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Call for Publications
Theme: Warfare and Peacemaking Among Matricultural Societies
Publication: Matrix: A Journal for Matricultural Studies
Date: Volume 3, Issue 2 (November 2022)
Deadline: 1.10.2021
The view that ‘War is a game for men’ has been declaimed with loud
voices – yet the Kanienʼkehá꞉ka (Mohawk) people, who have been
described as the most fierce warriors of eastern North America, have
a strong matriculture where the Clan Mothers nominate, install, and
remove male Chiefs. Up to six thousand Fon women, known as Mino or
‘our mothers', fought in the army of Dahomey until the early
twentieth century. The matriarchal Minangkabau of Indonesia
militarily resisted Dutch colonization for almost fifteen years and,
over a century later, launched a guerilla-based civil war against the
Sukarno government. Scythian warriors of the Ancient period were
women as well as men, since horse-riding largely negates the
advantages of upper body strength. Clearly, these matricultural
societies have not been strangers to war and violence, whether
defensive or offensive, and many more examples could be provided. At
the same time, many scholars claim that matricultural societies are,
by definition, cultures of peace.
What are the strategies, means, and types of warfare, in its broadest
sense, in which a matricultural society might engage? What does the
idea of peace mean and how is it achieved and/or strengthened? What
are the means whereby matricultural societies resolve conflict
(domestic or foreign) before it comes to violence, and what role do
women and men play in those processes? Among matricultural societies,
who makes the political decisions to engage in warfare, whether
defensive or offensive? What have been the consequences of war for
matricultures, including the enhancement or diminishment of status
for women? We look for submissions which address these questions and
others related to the topic.
Taking matriculture as a cultural system in the classical Geertzian
sense of the term, this issue of Matrix will explore the institutions
and customs around warfare and peacemaking among matricultural
societies, including cultures where women go to war themselves
(whether as warriors, soldiers, spies, or in another way), where
women are central to peace-building traditions, where women exercise
military authority over men (formally or informally), or exercise the
political authority to declare war (and end it). We take it as a
given that some cultures have a weakly defined matricultural system,
while others, who have strong matricultural systems, express this
strength in several ways – one of which is through designating women
as authorities over or active participants in violent conflict or as
builders of peace.
We invite articles which present, analyze, or contextualize
historical or present-day warfare by or upon matricultures and any
social institutions which are involved, as well as articles which
deconstruct the meaning of war and peace among matricultural
societies. We are interested in questions such as: What is the role
for women in warfare when the the society/ies in conflict have a
flourishing matricultural system? Do cultures with flourishing
matricultures have unique means of achieving peace, or strengthening
it? How do women contribute to the processes of warfare among
matricultural societies? In what matricultures do women have the
authority to declare war, to conduct warfare, or the freedom to
become warriors if they so chose?
Possible presentations may include but are not limited to:
- styles of warfare as conducted by matricultural societies
- means of preventing conflict used by matricultural societies
- meaning of peace to matricultural societies and methods of
achieving and/or strengthening it
- the meaning of warfare in matricultural societies
- women warriors or soldiers, and/or women’s warrior societies,
historical or contemporary
- political authority as exercised by women in matricultures
- social institutions of matricultures where women exercise military
power
- the role of women in strategies of engaging and/or disengaging with
external conflicts
- the role of women in strategies of conflict resolution
- the status of men and their relationships to women in martial
matricultures
Submissions
Please submit a 300-word abstract (max) to the Issue Editor or to the
Editorial Collective of Matrix: A Journal for Matricultural Studies.
Submission via email with the Subject line ‘Matrix Vol. 3 (2)
Abstract Submission’ to:
lrowlatt@networkonculture.ca or info@networkonculture.ca
Deadline for Abstract Submission:
1 October 2021
Issue Editor:
Linnéa Rowlatt (Network on Culture)
About Matrix
Matrix: A Journal for Matricultural Studies is an open access,
peer-reviewed and refereed journal published by the International
Network for Training, Education, and Research on Culture (Network on
Culture), Canada. Matrix is published online on a biannual basis.
For many years, scholarship has explored the expression and role of
women in culture from various perspectives such as kinship,
economics, ritual, etc, but so far, the idea of approaching culture
as a whole, taking the female world as primary, as a cultural system
in Geertz’ classical sense of the term – a matriculture – has gone
unnoticed. Some cultures have a weakly defined matricultural system;
others have strong matricultural systems with various ramifications
that may include, but are not limited to, matrilineal kinship,
matrilocality, matriarchal governance features – all of which have
serious consequences relative to the socio-cultural status of women,
men, children, and the entire community of humans, animals, and the
environment.
The main objective of Matrix is to provide a forum for those who are
working from this theoretical stance. We encourage submissions from
scholars, community members, and other knowledge keepers from around
the world who are ready to take a new look at the ways in which
people - women and men, historically and currently - have organized
themselves into meaningful relationships; the myths, customs, and
laws which support these relationships; and the ways in which
researchers have documented and perhaps mis-labeled the matricultures
they encounter.
Journal website:
https://www.networkonculture.ca/activities/matrix