How can a matriarchial system support a patriarchal structure?

[Erebus]

The Cult of the Holy Mother is a female-dominated religious organization that retains a large role in the shaping of society and affairs of the nation. The faith traces its origins to a virgin woman chosen by the creator deity to produce the Messiah, a god-emperor who was destined to save mankind and go on to rule this nation. The cult is made up of mostly priestesses that enter into holy matrimony with their deity. These brides have taken vows of chastity to devote themselves to the study and correct observance of religious rituals. There rituals are deemed necessary by the organization and forbidden for others to carry out. As such, they are regarded as fundamental to the continuance and security of the state. Every few centuries, the Messiah will be reborn through a chosen priestess, repeating the supernatural miracle that occurred thousands of years previously. These "Sons of God" serve as an expression of the deity's power and authority over nature, as well as a reminder to the people of the contract between God and mankind. This religion is based on the New Testament, but is more closely related with Arianism, an early form of Christianity that introduced a hierarchy into the holy trinity. This pantheon is broken down with God at the head as father in heaven, God the Mother as the intermediary between both worlds, and God the Son as his representative on Earth.

Society is dominated by men, who take dominant roles in civil and public life and women taking a secondary status. However, there is subtle undercurrent in society that men would be incompetent on their own, which is demonstrated throughout the mythology and stories society tells itself. The faith itself is also female oriented, giving higher importance on the virgin mother over the Son of God. Despite this, it maintains the patriarchal hierarchy, viewing any suggestion of the reverse as dangerous and heretical. This seems to go against their own self-interest and the overall status of women in general, as it curtails their advancement in public life.

I want to design this matriarchal religion as the single dominant faith in the nation that works within society without challenging the rule of man. How can I make it this work? And how can the faith benefit from maintaining this stance while retaining their influence over the population?

 

[Rosemary Tea]

What you've described is a patriarchal system. Women have secondary status everywhere except the temple, which doesn't have any direct power at all over day to day life. That is, effectively, little or no power for the women.

Goddess worship does not make a society not patriarchal. In fact, it can thoroughly support a patriarchy: women may be put on a pedestal, exhorted to behave like the goddess: sweet, all giving, sticking to her sphere (in this case, apparently home and temple) while leaving all those unholy, worldly things that give people actual power over their own lives--like, you know, career, money, property, political life--to the men.

For that matter, the goddess being a virgin, assuming you mean virgin in the modern sense (it's had other meanings in the past) is a sign of patriarchy right there. Why does a certain specific kind of mingling of body parts completely change a woman's status? Why does it matter? Why does the lack thereof somehow make her holier?

Virginity only matters in a patriarchal society. A non-patriarchal society wouldn't tie a woman's status to a penis. Wouldn't even have a word for virgin (surprisingly few languages did, before the spread of colonialism).

 

[Queshire]

Are YOU a young woman looking for opportunity, experience and a chance for social mobility more reliable than the vagaries of trying to marry up? Join the Cult of the Holy Mother!

Are YOU the third daughter of your family? Are your prospects er.... lacking compared to your older sisters? Join the Cult of the Holy Mother!

Do YOU want people to look at you with respect unlike some barmaid? Join the Cult of the Holy Mother!

Politics? Business? War? Pffft, leave those foolish thoughts to the men. You have higher concerns like spirituality, tradition and ensure the proper, godly running of the home.

Sure, as a confirmed virgin you won't have any descendents able to inherit from you. Of course after your death that means all that social mobility you were promised will either benefit the cult, be used as a carrot to encourage new priestesses to rise up the ranks, help out a chosen apprentice that's already in the cult or act as valuable connections for your family back out in the patriarchal, secular world. Naturally none of them have a reason to upset the status quo and are more likely to just keep things ticking over day after day and generation after generation.

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It's not a trap to serve as a release valve for those dissatisfied with the way things are while limiting the ability to enact lasting change and offer enough limited privilege to reduce the will for an individual to enact lasting change. We promise.


EDIT: Also, lesbians. Not sure where to work them in, but with a set up like that I expect a good few of them will be "roommates."

 

[pmmg]

Have to go with the posters above on this. I don't think this would succeed in being a working matriarchy, and I don't think matriarchies would have much survivability anyway.

I think, if you want a matriarchy, it should at least point to the feminine nature of the creator deity, and not the Christian model of God the Father. As a Christian, I would likely find wrong or offensive the idea that the messiah must be reborn to renew the testament that is the new testament, and I would have to wonder why the holy spirit was replaced. I think it would be better to avoid making it Christian, and then changing Christianity into something its not.

I will accept that God the creator can encompass both genders, or have no real gender at all. If some were to glom onto the some feminine quality of the creator, and claim that that was the more prominent aspect, and then shape a religion around it, I could see it. But if it was competing with another more God as father religion, I don't think a Matriarchy would successfully form as the greater influential power. In Christian terms, God refers to himself as the father, that would be hard to overcome.

A non-Christian religion, such as one looking at Mother-Earth as the great deity, might have more success.

I want to design this matriarchal religion as the single dominant faith in the nation that works within society without challenging the rule of man. How can I make it this work? And how can the faith benefit from maintaining this stance while retaining their influence over the population?

This seem to me to be more what already exists anyway. Both men and Women have tools to bear, and either one has the ability to prove greater than the other. Men as the rulers, but women secretly pulling the levers through other means of influence goes on everyday. Maybe these are just better at it as they are more organized, or recognized in that role.

How could it benefit, well...influence usually equates to favorable policy, greater economic gain, greater status, and a whole host of other things. I think that question would take care of itself.

 

[Rosemary Tea]

EDIT: Also, lesbians. Not sure where to work them in, but with a set up like that I expect a good few of them will be "roommates."

They can join the Cult of the Holy Mother too. They'd have to be celibate, but that would be no different for lesbians than for straight women.

 

[Queshire]

They can join the Cult of the Holy Mother too. They'd have to be celibate, but that would be no different for lesbians than for straight women.

Meh. People are gonna people. Past a certain size it's inevitable that there's going to be those that break the rules.

 

[pmmg]

People break the rules in the real world religions, that does not keep them from having rules. The whole point of Christianity is that we are all sinners and our sins are forgiven. Course, we are also encouraged to go and sin no more. I suspect there is a cyclical nature to that.


The religious aspect of celebacy does track with revelation, but if the matriarchy did not have such rules about lesbians, well...I am not sure that it is the biggest leap with a matriarchy as described above.

Id have to ask, one of the grand differences between men and women is the ability to become pregnant and give birth. That creative aspect is uniquely a feminine quality (Minus some weird surgeries). It would seem somewhat counter to a matriarchy to have such an aspect be denied as policy. They would be more in their feminine role to support the giving of birth. Which to me means, there is a lot to think about if you want to include a matriarchy with a great deal of depth, and not just shoehorn it in. If in the future, God needs a virgin to have a next appearance of the messiah, I am sure he can find one. The lack of a matriarchy did not keep him from finding Mary.

 

[Queshire]

O... k...?

I wasn't trying to give the impression that I was suggesting a written exception or anything.

There are undoubtably others, such as yourself, more capable of discussing the the theological connections of these thinly veiled (so thin) expy of Christianity than I. As such I am more interested in the sociological aspects, or at least as far as my armchair understanding of such matters goes.