The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-01-18
The MAtriarchal Age, When
Women Ruled the World

women to maintain their supremacy
thus obtained sby killing their male
infants generally ana rearing only a
few tractabler and favored ones among
them, to remain servile members of
the body polite. This would seem to
have been the case in the Isle of Lem
nos, in ancient days.
The history of Russia in the eigh-
teenth century shows how ambitious
women, once in control, could keep
down the men of their families by the
repression and rigor of the early train
ing of the latter. Elizabeth and Cath
crime IL seemed bent upon perpetu-
ating the sway of Amazons in that
empire.
But the story of Lemnos could not
be duplicated except in some place
equally isolated from the great world
The theory of the philosophers of to-
day. however, is that it was not a war
of sexes that precipitated the ma
ularchal age, but exactly the opposite
When men stole their wives from
the tribes of their foes the Iuckless
females were torn away from their
kindred, and had no friends. They
became the trembling slaves of their
captorS. In preceding age, however,
this was not done. The young men
who had been brought up in one COM
munity which was practically all one
family, with no distinction of father OF
uncle, brother or cousin, were led by
a natural instinct to seek wives else
where They left their own kindred
and identified themselves with the
tribes or families of their wives. The
wife, being surrounded by the strong
influences of her relatives, had an ad-
vantage over her husband, who was
only a stranger, and on tfial.e Hel
children were, loved and honored for
h cn1 ND o0t 20. - YTNl.a -
their names and their inheritance from
her. DeScents were reckoned only in
the females Zine. AS to ones father
it was a matter of little moment. Lee
gitimacy cut no figure. The mother
could always be identified, in any
event. Kindship then had reference al
ways to the mother.
So far as stories of ancient myth
ology go, the matriarchal age would
seem to have been a period of sex
war, when the women dominated the
men by physical force and by the
cunning which was allied with it.
The Amazons come up repeatedly in
classic fable. They were a warlike
nation of women. Hercules fought
girdle Of Omphale, their queen.
Thesens carried aaway the queen her
self. The Amazons invaded Greece
to rescue her, and she was slain in
the struggle. Bellerophen defeated the
Anazons in their own country They
came forth under their queen, Pen
thesilia, to aid the Trojans in the war
of Troy, and Penthesilea was slain by
Achilles The story of the Danaides
tells of the Staying. all but one, of the
fifty husbands of the daughters OF
Danans. The dark story of Lemnos
also points to a deadly sex hatred
Philology, however, and the primitive
customs of some surviving tribes 1ndi-
cate that, in a matriarchal age, the
women rule by love and kindness. Kin,
of gems, was reckoned through the
mother, as stated above. Our words
Kindness" "gentleness," ETC., are de-
rived from them. Perhaps, after all,
1t was only love and respect that were
the basis of female rule. And 1t may
be that the female head of family or
tribe did not actually rule, in many
cases, but only gave her name to her
followers, all rights being inherited
through her. In fact, some of the more
cautious writer's of the present prefer to
speak of the system of society con-
templated as the "metronymic system"
indicating that it was merely a sys-
tenn of tracing family relationship and
descent, as we have now it's opposite,
the "patronymic system"
But they must not be allowed to
cheat us of our matriarchal age, which
We have so lately discovered. With
It's elusive evidences of novelty and
surprise, we must leave it to talk about
and write about for at least the first
decade of this new century. Here's
to that glorious age Of old, when wo-
men ruled the world! Whether it ever
existed or not, does not matter. Bring
on your discussions, your controversies,
your reviews, your poems, your pic
lures and your statues relating to
that marvellous era. The public Is
waiting for them.