Art Of Teaching

• Matriarchy is a societal arrangement where females hold the main supremacy situations in roles of political headship, ethical power, societal honour and control of property.

• Matrilineal Societies

Matrilinear societies in India have occurred since primeval eras. Many tribes still exercise the matrilinear community growth while others have merged under the male-controlled arrangement of our country known as patriarchy.

We can see in India, that a lot of states like Meghalaya, Assam, Kerala and Karnataka practiced matrilineality in their families up to an extended time.

Most significant communities practising matrilineality are Khasi, Gora, Nair and Izhava.

These matrilineal communities, in Kerala and Karnataka, are presently modernized to patriarchal system, But the north-east still passionately follows its age-old traditions of matrilineality.

1. Khasi Tribes and Garo Tribes of Meghalaya

The Khasi tribe in India, gives main position to the women of the family. Here the eldest woman functions as the head while the youngest daughter inherits the property and the right to continue staying with her parents even after her marriage. Women hold restricted representation on a more real-world and party-political arena.

The Garo tribe is the second-largest tribe situated in the hills of Meghalaya. It is one of the few remaining matrilineal cultures. The Garo tribe follows comparable outlines of matrilineal legacy and ancestry from the eldest woman. They take their last name after her, also the husband of the offspring daughters.

These two tribes have maintained a matrilineal social order but it does not counter patriarchy. Men, continue to hold the controls over the matriarchs.

2. Kerala: Nairs and Ezhavas

The Nairs of Kerala are one of the matrilineal societies in India. The Nair community existed under an elder female member in a matrilineal home called tharavad. Tharavad involves many progenies who share the same ancestor. The husbands typically stay in separate rooms or altogether different houses. They have almost diminutive to no responsibility towards their children. The eldest male member known as the karnavan. takes care of the common property as well as children. Other decisions also falls upon the Karnavan who is the superior authority even though inherited lineage follows from the eldest female member.
The Ezhavas, is another example of matrilineal societies. It is a community from Kerala in the northern Malabar region. Ezhavas follow a matrilocal system of their property. Here also we can see the importance given to the karnavan . It triumphs over the superficial power held by the matriarch.

Here we can see clearly that though the order is matrilocal, the matriarch is dependent on the male Karnavan for final decisions.

3. Karnataka: Bunt and Billava

Two prominent communities of the Tuluva traditional group, the Bunt community and Billava community follow matrilineal descent known as Aliyasantana. In the Bunt and Billava communities, the legacy travels through the sister who is the eldest female member. But here also we see    that, the sister’s brother is the main decision-maker of the family and though matrilocal in lineage, they follow a patriarchal living pattern.

 The Nair community did not believe in sending their daughters to another household after getting married. This was with a view to protect them from experiencing the trials and tribulations that brides face in their spouses’ homes. The traditions and customs of the Nairs were strong enough to provide ample financial security to their women. Here the practice was that the landed property and jewellery would be distributed among the women whereas the men had to earn their own. It had its advantages … but its traditions are on the decline. The reason is because the eldest male member, who was usually the maternal uncle, was the Karnavar of the Tharavadu which is the smallest unit of a joint Nair family.

We see that with time they did not promote the generous and virtuous qualities of their ancestors and became partial to their own children which caused the declining of this system from its unique vigor.

Can we say that a matriarchal society could be better than a patriarchal society system?

Maybe because those women who were troubled in the past could be more compassionate in the future. It is the general belief that an individual who was once a slave would perhaps be disinclined to enslave others, given a choice. Maybe women, who are singled out against, legally and illegally, throughout history of mankind, could be less disposed to victimize others.

How would society differ?

The answer to the above would depend on what quantity, we will gauge the goodness of the human heart that beats within a woman’s breast. History proves that women and adolescents are repeatedly the victims of sexual viciousness during wartime. These wrongdoings are often overlooked or accepted as unavoidable by the men who wage wars.

Wars between female rulers could be less likely to allow such brutalities.

If we are speaking in generalizations, women seem to be less dominant about obtaining supremacy over people, and appear to be more likely to be cooperative and appreciate common activities.

In a matriarchal society, there could be less disagreements over land, water, and other resources, and more sharing and cooperation.

This might inspire greater collaboration within the sciences and technology, as work-sharing provisions might become more common than coups and company surveillance.

In a society where women have authority and reverence, they would probably not be objectified and treated as sexual objects.

Science could be more engrossed on enlightening the well-being of people than on dominating them.

 I have till now engrossed totally on how a matriarchal society would be better, without anticipating the likely negatives. We cannot be sure what amount of human behaviour is determined by genetic factor and biology. Also, since modern women are raised in a patriarchal society, they might not be generous enough to throw off their generation of learned behaviours and cultural outlooks if the society suddenly became matriarchal.

It is therefore necessary to note that even matrilineal cultures were patriarchal in many procedures. When we introspect on the system of matrilineal societies in India, we cannot say that matriarchy is the better option because both are likewise evil in their appearances. In fact, we need to be conscious and aware citizens as we live our lives and aim continuously for a more all-encompassing society.

We are at present in a phase which can be portrayed as the transition phase –

 Today we are observing that the dominating patriarchal system is declining and the partnership system is increasing.

 We need to understand that the domination system is largely left brained whereas the partnership system is mainly right brained.

What are the features of the domination arrangement?

• Controlling and unfair social association
•  Demanding and unfair economic structure
•  Inflexible masculine supremacy
•  Projecting sentiment of fear
• High grade of dishonor, exploitation and viciousness
• Acceptance of violence as a way of striking one’s will on others

What are the features of the partnership system?

• Self-governing and economically impartial democratic construction in both the family and state
• Equivalent appreciating of males and females
•  Equivalent partnership between women and men
•  Tall respect for conventional feminine standards, care giving by both women and men
• Shared admiration and trust
• Zero exploitation and violence

 At the end, I believe that the misunderstanding is because there are two separate descriptions of “feminism“.

 The main definition has the goal of parity between the sexes. This illustration would show no matriarchy or patriarchy. One sex would not be superior to the other. One sex would not have any unfair advantage or liberty than the other.

 The other definition of feminism has the goal of community fairness reinforced gender. They believe that justice is established on the principle of “an eye for an eye“. They think that the two genders are in a combat and function from an authority of hate. This set may be a hate group functioning inside the larger group of feminism and therefore causing a huge amount of misperception today.

 I end by saying that I too believe in feminism but Indian feminism believes in the concept of motherhood and sacrifice for the betterment of the family as bulk of feminists are for equality and not hate.