What is a matrilineal society and what are its characteristics?

Matrilineal society, refers to the matrilineal clan system society, also known as female society. The early and middle stages of clan society are matrilineal clans, i.e., social organizations built on matrilineal blood relations, a clan system that calculates lineage descent and inherited property according to the mother's lineage, and the first stage of clan society.

In the pre-matriarchal clan system, the physical primitiveness of human beings basically disappeared, called the "new man", belonging to the archaeological late Paleolithic period. In the late matrilineal clan system, modern man was formed, belonging to the early Neolithic period. The fossils and cultural remains of the New Man are found all over China, and the main representatives of the New Man are the Hetao Man, the Liujiang Man, the Zhiyu Man, and the Shandingdong Man, to name a few.

The matrilineal clans practiced primitive **** production system with equal distribution of labor products. Early matrilineal clans had their own languages and names. The same clan has **** the same blood, worship **** the same ancestor. Clan members lived together and were buried in the same clan cemetery after death. With the emergence of primitive agriculture and livestock breeding, women, as its inventors, were honored in productive and economic life, in society, and achieved dominance and domination.

Matriarchal society is a primitive social system. During the long primitive period, most peoples have experienced the history of matrilineal clans for several tens of thousands of years. Until today, there are still some peoples in the world who have not yet completely escaped the influence of matrilineal society.

In present-day Africa, the "Central Bantu" ethnic groups are found in the areas where matrilineality is most strongly retained. It includes roughly southern Zaire, north-central Zambia, northern Angola, southern Tanzania, Malawi and northern Mozambique, and is dominated by the Congolese, Lunda, Mbala, Eretz Yisraeli, Luchazi, Malawian and Makonde peoples.

In the society of these peoples, still according to the matrilineal inheritance of property and retrospective renewal of genealogy, wives and husbands live in the uncle's house after marriage, and the existence of a loose matrilineal cellular family. For example, children of the Lunda must move to their uncle's house after only five or six years in their father's house after birth; Congolese children do not move to their uncle's house until they reach the age of 10 or 12; while among other ethnic groups, they move to their uncle's house after their father's death or after they themselves have become married.

For most of these peoples, service marriages, in which the man works for the woman's family for one or more years, are common. When a man completes his service in his father-in-law's house, he can move back to his father's house with his wife, to his uncle's house, or to his own village on his mother's side. They tend to move back to their uncle's house because they spend most of their time with their uncle and are raised by him, and are generally less attached to their biological fathers.

Also, along the southern coasts of Ghana and C?te d'Ivoire in Africa, where the Akan and Lagoon tribes are found, a strong matriarchy is preserved. In their traditional societies, each local chief has a female auxiliary, called the chief's "mother". She has more authority than the chief in the administration of justice. Next to the Ashanti and Fanti kings, the Empress Dowager is the most influential person, as powerful as Cixi, who ruled from behind the curtain during the Qing Dynasty in China.

In addition to these two major regions, there are a number of ethnic groups in Africa also preserved in varying degrees the remnants of matriarchy, in different stages of transition to patriarchy.