Focus „Matriarchy – Today?“

The title „Matriarchy – Today?“ is challenging. And hopefully thought-provoking. For TERRE DES FEMMES violence against women is not based upon any religion, but on thousands of years of patriarchal societies. The elimination of violence against women and human beings in general is surely not to be achieved by replacing men with women within the same system. The challenge is to envision other kinds of societies. Societies, where „domination“ is being questioned and „power“ or „empowerment“ means the feeling of responsibility for a society that does justice to men and women alike.

What can matriarchal societies, which allegedly were widespread more than 5000 years ago, teach us? Astonishingly many of them still exist today. Ethnological films about America, Asia and Africa at our festival offer many-sided insights and are presented by film-makers who have had the opportunity to witness these fascinating cultures first-hand. A short introduction into matriarchy is offered on Friday, together with a film about the three million Minangkabau of Sumatra, who even in an industrialized society live in accordance with the matriarchal “Adat”-laws.

The various films impressively present several special characteristics: societies of redistribution rather than accumulation, which make political decisions through consensus, where the genders perform different tasks but are respected as equals, where the weak and the elderly are taken into special consideration; where there are no wars being waged and no conflicts being resolved through violence, and where ancestral religions lead to a respectful interaction with nature.

With this focus, our interest is not aimed at determining, if these are „pure“ matriarchal societies or not. Rather, it is important for us to be able to contemplate, and to reflect on another form of society. Because our questions go further: what is it that we can learn from these balanced societies regarding the challenges of today's world; and what can women especially contribute to possible solutions? Solutions for issues like war and peace, violence against women, the gap between the poor and the rich, destruction of the environment and the financial crisis? These questions also pervade other films in our program this year. So as part of the Day “Focus on Matriarchy” we also screen the film about the women, led by our courageous guest from Liberia, Leymah Gbowee, who forced an end to civil war in their country – as one of the possible answers to our question: can women really promote peaceful societies, even when they do not have any formal power?