Preface. Chapter 1-5
Preface. Chapter 1-5
This
work explains itself and is given to the world because it is needed.
Tired of the obtuseness of Church and State; indignant at the
injustice of both towards woman; at the wrongs inflicted upon
one-half of humanity by the other half in the name of religion;
finding appeal and argument alike met by the assertion that God
designed the subjection of woman, and yet that her position had been
higher under Christianity than ever before: Continually hearing these
statements, and knowing them to be false, I refuted them in a slight
resume of the
subject at the annual convention of the National Woman Suffrage
Association, Washington, D.C., 1878.A
wish to see that speech in print, having been expressed, it was
allowed to appear in
The National Citizen,
a woman suffrage paper I then edited, and shortly afterwards in “The
History of Woman Suffrage,” of which I was also an editor. The
kindly reception given both in the United States and Europe to that
meager chapter of forty pages confirmed my purpose of a fuller
presentation of the subject in book form, and it now appears, the
result of twenty years investigation, in a volume of over five
hundred and fifty pages.Read
it; examine for yourselves; accept or reject from the proof offered,
but do not allow the Church or the State to govern your thought or
dictate your judgment.Chapter
OneThe
MatriarchateWoman
is told that her present position in society is entirely due to
Christianity; that it is superior to that of her sex at any prior age
of the world, Church and State both maintaining that she has ever
been inferior and dependent, man superior and ruler. These assertions
are made the basis of opposition to her demands for exact equality
with man in all the relations of life, although they are not true
either of the family, the church, or the state. Such assertions are
due to non-acquaintance with the existing phase of historical
knowledge, whose records the majority of mankind have neither time
nor opportunity of investigating.Christianity
tended somewhat from its foundation to restrict the liberty woman
enjoyed under the old civilizations. Knowing that the position of
every human being keeps pace with the religion and civilization of
his country, and that in many ancient nations woman possessed a much
greater degree of respect and power than she has at the present age,
this subject will be presented from a historical standpoint. If in so
doing it helps to show man’s unwarranted usurpation over woman’s
religious and civil rights, and the very great difference between
true religion and theology, this book will not have been written in
vain, as it will prove that the most grievous wrong ever inflicted
upon woman has been in the Christian teaching that she was not
created equal with man, and the consequent denial of her rightful
place in Church and State.The
last half century has shown great advance in historical knowledge;
libraries and manuscripts long inaccessible have been opened to
scholars, and the spirit of investigation has made known many secrets
of the past, brought many hidden things to light. Buried cities have
been explored and forced to reveal their secrets; lost modes of
writing have been deciphered, and olden myths placed upon historic
foundations. India is opening her stores of ancient literature;
Egypt, so wise and so famous, of which it was anciently said: “If
it does not find a man mad it leaves him mad,” has revealed her
secrets; hieroglyph-inscribed temples, obelisks and tombs have been
interpreted; papyri buried 4,000 and more years in the folds of
bandage-enveloped mummies have given their secrets to the world. The
brick libraries of Assyria have been unearthed, and the lost
civilization of Babylonia and Chaldea imparted to mankind. The
strange Zunis have found an interpreter; the ancient Aztec language
its Champollion, and the mysteries of even our western continent are
becoming unveiled. Darkest Africa has opened to the light; the
colossal images of Easter Island hint at their origin; while the new
science of philology unfolds to us the history of peoples so
completely lost that no other monument of their past remains. We are
now informed as to the condition of early peoples, their laws,
customs, habits, religion, comprising order and rank in the state,
the rules of descent, name, property, the circumstances of family
life, the position of mother, father, children, their temples and
priestly orders; all these have been investigated and a new historic
basis has been discovered. Never has research been so thorough or
long-lost knowledge so fully given to the world.These
records prove that woman had acquired great liberty under the old
civilizations. A form of society existed at an early age known as the
Matriarchate or Mother-rule. Under the Matriarchate, except as son
and inferior, man was not recognized in either of these great
institutions, family, state or church. A father and husband as such,
had no place either in the social, political or religious scheme;
woman was ruler in each. The primal priest on earth, she was also
supreme as goddess in heaven. The earliest semblance of the family is
traceable to the relationship of mother and child alone. Here the
primal idea of the family had birth.[1]
The child bore its mother’s name, tracing its descent from her; her
authority over it was regarded as in accord with nature; the father
having no part in the family remained a wanderer. Long years elapsed
before man, as husband and father, was held in esteem. The son, as
child of his mother, ranked the father, the mother taking precedence
over both the father and the son.[2]
Blood relationship through a common mother preceded that of descent
through the father in the development of society.[3]
This priority of the mother touched not alone the family, but
controlled the state and indicated the form of religion. Thus we see
that during the Matriarchate, woman ruled; she was first in the
family, the state, religion, the most ancient records showing that
man’s subjection to woman preceded by long ages that of woman to
man. The tribe was united through the mother; social, political and
religious life were all in harmony with the idea of woman as the
first and highest power. The earliest phase of life being dependent
upon her, she was recognized as the primal factor in every
relation,[4]
man holding no place but that of dependent.Every
part of the world today gives evidence of the system; reminiscences
of the Matriarchate everywhere abound. Livingstone found African
tribes swearing by the mother and tracing descent through her. Marco
Polo discovered similar customs in his Asiatic voyages, and the same
customs are extant among the Indians of our own continent.
Bachofen[5]
and numerous investigators[6]
agree in the statement that in the earliest forms of society, the
family, government, and religion, were all under woman’s control;
that in fact society started under woman’s absolute authority and
power.The
second step in family life took place when the father, dropping his
own name, took that of his child. This old and wide-spread custom is
still extant in many portions of the globe; the primitive peoples of
Java, Australia and Madagascar are among those still continuing its
practice.
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