MATRIARCHY VERSUS PATRIARCHY

an epistemological collision

Abstract

This paper intends to analyze, albeit in a preliminary way, the relations between matriarchy and patriarchy in the African context. The subject has always been controversial. The two systems are different social organizations. In the African context, some literatures shows that patriarchy preceded colonization but took on new contours with the colonial invasion, while others, while recognizing gender inequalities and asymmetries, point to patriarchy as a result of the European colonial invasion. With the evolutionist theories, matriarchy is described as the inferior phase of human civilization, being considered by the ethnocentric Western view, as a status of barbarism and savagery. Methodologically, the research is of a descriptive and analytical nature, of bibliographical character. Therefore, unlike the Western patriarchal worldview, the idea of filiation in matrilineal societies is calculated through the maternal line and not the paternal line. In them women are not associated with subjection, but with economic stabilization, the security of collectivity, and the guardians of provisions. In societies where matriarchy has not been altered by colonialism, patriarchy, and other exogenous factors, women continue to have great powers and transmit public law in their society.