matriarchy
(ˈmeɪtrɪɑːkɪ)
[f. matriarch, after patriarchy.]
That form of social organization in which the mother, and not the father, is the head of the family, and in which descent and relationship are reckoned through mothers and not through fathers.
| 1885 Athenæum 21 Mar. 379/3 Mr. J. W. Redhouse made a few remarks with reference to a paper he has prepared for the Journal of the Society..‘On Matriarchy, or Mother Right’. 1892 Gomme Ethnology in Folklore 131 The principle of matriarchy is more primitive than that of patriarchy. |