Message-ID: <15064@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 4-Jan-84 19:34:00 EST
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.15064
Posted: Wed Jan  4 19:34:00 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 7-Jan-84 01:31:22 EST
Lines: 43

From:  John Redford 

Re: the inquiry about matriarchies in science fiction:

A quick pass over my library yields a number of books containing matriarchal
soceities:

The Pride of Chanur - C. J. Cherryh - Alien females behave like the
  saltiest of sailors while the males lounge around the home planet.

A World Between - Norman Spinrad - Fairly crude sexual allegory that
  contrasts a lesbian soceity, a Faustian male culture,
  and a sexually balanced, albeit gaggingly mellow, planet.

The Female Man - Joanna Russ - Have not actually read.

Pursuit of the Screamer - Ansen Dibell - Women stay on top in a low-tech
  trading culture by means of telepathy and alien female mercenaries.

Watch the Northwind Rise - Robert Graves - Here's an obscure one.  This
  is a utopian novel by the well-known English poet.  In it he expresses
  his ideas about how the archetypal figure he calls The White Goddess
  might manifest herself in a future soceity.

The Tombs of Atuan - Ursula Le Guin - Middle volume of the Earthsea
  trilogy.  A soceity run by priestesses.

Then there are the stories of cultures with permanent queens.  Women
aren't actually in charge at the lower levels, but a queen is the
source of ultimate authority.  In this category you find:

The Snow Queen - Joan Vinge
The Black Flame - Stanley Weinbaum
She - H. Rider Haggard

plus a whole lot of A. Merritt stuff which I don't have on hand.  Most
of this counts as male fantasy rather than as serious 
speculation as to how women would run things.  The same goes for the
stories of Amazon races, of which I can't think of any good examples
right now.  Hope this helps your data gathering.

/jlr
   --------

Message-ID: <574@dartvax.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 7-Jan-84 20:36:09 EST
Article-I.D.: dartvax.574
Posted: Sat Jan  7 20:36:09 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 8-Jan-84 01:24:12 EST
References: <15064@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Organization: Dartmouth College
Lines: 33

A fine book in this vein is _When Voiha Wakes_, by Joy Chant
(also the author of _Red Moon and Black Mountain_).  It concerns
a society in which women are the farmers, rulers, and property-owners
of society.  Men are craftsmen, supposedly because 'it allows them
to make up for not being able to bear children'.  
 
This is a far subtler book than many role-reversals; it pays due 
attention to the logical consequences of a society's beliefs.
(For instance, since men leave their families at an early age
to join craftsmens' guilds, their primary socialization
is as guild-members.  Women see themselves as members of families.
Both guilds and families have secrets to which members of the
other sex are not privy.  As a result, sex relationships
tend to be short and shallow.  What can you discuss with a social
alien?  For long-term companionship, people tend to stick to 
members of their own sex.)
 
The book is more than a thought-experiment, though; it rotates
around the lives of two people, and we see their society through
their eyes, not through those of an omniscient observer.  It's a
romantic novel and a thoughtful one.  I recommend it highly.
 
Betsy Hanes Perry
decvax!dartvax!betsy
 
P.S.  Does ANYONE out there know if/when Joyce Ballou Gregorian
plans to publish a sequel to 'Castledown'?  'The Broken Citadel'
and 'Castledown' are supposed to be two parts of a trilogy,
but it was eight years between their publication dates.  It's
a long time between books...
-- 
Betsy Perry
decvax!dartvax!betsy