1st Edition

Matriarchy, Gender and Power Interdisciplinary Perspectives

Edited By Coralie Raffenne, Cécile Coquet-Mokoko Copyright 2026
250 Pages 18 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

250 Pages 18 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

This book explores the conceptualizations of female power through the notion of matriarchy in a variety of historical, cultural and epistemological contexts. Matriarchy has been both marginalized and even derided as an object of study, albeit consistently referred to as a symbol of female power. The lack of serious engagement with matriarchy has stifled critical inquiry into alternative ways of... Read more

Introduction

Cecile Coquet-Mokoko and Coralie Raffenne

PART I Matriarchal Traces: Questioning the Myth of Universal Patriarchy

1 The Quest for Prehistoric Matriarchy: Archaeological Perspectives

Marianna Nikolaidou

2 Beyond the Fantasy of Matriarchy: Considering Indigenous Notions of Kinship, Decision-making and Personhood Among the Na of China

Pascale-Marie Milan

3 Insights into the Representations of Matriarchy in the Visual Culture of the Medieval East

Anna Caiozzo

PART II Matriarchal Imaginaries of Female Empowerment

4 Foundations, Topicality and Influences of Cheikh Anta Diop’s Concept of Matriarchy on Senegalese Society

Saliou Ngom

5 Clan Mothers: The Matriarchal Figures of Mona Susan Power’s Stories

Fanny Caron

6 The Myth of Primordial Matriarchy in the Goddess Movement: Between Strategic Mythmaking and the Construction of Artistic Matrilineage

Capucine Sammani

PART III Matriarchal Narratives and Ideologies of Male Domination

7 Mother Earth and the Matriarchal Imaginary of Environmental Law: Posthuman Advances and Biopolitical Limits of Rights of Nature

Coralie Raffenne

8 The Myth of Matriarchy in the Narratives of Separated Fathers’ Associations and Their Influence on the Law

Amalia Diurni

9 Primitive Matriarchy and the Maternal Self in Takamure Itsue’s Feminist Historiography of Japan

Christine Lévy

Biography

Coralie Raffenne is a senior lecturer in law at the Universite Paris Dauphine-PSL, France, and teaches on the legal aspects of corporate social responsibility, sustainable development and transition. She holds a PhD in law from the University of Warwick. Her current research explores the application of feminist approaches to environmental law and economics. Her recent publications include Cosmopolitics of Care—The State and the Company beyond the Neoliberal Anthropocene (forthcoming monograph) and La Souverainete Marchandisee—L’Empire des paradis fiscaux et le pillage environnemental (2012).

Cécile Coquet-Mokoko is a professor of US cultural history, African American studies and gender studies at Universite Versailles-Saint Quentin, France. She has 30 years of experience in historical and sociological research on race and gender relations in the United States from the nineteenth century to the present, particularly in the Deep South, and on the legacy of colonialism and slavery in interpersonal relations in France, the United Kingdom and the United States. Her recent publications in English include Love under the Skin: Interracial Marriages in the American South and France (2020).