require protection from predators; herds demand mobility, herds require less backbreaking, intensive labor; cattle or sheep provide immediate benefit once acquired; they can be used as a pride price etc. I don't think this was necessarily a "choice", given that pastoralism often arises when farming becomes or is impossible, but I get the point.
This is interesting in a European context because Gimbutas proposed that the European farmers practised matrilinearity. They may or may not have practised it, but as a counter indication, they did have cattle. They were brought by the first migrants from the Middle East
Is the difference perhaps based on proportions, i.e a society where people are basically farmers but keep cattle, and sheep and goats, for that matter, for milk and meat and hides, and even practice transhumance, versus actual predominantly pastoral societies?
The matrilineal belt in Africa:
"In anthropology, the matrilineal belt is an area in Africa south of the equator where matrilineality is predominant. The matrilineal belt runs diagonally from the Atlantic to the Indian oceans, crossing Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The belt is linked to horticultural household economics, and Bantu groups that have embraced pastoralism have tended to lose matrilinearity.[1]The region stands out for its high degree of paternity uncertainty and adolescent promiscuity both of which are alleged to be linked to matrilinearity. As inheritance is mainly through the descent of women, there is little incentive to know the identity of the father of a child. Men's inheritance therefore seldom passes to his wife's children but stays within what is for sure his biological family.[2]
Ideas linking the matrilineal belt to a supposed matrilineal Bantu expansion have been rejected as lacking evidence.[3]
There are papers which ascribe the change to patrilinearity to the introduction of cattle.
"Results support the hypothesis that adopting cattle leadsto the loss of matriliny"
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1691535/pdf/14667331.pdf
Several factors are cited as to why herding was a "choice" by men: herds require protection from predators; herds demand mobility, herds require less backbreaking, intensive labor; cattle or sheep provide immediate benefit once acquired; they can be used as a pride price etc. I don't think this was necessarily a "choice", given that pastoralism often arises when farming becomes or is impossible, but I get the point.
This is interesting in a European context because Gimbutas proposed that the European farmers practised matrilinearity. They may or may not have practised it, but as a counter indication, they did have cattle. They were brought by the first migrants from the Middle East
Is the difference perhaps based on proportions, i.e a society where people are basically farmers but keep cattle, and sheep and goats, for that matter, for milk and meat and hides, and even practice transhumance, versus actual predominantly pastoral societies?