Draft:Patriarchy (Graeber)

• Comment: We don't appear to have any articles on specific thinkers' conceptions of patriarchy and usually we wouldn't have something like that unless it was a very significant view that had attracted a lot of commentary from others, e.g. Marx's theory of alienation. It doesn't look like Graeber's theory of patriarchy is there (yet). It therefore would probably be best to integrate this into the main article. – Joe (talk) 07:12, 9 December 2024 (UTC)

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As part of his research and reflections, David Graeber develops a specific vision of patriarchy. The anthropologist offers a unique perspective on its emergence, expansion, and persistence.

He notably identifies the development of kingship as one of the sources of patriarchy’s rise, as kingship is typically masculine within human societies. Furthermore, a rural reaction to the development of large Mesopotamian urban centers could also be one of its origins. In addition, Graeber partially builds on the hypotheses of Marija Gimbutas, who argued that the inhabitants of Europe prior to Indo-European migrations were generally organized into matriarchal societies.

The anthropologist also asserts that fighting against patriarchy is essential.

Thought

Works

Graeber agrees with most other anthropologists that patriarchy emerged in human societies during their stratification into different social classes. Linked to the rise of kingship, it also arises, according to him, in the context of the emergence of interpersonal violence within human societies. For Graeber, this marks the birth of human commercial economies, composed of three factors: violence, slavery, and patriarchy. Debt slavery would also be tied to this development. More broadly, Graeber believes that:

Even in civilized societies, women were relatively equal until two comparatively recent innovations, around 1500 BC: 1) economies became monetized, and 2) it became legal for men to hire or sell their wives and children to cover debts.

In their book On Kings (2017), Graeber and Marshall Sahlins link the emergence of patriarchy to the development of the political system of kingship within the human species:

For half of humanity, however, the creation of mortal kingship represents a major blow: kings are, in virtually every known case, archetypically male. Nowadays, scholars are used to considering Paleolithic or Neolithic representations of powerful female figures as mere ‘mythological’ representations, without political significance. But in the cosmic polities that existed at the time, this could not have been the case. Thus, fixing divine political power in the male head of a royal household constituted a [push] for patriarchy in two ways: not only did the primary human manifestation of divine power become masculine, but also the main purpose of the ideal household was now to produce powerful men.

In his final book, The Dawn of Everything (2021), published posthumously, Graeber partially supports the hypotheses proposed by Marija Gimbutas, though not entirely endorsing them. Regarding Gimbutas, he notes that "among academics today, belief in primitive matriarchy is treated as a kind of intellectual offence, almost on a par with ‘scientific racism’". However, more broadly, he avoids committing to the hypothesis that patriarchy in Europe originated from Indo-European invasions or migrations, recognizing this as a highly debated topic and dedicating only a few lines to it.

Furthermore, the anthropologist examines patriarchy in Mesopotamia, initially stating that "the standard explanation in the Sumerian case has been the gradual infiltration of pastoralists from the surrounding deserts". Finding this explanation insufficient, he adds that "patriarchy originated, first and foremost, in a rejection of the great urban civilizations in the name of a kind of purity, a reassertion of paternal control against great cities like Uruk, Lagash, and Babylon, seen as places of bureaucrats, traders, and whores. The pastoral fringes, the deserts, and steppes away from the river valleys, were the places to which displaced, indebted farmers fled".

For Graeber, Minoan civilization might represent a matriarchal society.

Struggle

To address the issue of patriarchy, Graeber proposes to feminists an "insurrectionary model of social change, in which there is a dramatic confrontation with state power".

Legacy

Graeber's work is described as opposed to patriarchy by Caroline Kaltefleiter, a professor at the State University of New York at Cortland.

References

Category:Anarchist economics Category:Patriarchy Category:Cultural anthropology Category:Family Category:Fatherhood Category:Gender and society Category:Sociobiology Category:Family economics Category:Feminism and society Category:Feminist terminology Category:Feminist theory Category:Political anthropology