Namaste Penumbra-ji,
Sorry for the late reply. You brought up good questions and therefore I had to do some research.
Specifically the part where it says women call the shots and men obey.
"The ruling sex, having the power to diffuse its own outlooks, tends to generalize its specific ideology. Should the trends of the subordinate sex run counter, they are likely to be suppressed all the more forcibly in proportion as the dominate sex is more overwhelming. The result is that the hegemony of male deities is usually associated with the dominance of men and the hegemony of female deities with the dominance of women."
(The Dominant Sex by M. and M. Vaerting; quoted in When God Was A Woman by Merlin Stone: The Paradise Papers; Virago Limited: Quarted Books. 1976.)
(Egypt - "While the husbands stay home and weave")
"He (Diodorus) wrote, "It is for these reasons, in fact, that it was ordained that the queen should have greater power and honor than the king and that among private persons the wife should enjoy authority over the husband, husbands agreeing in the marriage contract that they will be obedient in all things to their wives….In Egypt, the archaic system of mother-kin, with its preference for women over men in matters of property and inheritance, lasted down to Roman times….There is further evidence that Egypt was a land where women had great freedom and control of their own lives, and perhaps of their husbands' as well. Herodotus of Greece, several centuries before Diodorus, wrote that in Egypt, 'Women go in the marketplace, transact affairs and occupy themselves with business, while the husbands stay home and weave.""
(The Dominant Sex by M. and M. Vaerting; quoted in When God Was A Woman by Merlin Stone: The Paradise Papers; Virago Limited: Quarted Books. 1976.)
(Ethiopia and Libya - "All Authority Was Vested in the Woman")
"It was Diodorus who reported that the women of Ethiopia carried arms, practiced communal marriage and raised their children so communally that they often confused even themselves as to who the natural mother had been. In parts of Libya, where the Goddess Neith was highly esteemed, accounts of Amazon women still lingered even in Roman times. Diodorus described a nation in Libya as follows:
All authority was vested in the woman, who discharged every kind of public duty. The men looked after domestic affairs just as the women do among ourselves and did as they were told by their wives. They were not allowed to undertake war service or to exercise any functions of government, or to fill any public office, such as might have given them more spirit to set themselves up against the women.
Diodurs wrote of warrior women existing in Libya, reporting that these women had formed into armies which had invaded other lands."
(The Dominant Sex by M. and M. Vaerting; quoted in When God Was A Woman by Merlin Stone: The Paradise Papers; Virago Limited: Quarted Books. 1976.)
(Sumer - "The Women of Former Days Used to take Two Husbands…")
(Professor Saggs wrote in 1963
"The status of women was certainly much higher in the early Sumerian city state than it subsequently…" The Urukagina reform is dated at about 2300BCE. It reads, "The women of former days used to take two husbands but the women o today would be stoned with stones if they did this." Polyandry has been reported in the Dravidian Goddess-worshipping areas of India even in this century…. In the early periods of Elam the deities appear to have been served by female and male clergy, the men appearing naked before the high priestess…"
My favorite: Stone quotes Sinclair Hood from The Minoans, Crete in the Bronze Age: "This is the fearless and natural emphasis on sexual life that ran through all religious expression and was made obvious in the provocative dress of both sexes and their easy mingling…"
(The Dominant Sex by M. and M. Vaerting; quoted in When God Was A Woman by Merlin Stone: The Paradise Papers; Virago Limited: Quarted Books. 1976.)
Even in the Sarmatians you described, generally the female warriors are virgins. Once they become mothers, they tend not to have been warriors unless there was some great need.
"Moreover, said Herodotus, "no girl shall wed till she has
killed a man in battle"."
I don't know what could be more "macho" than killing in order to be wed...apparently, this law was created by the women themselves (click the following):
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/History_of_Herodotus/Book_4
The way you seem to be presenting matriarchal societies is that they're some mirror image of patriarchal ones, with women going to war instead of men, with women being the ones to procure a lot of sex, etc. But historically, matriarchal societies have not really been like that.
As you can see, some obviously did go to war. Which is so hot, in my opinion, hehe. So, historically not all of them have been the same - not all of them wore black and yellow, ya know?
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In a man's world (patriarchal), men have exploited women. But, in a matriarchal society, where, in the citations of the case studies provided, women were doing business while their men were in the house...what makes one think that (sexual) exploitation of men didn't happen? Read this:
"The religion of the Goddess (which is matriarchal), wherever it was practiced throughout history, has always been sex positive. The most famous of the ancient rituals is the Hieros Gamos, or Sacred marriage ritual. Records of this ceremony have been dated as far back as early Sumerian, about 5500 years ago. In this ritual the high priestess acting as avatar of The Goddess had sex with the ruler of the country to show the Goddess's acceptance him as ruler.."
A Brief History of Religious Sex
Yes, a female priestess, pretty much held the king's you know what by the balls...
It seems you don't approve of my defense of a matriarchal society. Well, I don't want to anger you since you are a moderator and I will cease my childish fascination of matriarchy... and if I have angered you or offended you, please forgive me, my dear Goddess!
Regards,
M.V.
