Johann Jakob Bachofen (1815 – 1887) was a Swiss anthropologist and sociologist, who is most often connected with his research into the matriarchal clans around which primates evolved into hominids, or Mutterrecht, the title of his seminal 1861 book Mother Right: An Investigation of the Religious and Juridical Character of Matriarchy in the Ancient World. This presented a radically new view of the role of women in a broad range of ancient societie...
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Johann Jakob Bachofen (1815 – 1887) was a Swiss anthropologist and sociologist, who is most often connected with his research into the matriarchal clans around which primates evolved into hominids, or Mutterrecht, the title of his seminal 1861 book Mother Right: An Investigation of the Religious and Juridical Character of Matriarchy in the Ancient World. This presented a radically new view of the role of women in a broad range of ancient societies. Bachofen assembled documentation demonstrating that motherhood is the source of human society, religion, morality, and decorum and he drew upon Lycia, Crete, Greece, Egypt, India, Central Asia, North Africa, and Spain. He concluded the work by connecting archaic mother right with the Christian veneration of the Virgin Mary. Bachofen's conclusions about archaic matriarchy still echo today.
There was little initial reaction to Bachofen’s theory of cultural evolution, largely because of his impenetrable literary style, but eventually, as well...
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