MATRIARCHY IN MODERN CULTURE:

INVESTIGATING THE ISTHMUS ZAPOTEC OF OAXACA, MEXICO

TANIA BEATTY

MERCY COLLEGE OF NORTHWEST OHIO

 Modern Matriarchy 2

Abstract

Matriarchal societies have been a cultural curiosity, contested by some and romanticized by

others. There are several modern cultures that have been termed matriarchal, such as the Muoso

of China, or the Minangkabuau of Sumatra, Indonesia. Through various means, primarily using

the documentary “Blossoms of Fire,” and by establishing a working definition of matriarchy

based on the works of such anthropologists as Briffault and Bachofen, the Zapotec Indians of

Oaxaca are explored. Included in this examination will be ways in which the Zapotec culture

defines roles and religion as unique and separate from American culture. Peggy Sanday believes

that “the definition of matriarchy as the control of political power by women should be

abandoned in favor of a definition emphasizing the role of maternal symbols in webs of cultural

significance”[ CITATION Peg02 \l 1033 ]. While many (including the Zapotec) may not

consider this culture to be matriarchal in nature because the women do not ‘rule’ over the men,

the similarities to an anthropologically matriarchal society are significant even if they are not

complete.
 Modern Matriarchy 3

MATRIARCHY IN MODERN CULTURE :

Investigating the Isthmus Zapotec of Oaxaca, Mexico

“I brought you into this world… I’ll take you out!”

I remember laughing as Bill Cosby quoted his mother in his live comedy act, but the

sentiment stuck with me long after the laughter stopped and the rest of the show was forgotten.

What would a world be like where women truly held the power of life and death? Where only

someone who had their lives invested in you could determine a just punishment when you broke

the law? Where the Mother heart influenced the way society was run? Would men always try to

assert control? At that time, I was unaware that a matriarchal society was even a possibility on

the planet, much less that some societies valued their women enough to give them equal power.

There are several documented societies in many areas of the world in which women are held in

such esteem. In Oaxaca, Mexico, such a society exists, where women and men co-exist and

typical male/female gender types are undone when compared to those in a patriarchal society.

The next pages will attempt to define some anthropological basics of matriarchy, examine

characteristics of this uniquely feminine society, and determine how closely this society matches

the anthropological definitions of matriarchy.

On Defining Matriarchy

In order to have a discussion on any subject, one must first define some parameters so that

everyone involved in the discussion is aware of the meaning of potentially ambiguous terms. For

our purposes, matriarchy is that term. Much confusion surrounds this term, both connotative and

literal in nature. First, its counterpart term, patriarchy, is translated “rule of the father” so

matriarchy literally means “rule of the mother”. The rule of a man is authoritarian in nature, so
 Modern Matriarchy 4

the expectation is that a matriarchy will also be authoritarian in nature, with women at the wheel

of power. In reality, the rule of women is more communal. Gordon Taylor, in his examination of

the two cultures, said, “The characteristic of a father-identifier is to be interested in authority and

to attempt to acquire it. The characteristic of a mother-identifier is to be uninterested in power

and not to be bothered about it…”[ CITATION Tay54 \l 1033 ]. So, while the tendency for the

layman on hearing the term ‘matriarchy’ is to flip the roles of women and men, we would do

well to remember that, “matriarchal theory… is a theory of social origins. It is not, as is often

imagined in popular references to that theory, an hypothesis concerning a form of society in

which women, instead of men, ruled”[ CITATION Bri31 \p 100 \l 1033 ]. Perhaps this

‘communal’ rule stems from a woman’s more social nature, and her instinctive tendency to

nurture.

According to Bachofen, societies progressed, in some form or another, through three

stages: Tellurian, Lunar and Solar. The tellurian state is one of promiscuity, where women are

held in common by men, and parentage is not defined, while the Solar state is patriarchal, and is

marked by “conjugal father-right, a division of labor, and individual ownership”[ CITATION

Geo67 \p xix \l 1033 ]. The lunar stage is identified with matriarchy. As defined by Bachofen,

there are several characteristics the matriarchal culture will express:

1. The societies in which matriarchy prevails are agricultural in nature.

2. Matrilineal inheritance means that mothers (not fathers) own the land and daughters

(not sons) are the inheritors.

3. Conjugal motherhood exists, marking the first stage of legitimate birth.

4. The society is matrilocal, which means that the man goes to live with the woman’s

family as a helper to them.

 Modern Matriarchy 5

5. The role of the father is not significant in childrearing or heritage.

Bachofen likens the role of the father in the lunar period as “of no more importance than

the plow, than the sower who passes over the tilled field , casting the grain in the opened furrow,

and then disappear[ing] into oblivion”[ CITATION Bac67 \p 132 \l 1033 ]. To support this

argument, he points to the Roman law which stated, “All produce is gathered not according to

the right of the seed, but the right of the soil” (ibid), and notes that the word ‘matrimony’, which

is still used widely today, literally means mother-marriage, and “is based on the fundamental

idea of mother right”[ CITATION Bac67 \p 133 \l 1033 ].

The Isthmus Zapotec, Oaxaca, Mexico

Do a web search on Oaxaca, Mexico and travel sites will describe the beautiful country

and cuisine[ CITATION Jua09 \l 1033 ]. Activist websites will lament the “extreme poverty” of

this part of Mexico[ CITATION CAM09 \l 1033 \m Dav08]. But oddly, there is no mention of

the unique social structure found in this region of the world. In “Blossoms of Fire”, a

documentary on the Zapotec people of Oaxaca, this modern matriarchal society is documented.

When the “Juchitán de Zaragoza” (Isthmus Zapotec) are asked if they are a matriarchy, they

answer is no, women don’t rule the men. “The matriarchy doesn’t exist… The men work more

than the women and we respect the men. That’s why the matriarchy doesn’t exist. The women

administrates. We know how to manage money, not the men”[ CITATION Mau06 \l 1033 ].

Their perception is that men and women are “like the yoke of the oxen. If the team isn’t even, it

won’t pull” (ibid), which supports Taylor’s idea that a society where women have influence will

demonstrate communal rule. However, the differences go beyond defining who is ‘in charge’.

From their ideas of beauty to machismo, every aspect of this society has been influenced, and

more often than not, these differences stand in stark contrast to Western culture.
 Modern Matriarchy 6

Basic Needs

While Oaxaca may seem a poor nation to those who grew up with ‘the American Dream’

hardwired into their expectations, the Juchitán have a different view. Money, as such, is not

chased after by the Juchitán. Women monitor how money is spent and saved. When asked what

basic needs of any person are, the typical Juchitán will respond, “Food, clothing and

fiestas”[ CITATION Mau06 \l 1033 ]. They take pride in being able to ‘throw a fiesta’, even

though the activity takes all the townspeople and is considered a community event. They are a

largely agricultural society, and make money in local markets, with the women selling their

produce and the fish and meat the men contribute. Women own the land and their husbands help

to till the land. Daughters, not sons, inherit the land and work it, or they may start their own

businesses.[ CITATION Mau06 \l 1033 ]. There is also some evidence that many children leave

Oaxaca, as more than one person spoke about their children emigrating, either with their families

or alone. In fact, some of the statistics regarding Oaxaca are rather grim, but they do not

delineate which parts of Oaxaca make up the various numbers: however, there are likely more

than a half million Oaxacans living in California today, and at one point, a quarter million

Oaxacans were emigrating to America a year[ CITATION COM08 \l 1033 ]. It is hard to dispute

that poverty is not a push factor here when it is estimated that overall, 60% of the demand for

employment in Oaxaca has remained unsatisfied” (ibid). That said, this community is still a

unique one that would seem to give us a perspective that statistics alone cannot paint.

Identity

How people in a society define and view themselves influences that society. When asked

by the filmmaker Maureen Gosling, “In Juchitán, you never feel alone. You’re always
 Modern Matriarchy 7

surrounded by others and life isn’t taken for granted. I love that especially. Life is a constant

giving and receiving and feeling identified with the Mother, with the Earth, with what you have

grown”[ CITATION Mau06 \l 1033 ]. So, the Juchitán once again define themselves by being a

community. This stands in stark contrast to the individualistic, consumer-driven American

society. Certainly, we have community events and associations, but these are driven by

individual personalities, and only the strong survive. For example, church splits occur when two

strong personalities gather people behind them and each one takes his ‘followers’ off in a

decidedly non-communal manner to start another church. This pattern is the reason we have so

many denominations and independent congregations in America.

Beauty

An Isthmus woman works hard to eat well. A lazy woman has no such right, and the

women of Oaxaca routinely are up well before dawn to take their wares to market. If a woman

loses weight, those around her think that she is sick, or that life is treating her badly. While the

Western world would call the Isthmus woman fat, for the Zapotec, this represents the ideal of

beauty. Beauty and gender are also affected in this society, in some remarkable ways. This stands

in stark contrast to the Western ideal of beauty, which demands that women be thin, have

beautiful skin and hair, and dress fashionably. Depending on subculture, these things will vary

slightly, but if a woman of Oaxaca was to wear her favorite dress down Main Street America,

she would get very strange looks indeed.

“La Gracia”

“La Gracia” is a wide-reaching concept among the Zapotec that literally means, ‘the

Gift.’ The Juchitán foster the idea that each person is unique and valuable for who they are. Each
 Modern Matriarchy 8

person has gifts and those gifts should be fostered and appreciated and given a place to flourish.

What is interesting is that this concept goes beyond talent to include matters of sexual identity.

Homosexuality

Sexuality is considered part of a person and is not discriminated against. Whether a

person is homosexual, bisexual, trisexual or transvestite is not a reason for social

segregation[ CITATION Mau06 \l 1033 ]. They work, own shops, marry and participate in all

the community activities with no thought that they should be anything but what they are. In fact,

mothers may even pray for a homosexual child so she will have someone to live with her until

she dies. It would appear that Catholicism, a religious influence that came with the Spanish, has

not affected the acceptance of those whose sexual identity is other than heterosexual. It seems

unlikely that a hate crime would occur in this environment, as sexual identity is considered just

another part of the person. In America in 2008, the FBI reports there were 9,160 single-bias hate

crime offenses reported in the United States. Of that number, 17.7% were related to sexual

orientation[ CITATION USD08 \l 1033 ].

Sexual ‘Freedom’

Sexual freedom is not synonymous with the Western idea of multiple partners. It centers

around the woman’s knowledge that she is valuable and can use her value to choose her

husband[ CITATION Mau06 \l 1033 ]. She is in control of who she partners with, and cannot be

taken or given against her will. There are traditions that still idealize virginity (as seen below),

but generally, the woman is her own master when it comes to choosing her partner, who will not

only father her children, but till her fields and fish for their family.

Virginity
 Modern Matriarchy 9

Virginity is celebrated among the Zapotec. There is a fading tradition of “kidnapping” the

woman (which only happens when a couple is to marry). The man kidnaps the bride-to-be from

her home in the night and takes her home with him, where his family awaits. He brings out proof

of her virginity and the man’s family returns to the bride’s family with compliments. They may

say, “Your daughter is like a newborn. She arrived at my house just as she was when she was

born”[ CITATION Mau06 \l 1033 ]. The virgin is laid on a bed of roses for a day, and a religious

ceremony is arranged. If a woman is not a virgin, the marriage can still happen, arrangements

can be made and it is often a matter love—if the man loves her, they get married anyway.

In America, virginity is a fast-fading virtue amongst our adolescent population.

According to the CDC, who last conducted a comprehensive survey on family growth, women’s

health, fertility and family planning in 1995, 22.1% of teenagers had lost their virginity by the

time they were 15. That number jumped to a staggering 75.5% by the time they were

19[ CITATION CDC97 \l 1033 ].

“Machismo”

When asked about ‘machismo’, the talk turned to men beating women. Interestingly,

while the English word “machismo” comes from the same Spanish and Portuguese word, it has

come to mean something quite different than its original definition, in which “machismo refers

exclusively to the belief in the superiority of males over females, that is it means ‘sexism’ or

‘male chauvinism’”[ CITATION Ans09 \l 1033 ]. The Zapotec equate machismo with domestic

violence, something anyone would step in and stop if they knew. The women did say the only

way a man could beat a woman was if the woman was isolated, but all she’d have to do is tell her

family and the whole community would be there to support her if she left the man.
 Modern Matriarchy 10

Again, the ‘macho man’ in America looks more like John Wayne or John McClain

(Bruce Willis in the Die Hard series) than a wife-beater. He is a little gruff but good-hearted, and

approaches the superhuman in the lengths he will go to protect his own. An interesting

dichotomy.

Religion

Pre-Hispanic Zapotecs were pantheistic and considered anything that moved (such as

clouds, earthquakes, lightning, fire—or the foam on a cup of hot chocolate) alive to one degree

or another (Callahan, 1997). The Zapotec believed in gods associated with such natural elements

and viewed time as cyclic, not linear. Although they did have many little gods, “they did

recognize a supreme being who was without beginning or end, ‘who created everything but was

not himself created,’ but he was so infinite and incorporeal that no images were ever made of

him” (Marcus, as quoted by Callahan, 1997). When the Spanish arrived and brought with them

Catholicism, the two religions were merged, and to this day, the Oaxaca have both priests and

hechiceros, ritual leaders that participate in major life-cycle events, including All Saint’s Day.

Values

Western ideas are crashing onto the culture of the Zapotec, but the feeling is they will

adapt, adopt, and survive, maybe not the same, but just as individual as they were before. Natural

resources are not to be exploited but treated with respect as part of the culture and spirituality of

the people. The Zapotec “have a pride for what we produce here. That’s why we don’t get totally

carried away by the great global market”[ CITATION Mau06 \l 1033 ]. So, do they want to

remain as they are, or are they open to change? “Of course, we want development in the isthmus

region, but it should be really useful to the citizens of Isthmus” (ibid). Instead of the ‘every man

for himself’ characteristic we’ve come to expect in our Western society that tends to lead to
 Modern Matriarchy 11

greed and abuse, the communal, relational aspect of this society fosters balance between man and

nature: “We don’t oppose development. What we object to is that those activities don’t consider

human aspects, the cultural aspect, the environmental aspect” (ibid). When asked if they are

afraid that the unique and remarkable culture that has lasted through Aztec and Spanish

conquerors[ CITATION Joh06 \l 1033 ] will be overwhelmed by the Western world, they quote

their great poet, Gabriel Lopez Chinas: “The Zapotec will only die the day the sun dies.”

Discerning the Matriarchy

How closely do the Zapotec Indians reflect the anthropological definition of a

Matriarchy? The Juchitán are an agricultural society: a condition set by both Bachofen and

Briffault. The condition of matrilineage is met as evidenced by the fact that women own land and

daughters inherit. However, it is not as clear if men leave their homes to join an extended

matrilinear family. It seems in this the Zapotec are unique: they follow a more nuclear family

structure. This also seems to contradict the anthropological idea that fathers have little, if

anything to do with childrearing. Fathers share a single-dwelling with their wives, and as such

could not help but be involved in childrearing. There was one story of a woman who got

divorced, and it was her father who gave her money to buy a place to start a

business[ CITATION Mau06 \l 1033 ]. While this may cause us to wonder if the Juchitán are not

succumbing to a patriarchal influence, the fact that the society remains largely communal in

nature seems evidence enough that the influence of the Mothers remains strong, and has in fact,

adapted to incorporate the men on a more equal footing. Perhaps this is the influence of

Catholicism, or perhaps it is owed to another force entirely.

Conclusion
 Modern Matriarchy 12

The Zapotec people of Oaxaca often stand in contrast to Western society, from their core

values to their religious ideas, differences abound. Maybe the Zapotec have remained

matriarchal, not progressing to Bachofen’s next inevitable stage of development, because they

have continued as an agricultural society. That they have not remained ‘primitive’ is evidenced

by the presence of nuclear families, so perhaps societies do not always progress from the

Tellurian and Lunar to the Solar stages as reliably as a person passes through childhood and

adolescence to adulthood. Perhaps this society, because of its unique matriarchal heritage, has

the chance to develop something unique from either patriarchy or matriarchy. Characteristics of

this may already be in evidence, seen not only in the way men and women cohabit in nuclear

families, but in the communal division of power and labor. Regardless, this is a unique and

beautiful society that values life in all its forms and strives for balance between man and nature.

One can only hope that these ancient people will be able to maintain the core of their cultural

uniqueness in the onslaught of Westernization as it washes over the world.

 References
Answers.com. (2009). Machismo. Retrieved December 5, 2009, from Answers.com Reference:

http://www.answers.com/topic/machismo#cite_note-4

Bachofen, J. J. (1967). Mother Right (originally published 1954 ed.). (R. marx, Trans.) Kingsport, Tennessee:

Kingsport Press, Inc.

Boas, G. (1967). Preface. In J. J. Bachofen, Mother Right. Tennessee: Kingsport Press, Inc.

Briffault, R. (1931). The Mothers: The Matriarchal Theory of Social Origins. New York: The Macmillan Company.

Callahan, K. L. (1997). Zapotec Religions. Retrieved December 5, 2009, from Mesoamerican Religions:

http://www.angelfire.com/ca/humanorigins/religion.html#zapotec

CAMPO. (2009). CAMPO Case Study, Oaxaca Mexico. Retrieved December 5, 2009, from Coffee Kids: Grounds for

Hope: http://www.coffeekids.org/uploads/docs/0911_casestudy_campo.pdf

CDC. (1997, May). Fertility, Family Planning, and Women’s Health. Retrieved December 8, 2009, from CDC.gov:

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_23/sr23_019.pdf#table%2023

COMI. (2008). Migration from Oaxaca. Retrieved December 8, 2009, from COMI: Centro de Orientación del Migrante

de Oaxaca, A.C.: http://comi.giving.officelive.com/migracion.aspx

David R. Mason, V. A. (2008). Journal of Planning Education and Research, Vol. 27, No. 3, 245-260. Retrieved

December 5, 2009, from Sage Journals Online: http://jpe.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/27/3/245

Gosling, M. (Director). (2006). Blossoms of Fire [Motion Picture].

Sanday, P. R. (2002). Women at the Center: Life in a Modern Matriarchy. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University.

Schmal, J. P. (2006). The Mizteks and Zapotecs: Two Enduring Cultures of Oaxaca. Retrieved December 5, 2009, from

Houston Institute for Culture, History of Mexico: http://www.houstonculture.org/mexico/oaxaca_cultures.html

Taylor, G. R. (1954). Appendix Two. In G. R. Taylor, Sex in History.

USDOJ. (2008). Hate Crime Statistics, 2008, Incidents and Offences. Retrieved December 8, 2009, from FBI.gov:

http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/hc2008/incidents.html

Zwollo, J. A. (1995, - 2009). Oaxaca's Tourist Guide. Retrieved December 5, 2009, from http://oaxaca-

travel.com/guide/index.php?lang=us