An English Translation of Bachofen's Mutterrecht Mother Right 1861: Study of the Religious and Juridical Aspects of Gyneecocracy in the Ancient World; ... "The Epizephyrian Locrians", and "Lesbos": 4

by Johann Jakob Bachofen, David Partenheimer

Brand New.

Genres: Philosophy

68 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1861

About the author

Johann Jakob Bachofen (22 December 1815 – 25 November 1887) was a Swiss antiquarian, jurist, philologist, anthropologist, and professor for Roman law at the University of Basel from 1841 to 1845.

Bachofen is most often connected with his theories surrounding prehistoric matriarchy, or Das Mutterrecht, the title of his seminal 1861 book Mother Right: an investigation of the religious and juridical character of matriarchy in the Ancient World. Bachofen assembled documentation demonstrating that motherhood is the source of human society, religion, morality, and decorum. He postulated an archaic "mother-right" within the context of a primeval Matriarchal religion or Urreligion.

Bachofen became an important precursor of 20th-century theories of matriarchy, such as the Old European culture postulated by Marija Gimbutas from the 1950s, and the field of feminist theology and "matriarchal studies" in 1970s feminism.

Reviews

[Pedro · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the major work and most important thesis defended by Bachofen. In Das Mutterrecht the author support his idea that there was an archaic matriarchal state common to all ancient societies that was over took by the patriarchal state and that this fight between patriarchy and matriarchy is present in mythological backgrounds.
Even if modern academics from historian to archaeologists have proven that nothing like a Matriarchy existed in ancient societies like Greek, Roman, Celtic , Egyptian and others , Bachofen's book is worth reading and covers very interesting topics.

[Anna SP · Rating 2 out of 5]

Es otro BÁSICO de matrística. El primer autor que ligó mitología con historia. (O sea interpretar los mitos como algo real). Este es su primer libro del tema. Tiene otro. Mitología arcaica y derecho materno.
Dos estrellas porque es muy denso de leer, es de mitad del siglo 19.. se me ha hecho eterno.
Hay muchas cosas con las que no estoy de acuerdo y que además luego ya se ha estudiado que sus hipótesis no eran correctas. Está bien para entender cómo ha evolucionado la teoría / información sobre matriarcado/matrística

[Clara Mazzi · Rating 2 out of 5]

La scrittura impenetrabile di Bachofen: davvero. Forse un tantino troppo. Forse maschilista? Difficile da dire per una neofita come me, per una che è approdata all'antropologo svizzero quasi per caso, senza una corretta preparazione. A me sembra di sì e mi ha dato alquanto fastidio eppure so che è stato proprio lui a gettare le basi per uno studio moderno e più appropriato sul matriarcato. E' stata una pietra miliare, insomma. Eppure è stato un libro davvero difficile da seguire e da capire.