From: D.Schubert (crawford@explorer.clark.net)
Date: Thu 25 Nov 1993 - 08:47:18 EET
[Editorial comment: I deleted 34 quoted lines -HL]
> As far as I know there have been NO examples of matriarchies on Earth. On
> Glorantha of course, it might be different, but I suspect that the changes
> this would bring about to the structure of the societies would be much
> greater that the 'stick in some weird gods and a few spells' approach.
> there have been some cultures that traced matrilinear descent (best example
> I can think of at the moment being the Picts and the Irish), but that is
> purely a way of ensuring that the children have at least half the family
> blood in their veins, and the males still held the power in those societies.
>
Hmm, I don't agree with you on matriarchies never having existed on earth. This is a hot debate between anthropologists and I don't think it is worth getting into here, other than to say that if you are interested in researching some of the pro-matriarchy theories, one such book to read is "Women's Evolution," by Evelyn Reed.
I think we can all agree that having an issue of ToTRM devoted to womyn in Glorantha and on womyn role-players is a great idea. I do find that Glorantha/RQ is much better than other published role-playing worlds when it comes to womyn, but this should not be used as an argument against further discussion/exploration of the subject.
David Schubert
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