Humanities Scholarship

Significance to the Humanities

WE ARE STUCK IN A PATRIARCHAL WORLDVIEW

Gender roles, gender equality, gender and sexuality, gender and power, women in leadership, men as caregivers—the American public is increasingly sensitive to gender’s impact on social relationships and power structures. Still, even as philosophers, historians, cultural anthropologists and related researchers invest time analyzing the role and effects of gender, most of this work is done in historically patriarchal societies, from the perspective of those raised in a cultural and educational norm of patriarchy.

Shifting to a matriarchal worldview, through the lens of humanities disciplines

Matriarch will offer a different perspective on gender by immersing viewers into historically matriarchal communities that continue to live by those traditions today. The series uses the tools of various humanities disciplines—anthropology, buttressed by philosophy, history, folklore studies, and literature—to examine the structure of matriarchal societies concerning culture, access to resources, power dynamics and gender relationships. It poses questions such as: How do we define a matriarchy? How is a matriarchy fundamentally different from a patriarchy? How have pockets of matriarchal societies survived in the modern world? If one goal of the humanities is to capture the diversity and richness of the human experience, then a study of female-centered societies is an essential and illuminating chapter in that story.

HUMANITIES THEMES

The series will explore the following key themes:

1. Redefining Matriarchy from a Matriarchal Perspective¹
2. Consensus-Driven Decision-Making As Driver of Vitality and Sustainable Growth²
3. Matriarchies As Models of Egalitarian, Peaceable Cultures—But Not Without Flaws³
4. Sexual Relations As Private Affairs Instead of Social Contracts⁴
5. Paradoxical Tension Between Religion and Matriarchy as Source of Resilience⁵
6. Lessons for Creating an Egalitarian Society for the Modern World⁶

^{1 Göttner-Abendroth, Heide. Matriarchal Societies: Studies on Indigenous Cultures Across the Globe. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 2012. Print. Translated by Karen Smith
2 Mann, Barbara Alice. "Consensus," in Encyclopedia of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy), ed. Johansen, Bruce Elliott and Mann, Barbara Alice. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000.

3 Sanday, Peggy Reeves. Women at the Center: Life in a Modern Matriarchy. Ithaca & London: Cornell University Press, 2002

Vaughan, Genevieve. “Matriarchy and the Gift Economy.” Societies of Peace: Matriarchies Past, Present and Future. Edited by Heide Göttner-Abendroth. Toronto: Inanna Publications & Education, Inc., 2009. Print.

4 Choo, Waihong. The Kingdom of Women: Life, Love and Death in China’s Hidden Mountains. London & New York: I.B.Tauris & Co. Ltd., 2017. Print.

5 Hadler, Jeffrey. Muslims and Matriarchs: Cultural Resilience in Indonesia through Jihad and Colonialism. Ithaca & London: Cornell University Press, 2008. Print.

6 Hawad. “We Spoke With Hawad About Tuareg Literature and the Oppressive Legacy of Colonialism.” Culture Trip. 2 August, 2017. Translated by Hélène Claudot-Hawad.}

HUMANITIES ADVISORS
We have assembled a diverse team of experts that combines academic rigor with on-the-ground field knowledge, and that contrasts the longtime perspective of pioneers to the fresh eyes of a younger generation.

Elizabeth Anderson, Ph.D., is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor and John Dewey Distinguished University Professor of Philosophy and Women's Studies at the University of Michigan where she teaches in ethics, social and political philosophy, political economy, philosophy of the social sciences, and feminist theory.
Profiled in the New Yorker as “The Philosopher Redefining Equality” (Jan 2019), Dr. Anderson’s research includes equality in political philosophy and American law, the ethical limits of markets, and feminist epistemology. She is currently working on the history of egalitarianism.

Choo WaiHong has lived amongst the Mosuo in the highlands of Yunnan, China, since 2011, and captured her experience in the book, “The Kingdom of Women: Life, Love and Death in China’s Hidden Mountains” in 2017. Having been a successful corporate lawyer in Singapore for most of her adult life, Choo is drawn to the Mosuo’s women-centered way of life as an alternative to “a world grown old and weary under patriarchy.” Choo’s lived experiences, and close-knit relationship with the Mosuo provide an authentic, first-hand perspective of day-to-day life in a modern matriarchy.

Annika Ericksen, Ph.D., is a cultural anthropologist and Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Gustavus Adolphus College, where her interdisciplinary program affiliations include African Studies. Her research is focused on nomadic pastoralists in Niger and Mongolia. Her paper “Productions of Space in Tuareg History: Power, Marginalization, and Resistance” (2010) demonstrates her interest in the political and historical contexts of pastoralists’ relationships to central governments, and cultural changes that impact the ways in which risk to pastoral livelihoods is perceived and governed.

Heide Goettner-Abendroth, Ph.D., is a philosopher and researcher on culture and society, and widely recognized by her peers as the founding mother of modern matriarchal studies. Based in Germany, Dr. Goettner-Abendroth is the founder of the International Academy Hagia for Modern Matriarchal Studies. She taught at the University of Munich for 10 years, was a visiting professor at the University of Montreal in Canada and the University of Innsbruck in Austria, has published numerous books on matriarchal society and culture, is one of 1000 women across the globe nominated by the worldwide initiative “1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize.”

Philip Jamieson, Ph.D., is an interdisciplinary writer with an interest in the nature of humanity (ancient cultures, mythology, and philosophies). With undergraduate degrees in Law and Arts, and an interdisciplinary doctorate that crossed the fields of history, philosophy, and law, Dr. Jamieson is a cross-pollinator of ideas. His recent article, “Uncovering the Truth Behind Matriarchal Societies in the Ancient World” (in Ancient Origins), demonstrates his ability to draw associations and connections between seemingly unrelated concepts, and synthesize them into a compelling and unique perspective.

Barbara Alice Mann, Ph.D., is Professor of Humanities in the Jesup Scott Honors College of the University of Toledo, Ohio, USA. An Ohio Bear Clan Seneca, Dr. Mann is the author of several works of Native American scholarship, including Iroquoian Women: The Gantowisas (2001, 2004, 2006), which is in its third printing (and on library lists of “most stolen” books, to Mann’s delight). Dr. Mann and Dr. Goettner-Abendroth co-authored a comprehensive bibliography on matriarchal studies for Oxford University Bibliographies in 2015.

Stefania Renda is a Sicilian in China where she is pursuing a Ph.D. in Anthropology and Ethnology at the Yunnan Minzu University of Kunming with a thesis examining the impact of tourism on Mosuo matriarchal culture. Renda first studied the Mosuo people of China for her Master’s Degree in Anthropology and Ethnology at the Ca' Foscari University of Venice. In 2014, she conducted an ethnographic study of life in different Mosuo villages.

Barbara J. Risman, Ph.D., was an Alumni Distinguished Research Professor, as well as the Founding Director of the Gender and Women's Studies Program, at the North Carolina State University in Raleigh. The American Sociological Association honored Professor Risman with the 2011 Award for the Public Understanding of Sociology Award. In 2005, Dr. Risman was honored with the Katherine Jocher Belle Boone Award from the Southern Sociological Society for lifetime contributions to the study of gender. She was also named as the 2003 Feminist Lecturer by the Sociologists for Women in Society.

Peggy Reeves Sanday, Ph.D., spent some eighteen years studying the Minangkabau people of Indonesia; she captured her learnings in the book Women at the Center: Life in a Modern Matriarchy. She has taught at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pennsylvania, Dept. of Anthropology. Now in retirement, she lectures on a range of specialties relating to women, including Women's Studies, Anthropology of Gender, and Sexual Culture. Her numerous awards and honors include, most recently, The American Anthropological Association's Award by the Committee on Gender Equity in Anthropology (CoGEA) for her Work on Sexual Equality Cross-Culturally.

Sylvia Tiwon, Ph.D., teaches at the University of California, Berkeley, where she is an Associate Professor in the Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies, and a faculty member of the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies. With a focus on Indonesia, Professor Tiwon’s areas of interest include literature, oral discourse and mythologies, and women and the national imaginary.

(Photography sourced from our advisors online.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY
If you want to learn more…
Here is a short list of books and articles that we have studied (and continue to study!) in preparation for making Matriarch.
Ahmed, Amessalamine; Elghamis, Ramada; et Tambo, Al Moustapha. Poèmes touaregs de l’Aïr. Agadez: APT in collaboration with Unesco, 2006. Print.
Angiulli, Arnaldo Andrea. “Inter-Relational Logic and Economic Human Rights, The Cultural Issue as Economic Challenges.” Human Rights in Transitional Times. The Hague: Spanda Publishing, 2015. http://www.spanda.org/Human_Rights_in_Transitional_TimesL.pdf
Blackwood, Evelyn. Webs of Power: Women, Kin, and Community in a Sumatran Village. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2000. Print.
Brake, Elizabeth. ”Marriage and Domestic Partnership", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Winter 2016 Edition. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/marriage/#MarOpp.
Butler, Henrietta, ed. The Tuareg or Kel Tamasheq: The People Who Speak Tamasheq and A History of the Sahara. London & Chicago: Unicorn Publishing Group, 2015. Print.
Choo, Waihong. The Kingdom of Women: Life, Love and Death in China’s Hidden Mountains. London & New York: I.B.Tauris & Co. Ltd., 2017. Print.
Dasl, Mohua. “Meet the men’s libbers of Meghalaya.” The Times of India. Aug 27, 2017. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-times/meet-the-mens-libbers-of-meghalaya/articleshow/ 60237760.cms
Eller, Cynthia. The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory: Why an Invented Past Won’t Give Women a Future. Boston: Beacon Press, 2000. Print.
Goldman, Corrie. “Stanford philosopher examines why some things should not be for sale: Philosophy Professor Debra Satz explores the moral limits of free markets in a democratic society.” Stanford Report 25 May 2012. https://news.stanford.edu/news/2012/may/moral-limits-markets-052512.html
Göttner-Abendroth, Heide. Matriarchal Societies: Studies on Indigenous Cultures Across the Globe. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 2012. Print. Translated by Karen Smith.
Graves, Elizabeth E. The Minangkabau Response to Dutch Colonial Rule in the Nineteenth Century. Sheffield: Equinox Publishing, 2009. Print.
Guignard, Erik. Les Touareg Udalen: Faits et modèles de parenté. Paris: L’Harmattan, 1984. Print. Hadler, Jeffrey. Muslims and Matriarchs: Cultural Resilience in Indonesia through Jihad and Colonialism. Ithaca & London: Cornel University Press, 2008. Print.
Halatine, Zakiyatou Oualett. Passions du désert. Paris: L’Harmattan, 2013. Print.
Heider, Karl G. Landscapes of Emotion: Mapping Three Cultures of Emotion in Indonesia (Studies in Emotion and Social Interaction). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Print.
Heller, Nathan. “The Philosopher Redefining Equality.” The New Yorker. 31 December, 2018. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/01/07/the-philosopher-redefining-equality
Hua, Cai. A Society without Fathers or Husbands: The Na of China. New York: Zone Books, 2001. Print. Translated by Asti Hustvedt.
Joubert, Raphaëlle. Nofa petite Touareg. Paris: L’Harmattan, 1998. Print. Adapted from a traditional tale. Kato, Tsuyoshi. Matriliny and Migration: Evolving Minangkabau Traditions in Indonesia. Sheffield: Equinox Publishing, 2007. Print.
Mann, Barbara Alice. "Consensus" in Encyclopedia of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy), ed. Johansen, Bruce Elliott and Mann, Barbara Alice. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000. Print.
Mann, Barbara Alice. Iroquian Women, The Gantowisas. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2011. Print. Mukhim, Patricia. “Khasi Matrilineal Society.” Societies of Peace: Matriarchies Past, Present and Future. Edited by Heide Göttner-Abendroth. Toronto: Inanna Publications & Education, Inc., 2009. Print. Nicolaisen, Johannes & Nicolaisen, Ida. The Pastoral Tuareg : Ecology, Culture and Society : Volumes I & II. London: Thames & Hudson, 1997. Print.
Rasmussen, Susan J. Those Who Touch: Tuareg Medicine Women in Anthropological Perspective. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2006. Print.
Sanday, Peggy Reeves. “Matriarchal Values and World Peace: The Case of the Minangkabau.” Societies of Peace: Matriarchies Past, Present and Future. Edited by Heide Göttner-Abendroth. Toronto: Inanna Publications & Education, Inc., 2009. Print.
Sanday, Peggy Reeves. Women at the Center: Life in a Modern Matriarchy. Ithaca & London: Cornell University Press, 2002. Print.
Schlefer, Jonathan. “There Is No Invisible Hand.” Harvard Business Review. 10 April 2012. https://hbr.org/2012/04/there-is-no-invisible-hand
Shih, Chuan-kang. Quest for Harmony: The Moso Traditions of Sexual Union and Family Life. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2010. Print.
Simon, Gregory M. Caged in on the Outside: Moral Subjectivity, Selfhood, and Islam in Minangkabau, Indonesia. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2014. Print.
Summerfield, Anne. Walk in Splendor: Ceremonial Dress and the Minangkabau (Textile Series, 4). Los Angeles: UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, 1999. Print.
Thomas, Lynn L. Change and Continuity in Minangkabau: Local, Regional, and Historical Perspectives on West Sumatra. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1986. Print.
Vaughan, Genevieve. “Matriarchy and the Gift Economy.” Societies of Peace: Matriarchies Past, Present and Future. Edited by Heide Göttner-Abendroth. Toronto: Inanna Publications, Inc., 2009. Print.
Von Hippel, Eric. Harvard Business Review November 2011. https://hbr.org/2011/11/people-dont-need-a-profit-motive-to-innovate
Walsh, Eileen Rose. “From Nü Guo to Nü'er Guo: Negotiating Desire in the Land of the Mosuo.” Modern China, Vol. 31, No. 4 (Oct., 2005), pp. 448-486. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20062621

OUR COMMITMENT
Balancing Inclusiveness, Intellectual Rigor, and Powerful Storytelling

It is critical that Matriarch captures stories that are credible and fair to the people and cultures it documents without objectifying them.
We will seek out local subject-matter experts to hone our sensitivities. Experts such as Patricia Mukhim, a Khasi activist and editor of the Shillong Times in Meghalaya, and Professor Sylvia Tiwon, who has devoted a lifetime to studying Indonesia literature and culture.
We will leverage our local liaisons as partners and sounding boards for our analysis and storytelling, not just treating them as fixers, guides, and translators.

We shall strive for truth and accuracy by relentlessly questioning ourselves for any biases and prejudices we may bring as outsiders, and through an ongoing dialogue with our advisers at every stage.
This means never stopping the research process throughout production and post-production, always deepening our analysis and understanding.
This means engaging our advisers at every step of the process, inviting them to build on and critique our thinking, and to help us build a defensible point of view.
This means fact-checking what we learn from our characters, discerning their personal opinions and perceptions from verifiable facts.

We shall be fair and true to the big picture by providing context, and not be afraid to show contrary perspectives.
While the point-of-view of our female lead characters serve as storytelling anchors, we will contextualize their stories by examining the nuances of family relationships, and investigate how our characters are influenced by the complex social structures of their communities.
We will also see and hear from the men in these girls’ and women’s lives—their uncles, brothers, husbands, fathers, grandfathers, friends. We will observe the roles these men play, and document any opinions and grievances they share.

Ultimately, we shall hold ourselves to staying objective and true to our duty as independent documentarians.
After careful consideration of feedback, we shall not be afraid to hold onto our creative independence, and will endeavor to transform our learning into a compelling documentary that combines credible, thoughtful observation with a powerful narrative and complex characters.

Director Izzy Chan in the field

Humanities intro

Significance to Humanities

Humanities Themes

Advisors Intro

Bibliography

Promise