Matriarch

A matriarch or clan-mother or 'chief' is a mother, or other female person in a family who is responsible for the well-being of the clan or kinship. The term is usually applied to the oldest female in an extended family, who by virtue of her position has a degree of granted authority because others have trust in her. The title can be inherited, mostly by the youngest daughter.

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In many matriarchal societies she is responsible mainly for distributing food and also she can be the shaman of the clan. A matriarch can never rule or govern over the members of the community because matriarchies always decide by consensus.

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Clan: A clan is a group of people united by kinship and descent, which is defined by perceived descent from a common ancestor. Even if actual lineage patterns are unknown, clan members nonetheless recognize a founding member or apical ancestor. As kinship based bonds can be merely symbolical in nature s...

Kinship: Kinship is the most basic principle of organizing individuals into social groups, roles, and categories. It was originally thought to be determined by biological descent, a view that was challenged by Schneider (1984). The crux of his argument was that anthropologists had founded the domain of ?kin...

Shaman: REDIRECT Shamanism...