University of Virginia Library

1. THE PRINCIPLE OF REVERSAL IN MONOSEXUAL DOMINANCE

TESTIMONY concerning the dominance of women among various peoples differs greatly in comprehensiveness. As regards the ancient Egyptians such abundant evidence is forthcoming that the existence of feminine dominance as far as this people is concerned has been placed beyond question for all who have studied the matter objectively. In the case of the Spartans the historical traces are perhaps less numerous, but they are so plain as to leave no doubt as to the reality of the dominance of women in that nation. In both instances, therefore, we have proof of the existence of feminine dominance among civilised peoples. As far as savages are concerned, the most detailed reports that have come to hand anent the dominance of women relate to the Kamchadales, the Chamorros, the Iroquois, the Basque-Iberian stocks, the Garos, the Dyaks, and the Balonda. In addition there were, for example, the Libyans, among whom it is demonstrable that the dominance of women was once absolute at a time when they were at least in an intermediate stage between barbarism and civilisation. We find, moreover, fairly definite traces of the dominance of

women among numerous races in the most diverse phases of development; for instance in Tibet and in Burma, among the Khonds, the Creeks, etc. Bachofen has shown that matriarchy (the mother-right) existed in Lycia, Crete, Athens, Lemnos, Egypt, India and Central Asia, Orchomenos and Minyae, Elis, Locris, Lesbos, Mantinea, and among the Cantabri. In Bachofen's terminology, matriarchy (Mutterrecht) is synonymous with the dominance of women.

It is of the first importance that we should recognise the hitherto unknown peculiarities of the dominance of women. A comparative study of feminine dominance as it existed among the most diverse peoples and in the most various phases of civilisation shows that the main characteristics of this dominance are perennial and immutable, whether it is encountered among savages or in a race at the highest level of civilisation. Where women rule, woman is the wooer. The man contributes the dowry; the woman expects a pledge of fidelity from her husband, and the woman has the sole right of disposal over the common possessions. She alone is entitled to divorce her partner should he no longer please her. From the husband, chastity and conjugal fidelity are demanded; the man is often severely punished for unfaithfulness; but the obligations of the wife in this respect are less exacting. The husband adopts the name and nationality of the wife. The children are called after the mother and inherit from the mother. The social position of the children depends on that of the mother. The wife's occupations lead her away from the home, while the husband attends to domestic affairs. The man adorns himself, but the woman's clothing is comparatively sober. Unmarried men are regarded with contempt. The

males are considered kindlier and more benevolent than the females, but less intelligent. Girl children are valued more highly than boys. Where infanticide or the mutilation of children prevails, as among many savage and barbarous peoples, they are practised on boys but not on girls. The parental duty of providing education for the children is imposed upon the dominant sex. The gods, or at least the leading divinities, are for the most part feminine.

These phenomena are characteristic of feminine dominance. A comparison with the phenomena characteristic of masculine dominance shows that the latter are no less perennial and no less immutable among the most diverse peoples and in the most various phases of civilisation. The only difference is that the rôles of the sexes are reversed. Where men rule, we find that in love and marriage, in social life and in religion, the man occupies the position which is occupied by the woman in communities where women rule.

Feminine dominance, like masculine dominance, is especially characterised by the fact that, notwithstanding the existence of two sexes, one sex holds sway. Both these varieties of dominance must therefore be described as monosexual. Monosexual dominance invariably allots the same position to the dominant sex, be that sex female or male. But according as man or woman rules, we find a reversal of the relationships, which, but for this reversal, are identical in aspect. The two leading principles of the comparative psychology of the Men's State and the Women's State are therefore: on the one hand, complete conformity in the general laws and limitations of sexual and social duties; and, on the other hand, a reversal of relative positions, an interchange in the rôles of the sexes.

As an outcome of the operation of these two principles we find that feminine peculiarities in the Men's State have as their counterpart masculine peculiarities in the Women's State. Conversely, masculine peculiarities in the Men's State are fundamentally identical with feminine peculiarities in the Women's State. We shall, in the sequel, show above all that the canons whereby feminine peculiarities are determined in contemporary civilisation are, in all their details, a pure product of the Men's State. We shall show that there is not a single "masculine quality" which cannot be paralleled as a "feminine quality" in the history of one race or another. The more complete our information becomes concerning the phases of the dominance of women, the more fully does it demonstrate the reversal of masculine and feminine peculiarities.