When the matriarchal clan system was formed, it was forbidden to intermarry within the clan, and clan members married in groups outside the clan. Because of extramarital marriage, children follow their mothers, so it is a country without father and husband. In the primitive society with limited life time, the clan is the basis for people to survive, and the blood relationship is the button to maintain the clan members.
Ceramic technology in matriarchal society
Ceramic technology in matriarchal society
Belt, mutual protection, division of labor according to gender and age. Young people engage in hunting, fishing and wildlife protection; Women undertake the heavy work of gathering food, grilling food, sewing clothes and raising the old and young; Old people and children do auxiliary work. [9]
From the simple division of labor, it is not difficult to see that women's responsibilities are more stable than men's, and they are reliable sources of life, which is of great significance. They are important members of the clan organization, and their activities are for the benefit of the clan collective, which has important social significance and plays an extremely important role in maintaining the survival and reproduction of the clan. Therefore, women occupy an important position in the clan commune and are generally valued. [9]
The typical forms of matriarchal clan communes around the world have basically disappeared before the emergence of civilization history, but their remnants still exist in class society. Among modern tribal peoples, only a few are in the matriarchal clan stage, such as Iroquois tribe of North American Indians. In the matriarchal clan stage, women engaged in gathering and primitive agriculture, prepared daily food and clothing, and presided over housework, which played an important role in social and economic life. After men and women get married in groups, they are married in pairs. Couples live in their parents' homes, or husbands live in their wives' homes, and the combination is unstable. There is a Council within the clan, which is the highest authority of the clan, decides all major affairs and elects clan leaders. All adult men and women in the tribe can participate in the Council. The head of the household is usually an elderly woman.
historical remains
In China, the cultural remains of the prosperous matriarchal society spread all over the north and south, and the main representatives are Peiligang culture, magnetic mountain culture culture, Yangshao culture, Hemudu culture, Majiayao culture, Qujialing culture and microlithic culture. The matriarchal clan society has entered a period of development. The Middle Stone Age is a transitional stage from Paleolithic to Neolithic. So far, archaeological data about the Middle Stone Age are still relatively lacking. In the Neolithic Age, on the basis of making stone tools, human beings explored the new technology of grinding stone tools, invented primitive agriculture, animal husbandry, pottery making and textile industry, and made progress in leather processing and sewing technology, resulting in primitive handicraft industry and sideline business. [ 10]
In addition to living in natural caves, humans began to build houses. Villages gradually formed at the convenient water source of the river valley platform. People began to settle down. The original aesthetic and religious concepts continued to develop, and the earliest written symbols came into being. [6] [ 1 1- 12]
The main human fossils and cultural remains discovered in the middle of Paleolithic Age are: Dali people in Shaanxi, Xiangfen Ding Cun in Shanxi, Yanggao Xu Jiayao in Shanxi, Maba in Qujiang, Guangdong, Tongzi in Guizhou, Changyang in Hubei, Xindong in Zhoukoudian, Beijing, Gezidong in Kazuo, Liaoning, etc.
Important human fossils and cultural remains in the late Paleolithic period include: Zhiyu people in Shuoxian County, Shanxi Province, Shandingdong people in Zhoukoudian, Beijing, Jianping people in Liaoning Province, Liujiang people in Guangxi, and cultural remains such as Shuidonggou in Lingwu, Ningxia, Xiaonanhai in Anyang, Henan Province, Hutouliang in Yangyuan, Hebei Province. [ 13]
age
About 40,000 to 50,000 years ago, when the ancients evolved into new human beings, the primitive society in China entered the matriarchal clan society, which belonged to the late Paleolithic in archaeology. [14] It is about 10,000 years ago, and belongs to the Mesolithic Age or the early Neolithic Age in archaeology. The matriarchal clan commune took a step forward and reached a prosperous period about six or seven thousand years ago. [9]
develop
The matriarchal clan is maintained by matriarchal blood and passed down by matriarchal relationship, that is, from grandmother to mother, from mother to daughter, from daughter to granddaughter, etc., without interruption. Having a daughter is not a broken root, only a son is a broken root, and a girl must be adopted as an heir. In the Yangshao cultural relics, some children are found buried with their mothers, which reflects the extremely close relationship between mother and child.
The first clan member, regardless of his or her gender, belongs to his or her mother's clan, not to her or his father's clan. Father is a foreigner. At that time, people thought that clans were related to some animals, plants or inanimate objects; People regard it as an ancestor, which is a totem. In ancient times, some surnames came from totems and female roles. For example, the giant butterfly swallowed the egg of a mysterious bird and gave birth to a contract (ancestor of Shang Dynasty). Today, some people still call eggs "chickens" and businessmen take their sons as their surnames. Jiang Yuan was born in the footsteps of a giant. Zhou ancestors abandoned it, and Zhou took Ji (trace) as his surname. The daughters of Qin Zushang were all born by eating the eggs of blackbirds, and they won the family. This is the witness of the combination of their matriarchal line and some totem, and it is the reflection of their fatherless and widowed mother. In ancient surnames, such as Jiang, Yao, Dai, Wa, An, Yan, Lou, Jiao, Da and so on. Most of them come from female characters, and surnames themselves are composed of women and women, which reflects that surnames come from women and their lineages are calculated according to maternal lineages. Women play an important role in production.