ABSTRACT

This paper considers ruling women through the lens of gender and succession, mostly between 1300 and 1800; it underlines the fundamental impact of matrilineal succession on worldwide dynastic practice. First the paper asks how women surfaced and survived as sovereigns in a world that defined paramountcy in male terms. Second, it examines how changing patterns of descent, the rise of world religions and modernization have affected regional variations in the occurrence of sovereign women. Third, it revisits the ‘matrilineal puzzle', scrutinizing divergences between matrilineal and patrilineal formats of dynastic power. Finally, the fourth section of the paper reviews the connections between matriliny, the empowerment of women, and ‘contractual' kingship. The paper as a whole connects the historical examination of matriliny to recent work by archaeologists and evolutionary biologists on ‘female biased kinship’. It rekindles the age-old debate about the status of women in early history, shows the relevance of matriliny for current research, and makes explicit the patrilineal bent in common interpretations of dynastic power.

摘要

本文从性别和继承的角度考虑统治女性，主要是在 1300 年到 1800 年之间；它强调了母系继承对全球王朝实践的根本影响。首先，这篇论文询问女性如何在一个以男性为至高无上的世界中作为主权者浮出水面并幸存下来。其次，它考察了血统模式的变化、世界宗教的兴起和现代化如何影响了主权女性出现的地区差异。第三，它重新审视了“母系之谜”，仔细审视了母系和父系权力形式之间的分歧。最后，论文的第四部分回顾了母系关系、赋予妇女权力和“契约式”王权之间的联系。整篇论文将母系的历史考察与考古学家和进化生物学家最近关于“女性偏见亲属关系”的工作联系起来。它重新点燃了关于早期历史中女性地位的古老争论，显示了母系与当前研究的相关性，并明确了对王朝权力的常见解释中的父系倾向。