THE CULTURAL UNITY

OF
BLACK AFRICA
 ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Cheikh Anta D iop was born in Senegal in D ecem ber 1923 and died
o f a heart attack in F ebruary 1986. H is entire life was devoted to
scholarship and to retrieving ancient Egyptian history as an intrinsic
pan o f Black African history. H e was a lone voice in a sea o f opposi­
tion. H is early education was at M uslim schools and he later obtained
the baccalaureat in Senegal before going to Paris to study mathematics.
W hile at the Sorbonne, D iop also took courses in sociology,
anthropology, ancient history, prehistory and linguistics under French
scholars A ndre A ym ard, G aston Bachelard, A ndre Leroi-G ourhan,
M arcel G riau le and L ille H o m b u rg er. D iop also studied
hieroglyphics, Egyptology and nuclear physics, and was granted his
Docteur es L ettres, after m uch controversial debate, in 1960. D iop
was responsible for the U N ESC O -sponsored conference on the peopl­
ing o f ancient Egypt and the deciphering o f the M eroitic script in
Cairo, 1974, and was a vice-president o f the U N E S C O com m ittee
responsible for the General History o f Africa. D iop participated in
the political life o f Senegal and was subjected to house arrest and
the confiscation o f his passport by th e Senghor regim e. H e founded
the radio-carbon laboratory at the U niversity o f D akar in 1966, and
since his death the university has been renam ed in his honour. In
1966, at the w orld festival o f Black arts in Senegal, D iop, along w ith
W .E.B. DuBois, was voted the m ost influential scholar o f the 20th
century on the black world.
D iop is survived by a wife and three sons.
 CHEIKH ANTA DIOP

THE CULTURAL UNITY

OF
BLACK AFRICA

T he D o m a in s of P atriarchy
a n d of M atriarchy
iN CLASSiCAL Antiquity

KARNAK HOUSE
300 Westbourne Park Road, London Wll 1EH
T h e C u ltu ra l U n ity o f Black A frica
T h e D om ains o f P a tria rch y and o f M a tria rch y
in C lassical A ntiq u ity
bv C heik h A nta D ioo

T h is E nglish edition o f T h e C u ltu ra l U n ity o f B lack A frica is p ublished by

arran g em en t w ith P resence A fricaine, P aris, 1989. O riginal title, T h e C u ltu ral
U n ity o f N egro A frica, and the presen t translation © Presence A fricaine,
Paris, 1963.

© 1989 Karnak House

All Rights Reserved

Introduction © 1989 Ifi Amadiume

No section of this book should be reproduced or copied in any form or

stored in a retrieval system w ithout the express consent in w riting of
the Publishers.

First edition published in Britain 1989

by Karnak House
300 Westbourne Park Road
London W 1 1 1EH, UK

Photosetting by Emset

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Diop, Cheikh Anta

The cultural unity of Black Africa: the domains of patriar­

chy/m atriarchy in classical antiquity. —
(Karnak history. African Studies)
1. Africa South of the Sahara. Cultural processes history
I. Title

Printed in Great Britain by

Billing & Sons Ltd, Worcester

ISBN 0-907015-44-1
 CONTENTS

I n t r o d u c t i o n b y If! A m a d i u m e

Introduction .................................................................................
Forew ord ....................................................................................... 3

CHAPTER I
A n H is to ric a l a c c o u n t o f M a tr ia r c h y

An account o f the theories o f J. J. Bachofen, M organ

and F. Engels w ith a criticism o f these .............................. 5

C H A P T E R II
C ritic is m o n th e c la s s ic a l th e o ry
o f a u n iv e r s a l M a tr ia r c h y

- W orship o f ashes ..................................................................... 25

- Fire worship ............................................................................. 26
- Southern C radle and M atriarchy ...................................... 27
- Ancestor w orship ................................................................... 34
- Criticism o f the theories o f M organ and Engels ......... 36

C H A P T E R III
H is to ry o f P a t r i a r c h y a n d M a tr ia r c h y

- T h e Southern C radle ............................................................. 47

- Ethiopia ...................................................................................... 47
- E g y p t........................................................................................... 50
- L ib y a ...................................................................................................................................... 54
- Black Africa .............................................................................. 57
- T he N orthern Cradle ............................................................ 64
“ C rete ........................................................................................... 64
' Greece ........................................................................................ 66
- Rome ........................................................................................... 74
- Germ ania ................................................................................... 77
- S c y th ia ..................................s i
Zone o f C onfluence ................................................................ 84
Arabia .......................................................................................... 84
W estern Asia: Phoenicia ....................................................... 89
Indus and M esopotam ia ....................................................... 93
M esopotam ia ............................................................................. 95
B yzantium .................................................................................. 100

C H A P T E R IV
A n o m a lie s n o tic e d in th e th r e e z o n e s
a n d t h e i r e x p la n a tio n

Africa ........................................................................................... 103

Reign o f Q ueen H atshepsout .............................................. 103
T h e Age o f P to le m y ............................................................... 105
Am azonism ............................................................................... 107
T h e Peul M a tria r c h y ............................................................. 110
African P atriarchy .................................................................. 113
Polygamy ................................................................................... 114
Eurasia ........................................................................................ 116
N eolithic M atriarchy ............................................................. 116
G erm anic M atriarchy ............................................................ 119
Celtic M atriarchy ....................................... ............................ 120
Etruscan M atriarchy ............................................................... 123
T h e Amazonism o f the T herm odon ................................ 123
Asia: Reign o f Q ueen Sem iram is ...................................... 125
Lycian M a tria r c h y .................................................................. 128

CHAPTER V
A c o m p a r is o n o f o th e r a s p e c ts o f th e
N o r th e r n a n d M e r id io n a l c u ltu r e s
T h e idea o f the state: Patriotism ...................................... 130
A f r ic a ........................................................................................... 130
E urope ......................................................................................... 131
Royalty ................................................ ...................................... 137
Religion ...................................................................................... 141
W hat I have seen to be good in the conduct o f the
Blacks ..................................................................................... 150
L iterature ................................................................................... 151
T h e b irth o f tragedy or H ellenism and pessim ism
o f N ietzsche .......................................................................... 152
 INTRODUCTION

Cheikh Anta D iop ’s theory o f M atriarchal values as the

basis for African C ultural Unity

Ifi Amadiume

It was in 1983 that I nearly met C heikh Anta D iop in a sufi com ­
m unity in M adina-Kaolack in Senegal. T h e Im am and Shaikh o f that
com m unity, knowing my political and intellectual interests, said to
me as soon as I arrived there that I had just missed C heikh Anta
Diop. T h en again in 1985, 1 found m yself standing right before the
great African savant. T h e organiser o f that 1985 conference, the very
first tim e C heikh Anta D iop delivered a paper in London, knowing
how the news would affect m e, urged me to m eet him . Even though
very pregnant at the tim e, I leapt up and w ent to him . I made as
if to talk to him . He stretched out his hand in returned salutation,
when someone came betw een us and started talking to him . I let it
be and returned to m y seat.
Later in 1 9 8 5 ,1 wrote A frikan Matriarchal Foundations: The lgbo
Case1 in w hich I tried to substantiate some o f the ideas raised by
Diop in The C ultural U nity o f Black Africa: The Domains o f Patriar­
chy and o f M atriarchy in Classical A n tiq u ity2. I dedicated the book
to Diop w ith the lgbo eulogy, Ebunu j i isi eje ogu, ‘brave ram who
fights with his head’. O f course I m eant fighting fearlessly w ith both
courage and intellect; what Diop him self called ‘rationalization’. T hen
in 1986, I read w ithout w arning in a N igerian new spaper that our
great philosopher had died o f a heart attack and I w ept. H e was only
62 years old. By being invited to write an introduction to the K a r­
nak House edition o f The Cultural Unity of Black Africa, I find myself
again on the path that Cheikh Anta Diop threaded. Hopefully, I shall
not be lost in b lind adulation, but will assess objectively the m erits
0 s b°ok, not so m uch as an am m unition for fighting the racisms

ix
against Africa, b u t its relevance in contem porary African political
thinking and for the developm ent o f a more progressive class and
gender-aware African studies program m e.
D iop w rote this book during the 1950s nationalist struggles and
general debate for African independence. As a foremost pan-Africanist,
he attacked those w ho could not conceive the idea o f an indepen­
dent African federation or a m ulti-national African state. He therefore
undertook to dem onstrate ‘our organic cultural u n ity ’ in spite o f a
‘deceptive appearance o f cultural heterogeneity’. W hy did Diop adopt
this organic approach? O ne reason could be the fact that that was
the period o f the organic approach (the concept o f the hom ogeneity
o f a specific society w hich precludes social contradictions) followed
by the form alists in the social sciences. T h is approach was later
discredited by the functionalists and the structuralists. Yet, D iop’s
work makes better sense in the structuralist school, as he is basically
dealing w ith ideas. T h e other reason could be that in this particular
issue, D iop was not sim ply concerned with pure abstract arm chair
academ ics, but had a political com m itm ent to his people to try and
reconstruct a history and culture, which had been subjected to nearly
900 years o f plunder by both the Arabs and the Europeans. T h is
does not even include the destruction o f the ancient African E gyp­
tian civilization. D iop therefore argued that that w hich unites us is
m uch m ore fundam ental than our superficial differences, and that
these differences are externally im posed. T hey derive from colonial
heritage.
W hat D iop took firm grip on and used to argue the ‘profound
cultural u n ity ’ o f Africa is the history o f African m atriarchy. He thus
proceeded from analysis o f m aterial conditions to ideological
superstructures. By so doing, D iop reclaimed our Afrocentric history,
applying both an holistic account and a structual analysis o f m yth
in order to expose the ideas behind events. T h e result is a blueprint
for a com prehensive African social history.
T h e racist, colonialist and im perialist forces that D iop was con­
fronting at the time com pelled him not to dwell solely on an account
and analysis o f m atriarchy in Africa. H e had to confront the so-called
w orld ‘exp erts’ on the subject. D iop thus proceeded to do an exten­
sive and devastating critique o f Bachofen’s theory o f m atriarchy and
M o rg an ’s theory o f the family.
 T h e evolutionist m atriarchy theory o f Bachofen was based on
the analysis o f classical G reek literature. From this lim ited Greek
source, he proceeded to generalise for the whole o f hum an social
organisation the evolution o f a period w hen there was no m arriage
but ‘barbarism ’ and ‘sexual prom iscuity’ based on a m atrilineal des­
cent system to a period o f m arriage and m atriarchy based on the
supremacy o f the woman. T h e final stage was the period o f masculine
im perialism , th at is, patriarchy. As D iop points out, Bachofen did
not stop at fabricating these evolutionary periods, but also im posed
a prejudiced judgem ent, concluding that patriarchy is superior to
m atriarchy.
Even so, w hat is interesting in B achofen’s analysis o f the Oresteia
o f Aeschylus is not so m uch the defeat o f m atriarchy by patriarchy,
but the fact that in order for patriarchy to make these false claims
o f either defeat or superiority, it had to invent a kind o f pseudo­
procreation in abstract rituals or religions and appropriate the basic
factual procreative role o f natural biological m otherhood and that
‘closest bond o f love*. T h is is basically what the roles o f priesthood
and im am ate have done. In these roles m en assum e the nu rtu rin g
roles o f the m other; they even go to the extent o f im itating w om en’s
wear. In patriarchal rituals in which this construct is m ore overt
we see m en dressed as women. T h is is why real w om en are banned
from these roles. T h is was the role o f Apollo and A thena. Also, in
order for this pseudo-construct to succeed, there must be re-classified
collaborating wom en like Athena. O nce we can grasp this analysis,
then we need not go to antiquity to see this struggle or contest bet­
ween m atriarchal and patriarchal thought systems. M any present-
day feminist theorists are also unable to handle the issue o f m atriar­
chy, as they are still bogged dow n by B achofen’s periodisation. O r
perhaps, because they have neither historical nor cultural m em ory
o f m atriarchy, they understand m atriarchy, not so m uch in the sense
of social institutions, kinship organisations, w om en’s institutions and
culture, but as a society totally ruled by wom en. W hen they cannot
find such a society, they dism iss the issue o f m atriarchy as m yth.
D iop illustrates how M organ’s understanding o f m arriage and
kinship system s rem ained chaotic. F rom the study o f the Iroquois
Indians o f N o rth Am erica, M organ had, based on his ethnocentric
concepts o f the nuclear family structure o f European civilization,

xi
postulated four stages in the evolution o f m arriage and the family
from primitive ‘promiscuous intercourse’. H e therefore distinguished
m atrilineality and m atriarchy o f ‘barbarian’ peoples from the patriar­
chy and m onogam y o f ‘civilised’ G reece and Rom e. As D iop shows,
M o rg an ’s classification was basically this equation: Aryan (Indo-
E uropean) = w hite = civilized and non-Aryan = others = savages.
M organ was a racist. T h is theory was racist.
In their theories o f a universal organic m atriarchy, both Bachofen
and M organ established a false and racist hierarchy o f social systems
and values. T h e colonial subject o f anthropology reinforced this divi­
sion and racism as a result o f its zoning o f hum anity into its so-called
prim itive societies = others, and m odern = theirs = civilized
societies. T hese racist and ignorant notions o f high and low cultural
civilizations equated feudal, pyramidal, bureaucratic and imperialistic
political system s w ith ‘high’ culture and decentralised and diffused
political system s w ith ‘low’ and prim itive culture. H ow today’s
political awareness seeks to reverse this fallacy, is m arked by the
m ovem ents for horizontal com m unication and decentralisation.
D io p ’s position is that m atriarchy is specific, not general, given
the influence o f ecology on social system s. H e therefore pu t forward
his hypothesis o f a double cradle and went ahead to argue two
geographical zones o f N o rth and South. H is thesis is that m atriar­
chy originated in the agricultural S outh, using Africa to illustrate
his argum ent, while patriarchy originated in the N o rth , being
nom adic. T h e m iddle belt was the M editerranean basin, where
m atriarchy preceded patriarchy. W hereas in W estern Asia, both
systems were superim posed on each other.
C om paring these N orth and S outh cultures on the basis o f the
status o f women, systems o f inheritance, dowry and kinship affiliation,
Diop shows how the N orthern Indo-European cultures denied women
rights and subjugated them under the private institution o f the patriar­
chal family, as was argued by Engels. T h e N o rth ern patriarchs had
wom en under th eir arm pit, confining them to the home and denying
them a public rflle and power. In this system , a husband or father
had the right o f life and death over a wom an. T h e travelling out o f
wom en for marriage com pounded this patriarchal control. T his N or­
thern system was characterised by dowry, fire-worship and cremation.
In contrast, in the m atriarchal culture o f the South, typified by

xii
the agricultural system and burial system, husbands came to wives.
Wives were mistresses o f the house and keepers o f the food. W om an
was the agriculturalist. M an was the hunter. W om an’s power was based
on her im portant economic role. T h is system was also characterised
by bridewealth and the strong tie between brother and sister. Even
in the marriage, where a woman travelled out, this bond was not com­
pletely severed. M ost o f the funeral rules prescribed the return o f a
wife’s corpse to her natal home. Funeral exchanges also indicated com­
pensation for th e loss o f a wom an, as my own researches confirmed.
T h is S outhern m atriarchal system was also m arked by the
sacredness o f th e m other and her unlim ited authority. T h ere were
oaths invoking th e power o f the m other, that is, the ritualisation o f
that m atricentric, m other and child, ‘closest bond o f love’ quoted
even in Eumenides. T h is is the ‘spirit o f com m on m otherhood’,
generally symbolised in African religions. In lgbo, it is Oma, Umunne,
Jbenne. In this A frican religious concept, it is the m other that gives
her children and society in general the gift o f ‘the pot o f prosperity’,
which in lgbo is called ite uba.
T h e m o th er also gives the pot o f secrets/m ystery/m agic/sacred
knowledge/spiritual power. In lgbo, this is called ite ogwu. In Wolof,
it is demm. All th e unadulterated African m yths, legends and stories
o f heroism attest to this. As D iop says, these ideas ‘go back to the
very earliest days o f African m entality. T h ey are thus archaic and
constitute, at th e present tim e, a sort o f fossilization in the field of
current ideas. T h e y form a whole w hich cannot be considered as the
logical co n tinuation o f a previous and more prim itive state, where
a matrilineal heritage would have ruled exclusively’, (p.34) T he social
or cultural construction o f fatherhood in these m atriarchal systems
led prejudiced and ignorant social anthropologists to assume that our
societies did not know the facts o f conception!
D iop’s theory is that these tw o system s are irreducible, ‘it has
been shown that these things still occur under our own eyes, in both
cradles and with full knowledge o f the facts. It is not therefore logical
to imagine a qualitative leap which would explain the transition from
one to the o th er’, (p.41) D iop therefore insisted on attributing social
change prim arily to external factors, as a result o f his organic view
° f society. T h is organic understanding o f society and culture con­
tributed to his attribution o f the mixed systems o f the Oceanic societies
10 the role o f m igration and dispersion.

xiii
 T h is attribution o f social change to external factors alone presents
not only an organic but a static view o f society. D iop saw aboriginal
Africa as the continent where ancient civilizations have remained pre­
served, since Africa seemed m ore substantially resistant to external
factors. T h u s, D iop was able to present two polar systems o f values
for his N o rth and South cradles. Africa, as representative o f the
Southern cradle o f m atriarchy, valued the m atriarchal family, terri­
torial state, the em ancipation o f w om en in dom estic life, the ideal
o f peace and justice, goodness and optim ism . Its favoured literatures
were novels, tales, fables and com edy. Its m oral ethic was based on
social collectivism.
T h e contrasting N orthern cradles, as exemplified by the culture
o f Aryan G reece and Rom e, valued the patriarchal family, the city-
state, moral and material solitude. Its literature was characterized
by tragedy, ideals o f war, violence, crim e and conquests. G uilt and
original sin, pessim ism, all pervaded its moral ethic which was based
on individualism .
Diop, having thus contrasted one system w ith the other, went
on to provide a general history o f both cradles and their areas o f
influence. In order to prove his point that African women were already
Queens and warriors, participating in public life and politics, while
their Indo-European contem poraries were still subordinated and sub­
jugated u n d er the patriarchal family, D iop presents us w ith an array
o f pow erful ancient African Q ueens and their achievem ents. In
E thiopia, there were Q ueen o f Sheba, Q ueen Candace, who fought
the invading arm y o f A ugustus Caesar. In Egypt, there was Queen
Hatshepsout, described as ‘the first queen in the history o f hum anity’.
C leopatra was titled ‘Q ueen o f K ings’. Even in the huge and pow er­
ful em pires o f G hana in the T h ird C entury A .D ., m atriarchal values
were the norm . It was the same in the M ali em pire.
Consistent with his theory o f the external factor in social change,
D iop attributes the introduction o f patrilineality in Africa to the com ­
ing o f Islam in the tenth century. Even then, he argues that
patrilineality was on the surface and did not penetrate deep into the
basic m atriarchal systems. H e attributes the m ore recent changes
towards patriarchy to more external factors such as Islam, Christianity
and the secular presence o f E urope in Africa, symbolised by colonial
legislation, land rights, nam ing after the father, m onogam y and the

xiv
class o f W estern educated elites and moral contact w ith the West.
D io p ’s theory o f two irreducible systems seem to me difficult
to accept academically, given the lim itations im posed on the organic
approach to societies w hich leads to the portrayal o f society as static
rather than dynam ic in itself. I do however accept the irreducibility
o f the m atricentric unit as a social fact. Patriarchy can only be based
on a denial o f this fact, hence its falsifications and fabrications. Patriar­
chy is both a social and cultural construct, consequently the equa­
tion o f patriarchy w ith the control and oppression o f wom en. T h e
‘natural’ and social fact o f the m atricentric unit is basic to all societies,
as symbolised by the pregnant wom an. C onsequently, the question
is w hether this basic structure o f m other and child is acknowledged
in social organisation, culture and politics. W here it is acknowledged,
women would obviously be so organised to safeguard that acknow­
ledgement. For all we know, women were that organised in indigenous
African societies. lgbo women, for example, still sing, ‘woman is prin­
cipal, is principal, is principal’, repeating and repeating the statement
and message. So too is the sacredness and infallibility o f m others sung
repeatedly - by women. African wom en were that socio-economically
organised that they were involved in and in control o f certain areas
in the ideology-making processes.
It is therefore necessary to apply a m ultiplicity o f theoretical
approaches in order to gain insight into the internal dim ensions o f
social and gender relations. It would be necessary to apply social pro­
cess, conflict and dissent theories, in order to gain a m uch fuller pic­
ture o f societies and cultures, not just a given and unchanging organic
concept o f so-called formal system s. M en and women are rational
animals, who are able to form political and conflicting interest groups
on the basis o f sex, age, class, etc., differences or sim ilarities. Even
the individual can be in conflict w ith the institution as is argued by
difference/different deconstructionists.
T his is why I took a different position in A frika n Matriarchal
Foundations and argued that at all times in hum an history, matriarchal
and patriarchal principles o f social organisation or ideologies have
presented tw o juxtaposed and contesting systems. For exam ple, if
t ese queens listed by D iop w ere functioning in solely m atriarchal
systems, one w onders why they had to wear m en’s sym bols o f
authority, like N zinga o f Angola who dressed in m en’s clothes, or

xv
H atshepsout in Egypt who wore a beard. T h e m asculinism o f most
o f these w arrior queens has earned them such descriptions as iron
m aidens and Boadiceas’.
It can however be argued that as a result o f the basic m atriar­
chal differences in social values, centralisation and feudalism in Africa
would throw u p ‘Queen Bees’, sitting com fortably on their female
selves, while Indo-European patriarchal values and centralisation
would produce the Boadiceas and iron m aidens, generally alienated
from their female selves. In the traditional African decentralised
political system s, the sym bolic representation o f the goddesses was
sim ply in titled w om en, who were neither ‘Q ueen Bees’ nor iron
m aidens, as for example, Igo Ekw e titled w om en4.
T h is debate was also taken on by D iop, w hen he deconstructed
the classical Amazon myth, showing how it was derived from an Eura­
sian cradle, where ‘a ferocious patriarchy reigned’. It is the patriarchal
malice against women, fabricated in the classical Amazon m yth, which
led D iop to make this statem ent: ‘M atriarchy is not an absolute and
cynical triu m p h o f wom an over m an; it is a harm onious dualism ,
an association accepted by both sexes, the better to build a sedentary
society where each and everyone could fully develop by following
the activity best suited to his physiological nature. A m atriarchal
regim e, far from being im posed on m an by circum stances indepen­
dent o f his will, is accepted and defended by him ’, (p. 108)
As D iop says correctly o f m ilitant or m ilitary female contingents
in Africa, ‘the hatred o f m en is foreign to them and they possess the
consciousness o f being ‘soldiers’ struggling only for the liberation
o f th eir co u n try ’.
W hat is im portant to us today is not the legacy o f warrior queens,
bu t a thorough analysis o f the prim ary system o f social organisation
around an econom ically self-sufficient or self-supporting m atricen­
tric cultural unit and a gender free or flexible gender linguistic system,
w hich is the legacy o f African m atriarchy. We need to understand
its associated goddess-focussed religions and culture w hich helped
w om en organise effectively to fight the subordinating and controll­
ing forces o f patriarchy, thereby achieving a kind o f system o f checks
and balances. T h is is basically w hat the so-called m onotheistic and
abstract religions o f Islam and C hristianity ruling Africa today
subverted and continue to attack. T h e fundam ental question to those

xvi
 proposing these religions as a possible m eans o f achieving a pan-
African unity or federation is this: are these religions able to accept
and accom m odate our goddesses and m atriarchy, that is, African
w om en’s true prim ordial cultures in the present politics o f prim or-
dialism, m anipulated by nationalists and fundam entalists?
Hinterland Africa proper which had such structures which favoured
the rule o f goddesses, matriarchy, queens, etc., is indeed still present
with us today. But, these systems are facing erosion, as elite African
men manipulate the new and borrowed patriarchies to forge a
most formidable ‘masculine imperialism ’, yet unknown in our history.
How are we ever going to subvert this, since the first casualty has been
the autonomy and power o f the indigenous wom en’s organisations?
In contrast to the seem ing collusion o f present-day African
daughters o f the establishm ent, the issue o f w om en’s role and status
in society, far from being a nineteenth century debate, has since the
60s gathered a new force in W estern fem inist literature and scholar­
ship. In Germ any, for example, inquiry into m atriarchy is taken very
seriously5. In the U.S. and L atin Am erica, w om en’s search for
spirituality predom inates. In B ritain, it is a search for ancient
goddesses6. T h ere is also a revival o f witchcraft cults. T h e whole
Green and Ecological movement derives its concept and ideology from
the so-called African anim ism , which is now being acknowledged as
a worship o f nature. In all this, African ethnography serves as a
databank, but with little acknow ledgem ent from the users. Is the
history o f G reek appropriation o f African philosophy and science
in the nineteenth century 7 repeating itself on this eve o f the twenty-
first century?
Ironically, in all these m ovem ents, it is that continent o f matriar-
f chy> Africa, w here there is no such concern in African scholarship.
, Is the reason because it is still in the control o f Christian and islam-
{produced elite m en and wom en? Is it also because we are now ruled
XL directly by the International M onetary Fund (IM F), T h e W orld Bank
and foreign aid agencies and the neo-missionaries ‘dashing’ us money,
food, clothes and their books/knowledge, including their toxic waste?
In a kind o f abstract denial o f the social and m aterial reality o f the
experience o f every African child and its m other, as is characteristic
o f new masculinist patriarchal fabrications by especially elite African
men, this continuous copycatting perform ance and its sym ptom atic

xvii
schizophrenia rem ains the lot o f the colonised African m ind.
Because D iop took on the fundam ental issue o f m atriarchy from
an Afrocentric perspective and interest, as opposed to a compromised
struggle for wom en’s rights in patriarchal systems, what scholar will
m atch the feminism o f C heikh Anta Diop? For him , m atriarchy is
an ‘ensemble o f institutions favourable to womanhood and to mankind
in general’. As he said, male controlled social science has only seen
in this ‘dangerous freedom which is almost diabolical’. One wonders
why W estern m atriarchy theorists do not cite the work o f Cheikh
Anta Diop?
T h e rage against Diop by white scholars and W estern self-interest
has not abated. I f anything, it is very often, these days, parroted by
a particular class o f Africans them selves, who are still under their
tutelage, supervision and control, the copycats. As for African men,
they feel contented to cite only those aspects o f the work o f the great
thinker which serve their purpose, especially the reclaiming o f ancient
Egyptian civilization. T h e fundamental thesis o f his work, which rests
on African m atriarchy, is the least given im portance and applied.
In the most recent findings in W estern search for hum an racial
origins, a racist invention and concern o f the West alone, D iop is
vindicated tim e and time again as the prim ary role o f the African
m other, w hether in the bequeathing o f the gene- or language 9 to the
hum an race continues to be ‘very scientifically proved’. But racist
appropriation continues, even in this era o f deconstruction - if these
youngest o f our children do not call hum anity’s African mother Lucy,
they call her Eve! So, we see again in this, the appropriation o f the
nineteenth century. T o even scientists, it is unthinkable that the fossil
o f our African m other, found on the African continent, should retain
an African name! T h is crystallises and sym bolises the nature o f the
relationship o f E uropean civilization w ith that o f Africa. T h is struc­
ture o f appropriation can be found in every other field o f relations.
D iop had prayed, ‘may this work contribute to a strengthening
o f the feelings o f goodwill w hich have always united Africans from
one end o f the continent to the other and thus show our organic
cultural unity’. He made it imperative that a full knowledge o f lessons
m ust be learnt from the past in order to ‘keep one’s consciousness
the feeling o f historical continuity essential to the consolidation ot
a m ultinational state’. Like Cheikh Anta Diop, because o f our history

xviii
o f colonialism , African intellectuals, if they are to be free from self­
negation, m ust deconstruct, invalidate and reconstruct. T h e enforce­
ment o f a com m on currency and a com m on language above our local
languages is an im perative. It does not m atter which language, as
long as its m orphology and syntax have African origin, especially
its gender formation. T here is no point im posing on us a creole which
has incorporated all the patriarchal and racist structures from its parent
source. Everyone can in fact start at the same take-off point, if we
were to pick the rem otest o f African language from deep inside the
bush and let it grow w ith us. In w hich case, there will be no question
o f im perialism and distrust.
In this project o f reconstruction, a gender and class aware social
history is a priority. T he racist term anthropology, which really should
have been social history, must be banned altogether. We must adopt
and elaborate the historiography o f Cheikh Anta Diop, using his m ulti­
disciplinary approach to write an African social history 10 and enforce
the teaching o f social history in our curriculum . Present day African
scholarship only knows the chronological history o f kings, queens and
conquest. Since in our schools and colleges, there is no social history,
nor grassroots history from the bottom and the history of our indigenous
social institutions, how then can we begin to build an Afrocentric
history and unity without this knowledge? As our great African philos­
opher and political activist said, let the general commitment o f intellec­
tual activism lead to the liquidation o f all colonial system s o f
imperialism. H is vision o f the universe o f tom orrow is that im bued
w ith African optim ism . Did D iop th u s predict the ecological
movement?
This book will rem ain a classic as long as there are men and
women in this world and as long as the West persists in its history
o f patriarchy, racism and im perialism .
 AUTHOR’S INTRODUCTION

I have tried to bring out the profound cultural unity still alive beneath
the deceptive appearance o f cultural heterogeneity.
It would be inexcusable for one led by chance to experience deeply
the living reality o f the land not to try to furnish knowledge o f the
African sociological actuality.
To the extent that sociological facts are at the outset based on
some motivation instead o f existing freely in them selves, it suffices
to grasp the guiding thread in order to extricate oneself from the fac­
tual maze.
From this point o f view, this work represents an effort o f
rationalization.
It is clear that an African researcher is in a m ore privileged posi­
tion than others and consequently there is no particular m erit in this
attempt to unearth the sociological laws which seem to be the foun­
dation o f the social reality in w hich he lives.
Moreover, had many scholars not preceded us we m ight not have
attained today any o f our results.
We must therefore express all our thanks to those scholars o f
whose work we have made use.
I must recall here the m em ory o f my late professor, M arcel
Griaule, who until a fortnight before his death never ceased to give
the closest attention to my research work. Equally, I owe a debt o f
gratitude to M . Gaston Bachelard. T o professors Andre Aym ard and
Leroi-Gourhan, whose student I was, I m ust also express my
gratefulness.
To come back to the subject o f this work, I shall give an indica­
tion of those facts w hich are calculated to reveal m y approach.
I have tried to start from m aterial conditions in order to explain
all the cultural traits common to Africans, from family life as a nation,
touching on the ideological superstructures, the successes and failures
and technical regressions.

1
 I was thus led to analyse the structure o f the African and the
Aryan families and to try to show that the matriarchal basis on w hich
the form er rests is not in any way o f universal application in spite
o f appearances.
I have touched briefly on the notions o f the state, royalty, m orals,
philosophy, religion and art, and consequently on literature and
aesthetics.
In each o f these varied dom ains I have tried to bring to view
the com m on denom inator in African culture as opposed to that of
the N o rth ern Aryan culture.
If I have chosen E urope as the region o f cultural antithesis, it
is because in addition to reasons o f a geographical nature the documen­
tary evidence w hich comes from the N o rth ern M editerranean lands
is more abundant at the present time.
If I were to extend my com parative study beyond India to China,
I would run the risk o f affirming things o f which I were not thoroughly
convinced because o f lack o f docum entation.
It will be realised that a work o f this nature, w hich it is hoped
will be logically conclusive, could not avoid the gathering and assembl­
ing o f evidence to support its case instead o f referring to this briefly
in a m ore or less offhand m anner. T h e reader would have the right
to be sceptical and he could, at the end o f the book, have such a feel­
ing o f doubt as to have the im pression that he had just been reading
a work o f fiction.
T h is has obliged us to refer to the docum ents in question
w herever we have considered it necessary.
Obviously I have not been a slave to intellectual conformism.
If I had not quoted w riters such as L enorm ant, who appears now
to be old-fashioned, I would have been unable to bring out the caste
stratification o f the Babylonian, Indian or Sabine societies.
M ay this work contribute to a strengthening o f the feelings of
goodwill which have always united Africans from one end o f the con­
tinent to the other and thus show our organic cultural unity.

j
 FOREWORD

Intellectuals ought to study the past not for the pleasure they find
in so doing, but to derive lessons from it or, if necessary, to discern
those lessons in full knowledge o f the facts. O nly a real knowledge
o f the past can keep in one’s consciousness the feeling o f historical
co ntinuity essential to the consolidation o f a m ultinational state.
Classical psychology argues that hum an nature is essentially
universal. T h is is because it wants to see the trium ph o f hum anism .
For the latter to become possible, man must not be by nature im per­
vious to any m anifestation o f feeling, etc., on the part o f his fellow
man. His nature, his consciousness and his spirit must be capable
of assimilating through education everything which is initially foreign
to him.
But this does not mean to say that hum an consciousness has been
modified since the very earliest days by the particular experiences
undergone in com m unities which developed separately. In this sense,
there existed in the beginning, before the successive contacts o f peoples
and of nations, before the age o f reciprocal influences, certain non-
essential relative differences am ong peoples. These differences had
to do with the climate and the specific conditions o f life. T h e peoples
who lived for a lengthy period o f tim e in their place o f origin were
moulded by their surroundings in a durable fashion. It is possible
to go back to this original mould by identifying the outside influences
which have been superim posed on it. It is not a m atter o f indifference
for a people to devote itself to such an inquiry or to acquire such
a recognition o f itself. For by doing this the people in question
ecomes aware o f what is solid and valid in its own cultural and social
structures and in its thought in general; it becomes aware also o f what
>s weak therein and consequently what has not been able to w ith­
stand the passage o f time. It can discern the real extent o f its bor-
owings from others and can now define itself in a positive fashion

3
using not im aginary but real indigenous criteria. It will have a new
consciousness o f its w orth and can now determ ine its cultural m is­
sion, not in a prejudiced, but in an objective m anner; for they can
better understand the cultural values which it is most fitted to develop
and contribute to other peoples, allowances being made for the state
o f evolution.
Avant-garde ideas should not be developed prematurely. It is only
necessary to refer to the preface o f Nations Negres et Culture published
in 1953-1954. Since Septem ber 1946, in lecture after lecture I had
fam iliarized African students w ith the ideas which were developed
in that work. U ntil these last two years, not only did African politi­
cians not accept these ideas but certain ones even attem pted to criticise
them on a purely doctrinal basis.
T h e very people who in their writings or in their speeches wished
to show that national independence is a phase in the evolution o f
peoples which is now out-of-date, and who could not raise themselves
to any form o f independent African federation or the idea o f a m ulti­
national African state, are the ones who are today surreptitiously
fostering the ideas contained in the preface to N ations Negres et
Culture. T h e ir actual political platform s appear to be sim ply copies
o f that preface, when they are not still short o f the ideas w hich are
developed therein.

4
 CHAPTER I

AN HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF MATRIARCHY

An A ccount o f the theories o f J.J. B achofen,

M organ and F. Engels with a C riticism o f these.

T h is chapter is devoted to a concise statem ent o f the theories relating

to the reign o f m atriarchy considered as a general stage in hum an
evolution. T h e first historian to deal w ith this subject was J.J.
Bachofen who in 1861 published Das Mutlerrecht. In 1871 an
American, M organ, confirmed the views o f Bachofen on the evolution
o f the earliest societies, in his work Systems o f Consanguinity and
A ffinity. Finally, in 1884, Frederick Engels related the points o f view
o f Bachofen and M organ, relying on their discoveries as authoritative
sources o f material the better to affirm and dem onstrate the historical
basis o f the family in his work, The Origin o f the Family, Private
Property and the State.

THEORY OF BACHOFEN

T h e account o f this theory is taken m ainly from the work which

Adrien T u rel devoted to its author: Du Regne de la Mere au Patriarcat
(From M other-R ight to Patriarchy). It is, as far as I am aware, the
only work on the subject w hich exists in French.
Bachofen considers that m ankind in its earliest states underw ent
a period o f barbarism and sexual prom iscuity, so that descent could
only be reckoned through the female line, all paternal descent being
doubtful. M arriage did not exist.
A second stage, called the gynaecocratic, follows on the first as
its logical sequel. It is characterized by m arriage and the suprem acy
o f the wom an; descent is still reckoned following the female line as

5
during the preceding period. T h is is the real age o f m atriarchy accord­
ing to Bachofen. Am azonism is equally characteristic o f this stage.
Finally there comes a third stage, distinguished from the others
by a new form o f m arriage u n d er the dom ination o f the male, by
m asculine im perialism : this is the reign o f patriarchy.
Patriarchy is superior to m atriarchy; it represents above all
spirituality, light, reason and delicacy. It is represented by the sun,
the heavenly heights, w here reigns a sort o f ethereal spirituality. In
contrast, m atriarchy is linked w ith the cave-like depths o f the earth,
to the night, to the moon, to material things, to the ‘left’ which belongs
‘to passive fem in in ity in opposition to the right which is linked with
masculine activity'.
Bachofen takes his principal argum ent from an analysis o f the
Oresteia o f Aeschylus which he considers as describing the struggle
betw een m other-right and father-right. In the heroic age the Greeks
were ruled by a gynaecocracy.
G radually this deteriorated and, being no longer adapted to cir­
cum stances, had to be elim inated, together with old attendant earthly
gods, the E um enides. T h ey gave way to the young heavenly deities
o f patriarchy; Apollo, and A thena, the m otherless m aiden.
T h e subject o f the play is as follows: Agamemnon, the commander
o f the G reek arm ies, returns from the T rojan W ar and finds his wife
w ith a lover, A egisthus. C lytem nestra rids herself o f her husband
by m urdering him. Orestes, the son o f Agamemnon, avenges his father
by killing his m other: he is then pursued by the protectives goddesses
o f m other-right, the Eum enides, or Furies. For them , the gravest
m urder that can be com m itted, the only one for which no atonem ent
is possible, is m atricide.
In the choephori the F uries express them selves as follows:

Chorus Leader: The prophet-god bade thee thy mother slay?

Orestes: Yea, and through him less ill I fared, till now.
Chorus Leader: I f the vote grip thee, thou shall change that word.
Orestes: Strong is my hope; my buried sire shall aid.
Chorus Leader: Go to now, trust the dead, a matricide!
Orestes: Yea, for in her combined two stains of sin.
Chorus Leader: How? Speak this clearly to the judge's mind.
Orestes: Slaying her husband, she did slay my sire.
Chorus Leader: Therefore thou livest; death assoils her deed.

6
 Orestes: Then while she lived why didst thou hunt her not?
Chorus Leader: She was not kin by blood to him she slew.
Orestes: And /, am I by blood my mother’s kin?
Chorus Leader: O cursed with murder’s guilt, how else wert thou
The burden of her womb? Dost thou forswear
Thy mother’s kinship, closest bond of love?'

T h e case is all the more significant since it is Apollo, who, accord­

ing to the will o f Zeus, com m anded O restes to com m it the crim e;
in addition he undertakes his defence. A thena presides over the court
w hich is to judge Orestes. H ere is A pollo’s speech for the defence
before the vote o f the Areopagites:

Apollo:

This too I answer: mark a soothfast word

Not the true parent is the woman’s womb
That bears the child: she doth but nurse the seed
New-sown: the male is parent; she for him,
As stranger for a stranger, hoards the germ
O f life, unless the god its promise blight.
And proof hereof before you will 1 sell
Birth may from fathers, without mothers, be;
See at your side a witness of the same,
Athenoa, daughter of Olympian Zeus,
Never within the darkness of the womb
Fostered nor fashioned, but a bud more bright
Than any goddess in her breast might bear.2

After the speech o f Apollo, the contrast between the two systems
and their irreducible character is sufficiently manifest. T h e Areo­
pagites vote. A second ballot is necessary, both parties having cast
the same num ber o f votes; bu t A thena, who presides at the hearing
and who has not yet taken any part in the voting, gives her vote to
Orestes, who is thus acquitted o f the m urder o f his m other. T h is
gesture seals the trium ph o f the new regimes: Athena explains herself
as follows:

Mine is the right to add the final vote,

And I award it to Orestes’ cause.

7
 For me no mother bore within her womb,
And, save for wedlock evermore schewed,
I vouch myself the champion of the man,
Not of the woman, yea with all my soul,
In heart, as birth, a father’s child alone.
Thus will I not too heinously regard
A woman’s death who did her husband slay,
The guardian o f her home; and if the votes
Equal do fall, Orestes shall prevail.

Ye of the judges who are named thereto,

Swiftly shake for the lots from either urn.5

For Bachofen the ubiquity o f m atriarchy is undeniable; it is not

the distinctive trait o f any particular people, but has controlled at
a given tim e the social organisation o f all the peoples o f the earth:
from w hence the num erous traces found in the classical literature
o f antiquity.
T here was therefore a universal transition from m atriarchy to
patriarchy, w hich does not o f course im ply that this took place d u r­
ing the same period for all peoples. But according to the evolutionary
conception o f the author, it was undoubtedly a transition from an
inferior to a superior state, a veritable spiritual ascension by hum anity
taken in its entirety.

THEORY OF MORGAN

T h o u g h using different m ethods, M organ arrived at the same con­

clusion as Bachofen as far as m atriarchy and the female line o f des­
cent are concerned. H e used the system o f consanguinity practised
by the Iroquois Indians o f New York State, as a basis for reconstruct­
ing the prim itive forms o f the hum an family. In this way he built
u p a theory w hich he used to explain obscure points in the social
and family organisation o f classical antiquity (genos, phratries, tribes,
etc.). His theory, fully set dow n by Engels (op. cit.), is as follows:

Morgan, who spent a great part of his life among the Iroquois
Indians settled to this day in New York State and was adopted into
one of their tribes (the Senecas), found in use among them a system

8
 of consanguinity which was in contradiction to their actual family
relationships. There prevailed among them a form of monogamy easily
terminable on both sides, which Morgan calls the ‘pairing family’.
The issue of the married pair was therefore known and recognised
by everybody: there could be no doubt about whom to call father,
mother, son, daughter, brother, sister. But these names were actually
used quite differently. The Iroquois calls not only his own children
his sons and daughters, but also the children of his brothers; and they
call him father. The children of his sister, however, he calls his
nephews and nieces, and they call him their uncle. The Iroquois
woman, on the other hand, calls her sisters’ children, as well as her
own, her sons and daughters, and they call her mother. But her
brothers’ children she calls her nephews and nieces, and she is known
as their aunt. Similarly, the children of brothers call one another
brother and sister, and so do the children of sisters. A woman’s own
children and the children of her brother, on the other hand, call one
another cousins...4

Engels thinks that these are not just sim ple nam es, but term s
which express the real degrees o f consanguinity or m ore precisely
the ideas w hich the Iroquois them selves have on consanguinous rela­
tionships. N ext, he insists on the extent and vigour o f this system
o f consanguinity which is found all over N o rth Am erica - no excep­
tion having been m et with amongst the Indians - and in India among
the D ravidians in the Deccan and the G auras in H industan. M ore
than two hundred degrees o f consanguinity are expressed in the same
terms by the T am ils o f India and the Iroquois. M oreover am ong both
these peoples there is a distinction betw een the real kinship arising
out o f the existing family system , and the way in w hich this is
expressed in the language.
M organ finds the explanation o f this anomaly in a type o f family
existing in Hawaii in the first h alf o f the nineteenth century which
he called punaluan: this will be analysed later.
For him the family is the dynamic element with constantly chang­
ing form s, while the term s used to express these forms rem ain static
during a relatively long period o f time. In this way there is produced
a sort o f fossilisation o f the system o f consanguinity in so far as this
is expressed in words. It is long afterwards that language registers
any progress w hich has been made.

9
 ...But just as Cuvier could deduce from the marsupial bone of
an animal skeleton found near Paris that it belonged to a marsupial
animal and that extinct marsupial animals once lived there, so with
the same certainty we can deduce from the historical survival of a
system of consanguinity that an extinct form of family once existed
which corresponded to it.5

By working his way back from the ‘historical survival o f a system

o f consanguinity’, M organ reconstructs the history o f the family and
uncovers four m ain types w hich followed one after the other.
T h e oldest, which arose out o f the prim itive state o f prom iscuous
intercourse, is the family which is said to be consanguine: it is marked
by the fact that m arriage is only forbidden between parents and their
children. All the men o f one generation are m arried to all the women
o f the same generation; all the ‘grandfathers’ to all the ‘grandm others’
and so on, and consequently all the brothers and sisters are m arried
to each other. T h e consanguine family has disappeared even among
the most prim itive peoples; but M organ affirm s its existence on the
basis o f consanguinity found in Hawaii.
T h e second is the punaluan family. As hum anity had become
dim ly conscious o f the disadvantages resulting from the union o f
brothers and sisters w hich causes debility in the descendants, the
forbidding o f such union w ould have appeared as a necessity. From
this point on, it is a whole group o f sisters or o f cousins w hich will
be wed by a group o f brothers or cousins outside their circle. These
brothers call each other punalua, as do the women. H ence the name
given by M organ to this type o f family. T he punaluan family occupies
a position o f great im portance in the theory o f M organ, in the sense
th at he derives from it the genos w hich is the basis o f the whole
politico-social organisation o f classical antiquity.

...How powerfully the influence of this advance made itself felt

is seen in the institution which arose directly out of it and went far
beyond it - the gens, which forms the basis of the social order of
most, if not all, barbarian peoples of the earth and from which in
Greece and Rome we step directly into civilisation.6

For M organ this type o f family accounts completely for the system
o f consanguinity o f the Iroquois. In fact, sisters have, as it were, all

10
their children in com m on. Reciprocally, all brothers are fathers in
com m on: all com m on children consider them selves to be brothers
and sisters. But since m arriage is forbidden between true brothers
and sisters, the children o f one sister will be the nephews and nieces
o f a brother who will be their uncle, while her sister is the aunt o f
the children o f the latter. C hildren are thus divided into two classes:
on the one hand, sons and daughters and, on the other hand, nephews
and nieces; these tw o groups are cousins o f each other.
M organ derives the descent in the female line from these two
first stages in the history o f the family. M atriarchy is im plied in this
type o f group m arriage since only the m atrilineal line o f descent is
evident; it therefore precedes patriarchy.
T h e th ird form is the pairing family. T h is is m onogam y w ith
m utual facilities for divorce: this was the type which existed
throughout Am erican Indian society when M organ carried out his
investigations. T h e line o f descent is m atrilineal and it is the man
who brings the dow ry to the wom an. T h e latter does not leave her
family group and can turn out her husband (who necessarily belongs
to a different gens) if he fails to provide enough food for the com m on
provender. W hatever may be the reasons for any separation, the
children rem ain entirely in the m other’s gens.
T h e m atriarchal system in its most highly developed form is thus
handed down to us by the pairing family.
T h e fourth type is the m onogam ous patriarchal family where
divorce is rendered if not impossible, at least extremely difficult, where
the wom an lives in total dependence on her husband and is legally
subjected to him . In this family the line o f descent is patrilineal.
A nother discovery made by M organ, whose im portance has been
em phasized by Engels, is the identification o f the ‘totem ic’ clans o f
the Am erican Indians w ith the Greek geuos and the Rom an gens. He
established that it was the Indian forms o f social organisation which
are the more ancient and that the Greco-Latin forms are derived from
them: it is the ‘totem ic’ clans which gave rise to the genos.

...This proof has cleared up at one stroke the most difficult ques­
tions in the most ancient periods o f Greek and Roman history, pro­
viding us at the same time with an unsuspected wealth of information
about the fundamental features of social constitution in primitive
times - before the introduction of the state ...7

11
W hile Bachofen has taken the traces o f m atriarchy which are con­
tained in the classical literature o f antiquity - and in particular, in
the Oresteia o f Aeschylus - as confirm ing the universality and
precedence o f matriarchy, M organ reaches the same conclusions from
his study o f the Indian societies o f Am erica. He finds there a system
o f consanguinity w hich im presses him by its unusual character. He
initiates an investigation by the Am erican governm ent throughout
the whole o f the territory occupied by the Indians and is thus able
to establish the generality o f the system. W ork carried out in other
parts o f the world (Africa, India, Oceania) confirm s his observations.
At the same tim e as he is reconstructing the history o f the family
from these data, M organ is studying the organisation o f the Iroquois
clans and arrives at the conclusion that the m atriarchy which rules
there is o f a universal type sim ilar to that which, at a given m om ent
in their evolution, has governed all peoples.

THEORY OF ENGELS

T h e conclusions o f Bachofen and M organ are o f the greatest im por­

tance to a M arxist such as Engels, who was interested in dem on­
strating the historicity, the tem porary nature o f all forms o f political
and social organisation. T h e facts m entioned above served him as
m aterial for show ing that the traditional bourgeois m onogam ous
family, far from being a perm anent form, will be stricken by the same
decay as previous institutions. It is clear, therefore, why he was led
to adopt the theories o f M organ and Bachofen on a universal m atriar­
chy. He attem pted to enrich these by a contribution on The Gens
among the Celts and Germans (C hapter VII o f his book).
In so far as Engels especially contributed his arguments to support
the theories o f m atriarchy which he needed for his own thesis, it is
in C hapter II, devoted to a criticism o f this work, that we shall return
to his ideas. T h e exam ination o f which these ideas will be the object
is in no way intended as an attack on the principles o f M arxism : it
is intended only to show that a M arxist has made use, in a theoretical
work, o f m aterial the soundness o f w hich had not been proved.
Aeschylus, the C reator o f the A ttic tragedy, was convinced that
every hum an act posed a problem o f law and o f justice; thus drama
m ust o f necessity deal w ith justice. T h is seems to be the end that
the author was consciously trying to attain. H e was thus led to use
material pertaining to a period in w hich the idea o f justice was prac­
tically identical w ith a kind o f stoic resignation to fate, to fatality.
T o this severity o f custom o f the earliest societies, Aeschylus, who
lived in another age, wished to propose a m ore flexible justice, more
suited to the progress o f the hum an consciousness o f his tim e, and
less rudim entary.
H ow ever, all the cultural m aterial used in his work is equally
a reflection o f the conscious struggle betw een the social principles
o f the N o rth and the S outh. It is for this reason that Bachofen had
no difficulty in seeing in The Oresteia the struggle betw een m atriar­
chy and patriarchy, w ith the trium ph o f the latter.
T o retu rn to the idea o f justice, the attitu d e o f the chorus o f
Furies, hostile to O restes, can be m entioned.

Hist - he is there! See him his arms entwine

Around the image of the maid divine -
Thus aided, for the deed he wrought
Unto the judgement wills he to be brought.
It may not be! a mother's blood, poured forth
Upon the stained earth,
None gathers up: it lies - bear witness, Hell! -
For aye indelible!
And thou zvho sheddest it shah give thine own
That shedding to atone!
Yea, from thy living limbs I suck it out,
Red, clotted, gout by gout...8

Orestes appeals to Athena, explains his action to her and asks her
protection. A thena replies in term s which call attention to the pro­
blems o f this new justice: a justice which seems to transcend the frailty
o f m ortal’s conscience which is laden especially with feelings o f
vengeance and o f hatred; in short, a justice which is absolutely serene.

Athena:

Too mighty is this matter, whosoe'er

O f mortals claims to judge hereof aright.
Yea, me, even me, eternal Right forbids

13
 To judge the issues of blood-guilt, and wrath
That follows swift behind...

Yet, as on me Fate hath imposed the cause,

I choose unto me judges that shall be
An ordinance forever, set to rule
The dues of blood-guilt, upon oath declared.
But ye, call forth your witness and your proof,
Words strong for justice, fortified by oath,
And 1, whoe’er are truest in my town,
Them will I choose and bring, and straitly charge,
Look on this cause, discriminating well,
And pledge your oath to utter nought of wrong.9

T h e chorus reacts as m ight be expected, by expressing its concern

regarding the new laws, w hich the goddess wishes to establish for
all tim e, as soon as the judgem ent o f the heavenly tribunal has been
given.

Chorus:

Now are they all undone, the ancient laws,

I f here the slayer’s cause
Prevail; new wrong for ancient right shall be
I f matricide go free.
Henceforth a deed like his by all shall stand,
Too ready to the hand:
Too oft shall parents in the aftertime
Rue and lament this crime,
Taught, not in false imagining, to feel
Their children’s thrusting steel...10

A new edition o f the com plete works o f Bachofen was published in

Basle betw een 1943 and 1948". V olum es II and III are devoted to
m atriarchy. In these Bachofen studies the m anners and custom s o f
the Aegean populations such as the Lycians, the C retans, the A the­
nians, the people o f Lem nos, the Egyptians, the Indians and the
inhabitants o f C entral Asia, the O zolians, Locrians and the people
o f Lesbos. H e finishes w ith a study o f Pythagoreanism and its later
aspects. T h e com plete work contains one thousand pages.
 T h e author reveals am ong all the peoples studied the cultural
features w hich he attrib utes to m atriarchy, the very ones which are
set forth in his work. H e sees a m atriarchal element in the role played
by the wom an in Pythagorean initiation. O ur criticism o f Bachofen’s
theory will consist m ainly o f an analysis o f these facts.
T h e work o f M organ is made u p o f three parts l2. In the first,
after a general introduction devoted to the system o f consanguinity,
the author shows the existence o f two system s, the one classificatory
or non-Aryan; the other, descriptive or Aryan (Indo-European). P ro­
ceeding from this distinction he studies the system o f consanguinity
o f the Indo-E uropean, Sem itic and U ralian families.
In the second, he makes a study o f the G anow anian family
(Am erican Indians) and that o f the Eskim o.
In the third he examines the T u ra n ia n family, the M alayan
family, and those o f o th er Asiatic peoples.
At the end o f each study o f a particular group is shown a diagram
o f the corresponding system; two o f these are reproduced here dealing
w ith consanguinity in the non-Aryan classification scheme.
According to Pastor L eenhardt, duality and equality play an
essential part in the M elanesian ideas o f consanguinity.

Duality: when the basis of the relationship appears to be organic,

such as mother and child, brother and sister and also on another level,
as father and son or husband and wife.
Equality: when the two members are in a reciprocal position,
equal in right and each constituting the counterpart of the other. E.g.
maternal uncle and nephew, etc. Equality is more concrete than
duality...
The dual (duality) helps the Kanaka to place human equality in
different domains, spatial, social and parental. In these domains only
one has clearly defined boundaries and is divided into restricted parts:
the parental domain.
The dividing lines which mark these divisions are permanent,
as is the territory within them. They surround it like a plot of land
and the Kanaka sees in this the proper domain in which takes place
the relating of two kinsmen, confounded in an equality.
He calls this ensemble by a single substantive dual: thus
duaeri means: equality between grandfather and grandson;
duamara means: equality between a uterine uncle and a nephew;

15
 1

ego: a male

Diagram of consanguinity: Seneca Iroquois

extracted from: System o f Consanguinity (Morgan).

i
 ego: a female
Diagram of consanguinity of an Iroquois
woman after Morgan.
17
 duawe means: conjugal equality;
duavene means: homonymous equality since the homonym cor­
responds to the identity of individuals.

T h e analysis o f M aurice L eenhardt 13 could equally have been com­

pared w ith that o f Pierre M etais in Mariage et Equilibre Social dans
les Societes Primitives.

18
 CHAPTER II
CRITICISM OF THE CLASSICAL THEORY OF A
UNIVERSAL MATRIARCHY

T h is criticism could be o f appreciable use in the field o f historical

research. In fact, if it were proved - contrary to the generally accepted
theory - that instead o f a universal transition from m atriarchy to
patriarchy, hum anity has from the beginning been divided into two
geographically distinct ‘cradles’ one o f w hich was favourable to the
flourishing o f m atriarchy and the o th er to that o f patriarchy, and
that these tw o systems encountered one another and even disputed
w ith each other as different hum an societies, that in certain places
they were superim posed on each other or even existed side by side,
then one could begin to clarify one o f the obscure points in the history
o f antiquity. A criterion w ould then exist enabling one to identify
certain vestiges o f the past, such as the undeniable traces o f m atriar­
chy during the Aegean age.
T h e classical theory, w hich has also been adopted by most
sociologists and ethnologists - that o f D urkheim - has already been
questioned by Van G ennep, who h im self relied to a certain degree
on the work o f G raebner.

The standpoint taken by Graebner with regard to this problem

is, if 1 properly understand his words, the following:
‘It seems to me’, he wrote, ‘that at least in Australia one of the
systems of consanguinity is not a continued development of the other,
but that they have met and mingled with each other, one system
predominating in one region and the other, in another.’ This is to
say, I think, that peoples reckoning their descent in the male line
would have come in contact with peoples reckoning theirs in the
female line and that there would have been an interpenetration of
the two systems, both of which were originally autonomous
institutions.

19
 The fact is, that among several tribes of Central Australia, one
finds both systems of descent applied side by side.
Among the Arunta, for example, where male descent rules the
greater part of the institutions, there are to be found at the same time
undeniable traces of female descent, ‘which is evidence - according
to Durkheim - of its prior existence’.1

Van G ennep shows that the attitu d e o f D urkheim to this pro­

blem was not clearly defined, and that at tim es he seemed to adm it
the original autonom y o f each system . It was following his ‘critical
study o f the second volume o f Spencer and Guillen' that his position
was finally determ ined: R esum ing his argum ent, he at last states
clearly: “ the priority o f m aternal descent over paternal descent is
so evident am ong the different societies o f w hich we have just spoken,
and is dem onstrated by such an abundance o f proof, that it seems
difficult for us to cast doubt upon it .” 2
Van G ennep accuses D urkheim o f having resolved the problem
w ithout having form ulated it properly. T h e only thing that the lat­
ter had show n in his extensive study o f m atrim onial relations in the
societies o f Oceania, is that there exists an infinite com bination o f
both these systems o f descent but not the antecedence o f one over
the other.

The antecedence and the inferiority of the system of maternal

descent could well be due, in our opinion, to a preconception: our
European civilisations, while revealing in certain places traces of
female descent, are to such an extent based on the other system, that
our unconscious tendency is to consider male descent as superior and
culturally posterior to the other. It is this principle that we apply
to other peoples.
As it is only just, this a priori theory was explained after the fact:
it was said that the relationship of the child with the mother could
not admit of any doubt, while the relationship to the father could
scarcely be other than questionable, especially among savages. But
great care was taken not to precede this assertion by a thorough study
of the opinions of savages on the mechanism of conception, a study
moreover which, in spite of a few detailed works on the subject, still
remains to be carried out to this day.’

It seems that the ‘unconscious tendency’ m entioned by Van Gennep

20
when describing the W est - whose civilisation is ‘to such an extent
based’ on patriarchy - justifies the hierarchy, established by Bachofen,
between m atriarchy and patriarchy. It will be rem em bered that for
him , patriarchy was synonym ous w ith spiritual yearning towards the
divine regions o f the sky, with purity and moral chastity, while
m atriarchy was synonym ous w ith the passive dependence on earthly
life, m aterial things and bodily needs. Instead o f the expansion o f
those - particularly the wom an - who are linked to m atriarchy and
the respect with which the m atriarchal wom an is surrounded appear­
ing to him as the real advancem ent, aiding him to establish an objec­
tive hierarchy o f values, he can only see in this ensemble o f institutions
favourable to w om anhood and to m ankind in general the expression
o f a dangerous freedom w hich is alm ost diabolical. T h e hierarchy
thus existing between the two system s lacks, therefore, any objec­
tive foundation.
A first im portant criticism w hich can be made o f the theory o f
Bachofen is that it makes an im portant omission, w hich has not been
given sufficient prom inence. T h e dem onstration o f a universal tran ­
sition from m atriarchy to patriarchy is only scientifically acceptable
if it can be proved that this internal evolution has definitely taken
place am ong a specific people. Now this condition has never been
fulfilled in the works o f the author. It has never been possible to deter­
mine the existence o f a historical period during which the Greeks and
the Romans might have lived tinder matriarchy. T h is difficulty is got­
ten round by replacing the Greeks and Romans by aboriginal peoples
which they found on the spot at the tim e o f their becom ing seden­
tary, peoples whom they destroyed as the representative o f an alien
culture. T h u s it is therefore necessary to go back to the tim e o f the
Etruscans, who were com pletely destroyed by the R om ans, in order
to show the existence o f m atriarchy in Italy. Now, nothing is more
doubtful than the gynaecocracy o f Etruscans, as will be shown later.
W hen discussing the A thenians, the factors justifying the existence
o f m atriarchy m ust be sought am ong the Pelasgians.
W hen it is exam ined closely, the theory o f Bachofen appears to
be anti-scientific. It is unlikely that such geographically different
cradles as the Eurasian steppes - favourable to a nom adic life - and
the Southern regions o f the globe and in particular Africa - favourable
to agriculture and a sedentary way o f life - could have produced the

21
same types o f social organisation. T h is criticism gains in im portance
if the influence o f environm ent on social and political forms is adm it­
ted. In supposing that m atriarchy originated in the South and patriar­
chy in the N o rth , that the form er preceded the latter in the
M editerranean basin, and that in W estern Asia both systems were
superim posed on each other in certain regions, the hypothesis o f a
universal transition from one to the other ceases to be necessary; the
gaps in the different theories disappear and the ensem ble o f facts
can be explained: the status o f women, modes o f inheritance, dowries,
the nature o f consanguinity, etc.
As far as one can go back into Indo-European history, especially
by m eans o f com parative linguistics, only one form o f patriarchal
family can be found which seems to be common to all the tribes before
their division (Aryans, Greeks, Romans). Verbal expressions relating
to nom adic life are com m on to all these people, unlike those term s
w hich concern the political and agricultural way o f life:

The common roots for designating live-stock bear witness to

pastoral customs. The flock of life-stock (pacu in Sanskrit, pecu in
Latin, fihu-vieh in German) was the principal wealth (pecunia). It con­
sisted mainly of cattle (Sanskrit and Avestan, gau; Armenian, kov;
Greek, bous; Latin, bos; Irish, bo) and sheep (Sanskrit, avi; Lithuanian,
avis; Greek, ois; Latin, ovis; Irish, oi; High German, ouwi; Ancient
Slav, ovinu). The ox, like the horse, was yoked to the waggon, for
the name ‘yoke’ is remarkably well preserved in different languages
(yuga in Sanskrit, jugum in Latin, zygon in Greek,juk in Gothic, jungas
in I.ithuanian). In the same way, root can be found which is applied
sometimes to the waggon itself (ratha in Sanskrit, raiho in Avestan),
and sometimes to the wheel (rota in Latin, roth in Old Irish, ratas
in Lithuanian, rad in Old High German).
From the foregoing it would seem to follow, that the Indo-
Europeans, towards the end of their common life, were a people of
shepherds, sheep- and cattle-raisers, and as such, were if not semi-
nomadic, at least fairly mobile.4

T h is nom adic life is characteristic o f the Indo-European races.

According to H erodotus and D iodorus Siculus, the S cythian’s house
was his waggon. T h e same thing occurred during a later period among
the G erm ans. T h is is confirm ed by the absence o f any generic term

22

I
denoting the word ‘city’ in the primitive foundation o f the vocabulary:

The head of the family ‘head of the house’: Sanskrit, dampati;

Greek, despotes (for demspoia); Latin, dominus. A common root
designates sometimes the house, sometimes the groups of houses or
village (Sanskrit, vie; Avestan, vis; Latin, vicus; Greek, oikos), with
a village head (vicpati in Sanskrit, visipaiti in Avestan, veszpats in
Lithuanian). There is, at first, no expression for the city, but a word
which stands for 'fortified place', which at some future period will
signify ‘city’ (pur in Sanskrit, pilis in Lithuanian, polis in Greek).5

In this existence which was reduced to a series o f perpetual m igra­

tions, the econom ic role o f the w om an was reduced to a strict
m inim um ; she was only a burden that the m an dragged behind him .
O utside her function o f child-bearing, her role in nom adic society
is nil. It is from these considerations that a new explanation may
be sought to account for the lot o f the w om an in Indo-European
society. H aving a sm aller econom ic value, it is she who m ust leave
her clan to join that o f her husband, contrary to the matriarchal custom
w hich dem ands the opposite.
Am ong the G reeks, the R om ans and the Aryans o f India, the
wom an who leaves her own genos (or gens) to join her husband’s gens
becomes attached to the latter and can no longer inherit from her
own; she has broken w ith her natural family, in the eyes o f which
she is no m ore than a stranger. She can no longer take part in the
family w orship, w ithout w hich no relationship is possible; she m ust
even compensate for her economic inferiority by the dowry she brings
to her husband. The latter has the right o f life and death over her: he
is not answerable to the state in regard to the lot to which he can submit
her. T h is private institution, preceding that o f the state and going
back to the period o f communal life on the Eurasian steppes, remained
inviolable for a very long period. T h e husband was able to sell his
wife or to select an eventual husband for her, in anticipation o f his
own death.
For a long tim e after the Indo-Europeans established fixed set­
tlem ents, their women remained cloistered. Engels recalls that at best
they learnt to spin, to weave, to sew and to read a litte; they could
only com e in contact w ith other wom en: they were secluded in the
gynaeceum , w hich form ed a separate part o f the household, either

23
on an upper floor or at the rear o f the main house, to remove them
from the view o f m en, and especially from strangers. T h ey were not
allowed to go out w ithout being accom panied by a slave. T h e m ak­
ing o f eunuchs to w atch over the wom en is typically Indo-European
and Asiatic: at the tim e o f H erodotus, the principal centre o f this
traffic was C hios6.
A sort o f incipient polygam y also existed am ong the Indo-
Europeans:

...the entire Iliad, it will be remembered, turns on the quarrel

of Achilles and Agamemnon over one of these slaves. If a hero is of
any importance, Homer also mentions the captive girl with whom
he shares his tent and his bed. These girls were also taken back to
Greece and brought under the same roof as the wife, as Cassandra
was brought by Agamemnon in Aeschylus; the sons begotten of them
received a small share of the paternal inheritance and had the full
status of freedom. Teucer, for instance, is a natural son of Telamon
by one of these slaves and has the right to use his father’s name. The
legitimate wife was expected to put up with all this, but herself to
remain strictly chaste and faithful...7

Polygam y was equally in force am ong the G erm anic aristocracy

at the tim e o f T acitus.
M onogam y, w hich seems at first sight to be the prerogative o f
the Indo-E uropean world and expresses an alm ost religious respect
for wom en, in contrast to the disdain o f w hich she w ould seem to
be the object in more southerly regions, has only very painfully been
established through the years, as a result o f econom ic pressure .8
M atrilineal consanguinity does not exist am ong the Indo-
Europeans: the children o f tw o sisters belong to different families,
those o f their fathers. In contrast to the m atriarchal custom s, these
children have no tie o f consanguinity. It is the same w ith their
mothers, who cannot inherit one from the other. Only the eldest child
o f male sex inherits; if there are no children, it is the brother and
not the sister o f the deceased who then inherits. If there are no
brothers, a male ancestor o f the nearest collateral branch is sought
and one o f his living male descendants becomes the heir.’
U nder this regim e, where all rights, especially political ones, are
transm itted by the father, it will be understood how the various

24
languages do not express precisely female consanguinity.

In all the Indo-European tongues, say the linguists, the terms

of consanguinity are remarkably well preserved in the case of the
family of the man. In contrast there is complete lack of precision in
the case of the family of the woman.10

D uring a difficult and lengthy journey the wom an becomes a

useless m outh to feed. T h is is the only sociological explanation that
can be given for the suppression at birth o f female children among
the nom adic tribes. W ith the attainm ent o f a m ore settled existence,
this practice lost its utility and was forbidden by the Bible and the
K oran. In the preface o f the work by Engels can be found a criticism
directed to an author, M acL ennan, who attem pted to explain the
origin o f matrilineal descent, which he also considered to be the oldest
and the most prim itive type. M acL ennan proceeds from a hypothesis
according to which the m atriarchy is linked w ith the forcible cap­
ture o f wom en and the m urder o f children. T hat is only a hypothesis
w hich, if it is correct, m ust be confirm ed by the facts. But experience
proves the contrary and M acL ennan was sincere enough to
acknowledge this w ith surprise, as Engels notes:

Apparently MacLennan’s theory, plausible though it was, did

not seem any too well established even to its author. At any rate, he
himself is struck by the fact that 'it is observable that the form of cap­
ture is now most distinctly marked and impressive just among those races
which have male kinship’ (should be “descent in the male line’’)... And
again, ‘It is a curious fact that nowhere now, that we are aware of, is
infanticide a system where exogamy and the earliest form of kinship co­
exist'... Both these facts flatly contradict his method of explanation,
and he can only meet them with new and still more complicated
hypotheses."

WORSHIP OF ASHES

From the hypothesis o f a double cradle the practice o f crem ation

becomes intelligible. It is certain, in fact, that under nom adism one
could not direct one’s w orship to perm anent tom bs; now ancestor
worship already existed and was expressed in the form o f a dom estic

25
religion, to w hich we will return. T h e only solution which was
available was to reduce the bodies o f the dead to a m inim um weight
and volum e so that they could be easily transported. T h u s the urns
containing the ashes o f one’s ancestors were nothing but travelling
cem eteries w hich followed behind the herds seeking new pastures.
It is known that the most im m utable, the m ost difficult practices to
abandon are those w hich are dependent on religion; thus the wor­
ship o f ashes was perpetuated even after the establishm ent o f per­
m anent settlem ent in G reece, Rome and in India. It ceased then to
appear to be a logical practice w hich could be explained w ithin its
local context. It became all the m ore unintelligible by the fact that
the tom b, w hich had since become a necessity, was adopted parallel
to it; and this resulted in rites w hich were som ewhat curious in the
sense that since the past always insists upon its rights, the dead were
frequently crem ated before they were buried. Caesar was crem ated,
as were G an d h i and Einstein.

FIRE WORSHIP

T h e peace o f the M anes, or spirits, depended on keeping alive a fire

which m ust never be allowed to go out. T h is was the dom estic fire
lighted upon an altar. T h e peculiarity lies in the presence o f the fire,
for ancestor worship is the prerogative o f no single people: its univer­
sality can easily be adm itted. As a result, the altars consequent upon
it are to be found equally in all countries, but it is only am ong the
Indo-Europeans that they will be found surm ounted by a sacred fire,
which m ust never be extinguished. It is difficult not to link the
presence o f this fire w ith the cold characteristic o f the northern
clim ate; its beneficial role is o f prim e im portance. Because it was
so useful, it becam e sacred and was w orshipped as such. It is thus
that the w orship o f fire is characteristic o f the N orthern cradle; if
one studied the ‘sociology’ o f the everlasting flames of, say, war
memorials, it would be difficult not to trace these back to this source.
T h e hypothesis o f the double cradle has perm itted us therefore
to account for those facts which are characteristic o f Indo-European
society, o f w hich, in the beginning, nom adism was undoubtedly the
principal trait:

26
 The term ‘to till’ is common to all tongues except the Indo-Iranian
(aroo in Greek, aro in Latin, airim in Irish, arin in Armenian). The
absence of the word ‘to till’ among the Indo-Iranians can be explained
by supposing that these people had lost its usage completely during
their lengthy migrations following a transitory period of nomadic
life.12

It can be assum ed that if the language had recorded the term

before the separation o f the Indo-Iranian branch, then the cultivated
areas and the fields w hich were crossed during the m igration would
have kept some m em ory o f it in the language.
A language can contain expressions which apply to plants without
it being necessary for the people who speak the language to cultivate
these. One cannot therefore deduce from the existence of a word which
refers to a cereal, the agricultural character o f a people.
It is therefore almost certain that at the m om ent o f their divi­
sion, all the Indo-E uropean tribes were still nom adic. T h e ir seden­
tary way o f life and their practice o f agriculture post-dating this
division, it is com prehensible that those who almost sim ultaneously
settled to the north o f the M editerranean, would have adopted similar
term s while the Indo-Iranians w ould have adopted a different one,
perhaps by contact w ith the D ravidian agricultural populations.

SOUTHERN CRADLE AND MATRIARCHY

T h e preceding account establishes that when the social structure is

such that on m arriage the wom an leaves her own family to found
one jointly with her husband, one is in the presence o f a patriarchal
regime; in the beginning the family was evidently m erged w ith the
clan. Conversely w hen the social structure is such that the m an who
m arries leaves his clan to live w ithin that o f his wife, one is in the
presence o f a m atriarchal regime. Now the first exam ple is only con­
ceivable in nom adic life and the second only in a sedentary and
agricultural way o f life: in fact it is only in this fram ework that the
wife can, in spite o f her physical inferiority, contribute substantially
to the economic life. She even becomes one o f the stabilising elements
in her capacity as m istress o f the house and keeper o f the food; it
also seems that she even played an im portant role in the discovery
o f agriculture and in plant selection while the m an devoted him self
27
to the h u n t. In those prim itive ages w hen the security o f the group
was the prim ary concern, the respect enjoyed by either o f the sexes
was connected with its contribution to this collective security. In an
agricultural regime it can thus be expected that the wom an receives
a dow ry instead o f bringing one to her husband, as happens in
nom adic life. Sociologically, the significance o f the dowry m ust be
explained thus: it is a com pensation or a guarantee provided by the
less economically favoured sex. I f the Indo-European wom an in pro­
viding the dow ry cannot be said to be buying her husband, no m ore
can the African m an in providing one be said to purchase his wife.
It can equally be understood that descent should be reckoned,
in these two social structures, from that m arried partner who does
not leave the clan after m arriage. W ith the Indo-European nomad
descent will be patrilineal, his wife being only a stranger in his gems;
in contrast to this, among sedentary peoples descent will be matrilineal
because it is the m an who is a stranger, whom the wom an can at
any m om ent repudiate if he does not perform all his conjugal duties
satisfactorily.

...Usually, the female portion ruled the house. The stores were
in common; but woe to the luckless husband or lover who was too
shiftless to do his share of the providing. No matter how many
children, or whatever goods he might have in the house, he might
at any time be ordered to pick up his blanket and budge; and after
such orders it would not be healthy for him to attempt to disobey.
The house would be too hot for him; and... he must retreat to his
own clan (gens); or, as was often done, go and start a new matrimonial
alliance in some other. The women were the great power among the
clans (gentes), as everywhere else. They did not hesitate, when occa­
sion required, ‘to knock off the horns’ as it was technically called,
from the head of a chief, and send him back to the ranks of the
warriors.13

T h is text by a m issionary, A rth u r W right, quoted by Engels,

relates ot the custom s o f the Iroquois. H e could have saved Engels
from an error o f interpretation o f a cohesive m atriarchy based on
the idea o f a prim itive state o f prom iscuous intercourse; for he shows
that the woman owes her social rank and her esteem exclusively to
the structure o f the society which allows her to play a leading economic

28
role. It is unfortunately that this ‘economic’ factor should have escaped
a M arxist.
T h e existence o f the ‘blue fam ilies’ o f Ireland is an illustration
o f what has just been stated. T h e necessary conditions having been
realised we can see a m atriarchy rise before our eyes in m odern times,
independent o f race.
‘W hen the husband, on the other hand, is a stranger, having no
family in Ireland, the small family w hich he founds is incorporated
into his wife’s family: it is called the “ blue family” (glas-fine), because
the husband is considered to have com e from across the sea; it is
then said that the “ m arriage” belongs to the man and the “ property”
to the w om an . ’ 14
T h e im m igrant who leaves his country, his ‘clan’ so to speak,
is thus at a disadvantage although the patrilineal system is in vigour
in Ireland.
T h e system o f inheritance is consequently subordinated to that
o f descent. In the m atriarchal system , in its purest form, a child does
not inherit from his father: he inherits from his m aternal uncle and
is m arried to his uncle’s daughter, so that the latter is not completely
disinherited. All political rights are transm itted by the m other, and
except for the possibility o f usurpation o f power no prince can suc­
ceed to a throne if his m other is not a princess. T h e im portance o f
the uncle on the m o th er’s side lies in the fact that it is he who aids
his sister, is her representative everyw here and, if need be, takes her
defence. T h is role o f aid to the wom an did not originally fall to the
husband, who was considered to be a stranger to his wife’s family.
T his conception is diametrically opposed to that o f the Indo-European.
T h e uncle, in certain African languages, m eans someone who has
the right to sell (im plying: his nephew); that is to ransom him self
by giving his nephew in his place. Hence the definition o f nephew ,
in the same language: he who can serve for ransom , who one sells
to liberate h im self from the bonds o f slavery.
In Walaf, a language spoken in Senegal, the following terminology
esits:

N a Diay = one who sells = uncle

D jar bat = to be w orth a ransom = nephew
T h at these custom s were general throughout Africa is vouched
for in a study by Delafosse:

29
 Moreover, this does not prevent the role of head of a family being
filled by a man, although it is sometimes occupied by a woman: but
among the peoples who do only admit of female consanguinity, the
head of the family is the blood brother of the mother. Among the
other peoples, it is the father....

In reality, nowhere among the black peoples is the woman con­

sidered to belong to the husband’s family; she continues to belong
to her own family after marriage, but she is separated temporarily
from it for the benefit of her husband and consequently for the
benefit of the latter’s family. This is why the custom universally
acknowledged in Black Africa, makes exigent, for there to be a valid
and regular union, the payment of an indemnity by the family of the
husband-to-be to that of his wife, as compensation for the wrong
caused to the latter family by the taking away of one of its members.
There is no purchase of the woman by her husband, as has been
wrongly alleged, since the wife does not legally cease to belong to
her own family and in no way becomes the chattel of the man she
has married; there is simply the payment of an indemnity or, more
exactly, of a bond, which moreover varies enormously with different
countries and with the status of the future couple ranging from several
hundreds of pounds to an object which is only worth a few pence;
in the latter case, it is only the fulfilment of a simple formality required
out of respect to traditional customs.15

Among the Southern societies all that relates to the m other is

sacred; her au th o rity is so to speak, unlim ited. She can choose, for
exam ple, a partner for her own child w ithout previously consulting
the interested party. T h is custom , w hich is linked w ith agricultural
life, exists likewise am ong the Iroquois.

...In general, whether among the American Indians or other

peoples (at the same stage), the conclusion of a marriage is the affair,
not of the two parties concerned, who are often not consulted at all,
but of their mothers. Two persons entirely unknown to each other
are often thus engaged: they only learn that the bargain has been
struck when the time for marrying approaches. Before the wedding
the bridegroom gives presents to the bride’s gentile relatives (to those
on the mother’s side, therefore, not to the father and his relations)
which are regarded as gift payments in return for the girl. The mar­
riage is still terminable at the desire of either partner...16

30
Any oath invoking a m other m ust be fulfilled under penalty o f one’s
debasement: in the beginning, the most sacred were those which were
pronounced with the arm stretched above the m other’s head. H er
curse destroys irredeem ably her ch ild ’s future: this is the greatest
m isfortune that could happen and one to be avoided at all costs. An
African who has received part o f his education at a W estern univer­
sity (who should be free from this superstition) is hardly affected by
a curse flung at him by his father; it would be quite different if this
came from his m other’s lips. Every society o f Black Africa is con­
vinced o f the idea that the destiny o f a child depends solely on its
m other and, in particular, on the labour w hich the latter will pro­
vide in the matrim onial home; thus it is not rare to see women quietly
p u ttin g u p w ith unfairness on the part o f their husbands, from the
conviction that the greatest benefit for their children will result from
it. It m ust be understood by this that the children will be given every
op p o rtu n ity to succeed in any o f th eir undertakings and that they
will be spared from ‘bad luck’ and m isfortune o f all sorts, that they
will be successful and not social failures. A precise sociological con­
cept corresponds to this idea in the African m ind: thus in W alaf one
finds the expression:

N ’D ay dju liguey = a m other who worked.

E thnologists and sociologists have tried to base the m atriarchy

disclosed am ong the S outhern societies on the ideas o f the latter on
the question o f heredity. T h ey do not, strictly speaking, hold, as do
Bachofen, M organ and Engels, that the uncertainty w hich reigns in
paternity is due to a prim itive state o f prom iscuous intercourse; in
their case, the prim itive is not incapable o f recognising the role o f
the man in the conception o f children: there is no doubt at all o f
the participation o f the father, but the social structure does not permit
his identification with conception and this would appear to be the sole
reason that descent would be, at first, matrilineal.
T o ethnologists and sociologists, the ‘prim itive’ cannot raise
him self to an understanding o f the ‘abstract’ idea o f the father’s par­
ticipation. T h e role o f the father is m ore tenuous, more difficult for
the hum an m ind to grasp; its conception requires a m aturity and a
logic w hich are in the prim itive m entality. It can thus be seen by
what expedients these specialists come to adopt the same scale o f

31
values as Bachofen; the superiority o f patriarchy is open to no doubt
and its spirituality contrasts strongly with the materiality o f the earliest
ages. T h ere is, therefore, a universal evolution, transition from an
inferior to a superior state.
It is unfortunate that this theory could only have been formulated
after the study o f Oceanian societies made by the ethnologists and
sociologists previously m entioned: the very ones whose works were
criticised by Van G ennep (cf. p. 25). In fact, if it is desired that a
problem o f the social sciences remain unsolved, it is sufficient to pose
it by starting w ith Oceania. T h e dispersion o f habitable lands
throughout the Pacific Ocean and their small size for the m ost part,
the m igrations whose directions crossed and recrossed the num ber
o f races which have come into contact w ith each other, have lived
side by side, been superim posed one on the other or have fused w ith
each other, all com bine to give, to what is called by convenience the
Oceanian continent, an aspect whose irregularity stands in the way
o f the solution o f every hum an problem .
T h e phenom enon o f regression and degeneration born o f such
a state o f affairs can only further confuse the m ind o f the researcher.
It would have been im portant to pursue these researches in another
‘backw ard’ continent, Africa or Am erica, where the native benefits
from a m ore substantial basis o f resistance to external factors.
It seems rather, that in so-called prim itive societies, the native
had never doubted the participation o f the father and m other, but
that he did not assign to each the same degree o f im portance, ,'n the
particular case o f Black Africa, it is alm ost everywhere thought that
a child owes m ore from a biological point o f view to his m other than
to the father. T h e biological heredity on the m other’s side is stronger
and m ore im portant than the heredity on the father’s side. C onse­
quently, a child is wholly that which its m other is and only h alf o f
what its father is. Here is an example taken from African beliefs which
illustrates this idea.
In Senegal, as in Uganda and in Central Africa, a being is believed
to exist am ong other hum an beings w ho should properly be called
‘m agician-eater-of-m en’ to distinguish him from the traditional doc­
tor m entioned in the work o f ethnologists. O nly the first, in the eyes
o f Africans, deserves the nam e o f m agician; the second is only the
possessor o f a secret science o f w hich he is very jealous and which

32

J
he only reveals at the tim e o f initiation to those who m erit it, either
because the society confers this right on them (age-groups) or because
they are his personal followers. T he first is gifted with a supernatural
power, thanks to w hich he can transform him self into all sorts o f
anim als to frighten his victim , generally at night, and thus chase the
‘active prin cip le’ from his body (fit in Walaf). As soon as the victim ,
who is considered to be dead, has been buried, the m agician goes
to the grave, exhum es the victim , brings it back to life and really
kills it in order to devour the flesh, as he would ordinarily butcher
meat. T h is m agician is supposed to have a pair o f eyes at the back
o f his head, in addition to his norm al ones, w hich rend it unnecessary
for him to tu rn his head. H e possesses extra m ouths w ith powerful
teeth at his elbows and knee joints. H e has the pow er to fly in the
air by expelling fire from under his arm pits or from his m outh. He
can easily see the entrails o f his table-com panions and the m arrow
o f their bones; he can see their blood circulate and their hearts beat;
he has the strange power o f a being o f the fourth dim ension who
could take away one o f our bones w ithout breaking our skin; in fact
our body is only herm etically sealed or protected by nature in the
three dim ensions o f our norm al spatial existence. I f there existed a
being having the sense o f a fourth dim ension, who could live beside
us, he could in reality see our entrails and could, thanks to this fourth
dim ension, whose existence escapes our detection and w ith respect
to which we are open, take away one o f our bones w ithout breaking
our skin. W hen one o f these m agicians is identified and beaten by
the people for having been responsible for the death o f a victim , the
magician has the power to dissociate his being: to keep in his body
his ‘vital principle’, to remove his ‘active principle’ w hich is linked
to sensibility and to pain, and to rest it on some neighbouring object.
From this m om ent on he can no longer feel the blows, until such
tim e as the new ‘object-bearer’ o f his ‘active p rinciple’ is discovered
and beaten in turn. In a like m anner he possesses a mediumistic power.
T h is detailed description o f the supernatural powers o f the m agi­
cian aims at throw ing better into belief the ideas which Africans have
on patrilineal and m atrilineal heredity. It is only possible to become
a magician gifted w ith all the qualities thus described, that is to say
a ‘total m agician’, if one is the child o f a m other who is a m agician
o f the same degree; it is o f little im portance what the father is. If

33
the m other is gifted w ith no power at all and if the father is a total
magician (demm in Walaf) the child is only h a lf one; he is nohor. He
possesses none o f the positive qualities o f a m agician, but only the
passive ones.
H e will be incapable o f killing a victim to feed upon his flesh,
w hich is the principal quality o f the demm. In contrast, he can, o f
course, contem plate in a passive m anner, the entrails o f his table-
com panions.
It can be seen here that the participation o f the father in the con­
ception o f a child is not at all in doubt, nor is one unaw are o f it,
but that it is secondary and less operative than that o f the m other.
W hile it is known that the father does supply som ething, the iden­
tity o f the child and the m other is a m atter o f conviction.
T hese ideas, by their very nature, go back to the very earliest
days o f African m entality; they are thus archaic and constitute, at
the present tim e, a sort o f fossilization in the field o f current ideas.
T h ey form a whole w hich cannot be considered as the logical con­
tinuation o f a previous and m ore prim itive state, where a m atrilineal
heritage would have ruled exclusively.

ANCESTOR WORSHIP

It is w ithin the fram ework o f sedentary life that the existence o f the
tom b can be justified. T h u s it is im possible to find any trace o f the
practice o f crem ation in an agricultural land such as Africa from anti­
quity to the present day. All o f the cases m entioned are unauthen-
tic; they are only the suppositions o f researchers in whose m inds the
dem arcation betw een the two cradles is not clear and who, referring
to the N o rth ern cradle, tend to identify any trace o f fire as a vestige
o f crem ation, even when no religious objects can be found nearby.
T h e practice o f crem ation was also unknow n in ancient Egypt.
Everyw here w here the practice o f crem ation is found - w hether
in Am erica or in India - it is possible to discern an Indo-European
elem ent w hich came from the E urasian steppes. T h e form ation o f
pre-C olum bian Am erica cannot be explained w ithout introducing a
nom adic elem ent w hich entered by way o f the Bering Strait; this is
the theory generally acknowledged and it perm its an explanation o f
the funeral rite superim posed on the practice o f burial am ong the

34
Am erican Indians. In M exico the chiefs, that is to say, the ruling
class, were crem ated while the mass o f the people were buried.
T h is seems to attest to a victory by conquering nom ads from the
N o rth , perhaps o f M ongol origin, over a sedentary agricultural
population.
T h e fact that the expression used to name the pirogue or dugout
canoe, that is to say, the sole element which could serve to link Africa
and America, is the same in several African languages (lothio in Walaf)
and in certain Indian languages o f Pre-C olum bian Am erica, seems
to prove that there were m aritim e links across the A tlantic between
the two continents. T h ere w ould thus have been, in this instance
as well, two peoples o f different origins living side by side; one o f
S outhern origin, the other from the N o rth . T om bs constitute the
dw elling places o f ancestors after death. T h ere, libations and offer­
ings are brought; there one prays. W hen it is desired to increase one’s
chances in daily life, concerning some precise event, a visit is paid
to the tom b o f one’s ancestors. H ence the expression in Walaf: ver-
seg = to visit the cem eteries = luck.
But nowhere in Africa does there exist this m uiltitude o f domestic
altars surm ounted by sacred fires which must be kept burning as long
as the family exists, a custom w hich seems to stem directly from the
N o rth ern w orship o f fire.
Such are th e general views w hich can be set over against the
system constructed by Bachofen on the basis o f the traces o f a m atriar­
chy discovered in classical antiquity - traces which will be discussed
in detail in the next chapter. H owever, we can w onder if, to the
argum ents m entioned earlier to prove the existence o f m atriarchy
am ong the Southern peoples, it w ould not be wise to add a further
argum ent dealing w ith the cycle o f plant life. In fact, it is known
to be certain that with the discovery o f agriculture the earth appeared
as a goddess periodically m ade fertile by the sky, by m eans o f the
rain which fell. From this m om ent the role o f the sky is finished
and it is the earth who nurtures the seeds im planted in her bosom;
she gives birth to vegetation. H ence the chtonian-agrarian triad: sky-
earth-vegetation. In certain countries, such as Egypt, this eventually
became identified as a triad o f demi-gods: Osiris-Isis-H orus. It could
have helped to form the ideas o f the Southern peoples relative to
biological heredity such as it has been described above. T hese, in

35
tu rn , could have reacted upon the existing m atriarchal conceptions
by reinforcing them .

CRITICISM OF THE THEORIES OF MORGAN AND

ENGELS

In the theory o f M organ, we shall call attention to two precise ideas

w hich are the basis o f the system.
O n the one hand, the systems o f consanguinity which allowed
him to reconstitute the history o f the family do not correspond to
the interpretation that he gives o f them ; they reflect purely and simply
the social relations o f the peoples am ong whom they are in force.
O n the o th er hand, he has clearly brought out the sociological
significance o f the totem ic clan based on m atriarchy, but he has been
unable to establish the logical connection in consanguinity perm it­
ting the transition from m atriarchy to patriarchy, and the affirm a­
tion o f the universality o f the process leading from the one to the
other. Now as long as this dem onstration has not been m ade, one
may rightly suppose, in the light o f all that has gone before, that
it is a question o f tw o irreducible system s, each adapted to their
reciprocal environments and bom o f that dialectical relationship which
links m an w ith nature.
N eith er does Engels explain this process any m ore clearly:

...As to how and when this revolution took place among civilized
peoples, we have no knowledge. It falls entirely within prehistoric
times. But that it did take place is more than sufficiently proved by
the abundant traces of mother-right which have been collected, par­
ticularly by Bachofen. How easily it is accomplished can be seen in
a whole series of American Indian tribes, where it has only recently
taken place and is still taking place under the influence, partly of
increasing wealth and a changed mode of life (transference from forest
to prairie), and partly of the moral pressure of civilization and mis­
sionaries...17

In the following chapters it will be seen that one m ust distinguish

the evolution o f a particular people which under the influence o f
exterior factors changes its system o f consanguinity w ithout chang­
ing its m aterial conditions o f life. In this quotation from Engels it

36
will be seen that the process in question is merely postulated, but
that its existence has not been dem onstrated.
It is necessary to underline the fact that the historical basis o f
the different forms o f the family is not in any doubt and that they
do constantly develop; it is alm ost as certain, also, that the group
m arriage m entioned by Engels and M organ did exist, but this was
neither at the origin o f the ‘system o f consanguinity’ o f M organ, nor
at the origin o f m atrilineal descent.

In all forms of group family it is uncertain who is the father of

a child; but it is certain who its mother is. Though she calls all the
children of the whole family her children and has a mother’s duties
towards them, she nevertheless knows her own children from the
others. It is therefore clear that in so far as group marriage prevails,
descent can only be proved on the mother’s side and that therefore
only the female line is recognised. And this is in fact the case among
all peoples in the period of savagery or in the lower stage of barbarism.
It is the second great merit of Bachofen that he was the first to make
this discovery...18

T h e assum ption on which the system is built - as can be seen

from the above and previous quotations - is that all the gradations
o f objective consanguinity are, prim itively, expressed in speech. T he
latter can only register the ties w hich actually existed at a given
m om ent. But then it is not com prehensible why in the case o f group
m arriage the m other, knowing perfectly well that the other children
are not hers, should nevertheless call them her own children. H ere
speech intentionally plays false w ith reality and does not express a
real relationship, but a social one; and the fact is all the more serious
in that this kind o f falsification due to society goes back to the earliest
period, that o f the ‘lower stage o f barbarism ’. T hus from the very begin­
ning society introduces, insidiously, the grounds for error and the
system, whose objectivity w ould seem guaranteed, is vitiated at its
foundations. T h e system requires in its elaboration, first, that all the
m others be confounded and rendered com m on to all the children,
to justify a way o f addressing them : the aunt is then called m other
by her sister’s children. It then requires, in a second operation, that
these m others be distinguished to account for the matrilineal descent.
T h e contradiction inherent in these foundations has not been

37
surm ounted in the correct way, but has been stifled and crushed by the
theoretical structure. It seems rather that the system o f consanguinity,
whose discovery by M organ appeared to be so im portant, is only an
expression o f purely social relationships. I f it were otherw ise, one
could ask oneself why the system has not survived in the form o f
vestiges, however small, in the N orthern cradle, among the prototypes
o f the Indo-Europeans whose m ythological traditions and history we
knew w ith certainty (Greeks, R om ans and G erm ans). As far as we
can go back into the Indo-E uropean past, even so far back as the
Eurasian steppes, there is only to be found the patrilineal genos with
the system o f consanguinity which at the present day still characterizes
their descendants.
It is difficult to m aintain that at the period o f the steppes the
Indo-E uropeans were already too evolved to preserve the system o f
consanguinity found am ong the Am erican Indians in Africa or in
India, that they had already passed the lower stage o f Barbarism and
that in consequence they were destined to discard this system o f con­
sanguinity even to its smallest traces. O ne could then ask how it was
able to continue to exist am ong the builders o f the em pires o f Black
Africa: the em pire o f G hana lasted from the third century to 1240,
thus preceding by 500 years the em pire o f C harlem agne; it subdued
the Berbers o f A ndaghost who payed tribute to it. T h e social and
political organisation w hich reigned there will be described in the
following chapters. Its renow n extended as far as Asia. N ow , the
system o f consanguinity which existed in G hana and still does today
am ong the Sarakolle, the descendants o f the em perors, is the same
as that described by M organ, although they had been converted to
the M oslem faith. G hana, in 1240, gave way to the em pire o f M ali
about which Delafosse wrote:
»
However, Gao had recovered its independence between the death
of Gongo-Moussa and the coming of Soliman, and, about a century
later, the Mandingo empire (Mali) was beginning to decline under
the attack of Songay, though it still possessed enough power and
prestige for its sovereign to be treated on equal terms with the king
of Portugal, then at the height of his glory.19

T h e Iroquois system o f M organ has equally well survived - and

still does - among the M andingos o f M ali, even though it had already
38
disappeared am ong the Indo-E uropeans o f the steppes who had
attained ‘the u p p er stage o f barbarism ’, after which it is no longer
supposed to exist, the next stage being civilization.
It turns out from what has been said before, that this system ought
not to be linked with a m ore or less historically prim itive stage or
with the degree o f evolution o f societies. It is characteristic that it
is only to be found w ith any degree o f certainty am ong the Southern
and agricultural populations (Black Africa, the Deccan, M elanesia
and Pre-C olum bian America). It is known that the population o f
America came from elsewhere since no traces o f early hum an skeletons
have been found there.* T herefore it is not universal and it can only
be considered to be so if the gaps are filled by assum ptions. It seems
evident that, like m atriarchy, it arises from a system o f political and
social organisation, from a sedentary and agricultural way o f life,
irreducible to the type o f N orthern nom adic life.
As has been said above, this system has only a social significance.
W hat a W alaf or another African calls his father’s brother, father,
or his m o th er’s sister, m other, he knows that they will serve as his
real parents in case o f death, illness or extinction. T h e structure o f
African society - such as it will be described later - necessitates this
assimilation o f aunts and uncles with real parents. T here springs from
this a collection o f reciprocal obligations, w hich Delafosse did not
fail to point out:

In addition, it can rightly be said that there are no orphans among

the blacks. It could also be added that neither are there any widows,
or at least, any widows exposed to misery, since a widow returns to
her own family, which is responsible for her as long as she does not
remarry, unless she forms part of the heir of the latter .20

In reality a shade o f m eaning is often introduced to underline

the fact that the real fathers and m others are not put in question.
A W alaf will always call his fath er’s brother Bay-bu-ndav = little
father. In the same way he will say Yay-dju-ndav = little m other.
T hese expressions have only a social value for him.*

* I'or fu rth e r e la b o ra tio n o n th is, see Iv an V an S e rtim a: T h ey C am e Before Colum bus: The
A frican Presence in A m erica (R a n d o m H o u se , 1976).
* T h e y signify ‘secondary* p a re n ts.

39
 It is characteristic that M organ was never able to point out any
coincidence between his system o f consanguinity and the real relation­
ship which exists in the families where he found the system . Among
the Iroquois any correspondance to the P airing family is missing:
it is in Hawaii and in Polynesia in the so-called punaluan family,
that M organ finds the type which corresponds to the Iroquois system
o f consanguinity.

But now comes a strange thing. Once again, the system of con­
sanguinity in force in Hawaii did not correspond to the actual form
of the Hawaiian family...21

T h is contradiction is explained by saying that the family continues

to develop, while the language spoken ossifies and is oustripped by
reality:

...While the family undergoes living changes, the system of con­

sanguinity ossifies; while the system survives by force of custom, the
family outgrows it ...22

It may then be asked why it has been im possible to find a similar

phenom enon o f ossification, revealed by language, in the Indo-
E uropean system o f consanguinity over a period o f 4,000 years.
The sacred character o f the mother in the societies which are seden­
tary, agricultural and matriarchal is ill-suited to the idea o f a prim itive
stage o f promiscuous intercourse which they are said to have passed
through. W herever this latter has existed, it seems to have led directly
to am azonism , w hich m ust not be confused w ith m atriarchy: this
distinction will be m ade later.
T h e easiness o f divorce in m arriages o f m atriarchal origin can
not objectively be considered as a sign o f its inferiority or priority,
to the point o f distinguishing the ancient P airing family from the
m onogam ous family, where divorce is virtually im possible. Facility
o f separation m ust not be considered as a revelation o f m ores which
have undergone disintegration, but as an index o f the degree o f
freedom w hich a society grants to all its m em bers, w ithout distinc­
tion o f sex.
T h e African wom an, even after m arriage, retains all her

40
individuality and her legal rights; she continues to bear the nam e
o f her family, in contrast to the Indo-E uropean wom an w ho loses
hers to take on that o f her husband.
Such are the outstanding traits o f the two regimes: m atriarchy
and patriarchy. T h e ir exclusive characters, as far as consanguinity
and the right o f inheritance are concerned, reveal a conscious
systematic choice and not an im possibility o f choice arising from the
uncertainty o f any given paternity. It has been shown that these things
still occur under our own eyes, in both cradles and with full knowledge
o f the facts. It is not therefore logical to imagine a qualitative leap
w hich w ould explain the transition from one to the other. It seems
m ore scientific to consider the two system s as irreducible; bu t if this
is so, one m ust be able to prove it by rapidly retracing the general
history o f the two cradles and their zones o f influence. T h is will be
the object o f C h ap ter III.
Piganiol, in his work on the origin o f Rom e, is categorical: it
was the Indo-E uropean nom ads o f the Eurasian steppes, the C elts,
G erm ans, Slavs, Achaeans and Latins who introduced crem ation and
the w orship o f fire to the M editerranean. T h e agricultural peoples
who lived in this region practised burial. Also, it is not rare to find
the two rites among mixed people such as the Pelasgians. He criticises
the view o f Fustel de Coulanges that all ancient institutions were
derived from ancestor w orship, and he is thus led to see in the two
rites o f burial and crem ation two different conceptions o f the beyond.
It will be seen below how difficult it is to uphold this point o f view.

According to Fustel de Coulanges, all the institutions of the

ancient city are connected with ancestor worship. Now the ancients
were divided into two peoples: those who buried their dead and those
who cremated them. Have we not the right to wonder if the different
practices were not inspired by different beliefs, if those who cremated
their dead, and those who buried them, did not conceive in different
ways the relation between the dead and the living? The problem is
posed in the same terms in Italy and in Greece: the Umbrians, who
cremated their dead, subdued the Ligurians, who buried theirs, in
the same way as the Aechaens, again cremators, subdued the Minoans,
who practised burial....

It was the invaders from Eastern and Central Europe who

41
 introduced the rite of cremation into the Mediterranean world and
to Western Europe: Umbrians, Aechaeans, Celts - these are the same
peoples who brought the Indo-European languages. From the per-
sistance of the rite of burial can be measured the resistance of the
Mediterranean basin....

The Pelasgians, who are a mixed people, practised both rites.

An immensely precious legend makes us understand the perplexities
of conscience at this time. Pollis and Delphos established in Crete
a mixed colony of Tyrrhenian Pelasgians and Laconians; the colonists,
after a period of uncertainty, divided into two groups: one faithful
to the Minoan tradition and one which practised the new gospel.
The first colonists of Albi practised cremation; this is affirmed
by the upper stratum of tombs of the forum: legends say that Numa
refused to be cremated. The Sabine rite would perhaps have trium­
phed had it not been for the Umbiran-Etruscan invasion at the end
of the sixth century...
Between the two rites cases of contamination are frequent...
So, although at this period of history cremations and burial were
practised simultaneously, both these customs were derived from the
practices of two distinct worlds: the pastoral world of the North, which
burnt its dead, and the agricultural world of the South, which buried
them.”

We agree entirely with this conclusion, which is one o f the fundam en­
tal ideas o f our own theory. T h e nom adic origin o f crem ation and
the sedentary, agricultural origin o f burial could not be em phasized
m ore clearly. But contrary to the opinion o f Piganiol, we think that
the question is not one o f two different beliefs about life after death,
but o f the same religious thought - ancestor w orship - differently
interpreted by the nomads and the sedentary peoples respectively.
T h e author has not tried to discover the material cause which
prevented the nomads from consecrating their worship to fixed tombs;
he would have realised that crem ation was the only m eans for a peo­
ple w ith no fixed dw elling palce to carry the ashes o f their ancestors
and to w orship them . H e would seem to have agreed w ith Fustel
de C oulanges who talks o f ancestor w orship in the ancient world,
w ithout insisting too m uch on its two variations.
T om bs and statues are m eaningless in a nom adic life; their
absence is explained logically, instead o f being an expression o f

42
particular intellectual inclinations. T h u s, instead o f believing that
it is m aterial conditions w hich im posed two different forms on the
same religious idea, Piganiol m aintains that we are dealing w ith two
fundam entally distinct conceptions.

These rites seem to correspond to two differing beliefs regard­

ing life beyond the grave....

The man who practises burial lives in a constant state of terror,

whereas the man who believes in cremation reminds one of a free
thinker. These beliefs, which are so distinct, do not allow of a common
formula; the same institutional systems could not be derived from
each of them. Has the assumption of Fustel de Coulanges not already
been shaken? To tell the truth, to confirm our conclusions would
require a close study of comparative religions. Let us observe at once
that there is to be found in the Rig-Veda this Aechaean or Homeric
free thought, such as Rhodes was able to restore it. The Brahman
laughs at ghosts; cremation entrusts the dead to Agni so that he may
carry them to the world of their ancestors, and the urns are simply
left somewhere in a wood, most of the time without any funeral monu­
ment. Among the Jews it seems indeed that there are to be found
both types of belief which we have defined... We think we should
have a satisfactory answer to this if it were admitted that the
Canaanites practised ancestor worship, according to rites analogous
to Chtonian ones and that the nomadic Israelites introduced if not
cremation, at least different customs regarding the dead, analogous
to the Aechaean or Brahman indifference towards their dead .24

T h e contrast between the C anaanties, leading a sedentary and

agricultural life, and the Israelite nom ads, is exactly the one w hich
we have made; it confirm s the theory w hich has been developed as
to the zone o f confluence o f the two cradles. But the point o f view
o f Piganiol regarding the N o rth ern and S outhern religions m ust be
com pletely set down before it is criticised.

To the school of English philologists we owe an interpretation

of the Greek religion which is very subtle, very tempting and widely
disputed. The Greek religion, according to this theory, was born of
the fusion of Chtonian and Uranian cults. The Uranians, the gods
of manifest will, are the objects of a tsrapsia; they are honoured in

43
 the expectation of a future benefit. The Chtonians on the contrary
are evil spirits which the cult aims at warding off....
The struggle between these two religions corresponds to the war
between the Pelasgians and the Northern invaders, whose fusion pro­
duced classical Greece...contrast between the Northern fire worship
and Mediterranean stone worship.
The peoples who worship the heavens have in their minds the
idea of a kinship between the fire in their hearths, the atmosphere
and the sun. By means of fire, the offerings which are burnt are scat­
tered across the ether which is identifcal with the great god who is
dispersed everywhere; and this invisible god condenses and becomes
tangible in the flames. The earth worshippers communicate with their
gods by bringing their offerings to caves, by throwing them into
abysses or by letting them slowly sink into swamps....
A tradition exists that the worship of fire which was entrusted
by Romulus to some priests, passed later to the priestesses according
to the will of Numa, the Sabine....
It was the nomadic invaders, pastoral tribes, who introduced the
worship of fire. Sacrifice by fire was unknown in Athens before the
time of Cecrops, who was also the first to give the title of Almighty
to Zeus.
The peoples who introduced fire worship into the Mediterranean
basin strove at the same time to eradicate savage superstitions .25

T h is last opinion is certainly exaggerated. After the trium ph o f

the N o rth ern elem ents, during the classical age o f Rome, there were
m ore gods than there were citizens: Fustel de C oulanges was careful
to enum erate them precisely. T h e text quoted clearly reflects the per­
sistent tendency am ong many W estern w riters to exalt the superior
qualities o f everything which is N orthern. In fact there is to be found
again the classical contrast between the religion o f the caves and
sw am ps and that o f the m anifest will o f the heavens.
It m ust be said, first o f all, that nothing is more doubtful than
the attrib u tio n o f a heavenly or solar religion to the Indo-Europeans
to the exclusion o f all other peoples. It is m uch more likely that such
a religion would be the prerogative o f the South, where the sun shines
brightly and w here the sky is really clear. It is in the M editerranean
and not in the N o rth ern sky that a Zeus, god o f light, should reign.
Several argum ents perm it us to justify this view. Ra is indeed
a solar god o f the South. On the other hand, G renier is led to record

44
the absence o f a solar divinity in the Rom an religion, which seems
to him unexpected to say the least, after all the thought he has given
to the etym ology o f Zeus; but w ith regard to this, we m ust again
refer to the w ritten w ord to understand that it is extrem ely doubtful
and open to discussion.

The sun and moon governed the Roman calendar; the names Sot
and Luna however, did not appear in it. The Sol Indiges of Rome,
which had his temple on the Quirinal, was a god of Lavinium: Luna
had a temple which was erected by Servius Tullius on the Aventine,
but the Roman Empire and foreign influences had to come into being
before their worship was developed. They are probably represented
in the former Roman religion by names under which they have not
yet been recognised.26

In so far as the Rom an calendar is an adaptation o f the Egyptian

calendar it is not surprising that the term s sun and moon are to be
found therein. In spite o f the fact he had just established - that o f
the absence o f a solar divinity am ong the R om ans - G renier is still
able to w rite, b u t, let it be said, w ithout too m uch conviction:

In general, the gods of heaven are Indo-European; those of the

earth, on the contrary, the gods of the underworld and the caves,
represent the avatars of Mother Earth, the great primitive Mediter­
ranean divinity: Uranian worship on the one hand, Chtonian on the
other .27

In reality, G renier sum m arised all that is known to be m ost cer­

tain about the N orthern beliefs; that is, their decaying character. T here
is a poverty o f religious thought. D ocum ents pertaining thereto are
rare and com paratively recent.

The oldest record we possess referring to the Indo-Aryan religion,

the poems of the Rig-Veda, only date from the sixth century B.C.
The Greek religion, such as we find it in Homer, allows us to go
back a little further, but this religion appears to have a strong admix­
ture of elements foreign to the Indo-European world. The religions
of the Celts and Germans are only known to us from the period nearest
to our own times. The information we possess about the ancient
religions of the Lithuanians and Slavs scarcely goes back
45
 before the sixteenth century A.D., due entirely to the priests who
taught them Christianity. It is only by a comparison of these very
different indications that a deduction can be made of the religions
of the Indo-Europeans before they were split up about 2,000 B.C .28

It follows from this com parative study that fire worship was com ­
mon to all the Indo-Aryans up to the tim e o f the P russo-L ithuanians
o f the sixteenth century.

To the leading Brahmans must be given rice at the same time

as other presents, in the area sacred to the fire-offering.29

T o all the reasons w hich have been invoked to explain fire w or­
ship, the one w hich has already been put forward is to be preferred;
in the icy no rth ern cold, the god benefactor par excellence is the fire;
thanks to its incom parable usefulness in these latitudes, the prim itive
n o rthern soul was not long in com ing to its worship. T h is would
be the m aterial base, w hich subsequently gave birth to a religious
su perstructure. It is evident from the study o f Piganiol, o f G renier
and o f the Lois de M anou that crem ation and fire w orship arise from
a specifically Indo-E uropean tradition, a tradition w hich has
perpetuated itself u n til the present day in the consciousness o f m en
who have forgotten its origin; the everlasting flame, the Olym pic tor­
ches, the associations whose m em bers, although C hristians, allow
them selves to be crem ated, can probably be explained in the light
o f this Aryan tradition. It is likely that certain Europeans would not
allow them selves to be crem ated today, even for reasons o f hygiene,
were it not for this tradition handed down from their Aryan ancestors.
It is rem arkable to observe that crem ation is the ethnological and
cultural trait which distinguishes the Aryan world from the southern
w orld, and in particular from the African one. It is im possible to
identify a single authentic case o f crem ation in Black Africa, from
an tiquity u n til the present day. T h is is a fact w hich has never suffi­
ciently been stressed.

46
 CHAPTER III

HISTORY OF PATRIARCHY AND MATRIARCHY

The Southern C radle, the N orthern Cradle

and the Zone o f C onfluence

Properly speaking, there is no question here o f sum m arising, even

briefly, the history o f the three ‘cradles’ since this would scarcely
offer any interest for the purpose we have in mind. T he method which
will be applied consists o f choosing in each cradle, the outstanding
historical facts, whose nature is such to prove that a particular cradle
is indeed characteristic o f such and such a system.

THE SOUTHERN CRADLE

T h e study will be lim ited to Africa, to lim it the bounds o f the sub­
ject to cogent facts. In fact, Africa is the Southern continent w hich
has been the least changed by exterior influences. T h e Arab penetra­
tion was stopped by the forests to the South, because o f the tsetse
fly w hich killed most o f their horses; the first expeditions to reach
the heart o f Africa, those o f Livingstone and Stanley, came later than
1850.

ETHIOPIA

W e shall deal w ith Ethiopia as it was described by H erodotus and

D iodorus Siculus. Its capital, M eroe, situated near the junction o f
the W hite and Blue N ile was discovered by C ailliaud at the tim e
o f the R estoration. Its placem ent corresponds approxim ately to that
o f present day Sudan; it was also called N ubia and the Land o f Sen­
nar. T h e Ethiopia o f today, whose capital is Addis-Ababa, was only
an outlying province.

47
 E thiopia was the first country in the w orld to have been ruled
by a queen - after Egypt o f the eighteenth dynasty and Queen
H atshepsout, whose reign will be studied in C hapter VI. T h ere was
first the sem i-legendary Q ueen o f Sheba, contem porary o f Solom on,
the K ing o f the H ebrew s, about the year 1000 B.C. T here are very
few records in existence bearing on her life and reign. A b rief passage
in the Bible tells us th at she paid a visit to Solomon, whose wisdom
had been highly praised to her, and that she brought him m any
presents; the visit was o f short duration, o f scarcely a few days, and
th e Q ueen returned to her country laden with gifts offered to her
by Solom on. N o historical record can be found w hich supports the
existence o f her marriage to Solomon and the Bible makes no reference
to this. H istorians sometimes w onder if she really reigned in Ethiopia
proper, or in A rabia Felix, w hich w ould be the true land o f Sheba.
But until the b irth o f M oham m ed, Southern Arabia was inseparable
from E thiopia, their historical destiny was the same and the
sovereignty o f Ethiopia over Arabia was scarcely interrupted except
from time to time; this can be affirmed by a verse o f the Koran entitled
‘T h e E lephants’. M oham m ed relates how the Ethiopian army, which
was sent from Africa to suppress a revolt by the Y em enite Arabs
against the E thiopian G overnor A braha, was destroyed by the
‘M essengers o f H eaven’, though it was 40,000 m en strong. Each
soldier was hit at the top o f his helm et by a m iraculous missile which
went th rough and th rough him and his m ount. It is com m only sup­
posed that the E thiopian arm y m ust have been destroyed by a sand­
storm or an epidem ic or plague w hich had broken out en route. It
thus appears according to the lim ited historical records we possess
that the Q ueen o f Sheba was connected more w ith Ethiopia than with
‘Sheban A rabia’.
However that may be, it is w orthy o f note that during the first
thousand years before our tim e, that is to say at a tim e situated bet­
ween the T ro jan W ar and H om er, the Southern lands could still be
ruled by women.
T h e reign o f Q ueen C andace was really historic. She was a con­
tem porary o f Augustus Caesar when he was at the height o f his power.
T h e latter, after having conquered Egypt, drove his arm ies across
the N u b ian desert to the frontiers o f Ethiopia. According to Strabo,
they were com m anded by the G eneral Petronius. T h e Q ueen herself

48
took com m and o f her army; at the head o f her troops she charged
the Rom an soldiers, as Joan o f Arc was later to do against the English
arm y. T h e loss o f any eye in battle only had the effect o f increasing
her bravery. T h is heroic resistance m ade a great im pression on all
classic antiquity, not because the Q ueen was Black, but because she
was a woman: the Indo-European world was still not accustom ed to
the idea o f a wom an playing a political and social role.
S trabo reports that A ugustus Caesar who was relaxing on a
M editerranean island, R hodes, gave com plete satisfaction to the
dem ands o f the delegation sent to him by the Q ueen. T h is glorious
resistance has rem ained in the m em ory o f the Sudanese: the prestige
o f Candace was such that all later queens have borne the same generic
name.
H erodotus says that the m acrobian Ethiopians are the tallest and
most handsom e o f all men. T h ey are gifted w ith perfect health; by
applying to them the expression m acrobian, he is referring to their
longevity. T h eir King was chosen from the strongest. T h e abundance
o f th eir food resources is sym bolised by what H erodotus and legend
call the ‘Table o f the S un’; at night, the messengers o f the King placed
discreetly a quantity o f well-cooked m eat on a lawn reserved for the
purpose. At sunrise, any o f the people could profit from the food
provided freely and anonym ously. Prisoners were secured by golden
chains. T h e m aterial reasons w hich kept the E thiopians in their b ir­
thplace and prevented them from becom ing conquerors can be
understood. In fact - still according to H erodotus - when Cam byses
conquered E gypt (525 B.C.) he wished to cross the N ubian desert
but nearly lost his life there. H e then sent ‘ichthyophagous’ E thio­
pians to spy on the K ing; the latter exposed the plot and through
his representatives, lectured Cam byses in the following term s:
‘...T h e K ing o f the Ethiops thus advises the king o f the Persians
- w hen the Persians can pull a bow o f this strength thus easily, then
let him come w ith an arm y o f superior strength against the long-
lived Ethiopians - till then let him thank the gods that they have
not put it into the heart o f the sons o f the Ethiops to covet countries
which do not belong to th em .’
According to the same author the respect o f individuality was
such that when a N ubian was condem ned to death he was ordered
to destroy h im self alone at his own house. I f then he tried to leave

49
 1

the country secretly, H erodotus says that it was his own m other who
watched over him and took upon herself the duty o f putting him
to death before he could carry out his plan. C ertainly the condem ­
nation would be justified by a crim e against hum anity and society
and that is the reason w hich forced the m other to destroy her son
- it was never the father, who does not seem to have had this right.
All these tales, more or less sem i-legendary, reported by
H erodotus, are only im portant in so far as they reflect, after all, the
manners and customs in force in the country, at the time o f the author.
I f this were not so, they could not have been invented out o f nothing.

EGYPT

T h is is one o f the African countries where m atriarchy was most

m anifest and most lasting. It has been determ ined, in fact, by means
o f astronom ical calculations o f m athem atical precision, that in 4241
B.C. a calendar was in use in Egypt. T h at is to say that the Egyp­
tians had acquired enough theoretical and practical scientific
knowledge to invent a calendar whose periodicity was 1,461 years.
T h is is the interval o f tim e separating two heliacal risings o f Sothis
or Sirius; every 1,461 years Sirius and the Sun rise sim ultaneously
in the latitude o f M em phis. It is probable that this figure was fixed
by calculation rather than by experim ent, that is to say, by observa­
tion. It is difficult to im agine, in fact, that forty-eight generations
would bequeath their observations o f the heavens so that at the end
o f the stated period, at a precise daw ning, the forty-eighth genera­
tion could prepare itself to witness the heliacal rising o f Sothis. T h is
would also assum e the existence o f w ritten astronom ical archives,
o f precise chronology at a period considered as prehistoric. Be that
as it may, the m yth o f Isis and O siris precedes this tim e, since it
dates from the origin o f Egyptian history. From this distant period
- and to the end o f Egyptian history - m arriage betw een brother
and sister existed in the royal family, Isis and Osiris being, at one
and the same tim e, man and wife and brother and sister. D uring this
lengthy period, unique in history, by its duration, Egypt m ust have
known all the refinem ents o f civilisation, and m ust have instructed
all the younger peoples o f the M editerranean, w ithout its own social
structure ceasing to be essentially m atriarchal. It is therefore possible

50
to be legitimately surprised that there was no transition from m atriar­
chy to patriarchy.
T h e agrarian and m atriarchal character o f the Egyptian society
o f the Pharaohs is am ply explained in the m yth o f Isis and Osiris.
According to Frazer, Osiris is the god o f corn, the spirit o f the trees,
the god o f fertility:

The examination of the myth and the ritual of Osiris which

precedes, can suffice to prove that, under one of his aspects, the god
was a personification of corn, about which it can be said that it dies
and returns to life each year. Through all the pomp and glory with
which the priests later invested his worship, the conception of Osiris
as the god of corn is shown clearly by the feast of his death and resur­
rection which is celebrated in the month of Khoniak and at a later
date, in the month of Athyr. This feast appears to have been essen­
tially a feast of sowing, which fell just at the date when the peasant
committed the grains to the earth. On this occasion an effigy of the
god of corn, made of earth and corn was buried with full funeral rites;
it was hoped that, in dying there, he would be able to return to life
with the new harvest. The ceremony was, in fact, a spell designed
to make the corn shoot forth by sympathetic magic.1

T h e au th o r then describes the cerem ony w hich identifies Osiris

w ith a tree: in the interior o f a pine tree w hich had been hollowed
out is placed the body o f Osiris m odelled in wood. T h e author thinks
that this is doubtless the ritual counterpart o f the legendary discovery
o f the body o f O siris found shut u p in a tree. H e goes on to describe
the Feast o f D jed, w hich finished on the thirteenth K hoiak by the
erection o f a pillar w hich was nothing but a tree w ith its branches
cut off; this erection w ould symbolise the resurrection o f Osiris, since
in Egyptian theology the pillar was regarded as being the vertebral
colum n o f Osiris.
Isis, according to Frazer, was originally the goddess o f fertility.
And indeed there exist m any reasons w hich prove this judgem ent.
She is the great and bountiful M other-G oddess, whose influence and
love rule everywhere, among the living as well as among the dead.
She is, like O siris, the goddess o f corn, the cultivation o f w hich she
is said to have invented:

51
 Isis must surely have been the goddess of corn. Indeed there exist
many reasons which tend to prove this assertion. Diodorus Siculus,
whose authority appears to have been the historian Manetho,
attributes to Isis the discovery of corn and barley; stalks of these cereals
were carried in procession on her feast days to commemorate the gift
she gave to mankind. St. Augustine adds another detail: Isis discovered
barley at the moment when she was offering a sacrifice to the ancestors
of her husband, who were equally hers and who had all been kings;
she showed the newly discovered heads to Osiris and her adviser,
Thot (or Mercury as he was called by the Roman writers). That is
why, adds St. Augustine, Isis and Ceres are identified with each
other .2

T h ere is here to be found some confirm ation, by legend, o f the

tradition w hich attributes to wom en the active role in the discovery
o f agriculture.
At the tim e o f the harvests the E gyptian indulged in lam enta­
tions in honour o f the spirit o f the corn w hich had been reaped, that
is to say, in honour o f Isis the creator o f all green things, the Lady
o f bread, the Lady o f beer, the M istress o f abundance, personifying
the field o f corn. Frazer sees the p ro o f o f this identification in the
epithet Sochit given to Isis w hich still signifies, in C optic, a field
o f corn.
T h e G reeks identified her in the same way with D em eter and
considered her with the goddess o f corn. It is she who gave birth
to the ‘fruits o f the ea rth ’.
T h e foundation o f the M ystery o f Isis and O siris is therefore,
in essence, agrarian life.
In the beginning, m onogam y was the general rule, since Osiris
had only one wife, Isis, whose nam e is an alteration o f the Egyptian
expression Sa it or S it. It is interesting to note, in passing, that these
two words in an African language, W alaf, mean ‘the newly w ed’,
the bride.
Seth, the b rother o f O siris, was also m onogam ous, his wife -
who was also his sister - is N ephtys.
U p until the end o f Egyptian history, the people rem ained
-m onogamous. O nly the royal family and the court dignitaries prac­
tised polygamy, in varying degrees, depending on their wealth. T his
appeared to be a luxury grafted on to family and social life, instead

52
o f being the prim ordial foundation o f it. It existed in Egypt, as it
did in G reece at the tim e o f Agam em non, in Asia and am ong the
G erm anic aristocracy o f the age o f T acitus; examples could also be
cited from the royal courts o f the W est in m odern times.
M arriage w ith a sister is a consequence o f m atrilineal law. It has
already been seen that under an agricultural regim e, the pivot o f
society is woman: all rights, political and otherw ise, are transm itted
by her, for she is the stable elem ent, m an being relatively mobile:
he can travel, em igrate, etc., while the wom an raises and feeds the
children. It is norm al therefore, that these latter owe everything to
her and not to the m an who, even in sedentary life, retains a certain
nom adism . T o begin w ith, in every clan it was to the female ele­
m ent - and to her alone - that the bulk o f any heritage was left. It
seems that the need o f avoiding quarrels about succession rights bet­
ween cousins - that is to say, between the sons o f brothers and sisters
- had led these, w ithin the fram ework o f the royal family, to
perpetuate the example o f the first couple, Isis and Osiris. Im agine
a brother and a sister descended from a royal couple, who m arry out­
side th eir own family, w ith another prince and princess. In accor­
dance w ith m atrilineal law, only the child o f the sister can reign over
the country; the child o f the brother will reign in the country o f its
m other, if m atrilineal law is in force there; if this is not the case,
he will have no throne unless he usurps it in one country or the other.
In m arrying th eir sisters, the pharaohs kept the throne in the same
family and at the same time elim inated disputes about the succession.
T h e pharaoh who marries his sister is, at the same time, his son’s
uncle. N ow , un d er the m atrilineal regim e, only the nephew inherits
from his m aternal uncle and the latter has the right o f life and death
over him . In contrast, his own sons do not inherit from him and he,
himself, does not belong to his wife’s family. All these inconveniences
are elim inated thanks to what has been called ‘royal incest’. T h is
is the only exam ple o f a m eridional family o f the m atrilineal type,
in w hich both the man and wom an belonged to the same family; it
is a specific type w ithin m atriarchy itself and is accounted for by
the overriding interest o f the nation and the cohesion o f the royal
family. It affords also a glimpse o f the possibility o f an explanation
o f the case o f Q ueen Hatshepsout, which will be given in C hapter IV.
On marriage, the man brought a dowry to the woman. T h e latter,

53
during the entire history o f the Egypt o f the pharaohs, enjoyed com ­
plete freedom , as opposed to the condition o f the segregated Indo-
E uropean wom an o f the classical periods, w hether she was G reek
or Rom an.
N o evidence can be found either in literature or in historical
records - Egyptian or otherw ise - relating to the system atic ill-
treatm ent o f Egyptian wom en by their m en. T hey were respected
and w ent about freely and unveiled, unlike certain Asian wom en.
Affection for o n e’s m other and especially the respect w ith which it
was necessary to surround her were the most sacred o f duties; this
is recorded in a very well-known Egyptian text:

When you were born she (your mother) made herself really your
slave; the most menial tasks did not dishearten her to the point of
making her say: why do I need to do this? When you went to school
for your lessons, she sat near your master, bringing every day the
bread and the beer of the household. And now that you are grown
up, that you are marrying and founding, in turn, a family, always
remember the care your mother devoted to you, so that she has
nothing for which she can reproach you and does not raise her arms
to God in malediction, for God would answer her prayers.

T h is advice given to a young Egyptian can be contrasted with

the conduct o f T elem achus in giving orders to Penelope, his m other,
and acting as the real m aster o f the house in the absence o f Ulysses,
or with that o f Orestes in killing his m other, C lytem nestra, in order
to avenge his father.

LIBYA

W hatever the peopling o f Libya was in prehistoric tim es, from the
second m illenium and in all probability about the year 1500 B .C .,
the W estern region o f the Nile delta was invaded by Indo-Europeans,
tall, blond, blue-eyed, their bodies covered by tattoos and clothed
in anim al skins. T h is is how they are described in docum ents found
by C ham pollion at Biban-el-M olouk. C ham pollion, after having
described the different races o f men known to the Egyptians such
as he had seen them depicted on the bas-reliefs o f the tom b o f Ousirei
the F irst, com ing to the last race depicted, writes:

54
 Finally, the last one has skin-colouring that we would call flesh-
coloured or white of the most delicate shade, a straight or slightly
arched nose, blue eyes, a blond or red beard, a tall and very slim
stature and is dressed in the skins of oxen which still retain their hair,
a veritable savage tattooed on different parts of his body; such men
are called the Tambou.
I hastened to look for the painting corresponding to this one on
other royal tombs and finding it in fact on several, the variations which
I there observed convinced me that it had been desired to show here
the inhabitants of the four parts of the world according to the ancient
Egyptian system, that is to say: (1) the inhabitants of Egypt who
themselves formed one part of the world according to the very modest
practice of an old people; (2) the real inhabitants of Africa, the Blacks;
(3) the Asians; (4) lastly (and 1 am ashamed to say so, since our own
race is the last and most savage of the series) the Europeans who,
in these distant times, it must be admitted did not show themselves
to great advantage in this world. It must be understood that reference
here is made to all the people o f the blond race with white skins,
living not only in Europe, but in Asia where they originated. This
way of considering these pictures is all the more true, since in other
tombs, the same generic names reappear, constantly in the same
order...
It is the same with our good ancestors, the Tambou; their costume
is sometimes different; their heads are more or less covered with hair
and adorned in various ways and their savage clothing varies a little
in its form; but their white colour, their eyes and their beards preserve
all the character of a separate race. I have made copies, in colour,
of this curious ethnographic series. I certainly did not expect, on arriv­
ing at Biban-el-Molouk, to find sculptures which would serve as
vignettes of the history of the primitive inhabitants of Europe, should
one ever have the courage to undertake this. The sight of these has,
however, something flattering and consoling, since it does make us
appreciate the long way we have travelled since that time .3

T hese were the nom adic tribes, called also ‘peoples o f the sea’
in Egyptian records, who installed them selves around Lake T ritonis
and becam e the Lebou or R ebou or Libyans. T h ey were also called
som etim es T eh e nou; these expressions are not o f Indo-European
origin: it can be noted that Rebou = hunting country in W alaf (a
language o f Senegal), and that Reb - hunter: in the same African
language, Tahanou = the country where the dead wood is found.

55
 T h e Libyans often formed hostile coalitions directed against
Egypt; the most im portant was prom oted under M ernephtah, at the
tim e o f the nineteenth dynasty.

Towards the month of April in the year 1222, Mernephtah learnt

in Memphis that the King of the Libyans, Meryey, was arriving from
the country of Tehenou with his archers and a coalition o f ‘peoples
of the N orth’ composed of Shardans, Sicilians, Achaeans, Lycians
and Etruscans, bringing the elite of the warriors of each country; his
aim was to attack the western frontier of Egypt, in the plains of Pcrir.
The danger was all the more serious, since the province of Palestine
had itself been assailed by unrest; it seems sure that the Hittites had
been brought into the struggle, although Mernephtah had continued
to do them service, in sending them corn in his ships at a time of
famine, so that the country of Khati could continue to live... The
battle lasted six hours, during which time the archers of Egypt
slaughtered the barbarians: Meryey fled as fast as he could, aban­
doning his arms, his treasure and his harem; there were listed among
the dead 6,359 Libyans, 222 Sicilians, 742 Etruscans and Shardans
and Achaeans by the thousands; more than 9,000 swords and other
arms, together with a large amount of booty were captured on the
field o f battle. Mernephtah engraved a victory hymn on his tomb­
stone at Thebes where he described the dismay of his enemies: among
the Libyans, the young people when talking to each other concern­
ing victories, said, ‘We have had none since the time of Ra’, and the
old men said to their sons, ‘Alas, poor Libya! The Tehenou have
been destroyed in one single year’. All the other outlying provinces
of Egypt were at the same time restored to obedience. Tehenou was
devastated, Khati, pacified; Canaan was pillaged, Ascalon despoiled,
Gaza seized, Yanoem annihilated, Israel desolated and left without
grain, and Kharou left like a helpless widow against the might of
Egypt. All the countries were unified and pacified .4

For a long time after this defeat the Libyans ceased to be a danger
to the Egyptians, in so far as they had no fast m ounts other than mules.
A thousand years after th eir arrival in Africa, they were still
nom ads. H erodotus describes how they were scattered around Lake
T rito n is in C yrenaica and as far as the outskirts o f C arthage. From
Egypt tow ards the A tlantic they are m et in the following order: the
A d yrm a ch id a e are the first; through prolonged contact w ith Egypt,

56
they were influenced in their m anners and custom s; then come the
Giligamae who occupied a territory extending as far as A phrodisias
Island; next the Asbystae w ho lived beyond C yrene; they lived in
the interior o f the country and were separated from the sea by the
Cyrenaeans and travelled in chariots draw n by four horses; then the
Auschisae who lived beyond Barca: they occupied a stretch o f the
coastland in th e neighbourhood o f the Evesperides and towards the
centre o f their land lived the Cabalians; these were followed by the
Nasamonians.

‘It is their custom to have several wives for each man, but they
have their wives in common, almost like the Massagetes.’5

T h en com e the Psylli w ho were com pletely destroyed under

m ysterious circum stances, perhaps by some natural phenom enon like
a sand storm , according to H erodotus. Beyond the Nasamonians and
slightly to the S outh can be found the Garam antians:

...who avoid all society or intercourse with their fellow-men, have

no weapon of war, and do not know how to defend themselves.6

T h e M acae occupy a stretch o f the coast and after them come

the G indanes who live beside the Lotophagi. Following these come
the M achlyans w ho cover the area as far as the River T rito n ; this
river flows into lake T ritonis. H erodotus also m entioned the Auseans
who, knowing nothing o f m arriage, had all wom en in com m on, the
A m m onians and the Atlantes
Such was the dem ographic condition o f Libya, from Egypt to
M ount Atlas, in the fifth century B.C. If this recital o f facts by
H erodotus has been scrupulously respected, it is because in C hapter
IV when we are discussing the Am azons, supposedly African, it will
be seen their place o f origin was precisely that o f the N orthern
Libyans. T h e latter being Indo-Europeans who had m igrated from
the ‘N orth ern cradle’ and rem ained nom ads, had never practised
m atriarchy.

BLACK AFRICA

T he history o f Black Africa is known, without any break in continuity,

57
from the Empire o f Ghana (in the third century A.D.) until the present
day, at least as far as the N orthern part o f the country is concerned.
Probably in prehistoric times, this was populated by folk coming from
South Africa and the region o f the G reat Lakes. Indeed no trace of
the paleolithic is found in W est Africa; the only place where it has
been found w ith certainty is at Pita in G uinea; South o f the Sahara,
in general only the N eolithic is to be found, while in the Sahara itself
are to be found all the periods o f prehistory.
O ne has therefore been led to suppose that, after the drying up
o f the Sahara, which had been term inated by 7000 B.C., the primitive
population m ust have migrated in part towards the valley o f the Nile,
where they met other groups com ing probably from the G reat Lakes.
These people formed, for a long time, a sort o f cluster along the valley;
then because o f over-population and invasion by others, they moved
once again towards the heart o f the continent, driving before them
the Pygm ies. T h is is w hat all the legends from the oral traditions
o f the present day Africans seem to confirm ; and according to these
legends, the ancestors o f the Blacks came from the East, from beside
the ‘G reat W ater’. Biblical tradition and the first archaeological
discoveries im pelled scientists to situate the birth-place o f hum anity
in Asia. It was therefore logical to try to people the rest o f the world
by starting w ith the continent o f Asia, w here the pithecanthropus
o f Java and the S inathropus o f C hina were exhum ed. T h e theory
o f the L em urian continent were born: the African Blacks are
descended from the A ustralians, the route o f m igration being the
Indian O cean, the different islands serving as stopping-off places for
the canoeists.
Recent discoveries, which tend to prove that the cradle o f
h um anity is East African, render the Lem urian hypothesis less and
less necessary.
T h e toponym y and the ethnonym y o f Africa reveal a com m on
cradle w hich appears in fact to be the valley o f the N ile. Linguistics
supplies an alm ost certain p ro o f o f this.
T h e em pire o f G hana seems, historically, to be a transition b e­
tween antiquity and the present day. As a m atter o f fact, in the Tarikh-
es-Soudan, the town o f K oukia, on the N iger not far from G ao, has
been in existence since the days o f the pharaohs. T h e ruins o f G hana
to the northwest o f the m outh o f the N iger were discovered by Bonnel

58
de M ezieres and Desplagnes. T h e history o f G hana is known to us
in broad outline, thanks to the works o f Arab writers. Ibn-K haldoun,
born in T unisia in 1332, in his History o f the Berbers gives particulars
o f the Black em pires o f Africa and o f the m igration from N orth to
S outh o f the w hite races. Ibh-H aoukal o f Baghdad who lived in the
ten th century was a travelling m erchant who made many notes about
the countries he passed through; to him , we owe The Routes and the
Kingdoms. El Bekri, an Arab geographer born in Spain in 1302, sup­
plied m uch inform ation about the econom ic life o f G hana. Ibn
Batouta, born in Tangiers in 1302, visited the em pire o f M ali in 1352
and 1353 during the H u n d red Years W ar: he went to T im buktu,
Gao, O ualata and M ali, the capital o f the em pire w hich succeeded
that o f G hana in 1240; he w rote Voyage to the Sudan.
T h e information supplied by these various authors tells us, among
other things, that in G hana, descent was m atrilineal, in particular
in the case o f succession to the throne. T h e royal dynasty was that
o f the Sarakolle Cisse. Historians sometimes claim - but without being
able to rely on w ritten evidence - that the dynasty o f the Cisse was
preceded by a dynasty o f the w hite Sem itic race o f which certain
princes ruled before M oham m ed; there is said to have been a line
o f forty-four kings, before pow er passed to the Cisse. T w o remarks
can be made here.
On the one hand, it is forgotten that, before M oham m ed and
Islam, the Arabs had no potential o f expansion and that, just at this
period, it was a Black State, such as the Sudan (M eroe), w hich ruled
over Arabia; it cannot therefore be explained, how a political force
could rise in the Yemen, w hich was capable o f carving out such a
vast em pire at the time. O n the other hand, the Semites practised
patrilineal descent and it was their custom s w hich would have
governed the succession to the throne o f G hana, if they were, in fact,
in power at its beginning.
It was only in 710, under the leadership o f Akba ben Nafi that
the Arabs reached M orocco and the Atlantic. It is true that there
is an account o f a tribe o f nom adic A rabs, the Berabich, who in the
first century A .D . are supposed to have left the Yem en, to go to
T ripolitania, which they left in the second century to go to the south
o f M orocco. T h e tribe is said to have stayed there, side by side with
the Messoufa Berbers, until the eighth century. T hen, under pressure

59
from the M oham m edan Arabs, they moved into the desert and, from
that tim e on, served as a link between N orth Africa and Black Africa
in the region o f T im b u k tu . It was not until the seventeenth century
that they were converted to Islam by the K ounta Arabs.
T h e K ounta and the Beni H assan are two Arab tribes which
entered N o rth Africa only in the fifteenth century: they form ed part
o f the people who occupied M auritania.
It can th u s be seen that A rab penetration into Black Africa is
relatively recent and would not, in any event, provide an explana­
tion o f the m atriarchal regim e in G hana.
M artriarch y ruled, in a sim ilar m anner, in the em pire o f M ali,
am ong the M alinke. Ibn Batouta confirms this; he noted this custom
as being one peculiar to the Black world and the opposite o f what
he was accustom ed to see everywhere else in the w orld, except in
India am ong other Black peoples.

They (the Blacks) are named after their maternal uncles and not
after their fathers; it is not the sons who inherit from their fathers,
but the nephews, the sons of the father’s sister. I have never met this
last custom anywhere else, except among the infidels of Malabar, in
India .7

W ith the com ing o f Islam , that is to say, under the influence
o f an exterior factor, and not by an internal evolution, most o f the
people who in the M iddle Ages were m atrilineal becam e patrilineal,
at least in appearance.

The Arab writers who have told us of Ghana and of Mandiga

(Mali) in the Middle Ages have drawn our attention to the fact that,
in these states, the succession was transmitted, not from father to
son, but from brother to uterine brother, or uncle to nephew (son
of sister). According to native traditions it was the Bambara who first,
in the Sudan, broke with this practice and it is from this that they
derive their name - Ban-Ba-ra or Ban-ma-na meaning separation from
the mother - while those among the Ouangara who remained faithful
to the old custom, received the name of Manding or Mande - Ma-nding
or M-nde meaning ‘mother child’. In our times male kinship or con­
sanguinity persists among the Bambara and has gained the upper hand
among the Sarakolle and among part of the Mandingos or Malinke;

60
 but many of these latter still only acknowledge female or uterine con­
sanguinity as conferring the right of heritage, and it is the same among
most of the Pelus (Peul) and the Sereres and among a large number
of the Black peoples of the Sudan, the coast of Guinea and of Africa
south of the Equator .8

T h e Islam isation o f W est Africa began w ith the Almoravidia

m ovem ent in the ten th century. It can be em phasized that it
introduced a sort o f dividing line in the evolution o f religious con­
sciousness, first o f the princes, and as a result, am ong the people.
T h e traditional religion w ithered away little by little under the
influence o f Islam , as did the m ores and custom s. T h is is how the
patrilineal regim e, gradually and progressively becam e substituted
for the m atrilineal regim e, from the tenth century onw ards. T he
exterior reasons which led to this change can thus be grasped.
In West Africa, the adoption o f the father’s name for the children
seems to stem from this same Arabic influence; as a m atter o f fact,
we have just learnt from Ibn Batouta that in 1253, children took the
nam e o f their m aternal uncle, that is to say, their m other’s brother:
the children did indeed take the nam e o f a m an, but the regim e was
purely matrilineal; it only ceased to be so from the time when, accord­
ing to Islam ic custom , the nam e o f the father was substituted for
that o f the uncle.
It is im portant to note that, beginning w ith the same period,
detribalisation was an accomplished fact in West Africa; this is proved
by the possibility o f an individual bearing his own family nam e and
not the nam e o f a clan. In regions o f the continent w hich are not
detribalised, individuals have only a first nam e; w hen th eir proper
nam e is asked for, they reply that they belong to such a totem ic clan,
whose nam e can only be borne collectively. It is only when the
members o f the clan are dispersed that they could retain as individuals,
in m em ory o f their primitive com m unity, the name o f the clan, which
could then become their own family name.
It is, however, necessary to stress a particular fashion o f nam ing
a child w hich seems to proceed from a dualist conception o f social
life. T o the bo y ’s name is added that o f the m other and to the
daughter’s nam e that o f the father; for instance: Cheikh Fatm a means
the son o f Fatm a, M agatte M assam ba-Sassoun is the daughter o f

61
M assamba-Sassoun. It is certain that this does not come from Arabic
influence.
A frican m atriarchy existed on a continent-w ide scale:

The bearing of a son toward his mother among the Swazi (who
live in Southern Africa) is a combination o f deference and affection.
To him, swearing, undressing, or conducting himself in an immodest
manner in her presence, brings about, it is believed, direct punish­
ment by ancestors; he will also be publicly rebuked and can be forced
by the family council to pay a fine. It is expected that his mother
will scold him, should he neglect his duties as a son, a husband or
a father, and he must not reply to her angrily. The accent is always
on the mother proper ‘the mother who bore me’. Her hut is keftu
- our house .9

C onsanguinity am ong the T sw ana, w ho live in B echuanaland

in South Africa, is also m atrilineal.

The maternal relatives are not involved as a rule in the situa­

tions we have just described. They cannot be rivals in property or
social position and most often ‘although this is not absolutely general’,
they belong to another community in the vicinity. They are, in con­
sequence, well-known to be more affectionate and devoted than the
agnates. The children, when they are small, are often sent for some
time to the home of their mother’s relatives, who later on encourage
them to come frequently to visit them. There, a warm reception and
generous hospitality are reserved for them and they profit from
numerous advantages. A child has a place in the home of his mother’s
kin, says the proverb. A maternal uncle allied to him must, in par­
ticular, be consulted in every case specially concerning the children
of his sister; his opinion is so important that sometimes at the moment
when a marriage is being arranged, his veto can be decisive... It is
from his maternal uncle, more perhaps than from any other person,
that a man expects disinterested advice and assistance in case of need...
The relatives and sisters of the mother are commonly recognised as
being more kindly and more indulgent than those of the father.10

Am ong the Ashanti o f G hana, descent is also m atrilineal.

The Ashanti consider the bond between mother and child as

62
 the keystone of all social relations... They consider it as a moral rela­
tionship which is absolutely binding. An Ashanti woman will not stint
in the work she does or the sacrifices she makes for her children.
It is specially to feed, clothe and educate them today, that she works
so hard, annoys her husband and jealously watches her brother, to
make sure that he carries out faithfully his duties as the child’s legal
guardian. No demand is too exaggerated for a mother to meet.
Although she shrinks from inflicting punishment and never disowns
her child, an Ashanti mother requires from her children both obe­
dience and affectionate respect... To show disrespect to a mother is
equivalent to committing a sacrilege."

M atriarchy also governs the social organisation o f the B antu o f

C entral Africa.

Most of the Bantu people of Central Africa determine descent

in the matrilineal rather than in the patrilineal line, and many of them
practise among themselves a certain form of what is generally known
under the name of matrilocal marriage. Indeed, it is this matrilineal
character of the family organisation which distinguishes them so
clearly from the Bantu of Eastern or Southern Africa and it is for
this reason that the territory stretching from the west and centre of
the Belgian Congo to the north-east of Northern Rhodesia and the
mountains of Nyasaland is sometimes known as the ‘matrilineal
belt ’ 12

It is clear from this statem ent that the m atriarchal regime existed
generally in Africa, in ancient tim es as well as at the present day,
and that this cultural feature does not result from an ignorance o f
the role o f the father in the conception o f the child. T he phallic cult,
which is a corollary o f the agrarian regime (raised stones, the obelisks
o f Egypt, the tem ples o f Southern India) is ample p roof o f this; it
shows that at the tim e when ancient hum anity chose the system o f
m atrilineal descent, it knew the role o f the father in fecundation. In
none o f the systems described in the Southern cradle is patrilineal
consanguinity system atically neglected. O n the contrary social con­
duct regarding patrilineal relatives is stricter than that regarding
m atrilineal relatives. W ith the latter, one behaves freely and easily
w ithout social hypocrisy; it is different w ith the form er, since
appearances m ust always be safeguarded. A m aternal brother or half­

63
brother can be left on the battlefield, but never a paternal half-brother,
although he is less loved than the form er, and one is more distant
from him. He is a social rival, who must be outdone or at least equalled
in everything, to do honour; w ithin the bounds o f polygam y, to the
‘dw elling’ o f his m other, that is to say, to his line, his m otherland.

THE NORTHERN CRADLE

T h e geographic area which will be studied here com prises the E u ra­
sian steppes (the civilisation o f the T um uli), Germ any, Greece, Rome
and C rete. Actually, C rete already appears as a zone o f transition
in the open sea, between the S outh and the N orth. T aking into
account the priority o f its civilisation, it is by the study o f the latter
that it is preferable to open this chapter.

CRETE

W hat is known o f the C retan civilisation? According to Thucydides,

the C retans established a m aritim e suprem acy over the whole o f the
Aegean region o f the M editerranean.

...And the first person known to us by tradition as having

established a navy is Minos. He made himself master of what is now
called the Hellenic sea, and ruled over the Cyclades, into most of
which he established the first colonies, expelling the Carians and
appointing his own sons governors; and thus did his best to put down
piracy in those waters, a necessary step to secure the revenues for
his own use....

With respect to their towns, later on, at an era of increased

facilities of navigation and a greater supply of capital, we find the
shores becoming the site of walled towns ...13

N othing fu rth er is known o f C rete until Schliem ann in 1876,

and Evans in 1900, carried out excavations on the scene o f the deeds
described by H om er. Schliem ann was not a professional, but a self-
taught genius; he was thus, in one sense, less handicapped in his
efforts than if he had had a classical background. After being success­
ful in business and making a great deal o f money, he dedicated him self

64
to science and to the study o f ancient languages, the better to devote
him self to archaeology. T aking the works o f the ancients (H om er,
Aeschylus, E uripides, Sophocles) literally, he discovered the loca­
tion o f ancient towns like T ro y , M ycenae, and T yrins. H e carried
out his excavations and succeeded in transform ing the sub-foundations
o f a palace which he thought to be that o f Priam. H e found at Mycenae
the 'treasure o f Atreus', and at T iry n s a palace, the walls o f w hich
were covered with frescoes. It occurred to him to compare the ceramic
objects found in these last two cities. By their style, they all came,
so to speak, from the same factory. Vases w ith a geom etric design
existed in E gypt at the tim e o f T h o th m es III (eighteenth dynasty).
At M ycenae he also unearthed an ostrich egg, which very probably
came from Africa. One o f the frescoes o f the palace o f T iryns
represented the struggle o f a m an w ith a bull. Schliem ann had not
the tim e to excavate in C rete and so could not have realised that this
scene was typical o f C retan art. H ow ever, he felt, on the basis o f
these signs, that formerly the same civilisation - whose centre was
this island - originating in Africa or Asia, had extended throughout
the Eastern M editerranean.
It was Sir Evans to whom it fell to prove the existence o f the
Aegean civilisation, in unearthing the Palace o f M inos at Knossos.
T h u s the tradition related by T hucydides was confirm ed: C rete was
indeed the centre o f a maritime em pire, whose continental towns were
its colonies. T h ro u g h trade it had relations with the S outhern world
and, in particular, since prehistoric times, with Egypt. Indeed accord­
ing to C apart, the gerzean statues, w ith their triangular heads,
characteristic o f the end o f the prehistoric period in Egypt, are very
widespread in C rete.
T h e colonisation o f Attica is symbolised by the legend o f Theseus;
every year, the A thenians had to send, by way o f tribute, seven boys
and seven girls, to the Palace o f M inos at Knossos. In the labyrinth
o f the palace lived a m onster with the head o f a bull and the body
o f a man: the M inotaur, who was supposed to devour the young Athe­
nians. Theseus liberated the town o f his birth by killing the M inotaur,
with the help o f A riadne, the daughter o f M inos. T h is legend bears
witness to the state o f servitude in w hich Attica found itself with
regard to C rete.
It can be supposed that, under C retan dom ination, cultural

65
influences spread from South to N orth, perhaps from Egypt. In Crete
a m atriarchal regime was in force, as in Egypt. T h e C retan called
his native land his m otherland14; but where did he him self come
from? It is know n that he was neither Indo-E uropean, Sem itic nor
o f the M ongolian race; he was small and brow n and m ust have
belonged to a race w hich was mixed from a very early tim e. T h e
latter was surely not native to C rete, which was a desert region at
the tim e o f the Paleolithic. T h e race which inhabited it m ust have
come from some or other continent; but given its undeniable m atriar­
chy, it can be inferred that it came from an agricultural m ilieu. T h e
C retan thalassocracy lasted approxim ately a thousand years (2500
to 1500 B.C.); its influence therefore had tim e to be im planted on
the M editerranean; it may be that the matriarchy o f the first aboriginal
populations o f Attica is due partially to C rete.
T h e causes o f the sudden collapse o f the Aegean civilisation are
still being exam ined. Evans, who made its discovery, thought that
it was necessary to put forw ard a natural phenom enon, such as an
earthquake, as an explanation. O n exam ining the ruins o f the palace
o f M inos he was able to find traces o f a destruction, so violent and
sudden, that it could only be com pared with that o f Pom peii; the
victim s had no tim e to realise the cause o f their death. N o invasion
by ‘peoples from the sea’ could have had such im m ediate effects.
It was after having witnessed an earthquake on the Island that Evans
had this idea.
H ow ever, it is rem arkable that the destruction o f the M inoan
civilisation coincided w ith the period o f the great invasions o f the
Indo-Europeans: it was towards 1500 B.C. that the Southern cradle
was invaded and partly subm erged by the nomadic peoples w ho came
from the E urasian steppes.

GREECE

Historically, Greece began to exist after the destruction o f the Cretan

civilisation. T h e Achaeans, an Indo-European tribe, were the peo­
ple responsible, as is shown by Andre Aym ard. T h e author stresses
the C retan influence on Achaean society which becam e enriched
m aterially and spiritually, thanks to the wealth and to the ‘teachers’
captured in Crete:

66
 ‘Nevertheless, the Achaeans, excellent warriors who used horses
harnessed to their chariots, full of fresh and exuberant energy and
drawn by the richness of their teachers, finished by attacking the lat­
ter. Towards 1400 B.C., the palace of Knossos was completely
destroyed and was not to rise again... in the civilisation which then
developed, especially at Mycenae - from whence its traditional name
- and at Tiryns, the Cretan influence seems to have remained strong.
In pillaging the island, leaving it with a reduced standard of living,
the Achaeans had taken its treasures, its artists and its workers in
order to embellish their own material existence; but the presence of
these objects and these men could not remain without consequence
on the moral domain, notably in the matter of religion .1,5

T ow ards this period - in the m iddle o f the second m illenium

- G reece m ust have known, in addition to the influence o f C rete,
that o f the Egyptians and the Phoenicians.
It is at this mom ent that the Phoenicians, symbolised by Cadm us,
took over the role o f the C retans at sea; they introduced the alphabet
and founded the oracle o f Dodona, considered to be the oldest cultural
centre in Greece.

‘The following tale is commonly told in Egypt concerning the

oracle of Dodona in Greece, and that of Ammon in Libya. My infor­
mants on the point were the priests of Jupiter at Thebes. They said
that ‘two of the sacred women were once carried off from Thebes
by the Phoenicians, and that the story went that one of them was
sold into Libya, and the other into Greece, and these women were
the first founders of the oracles in the two countries.’ On my enquir­
ing how they came to know so exactly what became of the women,
they answered that ‘diligent search had been made after them at the
time, but that it had not been found possible to discover where they
were’; afterwards, however, they received the information which they
had given me.
This was what I heard from the priests at Thebes; at Dodona,
however, the women who deliver the oracles relate the matter as
follows: ‘Two black doves flew away from Egyptian Thebes, and while
one directed its flight to Libya, the other came to them. She alighted
on an oak and sitting there began to speak with a human voice, and
told them that on the spot where she was, there should thenceforth
be an oracle of Jove’ ...16

67
 A ccording to H erodotus, alm ost all the gods o f Greece were o f
E gyptian origin. It is also from the Egyptians that the Pelasgians
m ust have learnt to accredit their divinities w ith certain attributes.
T h e foundation o f the oracle o f D odona, w hich we have just m en­
tioned, dates from that period.

Almost all the names of the gods came into Greece from Egypt.
My inquiries prove that they were all derived from a foreign source,
and my opinion is that Egypt furnished the greatest number. For
with the exception of Neptune and the Dioscuri, whom I mentioned
above, and Juno, Vesta, Themis, the Graces and the Nereids, the other
gods have been known from time immemorial in Egypt. This I assert
on the authority of the Egyptians themselves. The gods, with whose
names they profess themselves unacquainted, the Greeks received,
I believe, from the Pelasgi, except Neptune...
Besides these which have been here mentioned, there are many
other practices whereof I shall speak hereafter, which the Greeks have
borrowed from Egypt...
In early times the Pelasgi, as I know by information which I got
at Dodona, offered sacrifices of all kinds, and prayed to the gods,
but had no distinct names or appellations from them, since they had
never heard of any. They called them gods (disposers), because they
had disposed and arranged all things in such a beautiful order. After
a long lapse of time the names of the gods came to Greece from Egypt,
and the Pelasgi learnt them, only as yet they knew nothing of Bac­
chus, of whom they first heard at a much later date. Not long after
the arrival of the names they sent to consult the oracle at Dodona
about them. This is the most ancient oracle in Greece, and at that
time there was no other ...17

T h e reign o f Cecrops, a legendary king o f Egyptian origin, is generally

situated at this tim e period o f the Pelasgians. It is he who is said
to have introduced into Greece the practices o f the South - agriculture
- and even, it seems, the custom o f m arriage. M atriarchy o f the
prim itive peoples o f the peninsula bears his name. A lthough we are
dealing w ith a legend, we could not insist too m uch on this triple
correlation: it was a king from the South who introduced agriculture
and its corollary, matriarchy. T h e later struggle o f the Greeks to reject
these Southern cultural values is described exactly in a legend, which
relates facts dating from the reign o f Cecrops.

68
 I would draw your attention to a tale by Varron which has been
preserved for us by St. Augustine (De Civitate Dei, 18,9). In the reign
o f Cecrops occurred a double wonder. At one and the same moment
an olive tree sprang from the ground and in another spot, a spring.
The king, frightened, sent to the oracle of Delphi to ask what this
meant, and what must be done in similar occurrences. The god replied
that the olive tree signified Minerva and the spring Neptune, and
that it was the duty of the citizens to name their town after one of
the two signs and after one of the two divinities. Thereupon Cecrops
assembled all the citizens, the women as well as the men, since at
this time it was usual for women to participate in public delibera­
tions. Then, the men voted for Neptune, the women, for Minerva;
and since there was one woman more, it was Minerva who won. Nep­
tune, thus rebuffed, became incensed and the sea rose and covered
the lands of the Athenians. To appease the anger of the god, the
citizens were forced to inflict three punishments on their wives; they
had to lose their right to vote; their children would no longer be called
by their mother’s name; the women themselves would no longer have
the right to be called Athenians (after the name of the goddess). St.
Augustine adds the following thought: as the personification of the
women who were punished, Minerva, who was at first the victor,
was eventually beaten. She abandoned so completely her friends who
had given her their votes that they not only lost their right to vote
and that of calling their children by the mother’s name, but they could
no longer even call themselves Athenians and could no longer bear
the name of the goddess who, thanks to their vote, had triumphed
over the male divinity .18

T h is text, as explicit as that o f the Cresteia o f Aeschylus, marks,

as does the latter, the dividing line in G reece betw een the period
when the cultural values o f the South played a prom inent part and
that when they gave way to those o f the N orth. It is typical that every
m ention o f a m atriarchy at the tim e o f the Aegean period is linked
w ith a S outhern factor.
Several facts seem to attest to this ancient extension tow ards the
N o rth o f the values o f the agricultural cradle. These have been
especially enum erated and analysed in a study by Louis Benloew:

On the other hand it has been maintained on several occasions

and with a certain persistence that the findings have still not justified

69
 the fact that Greece was colonised by immigrants who came from
Egypt. Frfiret tried to identify Inachus with Enak and Pharaoh with
Phorone. Io, the daughter of Inachus, assumes several of the traits
of the goddess Isis. The resemblance between these names seems
plausible, but it is insufficient to carry any real conviction to the mind.
The tradition, according to which Cecrops and Danaus came from
Egypt is no more certain. It has been claimed that Cecrops introduced
agriculture into Attica, arboriculture (especially the cultivation of the
olive) and the institution of marriage! Philochorus went so far as to
affirm that under Cecrops, there were 20,000 people in Athens...
...It was Plato in his Timaeus who, following traditions of the
Egyptian priests, stated that Athens had been very closely related to
the land of Egypt, and notably with Sais...
According to Greek mythology, Libya was the mother of Belos
and Danavis and Egyptos were sons of the latter. These legendary
facts only prove the ancient and close relations which seem to have
united from earliest antiquity Mizraim, Sem and Javan. It is not at
all unlikely that at the period when the Hyksos occupied the valley
of the Nile, the Egyptians, guided by the Phoenicians, could have
tried to colonise some parts of the Peloponnesus. In Pausanius, there
is more than one relic and more than one name which makes one
think of ancient Egypt...
...Herodotus relates that the Danaides taught the women of Argos
to celebrate the Thesmophories o f Demeter, feasts whose ceremony
specially refers to married life...
...After all, it matters little to us whether the Egyptians did or
did not found a colony on the shores of the Greek peninsula. What
we would like to prove is that Greek soil had not been occupied in
the most ancient times solely by people coming from the Northern
regions, but that the East and the South had furnished their share
of colonists with swarthy complexions. Our task will be easy if it is
granted that the proper names which are met in the mythology of
ancient peoples are other than empty words. Now it is their com­
plexion which gave their name to the Ethiopians, of whom the Greeks
recognised two types, those who lived in the Far East and those who
lived in the West, that is to say in Libya (perhaps also in Nubia).
Did they penetrate into Greece and did they intermix with the
inhabitants of that country ?19

T h e author shows that D anaus had a wife nam ed Ethiopis and

a daughter Celeno, whose nam e m eans Black. H e shows that a

70
daughter o f Atlas also bore the same name. Celeno had a son by N ep ­
tune called C elenus. A second C elenus, son o f Phlyos, is the basis
for the ancient legendary cults o f the Peloponnesus. Perseus, the king
o f Argos, had a grandson C elenus. C elena was also the daughter o f
Proteus, the king o f T iry n s, w ho had a gigantic citadel built for
h im self by the Lycians. T h e goddess Diana o f Attica was an E thio­
pian; she was w orshipped at B rauron and it was Apollo who took
her away from E thiopia; elsew here she was known as the Ethiopian.
She had altars in Lydia and in Euboea, two countries which were
form erly called E thiopia. H elanis was the form nam e o f the town
o f E ritrea in Euboea; it is said to have been founded by M elenee.
A Black Venus was w orshipped at C orinth. T hese M elanian names
are also widely scattered in the Peloponnesus. T h ere is M elanthos,
son o fN e lee, K ing o f Elis; a district in Sithonia is called M elandia.
According to H om er, Proteus left Egypt to settle in M acedonia in
the peninsula o f Chalcidie. O riginally the islands o f Sam othrace,
Lem nos and Lesbos, were known as Ethiopia. According to the same
author, Pelops - who gave his nam e to the Peloponnesus - could
mean nothing else than ‘the man w ith the dark com plexion’. At the
tim e o f H om er this region was still not known as the Peloponnesus;
this expression was only adopted in the seventh century B.C.
T h e stratification o f the population o f G reece was the follow­
ing, according to Benloew:
T h e first layer, composed o f Leleges, mixed perhaps with Phoeni­
cian, Libyan and Egyptian colonists, was conquered by the Achaeans,
a N o rth ern people who m ade u p the second layer. In tu rn the
Achaeans were conquered by the Dorians (the third layer), also a N or­
th ern people. In so far as the m atriarchy o f the first stratum cannot
be denied, neither can the patriarchy o f the two others.*
T h e first population was steeped in a Southern culture which
the second was relentless in destoying, to the point that today there
rem ain only scarcely detectable traces.

‘The woman, and this is the point we wish to make, seems to

have played a different role among the primitive peoples of Greece
than among the descendants o f Deucalion, with whom they shared
the land. In the same way that Demeter and Athena were the objects
* T h e re is a te n d e n c y to d ay to c o n sid e r th e D o ria n m o v em en t as a class struggle.

71
 of a particularly fervent worship by these people, so did the woman
not only enjoy a singular esteem, but she appears sometimes to have
occupied a rank superior to that of the men in the constitution of
the tribe. Seeing in her especially the mother, they considered her
as the foundation o f the family and of the society and she was given
rights and prerogatives which, in our society, are given to men
only .20

Am ong the prim itive populations, those which are the most
m arked by Southern m atriarchy are the Pelasgians, the Leleges, the
Zolian Locrians m entioned by Polybius. T h ere have been many
references m ade to the Phoenician influence. T ow ards the m iddle
o f the second m illenium (1450 B.C.), under the growing pressure,
perhaps, o f Indo-European tribes who occupied the hinterland and
perhaps also for com m ercial reasons, the Phoenicians founded their
first colonies in Boeotia, to settle there the surplus inhabitants o f
Sidon. T his is how Thebes in Boeotia was created, the choice o f whose
name confirm s the close relationship w ith Egypt at this time. Indeed
it is the name o f the sacred capital o f U pper Egypt, from where the
Phoenicians brought the Black wom en who founded the oracles o f
Dodona in Greece and o f Am m on in Libya. C adm us is the personifica­
tion o f the Sidonian age and the Phoenician contribution to Greece:
the G reeks said that it was he who introduced w riting, in the same
way as we would say today that it is M arianne who introduced railways
to French W est Africa. In the beginning it was the Phoenician col­
ony which was suprem e; bu t there was very soon a struggle for
freedom by the Greeks against the Phoenicians who, in this period
before the Argonauts, possessed the m astery o f the sea and technical
superiority. According to L enorm ant, this period o f conflict is sym ­
bolised by the struggle o f C adm us (the Phoenician) against the ser­
pent son o f M ars (the Greek); it lasted about three centuries.

The discord aroused among the autochtons by the arrival of the

colonists of Cana is represented in mythology by the conflict waged
after the arrival of Cadmus by the Spartans, born o f the earth. From
that time onward, those Spartans said by legend to have survived this
struggle who became the Companions of Cadmus, are the represen­
tatives of the principal Aeonian families who accepted foreign
domination.
 Cadmus did not remain very long in peaceful possession of his
empire, he was soon driven out and forced to withdraw among the
Enchelians. It was the native element which regained the upper hand;
after having accepted Phoenician authority and after having received
the benefits of civilisation it rose up against them and tried to expel
them...
...All that can be detected in this part of the accounts relating
to the Cadmeans is the profound horror which their race, foreign
as it was, and their religion, still bearing the imprint of all the Eastern
barbarity and obscenity inspired in the poor and virtuous Greeks,
whose instructors, however, they had been. Thus in Hellenic tradi­
tions a superstitious terror is attached to the memory of the kings
of the race of Cadmus. It is they who furnish most often the subjects
for ancient tradition .21

T h e C anaean influence in G reece was therefore profound; it

endured for three centuries through the interm ediary o f kings who
had found collaborators among the population. T his influence is even
m entioned in the Bible, which speaks o f D odanim , w hich was none
other than the oracle o f Dodona:

The tradition of Genesis and that of the Greeks coincide to make

of Dodona (in Hebrew, Dodanim) the oldest centre of Greek civilisa­
tion. It is curious that in the region where this town is situated one
comes across all the names by which the Greeks have been known since
their arrival in the country where they were destined to remain.22

H om er and Hesiod are the poets who have determ ined the
national tradition in G reece. Hesiod was a Boeotian. His theogony
is directly inspired by the Phoenician cosm ogony, revealed by the
fragments o f Sanchoniaton, translated by Philo o f Byblos and related
by Eusebius. T hose who think that patriarchy was the basis o f the
Phoenician social organisation could possibly object; it can be recalled
that it is necessary to distinguish betw een the Phoenicia o f the
Canaoan period and the Palestine o f the Jews. T h e Phoenicians who
em igrated from T y re and founded C arthage were led not by a king
but by a queen, Dido. T h e C anaeans, who were a sedentary people
practising agriculture and com m erce, stem m ed from the Southern
matriarchal regime and had great cultural affinity with the Egyptians.

73
 All th at has just been said shows that only in so far as one
disregards the superim position o f the Southern and N orthern cultures
around the M editerranean, and in particular in Greece, can one speak
o f a universal transition from m atriarchy to patriarchy, o f the ubi­
quity o f all forms o f organisation and o f hum an beliefs.

ROME

T h e historical situation o f Rome presents a great likeness to that of

Greece, which has just been described: a prior occupation o f the land
by aboriginal peoples having their own custom s, the invasion and
d estruction o f these people by nom adic elem ents arriving later from
the N o rth . How ever, the possibilities o f investigation are singularly
lim ited by the rarity o f any w ritten records, as has been underlined
by A ndre Aymard.

To begin with it is essential to state precisely the limits of our

documentation: its insufficiency is the justification for the cautiousness
manifested in the following pages. Both the Greeks and the Romans
were interested in the Etruscans, sometimes devoting important works
to them. To confine ourselves to two examples, chosen because of
the fame of their authors, we see that Aristotle did not neglect to
include this people among the hundred and fifty-eight whose ‘con­
stitutions’ or political institutions he studied in as many monographs;
we see also that the enthusiastic scholar, Emperor Claudius, devoted
some twenty volumes to the Tyrrhenians. But, as others of the same
kind, these systematic treatises have disappeared and of the abun­
dant ‘literature’ of antiquity concerning this most amazing period of
the origins of Italy, there remain today only minute and disconnected
fragments .23

A ndre Aym ard surveys the three hypotheses held regarding the
origin o f the Etruscans. One supposes them to have come from the
N o rth across the ‘Rhaetian A lps’; another considered them to be
aborigines whose civilisation had blossom ed forth as the result of
a process o f internal evolution and also m aritim e contact with the
peoples o f the Eastern M editerranean; the third, which had the most
adherents among the ancients, considers them to be invaders who
came from Asia M inor after having w andered for a long tim e about

74
the M editerranean, towards the end o f the second m illennium , follow­
ing the fall o f T roy.
C ertain facts seem to im ply that the E truscans were acquainted
w ith m atriarchy. T h ey were a sedentary, agricultural people and as
such practised a long ritual for tracing the lay-out o f towns w ith their
plough shares. It seems that R om ulus was inspired by this custom
when he founded the city o f Rome. T hey named their children equally
after the m other or the father.

There existed, in Etruria, great families and their cohesion as

shown by a system of individual appellation, which until then was
unknown in the Mediterranean world. Throughout all the East, a
man had only been given one name, this being followed by the name
of his father, in order to distinguish those with the same name; certain
Asian peoples, notably the Lycians, preferred the name of the mother,
which has sometimes been interpreted as a mark of a matriarchal
regime. Now, if the Etruscans used these two systems, they also used
another at the same time or even alone, the name otherwise single
in front of a first name placed before a family name. This custom
affirms forcefully the continuity of the family and in fact permits,
in the case of certain Etruscan families, the establishment of long
and complex genealogies.24

It can thus be seen that an Etruscan m atriarchy is, to say the

least, uncertain. But taking into account its agricultural and sedentary
character and the constant contact w hich the people had w ith Egypt
- the use o f the sarcophagus is evidence o f this - the practice o f
matriarchy would not be unlikely. T he sarcophagus is the materialisa­
tion, to some extent, o f the religious idea the Egyptians had regarding
im m ortality. It reflected their hope o f conquering the latter: perhaps
the notions o f life after death and the divinatory practices, which
played a large part in the Etruscan religion, had a Southern origin.
It is clear th at the E truscans are a m uch later people than the
Egyptians.
If the Etruscans had had an Asian origin, as most ancient writers
supposed, and if they had been refugees from T roy, they would have
been, according to tradition, the allies o f Egypt before the fall o f that
city, because the current king o f Egypt and Ethiopia had sent ten
thousand Ethiopians to aid the city o f Priam , besieged by the Greeks

75
led by Agamemnon. In this case the Egyptian influence would precede
the T ro jan W ar, w hich w ould be not at all unlikely since at an even
older period E gypt had already influenced Phoenicia. T h e Sabines
lived at Alba, in the neighbourhood o f the Etruscans. T h e root o f
their nam e is not Indo-E uropean and recalls a S outhern ethnonym y.
According to Fustel de C oulanges, they w orshipped the god Consus;
an E gyptian god is known w hich was called K honsou. In ancient
Egyptian, Rom e, whose etym ological origin is unknow n, could be
connected w ith the root R em etou m eaning ‘the m en’. T h e legend
connected w ith the foundation o f the city discloses totem ic practices
w hich seem foreign to the N o rth e rn cradle.
It is not unlikely that, at the m om ent when Egyptian influence
was spreading in Greece (age o f Cecrops) it had also reached the Italian
peninsula, then inhabited by aborigines.
T h is prim itive population foundation was com pletely swept over
on the arrival o f the true Indo-Europeans: the Latins, representatives
o f a foreign culture and foreign custom s. H ere, as in G reece, the
discontinuity between old and new inhabitants is evident, and the
patriarchy o f the latter can not validly be considered as the logical
successor to the m atriarchy o f the form er. O nce again, it is a ques­
tion o f tw o irreducible system s being superim posed on each other.
T h e speech o f C ato, reported by T itu s Livy, in favour o f upholding
o f the O ppian law against fem inine extravagance, reveals the patriar­
chal basis o f L atin society:

Our ancestors did not allow the women to handle any business,
even domestic, without special authority; they never ceased to keep
them dependent on their fathers, their brothers or their husbands.
But we, if the gods are willing, will soon allow them to take part
in the direction of public affairs, to frequent the forum, to listen to
the speeches and meddle in the work of the electoral assemblies...
The advantages against whose absence they are protesting today are
the least of those of which, to their great displeasure, enjoyment is
forbidden by our custom and by our laws... Count the legislative pro­
visions by which our ancestors tried to fetter the independence of
women and to make them subject to their husbands; and see how
much trouble we have, even with all these legal impediments, to keep
them within the bounds of duty. What! If you allow them to break
these bonds one after the other, to become free of all dependence

76
 and to be put completely on the same footing as their husbands, do
you think it will be possible for them to endure them? They will no
sooner be our equals than they will dominate us .25

T h is passage needs no com m ent: it is difficult to think that a

people w hich expresses itself in such a m anner on the condition o f
w om en, th rough the m outh o f one o f its greatest political figures,
would have known any long-forgotten matriarchy. T he quoted passage
expresses quite the contrary since it consists especially o f recalling
the coercive virtues o f the ancestors regarding wom en. In the begin­
ning there had been com plete subjection, which only becam e m ore
flexible in the course o f developm ent. At the tim e w hen Cato
pronounced these words in the Rom an forum in the Southern cradle,
in Africa, wom en took part in public life and had the right to vote,
they could become queens and enjoyed a legal status equal to that
o f m en. It is im possible to find anything equivalent to this passage
in the whole o f Egyptian literature from its beginning or in Black
African literature, w hether this be w ritten or spoken.

GERMANIA

T o Caesar and T acitus we owe the few pieces o f inform ation existing
about G erm ania and G aul. According to these accounts, the G er­
m ans were still sem i-nom adic and struggled with all their m ight
against definitive settling down. T h ey rem ain conscious o f their
pastoral background and knowingly refused to devote them selves to
agriculture. In accordance w ith nom adic custom s, crem ation was in
force. Polygam y was general am ong the barbarians, according to
T acitus; am ong the G erm ans, all those w ho had the m eans to do
so, that is to say, the aristocracy, practised it. T h ey waged the same
type o f devastating warfare as the Rom ans; according to F ustel de
Coulanges, the latter did not confine them selves to attacking m en
but also attacked the surrounding country, the harvest, etc... After
their passage, the fields were transform ed into uncultivated wastes.
It was the same among the G erm ans.

They never practise agriculture and live principally on milk,

cheese and meat. No-one has a portion of land of his own, or of specific

77
 boundaries; but each year, the magistrates and the chiefs assign to
the different groupings and to the families who are gathered together,
a particular piece of land in a region which is judged to be suitable,
and in the following year, they force them to move elsewhere. For
this, several reasons are given: they are afraid that the force and attrac­
tion of habit will make them abandon the taste for arms for that of
agriculture... The highest honour for a city is for this to be surrounded
by devastated frontiers and wide open spaces. They believe that the
essence of courage is to force neighbouring peoples to abandon their
territory and to ensure that no-one dare to establish himself in the
vicinity: at the same time they think that in this way they are more
secure, by not having to fear any sudden invasions. Robbery com­
mitted beyond the boundaries of the city is nothing shameful: it serves,
they say, to keep the young people busy and to diminish idleness.26

T acitu s depicts even m ore strongly the bellicose spirit and b ar­
barity o f the G erm ans.

The crowning dishonour is to have abandoned his shield... He

speaks of his wounds to his mother or to his wife; and the latter do
not fear to count the sores or to measure the size of them. In the
struggle, they provide food for the combatants and exhort them...
If the city of their birth languishes in the idleness of a long peace,
the chiefs of the youth go to seek war against some foreign people:
so much so does this nation hate repose! Moreover, it is easier to
win renown in perils; and the rule of force and of arms is needed
to maintain numerous companions... You would persuade them much
less easily to till the land and to await the harvest, than to go looking
for enemies or wounds. In their eyes, it is a sign of laziness and cowar­
dice to acquire by the sweat of one’s brow what they can obtain by
blood... They also wear the skins of animals, which are rougher
towards the Rhine and more elaborate in the interior of the country,
where commerce does not provide any other form of dress. There,
the animals are chosen and, to improve the appearance of the hides,
they are covered with stains and variegated with skins of monsters
from the unknown shores of the farthest ocean...
...There is no ostentation in their funeral services; only in the
case of famous men are their bodies burnt by using a special kind
of wood.27

78
 A passage from T acitus regarding the im portance o f the m ater­
nal uncle am ong the G erm an suggests often that the latter knew
m atriarchy. T h is opinion w ould be w ell-founded if the nephew
inherited from the uncle in the G erm anic society, but T acitus shows
us the opposite: the son inherited from his father.

Nevertheless in this country, marriage is chaste and there is no

other trait in their customs which merits more praise. Almost alone
among the barbarians they are satisfied with one wife, except for a
large number of leaders who take several, not in a spirit of debauchery,
but because several families covet an alliance with them. It is not
the wife, but the husband who provides a dowry...
...The son of a sister is as dear to his uncle as to his father; some
even think that the first of these ties is the healthier and the closer;
and, when receiving hostages, they prefer nephews, as inspiring an
attachment which is stronger and which affects the family more
widely. Nevertheless their own children are their heirs and
successors.28

In the event o f these facts not m aking the exception w hich con­
firms the rule, one m ight try to explain them by an outside influence.
T h e inconsistency o f the national culture o f the G erm ans at this
period, and o f barbarians in general, rendered them particularly
susceptible to the S outhern custom s, w hich were brought to them
at the same time as m anufactured products by the Phoenicians. T here
is a tendency to regard the G erm an people o f the N orthern part o f
the Rom an E m pire, betw een the R hine and the D anube, as cut off
from all outside influence, and especially that o f the South. T his point
o f view m ust be put aside, in so far as they did undergo this influence
even in their religious beliefs.
T h e Suebian G erm ans made sacrifices to Isis. T acitus who tells
o f this fact, is surprised and attributes it to an external influence.

A part of the Suebians also make sacrifices to Isis. I cannot find

the cause of the origin of this foreign cult. Only the figure of a ship,
which is its symbol, shows that it came to them from across the
sea.29

It is in the dom ain o f religion that people are generally the most

79
im pervious to all outside influence. W hen this m ental fortress is bat­
tered, the others, less solid, such as family relations and the like have
already had to undergo severe dam age and profound m odification.
Now the religious influence o f the S outh, in the G erm ania o f that
tim e, and in the whole o f N o rth ern Europe, was m ore w idespread,
m ore profound and more durable than is often imagined. It extended
as far as E ngland, probably by the interm ediary o f the Phoenicians
w ho went there to look for tin.

According to Tacitus (Germans, 9), part of the Suebians, a Ger­

manic people, made sacrifices to Isis; in fact, inscriptions have been
found in which Isis is associated with the Holy City of Noreia; Noreia
is known today as Neumarket, in Styria. Isis, Osiris, Seraphis, Anubis
had temples in France at Frfjus, Nimes, Arles, Riez (in the Basses-
Alpes), Parzer (Isfere), Manduel (Gard), Boulogne (Haute-Garonne),
at Lyon, Besanqon, Langres and Soissons. Isis was honoured at Melun
and S6rapis in England at York and Brougham Castle, and also in
Pannania and in Norique .’0

At the time o f Caesar, who wrote about 150 years before Tacitus,
the G erm ans knew nothing o f m ost o f the gods they were later to
w orship; they only knew three o f these. T h e ir religion was reduced
to its most sim ple expression. L ater they enriched their Pantheon
by integrating into it, in increasing num bers, Southern gods.

The customs of the Germans are very different for they have no
Druids to preside over the worship, and scarcely bother with sacrifices.
They only count the gods they can see and whose benefits can be
felt: the sun, Vulcan and the moon: they have never even heard of
the others. They spend all their life hunting or in warlike pursuits
and, from infancy, they apply themselves to becoming hardened
against fatigue.”

T h is foreign influence, from the South, in the N o rth o f Europe

and in all the M editerranean, is attested even by linguistic fossils.

The mutation of 11 into dd (dental r sound in which the point

of the tongue is folded back to touch the upper part of the palate,
sometimes even with the lower part of the tongue) in Sardinia, Sicily,
 Apulia and Calabria, does not represent a change of minor impor­
tance in fundamentals, nor of less considerable interest. According
to Merlo, this particular mode of articulation was due to a Mediter­
ranean people, who lived in the area before its Romanisation.
Although cacuminal sounds exist equally in other languages, the
articulatory mutation here proceeded on such a wide basis and in a
domain which, stretching beyond the seas, has a character so clearly
archaic, that the idea of Merlo has all the appearance of truth.
Doubtless Rohlfs would object that cacuminal sounds are equally to
be found elsewhere. But these are, in fact, cases which confirm to
a certain extent the opinion of Merlo. In the same way Pott and Benfey
disclosed some time ago that the cacuminal articulation introduced
into the Aryan languages spoken by the invaders of the Deccan came
from the Dravidian populations already established there . ’2

It is remarkable that, at the tim e o f Caesar, there existed no god­

dess in the G erm an Pantheon. W hile this represents an inconsistency
for a people who had known m atriarchy, it would prove that the
Niebelungen (G erm an verse chronicles) arose at a later date, perhaps
in the M iddle Ages.

SCYTHIA

In the first century B.C. the Scythians were still semi-nomadic. T heir
terrifying customs are described by Herodotus in Book IV o f his work.
T h eir case is all the more im portant in that they seem to form the
hum an group which rem ained nearest to the original state and loca­
tion o f the Indo-Europeans.
W hen a king died, they hauled his body from tribe to tribe after
having em balm ed it in the E gyptian m anner: the body was smeared
with wax; the abdomen, after being em ptied o f its entrails and cleaned
out, was filled with arom atics and sewn up again. W henever the
funeral cortege arrived am ong one o f their tribes, the m em bers o f
this indulged in all sorts o f m utilation; some cut o ff their ear-tips,
or shaved o ff their hair, while others made incisions on their arms
or tore o ff bits o f their foreheads or noses; certain o f them plunged
arrows into their left hands. A fter which the tribe increased the size
o f the cortege and it continued on its rounds till it arrived among
the G errhians, the most northerly tribe o f the group. T h e body was
then laid in the funeral cham ber:

81
 ...In the open space around the body of the king they bury one
of his concubines, first killing her by strangling, and also his cup­
bearer, his cook, his groom, his lackey, his messenger, some of his
horses, firstling of all his other possessions, and some golden cups;
for they use neither silver nor brass. After this they set to work and
raise a vast mound above the grave, all of them vying with each other
and seeking to make it as tall as possible. When a year is gone by,
further ceremonies take place. Fifty of the best of the late King’s atten­
dants are taken, all native Scythians - for as bought slaves are
unknown in the country, the Scythian kings choose any of their sub­
jects that they like, to wait on them - fifty of these are taken and
strangled, with fifty of the most beautiful horses. When they are dead,
their bowels are taken out and the cavity cleaned, filled full of chaff,
and straightaway sewn up again. This done, a number of posts are
driven into the ground, in sets of two pairs each, and on every pair
half the felly of a wheel is placed archwise; then strong stakes are
run lengthways through the bodies of the horses from tail to neck,
and they are mounted up upon the fellies, so that the felly in front
supports the shoulders of the horse, while that behind sustains the
belly and quarters, the legs dangling in mid-air; each horse is fur­
nished with a bit and bridle, which latter is stretched out in front
of the horse, and fastened to a peg. The fifty strangled youths are
then mounted severally on the fifty horses. To effect this, a second
stake is passed through their bodies along the course of the spine to
the neck; the lower end of which projects from the body, and is fixed
into a socket, made in the stake that runs lengthwise down the horse.
The fifty riders are thus ranged in a circle round the tomb, and so left.
Such, then, is the mode in which the kings are buried ...55

It was necessary to quote this passage in its entirety to give an

idea o f the cultural level in Scythia at the tim e o f H erodotus. T h e
principle o f the burial seems to have been inspired by Egyptian
custom s; but th e cruelty w hich was grafted onto it is a cultural trait
which related to the N orthern Eurasian cradle.
Life was based on a patriarchal social organisation, with an exag­
gerated tendency towards the lechery characteristic o f these regions.
D uring the saquaic feasts o f M ylitta a slave was enthroned and
courtesans and all the other appartenances o f royalty were at his
disposition; after which, he was b u rn t alive. Total promiscuity was
the rule during the feast. Their religion required the women to prostitute
themselves in the temples (sacred places).

82
 In Aquisilene, that is to say in the country situated between the
Euphrates and Mount Taurus, was a sanctuary of Anaitis, in which
girls of the most noble origin became sacred courtesans, by sacrific­
ing their virginity to the goddess. They were surrounded by a pro­
found respect and no man hesitated to take one as a wife. There
existed, in Babylon, a similar type of prostitution. But while the
Babylonian prostitutes, dedicated to Mylitta, were forced to give them­
selves to all and sundry, the girls dedicated to Anaitis, were reserved
for men belonging to their own social class, the aristocracy .34

T h is type o f prom iscuity, as well as the m yths o f G anym ede,

o f Sodom and o f G om orrah, are specifically Eurasian and have no
equivalent in either the tradition, the m ythology or the literature o f
Africa w hether o f Egypt or o f Black Africa.

The Egyptians first made it a point of religion to have no con­

verse with women in the sacred places, and not to enter them without
washing, after such converse. Almost all other nations, except the
Greeks and the Egyptians, act differently, regarding man as in this
matter under no other law than the brutes. Many animals, they say,
and various kinds of birds, may be seen to couple in the temples and
the sacred precincts, which would certainly not happen if the gods
were displeased with it. Such are the arguments by which they defend
their practices, but I nevertheless can by no means approve of it ...35

Engels, after having analysed, in tu rn , the prostitution o f the

m aidens dedicated to Anaitis and to M ylitta, arrived at the same
conclusion:

Similar practices in religious disguise are common to almost all

Asiastic peoples between the Mediterranean and the Ganges .36

All the historians and ethnologists who have compared the African
and Asian societies have been led to consider W estern Asia as the
land o f lechery, in contrast to the healthiness o f African custom s:

As the goddess of fertility, Isis corresponded to the great Mother-

Goddesses of Asia; but she differed from them by the chastity and
fidelity of her conjugal life: the others were unmarried and had corrupt

83
 habits; Isis had a husband and to him she was a faithful wife, as she
was an affectionate mother to her son. Her beautiful Madonna-like
figure also reflects a state of society and of morals, more refined than
the uncouth, sensual and cruel figures of Astarte, Anaitis, Cybele and
others .57

T h e saquaic feasts were celebrated by the B abylonians, A rm e­

nians and Persians. T h eir origin is very controversial. T o certain
historians they are o f Babylonian origin. D etails o f their ritual are
known from the Biblical w riters, such as Ezekiel. T u rel m aintains
that according to tradition it was C yrus, the king o f the Persians,
who instituted them , following a victory over the Saques (or
Scythians): they would thus seem to be o f Scythian origin; m oreover,
they differ in no way from the Scythian habits known to us from
H erodotus. In any event, the adjective ‘saquaic’ seems to confirm
their Scythian origins.
T h e ir study m ust, therefore, end the paragraphs referring to
Scythia and prepare the way for the study o f the zone o f confluence.
We wished to see in them a tem porary return to prim itive equality;
however that may be, they rem ain peculiar to Asia and arise
specifically from the culture o f that region.

ZONE OF CONFLUENCE

W estern Asia is the true zone o f confluence or m eeting place o f the

two cradles, that which has been m ost bitterly disputed betw een the
two worlds. Its study offers, therefore, a particular interest in the
sense th at it leads to the idea o f a real interm ixing o f influences and
peoples com ing from both regions. T h e geographical area considered
here is bounded by the Indus.

ARABIA

Arabia was at first peopled by Southern peoples who were later

subm erged by those com ing from the N o rth and the East.
According to L enorm ant, an em pire o f the C ushites was formed
w hich originally covered all Arabia. T h is was the era personified by
the Adites - from Ad, the grandson o f Ham.
 C heddah, the son o f Ad and builder o f the legendary ‘earthly
paradise’ m entioned in the K oran, belongs to this age o f the early
Adites. T h e em pire o f the latter was destroyed in the eighth century
B.C. by tribes o f wild Jectanides who came from the North-east. T hey
mixed w ith the C ushite population. T h e prophecy o f H ud concerns
this invasion. H ow ever, the C ushite elem ent was not slow to regain
the up p er hand, from a political and cultural point o f view; these
first Jectanide waves were com pletely absorbed by the C ushites. T h is
was the era called the second Adite period.

However, after the first disorders of the invasion, since the

Cushites were still the more numerous in point of population, and
since they had a great superiority of knowledge and civilisation over
the Jectanides who had scarcely left the nomadic life, they very soon
recovered the moral and material supremacy and the political
dominance. A new empire was formed in which the power still
remained with the Sabeans, descendants of the Cushites. For several
centuries the Jectanide tribes lived under the laws of that empire,
becoming quietly greater. For the most part they adopted the customs,
the language, the institutions and the culture of the empire to such
a degree that later, when they are seen to have seized power, this
resulted in no appreciable change either in civilisation, in language
or in religion.
The era of this new empire is called the second Adite Age by
the Arab historians.58

T hese facts, about which the Arab authors them selves agree,
prove that it w ould be more judicious to consider the Sem ites and
the Sem itic culture not as a sui generis reality, but as the product
o f an interm ixing whose historical constituents are known. It was
during the early centuries o f the second Adite Em pire that Egypt
conquered the country, during the m inority o f T hothm es III. Lenor­
mant thinks that Arabia is the land o f Punt and of the Queen o f Sheba;
it m ust also be rem em bered that, according to the Bible, P unt, one
o f the sons o f H am , lived in this same country. In the eighth cen­
tury B .C ., the Jectanides, who had then become sufficiently strong,
seized power in the same way - and towards the same period - as
the Assyrians had done with regard to the Babylonians, whom Lenor­
m ant considers equally to be C ushites.

85
 But although they had the same customs and the same language,
the two peoples who made up the population of Southern Arabia
remained quite separate and quite opposed in their interests, as did
the Assyrians and the Babylonians in the basin of the Euphrates, the
first of whom were, in the same way, Semites and the second,
Cushites...
...As long as the empire of the second Adites lasted, the Jectanides
were subject to the Cushites. But a day came when they felt
themselves to be strong enough to be masters in their turn. They
attacked the Adites under the leadership of Iarob and succeeded in
beating them; the date of this revolution is generally fixed at the begin­
ning of the eighth century B.C.W

According to L enorm ant, after the Jectanides’ victory, some o f

the Adites crossed the Red Sea at the straits o f B adel-M andeb to set­
tle in E thiopia, while the rest rem ained in A rabia, as refugees in the
m ountains o f the H adram aut and in other places: hence the Arab
proverb: ‘T o split up like the Sabeans’.
T his was the reason for w hich S outhern Arabia and Ethiopia
became inseparable from a linguistic and ethnographic point o f view.

A long time before the discovery of the Hymyaritic language and

inscriptions, it had been noticed that the ghez, or Abyssinian dialect,
is a living relic of the ancient language of the Yemen .40

T h e caste system , foreign to ‘the Sem ites and A ryans’, was the
foundation o f the social organistion, as it was in Babylon, Egypt,
Black Africa and the kingdom o f M alabar in India.

This system is essentially Cushite and wherever it is found, it

is easy to establish that it stems originally from this race. We have
seen it flourish in Babylon. The Aryans of India, who adopted it,
had borrowed it from the peoples of Cush, who preceded them in
the Indus and Ganges basins...
...Lockman, the mythical representative of Adite wisdom, brings
to mind Aesop, whose name seems to M. Welcker to reveal an Ethio­
pian origin. In India as well, the literature of the tales and fables seems
to come from the Sutras. Perhaps this style of fiction, typified by
the role played in it by animals, portrays the kind of literature pro­
per to the Cushites .41

86
 It m ust be rem em bered that Lockm an, who belonged to the
second Adite Age, was also the builder o f the famous M areb dam ,
whose waters:

were sufficient to water and fertilize the plain as far away as seven
days walk around the town... There still exist, to this day, extensive
ruins of this, which several travellers have visited and studied .42

T h e Jectanides ‘who were still, at the m om ent o f their arrival

in an alm ost barbaric state’, only introduced, to be quite accurate,
the system o f pastoral tribes characteristic o f the N orthern cradle
and the institution o f m ilitary feudalism .

On this base, which was always preserved, of institutions and

customs borrowed from the Adites of the race of Cush, and on the
caste system, the Jectanides, once they became the masters, implanted
a political organistion which resembles that of most of the other
Semitic peoples, and which differs from that which we find in the
Hamitic empires, in Egypt, Phoenicia, Babylon and among the
Narikas of Malabar, the tribal system and military feudalism, two
institutions dear to all the Arabs.43

T h e religion was o f C ushite origin and seems to have stem m ed

directly from that o f the Babylonians; it was to remain unchanged
until the com ing o f Islam.

It is impossible not to recognise the Chaldeo - Assyrian gods,

Illu, Bel, Samas, Ishtar, Sin, Samdan, Nisruk, in the Yemenite gods,
II, Bil, Schmas, Athor, Sin, Sindan, Nasr .44

T h e god II was the object o f a national cult; he bore the follow­

ing names: Lord o f the Heavens, M erciful, etc... T h e only triad which
was worshipped was that of Venus-Sun-M oon, as in Babylon; religion
had a very m arked sidereal character, especially a solar one; prayers
were offered to the sun at different m om ents in its course. T h ere
was neither idolatry nor images nor priesthood. Invocations were made
direct to the seven planets. T he thirty days fast already existed -
sim ilar to that practised in Egypt - and seven tim es a day prayers
were offered with faces turned to the N orth. These prayers are allied

87
to those o f the M oham m edan religion. All the elem ents necessary
to the b irth o f Islam , were thus present more than 1000 years before
the birth o f M oham m ed, and Islam appears as a ‘purging’ o f Sabaism
by ‘G o d ’s m essenger.’ T h is superim position o f the two influences,
N orthern and Southern, on the Arabian peninsula, occurred in every
sphere and even literature and the rom antic heroes were not exem pt
from it.

In spite of the value they attach to their genealogy and to the

privileges of blood, the Arabs, especially the sedentary inhabitants
o f the towns, do not keep their race pure from all intermixture...
...But the infiltration of Black blood, which has spread to all parts
o f the peninsula and which it seems one day must completely alter
the race, began in earliest antiquity. It occurred first in Yemen, whose
geographical situation and whose commerce placed it in continual
contact with Africa...
...The same infiltration came more slowly, and at a later date, in
the Hedjaz or in the Nedjd. But it happened there as well and at a
date earlier than seems generally believed. The romantic hero of pre-
Islamic Arabia, Antar, was a mulatto on his mother’s side, yet his
African features did not prevent him marrying a princess of one of
the tribes most proud of their nobility; these melanic mixtures being
so familiar and so generally accepted for a long time as part of the
customs, during the centuries immediately preceding Mohammed.4’

T h e mixed character o f the Sem itic languages can be explained

in the same way. T h u s roots can be found which are com m on to
the Arab, H ebrew , Syriac and Indo-European languages. T h is com ­
m on vocabulary is m ore im portant than can be seen from the very
short list w hich follows. N o contact between the N ortherners and
the Arabs during the history o f hum anity perm its us to explain this;
is a relationship and not a borrow ing.

Arabic French English German

ain oeil eye auge (oculus latin)
ard terre earth erde
beled lande land land
Q asr chateau castle
aswad noir schwarz

88
 In other respects, certain Arabic words seems to be o f Egyptian
origin o f the tim e o f the pharaohs.

Arabic Egyptian

N abi = Prophet N ab = the m aster (of knowledge)

Raadou = T h u n d e r Ra = heavenly god
R aadou = Ra is speaking (in Walaf)
Ba-ra-ka = divine Ba-Ra-Ka = benediction
benediction

It is remarkable that many Arabic religious term s can be obtained

by a sim ple com bination o f the three E gyptian ontological notions,
Ba, Ra, Ka. As examples we can cite:

KABAR (a) = T h e action o f raising the arm s in prayer

RA K A = T h e action o f placing the forehead on the ground
KAABA = T h e holy place o f Mecca*

It is sufficiently obvious from what has just been said that Arabia
was first inhabited by Southern peoples, sedentary and agricultural,
who prepared the way for the nom ads in different fields o f progress.
In this early society, wom an enjoyed all the advantages pertaining
to the m atriarchal regime; this is proved by the fact a w om an could
be a queen. T h e reign o f the Q ueen o f Sheba, who ruled over Ethiopia
and South Arabia, was the m ost glorious and the most celebrated
in the history o f this region. T h e triu m p h o f the N o rth ern nom adic
element was accompanied by the dominance o f the patriarchal system,
tinged w ith apparent anom alies, survivals o f the previous regime.
T h u s, the dow ry was given to the w om an, as in the m atriarchal
regim e. T h is fact can only be explained by invoking the influence
o f Sabaism on Islam ic society.

WESTERN ASIA: PHOENICIA

Phoenicia m ust necessarily be distinguished from Israel, whose name

was only m entioned in historical records beginning w ith the

* See no te at e n d o f ch ap ter.

89
nineteenth Egyptian dynasty, while Phoenicia, or Canaan, was already
more than a thousand years old.
T h e m an found in C anaan in prehistoric times, the N atoufian,
was a Southerner; the C apsian industry, which radiated from N orth
Africa (the region o f Tunisia) to this spot, was also o f Southern origin.
According to the Bible, when the first N orthern peoples arrived there,
they found a S outhern people there; the C anaanites, descendants o f
C anaan, bro th er o f M izraim the Egyptian and o f C ush the E gyp­
tian, all sons o f Ham .

Now the Lord said unto Abraham, Get out of thy country, and
from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I
will shew thee:...

So Abraham departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and

Lot his brother’s son...
And Abraham took Sarah his wife, and Lot his brother’s son,
and all their substance... and the souls that they had gotten in Haran;
and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan and into... Canaan
they came.
And Abraham passed through the land unto the place of Sichem,
unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land .46

After m any vicissitudes the C anaanites and the N orth-eastern

tribes, sym bolised by A braham and his descendants (the house o f
Isaac), m erged to become, in tim e, the H ebrew people o f today:

And Hamor and Shechem his son came unto the gate of their
city, and communed with the men of their city, saying:
These men are peaceable with us therefore let them dwell in the
land, and trade therein; for the land, behold, it is large enough for
them; let us take their daughters to us for wives, and let us give them
our daughters .47

T h is passage, w hich in the biblical context is supposed to be a

ruse designed to suppress the C anaanites, betrays nonetheless the
econom ic necessities w hich at that period m ust have regulated the
relations between the invaders and the natives. T h e history o f
Phoenicia becomes, therefore, more com prehensible if one takes into
account the facts given in the Bible, according to which the Canaanites
- later to be called the Phoenicians - were, in the beginning, a
S outhern, sedentary and agricultural people, with whom nom adic
tribes from the N orth-east had later mixed. Since then, the expres­
sion Leuco-Syrians applied to certain peoples o f this region, instead
o f being contradictory, as believed by H oefer, is in fact a confirm a­
tion o f the evidence o f the Bible.

The name of the Syrians seems to be spread over the region from
Babylon to the G ulf of Issus, and even formerly from this G ulf to
the Black Sea. In this way the Cappadocians, those o f Taunus as well
as those of the Black Sea, have preserved to this day the name of
Leuco-Syrians (white Syrians) as if there had also been black
Syrians.48

It is perhaps an original relationship which partially explains the

alliance - th ro u g h o ut history - betw een M izraim and C anaan. Even
in the most troubled ages, Egypt was able to count on Phoenicia,
as one is able, as it were, to count on one’s brother.

Among the monumental tales engraved on the walls of the temples

of Egypt and relating to the great insurrections, which, during a period
of five centuries, broke out on various occasions in Syria against Egyp­
tian domination, either at the instigation of the Assyrians, or Roten-
nou, or even of the Northern Hetheans or Khetas, the most formidable
of which were subdued by Thothmes III, Seti I, Ramses II and
Ramses III, there can never be found in the lists of insurgents or
of vanquished the names of the Sidonians, their capital or any of their
cities...
...A precious papyrus in the British Museum contains the fictitious
story of a voyage to Syria by an Egyptian official, at the end of the
reign of Ramses II after the conclusion of a peace with the Hetheans...
...In all this country, the traveller is on Egyptian soil and he has
the same liberty of movement, the same security as he would have
in the Nile valley, and can even, in pursuance of his functions, exer­
cise his authority .49

T h e im portance o f the role o f the econom ic relations between

Egypt and Phoenicia must certainly not be underestim ated in explain­
ing this loyalty which seems to have existed between the two countries.

91
 It will be understood, following on this original relationship, that
the religion and the beliefs o f the C anaanites were only replicas o f
those o f Egypt. T h e Phoenician cosmogony is known from fragments
o f Sanchoniaton, as has been m entioned above. According to these
texts, there was in the beginning an uncreated and chaotic substance,
in perpetual disorder, (Bohu); the W ind (Rouah) floated over the
Chaos. T h e union o f these two elem ents was called Chephets, the
Desire w hich is the origin o f all creation.
One is struck by the sim ilarity o f this cosmic trinity to that found
in Egypt as reported by A m elineau in Prolegomenes a Vetude de la
religion Egyptienne (Prolegomena to the S tudy o f Egyptian Religion).
According to the Egyptian cosm ogony also, there was in the beginn­
ing an uncreated and chaotic m atter, the prim itive N oun; this m at­
ter contained em bryonically the principles - the future archetypes
o f Plato - o f all beings. T h e principle or god o f Becom ing, K hefru,
was also included. As soon as N oun - or N en - had engendered the
god Ra, its role was finished; henceforth the line o f descent remained
unin terru p ted up until Osiris, Isis and H orus, ancestors o f the Egyp­
tians. T h e primitive Trinity then passed from the scale o f the universe
to that o f hum anity.
In the same way, in the Phoenician cosm ogony one arrived by
successive generations at the same E gyptian ancestor, M isor, who
engendered T aa u t, the inventor o f letters and o f science (who is none
other than the Egyptian T hot); and, by descent, this leads to Osiris
and Canaan. Let us rem em ber that M isor is none other than M izraim.

And all these things were written in the sacred books, under the
control of Taaut, by the seven Cabires, sons of Sydyk and their eighth
brother, Eschmun. And those who received the heritage and transmit­
ted the initiation to their successors were Osiris and Canaan, the
ancestor of the Phoenicians.50

Recent archaeological discoveries confirm the S outhern origin

o f the C anaanites. T he texts o f Ras-Sham ra situate the birthplace
o f the national heroes in the S outh, on the very frontiers o f Egypt.

The texts of Ras-Shamra have been an occasion to study afresh

the origin of the Phoenicians. While the notes about everyday life
take account of the different foreign elements who took part in the

92
 daily exchanges of the city, those which are devoted to the recension
of the myths and the legends allude to a past which was quite dif­
ferent, and although they concern a city in the far North of Phoenicia,
they adopt the extreme South, the Negeb, as the framework for the
events they describe. They assign to the national heroes, to the
ancestors, a dwelling place between the Mediterranean and the Red
Sea. This tradition has moreover been recorded by Herodotus (6th
century B.C.) and before him by Zephaniah (7th century B.C .).51

Geographically, the portion o f the earth situated between the Red

Sea and the M editerranean is essentially the same as Arabia Petraea;
the country o f the Anous who founded O n o f the N orth (Heliopolis),
in prehistoric tim es. T h e Phoenicians, in so far as they fused w ith
the Hebrews, constitute what is called the first Semitic branch, descen­
ding from Abraham by the line o f Isaac - while the Arabs formed
the second branch - the line o f Ishm ael. In both cases the Southern
substratum is evident; that is why it is not historically accurate to
disregard this in m ounting Semitism into an absolute. T he latter must
be considered as the most pronounced sythesis o f N o rth ern and
S outhern elem ents.

INDUS AND MESOPOTAMIA

T h e sites o f M ohenjo-Daro and o f Harappa have revealed the existence

o f an urban and agricultural civilisation going back to the third m illen­
nium in all probability w hich collapsed suddenly (1500 B.C.), with
the invasion o f the Aryans. It was m arked by a highly developed
urbanism (use o f drains). T h e towns fundam entally devoted to trade,
were not surrounded by fortifications. T h e language spoken was not
Indo-E uropean; according to the experts, it was probably a Dravi-
dian or M ounda language. W riting was well developed: 400 characters
were em ployed, which can be reduced, according to studies made,
to 250, while the cuneiform w riting o f O urouk, o f the same period,
possessed 2,000 signs. Archaeological excavations have proved that
at the tim e o f El O beid in M esopotam ia the Indus civilisation had
already reached its apogee. T h is is the reason for the increasing
tendency to explain M esopotam ia by the civilisations o f the Indus.
T h e latter, like all the southern civilisations, rem ained stable until
its destruction by an outside element: the Aryan invasion o f 1500 B.C.

93
 From this date all traces o f a m aterial civilisation disappeared.
It was necessary to wait till the third century B.C. to detect a sort
o f renaissance u n d er the E m peror Acoka.
T h e destruction o f the sites o f the Indus m ust be attributed to
the Aryan invasion, and not to the spread o f the desert over the plain
o f Sind, for this region was still fertile when Alexander the G reat
crossed it, in the fourth century B.C.
T h e phallic cult, so widespread in India, preceded the Aryan
invasion; this is a cult o f fertility, m ark o f a sedentary, agricultural
and m atriarchal life. It is doubtless to be ascribed to the aboriginal
Southern elem ent w hich preceded the N o rth ern elem ent on the
peninsula.
T h e facts which follow, w hich relate to the civilisation o f India,
are taken from the works o f Jeanine A uboyer.”
At the time o f the arrival o f the Aryans (1500 to 800 B.C.) N o rth ­
west India was inhabited by a population whose dark-coloured skin
(varna) had struck the new com ers, as had their flat noses and the
language they spoke. T hey were referred to in general terms as Dravi-
dians; certain o f th eir individual nam es (Aja = goat) rem ind one of
totem ism . T h ey posed a stout resistance to the invaders, but mixed
w ith them in the course o f time.

For reports exist of mixed marriages, proving that at this distant

period the Aryan conquerors had not yet felt the necessity, as was
later to be the case, of protecting themselves too rigorously against
the possible damage of interbreeding.53

T o the nom adism o f the newcom ers was opposed the sedentary
and agricultural life o f the D ravidians. We can recall here the ideas
we formulated regarding the term to till in the different Indo-European
languages. A griculture still not having been a part o f the Aryan
custom s at the tim e o f their arrival, the expression indicating this
activity was absent from their language and they were forced to adopt
a D ravidian word.

Tilling - indicated by a word common to the Indians and the

Iranians - is done with the aid of a plough which is very probably
a swing-plough drawn by two sheep...
...This rural and agrarian life is based on a village society of the
94
 patriarchal type, which also offers traces of matriarchy, and whose
principal acts are based on sacrifice.54

T h e cow was already sacred; it was forbidden to kill or to eat

it. It was perhaps m ore economical to preserve it for the milk it pro­
vided and for the increase o f the herd.
‘T h e abandonm ent o f the female children ’, ‘colleges o f the
H etaerae’, ‘dom estic h earth ’, ‘crem ation’ were all cultural traits
existing d uring the Vedic period and were doubtless brought by the
Aryans.

All family life is ordered by the domestic ritual. It is centred round

the fire (agni), which is placed in the house or in the middle of an
enclosure of logs, or even outside, and which is the real master of
the house (garhapatya).55

...The corpse is laid out and is carried in procession... When it

arrives at the place where it is to be cremated, the corpse is again
laid out and placed on the funeral pyre; the widow takes her place
at his side, but is asked to get down again (although, later, she would
indeed be burnt) and become the wife of the dead man’s brother.56

Side by side with m onogam y, the ruling classes practised

polygam y, that is to say am ong the Aryans and Dravidians o f high
rank. In fact d u rin g the Vedic period ‘the castes were not strictly
defined as d u rin g later periods, and were not yet sealed off one from
the o th er .’ 57
It can th u s be seen that on the Indian peninsula the superim ­
position o f the two cultures, Southern and N orthern, matriarchal and
patriarchal, is not open to doubt. Here, less than anywhere else, could
one not speak o f a universal transition, that is to say, an internal one
among the same people, from matriarchy to patriarchy. What occurred
was an overlapping and a trium ph, w ith a certain alteration o f the
culture o f the ruling classes.

MESOPOTAMIA

In the beginning, about 3000 B .C ., three regions could be

distinguished: ancient Elam or Susiana, Sum er w ith O ur its capital,

95
and Akkad, the capital o f which was Agade. T h e M esopotam ian
history o f the early m illennia is not well-know n. H ow ever, as far as
Elam is concerned, archaeology, thanks to the excavations o f
Dieulafoy, throws a curious light on the nature o f the early dynasties.
W hile dem olishing a Sassanian wall, constructed o f older material
found on the same spot, m onum ents w ere discovered dating back
to the Elam ite period o f the history o f Susa.

When removing a tomb placed across a wall of crude bricks, which

was a part of the fortifications of the Elamite Door, the workers
brought to light a funeral urn around which was a stone case of
enamelled bricks. They came from a panel which depicted a person
of rank, superbly dressed in a green robe, overloaded with yellow,
blue and white embroidery and wearing a tiger skin and carrying a
can or a golden spear. The most curious thing about this person, of
whom I found the lower part of the face, the beard, the neck and
a hand, was that he was black. The lips are narrow, the beard bushy,
and the embroidery on the clothes, of an archaic character, seems
to be the work of Babylonian workers.
In other Sassanian walls, constructed of older materials, enamelled
bricks were found showing two feet shod in gold and a very well-
drawn hand; the wrist is covered with bracelets and the fingers grasp
the long staff which became under the Achemenides the emblem of
sovereign power; a piece of robe emblazoned with the arms of Susa
(a view of the town in the Assyrian manner) partly hidden under a
tiger skin. Finally, a frieze ornamented with flower work on a brown
background. The hands and the feet were black. It could even be
seen that the whole decoration had been prepared with the idea of
harmonising it with the dark colour of the face. Only powerful figures
had the right to carry long canes and bracelets; only the governor
of a fortified town had the right to have a portrait of this embroidered
on his tunic. Now, the owner of the staff, the master of the citadel,
is black; it is thus very possible that Elam was the prerogative of a
Black dynasty, and if one refers to the characteristics of the figure
already found, of an Ethiopian dynasty. Can it be that we are in the
presence of one of those Ethiopians o f the Levant of whom Homer
spoke? Were the Nakhuntas the descendants of a princely family
related to the Black races which reigned over Southern Egypt?58

D r. C ontenau arrives at sim ilar conclusions:

96
 The man of Susa, notably, the probable result of a mixing between
Cushite and Black, with his relatively flat nose, dilated nostrils, pro­
minent cheekbones and thick lips, is a racial type well observed and
well-rendered.”

At a very early stage this Southern elem ent m ust have crossed
w ith a N o rth ern elem ent. T h is is what seems to be affirm ed by an
exam ination o f the present population, the results o f w hich are also
recorded by D r. G . C ontenau, quoting Houssaye:

Aryano-Negroids corresponding to the ancient Susians, who

belonged largely to the Negritos, a Black race of small stature and
small cranial capacity...

W e are here dealing w ith one o f the three strata o f the present
population.
D r. C ontenau continues:

Although this classification could undergo some slight alterations,

the place accorded in it to the Negroids should be remembered.60

Practically nothing is known o f the organisation o f the family

in ancient Elam. T h e records we possess, as we have previously learnt,
perm it us only to affirm the anteriority o f a Southern substratum ;
now, it is known that this latter is linked with agrarian life, o f a seden­
tary or m atriarchal character. T h e Aryan invasion, com ing from the
Iranian plateau, went on w ithout interruption until the tim e o f the
M edes and the Persians who brought am ong other N orthern prac­
tices, the w orship o f fire, which was so typical.
As for the Sum erians, we are still not at the point o f penetrating
the m ystery o f their origin; but it is know n, almost certainly, that
they were neither Aryans (that is to say Indo-Europeans) nor Semites,
o f the M ongolian race. T hey were sedentary and agrarian, practis­
ing irrigation. T h e oldest period o f their civilisation is alleged, out
o f solidarity ,61 to go back to 3000 R.C. to make it coincide w ith the
very beginning o f E gyptian history. F or a long tim e there were only
city-kingdom s, although lower M esopotam ia offered all the
characteristics favourable to territorial unification. We m ust wait till

97
about 2100 B.C., during the Babylonian era of Ham m urabi, to witness
the birth o f the first M esopotamian empire. Sumerian history presents
one im portant particularity; the whole o f its first period is known
only th rough inferences draw n from the C ode o f H am m urabi.
In studying closely the Babylonian records - the writing as much
as the system o f organisation - experts became aware that this period
was not a beginning, but an advanced stage, implying an earlier period.
And in this way the period called the ‘Sum erian P eriod’ was
discovered.
T h e only reign during the S um erian Period w hich has left any
significant traces is that o f G udea. W e possess a series o f statues o f
him , w hich are rather puzzling, from the invariable choice o f stone
(black diorite), the almost system atic m utilation o f the statues and
the peculiarity o f the facial traits. One o f these statues, found at Tello,
represents G udea holding on his knee the plan o f a tem ple intended
for the god, N in-G irsou; an inscription glorifying the god contains
an idea w hich seems to be at the origin o f the saquaic feasts. In fact,
it is said that at the inauguration o f the tem ple, there were seven
days o f feasting during which com plete equality reigned am ong the
inhabitants o f the city.

The servant girl vied with her mistress, the manservant emulated
his master; in my city, the powerful and the weak went side by side;
on the lips of scandal-mongers, evil words were changed to good.

T his inscription on the statue o f Gudea, called the Architect (2400

B.C.), is the oldest historical record o f the saquaic feasts: it reinforces
the theory o f the Babylonian origin o f these. Perhaps the Scythians
adapted them in such a way that their purpose was com pletely
changed.
A ndr 6 A ym ard, in analysing the H am m urabic Code, tries to
clarify Babylonian family legislation and social stratification:

The Hammurabic set of laws precedes by several centuries that

of the Assyrians. Nevertheless it betrays unerringly a social state which
one might be tempted to consider more advanced. But in the case
in point account must be taken of its ethnic character. It scarcely
seems surprising that among a warlike people such as the Assyrians
the woman should be maintained in an inferior juridical situation.''*

98
 T h is is as m uch as saying that the condition o f woman
deteriorated w ith the arrival o f the Sem ites. Form erly, the woman
enjoyed a legal status superior to that o f the Greek or Rom an woman.
Limited monogamy was the general rule. But an additional fact related
by Andr£ Aym ard em phasizes perhaps to a degree the C ushite
character o f Babylonian society, already stressed by L enorm ant.

Indeed, while the children born of the marriage of a free woman

and a slave are free like their mother, those who are born of the union
of a master and a concubine who is also a slave, are only emancipated
legally, at the same time as their mother, on the death of their
father .65

T h e m atriarchal and m eridional points o f view, according to

w hich the child is what the m other is, seems here to be trium phant
in the H am m urabic Code. W hether or not H am m urabi was a Semite
from the W est or elsew here, the society w hich he organised by his
legislation was nonetheless im pregnated with C ushitism . Everything
happened as if a C ushite base perpetuated itself culturally in spite
o f ethnic changes w hich were frequent in this region. But this foun­
dation was to change profoundly w ith the passage o f time.
A nother com m ent by A ndre A ym ard allows this idea to be
brought out:

The originality of this division (society in three classes) is the

existence of the intermediate class. We do not know the origin of
this; we are equally ignorant as to whether it was confined to specific
professions. We must resign outselves to stating only that it exists,
and that the law places it halfway between the others...
The Hammurabic Code attests strongly to the existence, at least
in the cities, of three categories of human beings: man, that is to say
man in the highest sense of the word, the free man; man who bows
down, the underling, the inferior, the man of low birth; finally the
slave, the property of another man, freeman or underling .64

As will be seen in C hapter VI and especially in the main thesis,

the social stratification is identical, from every point o f view, to that
o f a society o f castes in the African sense o f the w ord, that is to say,
in the sense o f L enorm ant and R enan. T h is is what led Lenorm ant

99
to classify Babylonian society am ong those w ith a caste system . In
the latter, indeed, the groups o f m en w ithout any m anual profes­
sion, the w arriors and priests, constitute the highest castes, or more
exactly those ‘w ithout caste’, that is to say, m en in the highest sense
o f the word, o f w hom we have just heard. T h e term ‘m an o f caste’
is reserved to the subordinate category o f free m en who practise the
ensem ble o f artisan occupations; he can be the slave o f no one, and
he can even own slaves; but w ithin the bounds o f social relations,
he m ust ‘prostrate h im self’ before the m an o f the first category, and
he m ust give way to him . H is degree o f fortune can never influence
or im prove his social status. Finally, the body o f slaves forms a third
category.
T h e origin o f the C haldeans is no m ore certain than that o f the
Sum erians, although the first are more readily considered to be
Sem ites. According to D iodorus Siculus, the first hum an grouping
to w hich C haldea owes its nam e was a caste o f Egyptian priests who
had em igrated and who, settling on the upper Euphrates, continued
to practise and to teach astrology according to the principles transm it­
ted by their m other caste .65
However that may be, this prim itive nucleus was unable to resist
for long in the tem poral dom ain the invasion o f a different ethnic
elem ent; it was only on the intellectual and spiritual dom ains that
its resistance m ust have been m ore enduring by w hich it was
perpetuated.
T ow ards 1250 B.C. the Assyrians seized Babylon. T h is was
assuredly a victory o f shepherds from the m ountains, speaking a
Semitic language very similar to Accadia, while the Sumerian language
was neither Sem itic, nor Indo-European, nor Chinese.

B Y Z A N T IU M

T h e Rom an E m pire survived in the East for nine centuries with

B yzantium as its capital which was later to become the tow n o f C on­
stantine or C onstantinople.
N o docum ent o f any kind and no established custom regulated
the succession to the throne; com plete indeterm inacy reigned on this
question. Palace intrigues provided the best privileges and the best
opportunities. Som etim es the em perors, while still alive, took their

100
heirs as partners to the throne: this was the case o f Justinian, sup­
ported by his wife the E m press T heodora*. T h e latter, while know­
ing how to appear an em press w orthy o f her rank, was none the less
by her origins a courtesan who gradually rose up through her
intrigues. It was thanks to her presence o f m ind that Justinian was
able to quell the celebrated revolt w hich took place spontaneously
in the H ippodrom e, w here 30,000 dem onstrators were slaughtered.
W ith the Porphyrogenetes, an attem pt was made to establish a
curious practice: in order to be heir, it was necessary to be born at
C onstantinople in the purple C ham ber o f the Palace. Everything in
this com plex society seemed to be dom inated by a refined cruelty.
Q ueen Irene, a contem porary o f C harlem agne, who ruled alone, did
nonetheless belong to that group o f Asiatic sovereigns whose reign
can in no way be linked w ith some m atriarchal practice. T h e same
thing held true later for the queens o f T sarist Russia which had felt
the influence o f Byzantium .

In the whole expanse o f the zone o f confluence, from Arabia to

the Indus, it has been possible, to a certain degree on the basis o f
docum ents which have been found, and som etim es in spite o f the
scantiness o f these, to decompose the different societies encountered
and studied into their historical com ponents, Southern or N orthern,
the better to analyse them and to probe into their nature.
It has been possible to show everyw here the pre-existence o f a
m eridional substratum , which was later covered by a N orthern con-
tibution. But the problem s w ould have been sim ple if reality did not
often have an inconveniencing nature; if here and there, in the two
different cradles, apparent anom alies had not been found.

* T h e o d o ra w as an actress b efo re b e co m in g e m p re ss b y m ean s o f in trig u e. T h e E m p ress

T h e o p h a n ie , th e w ife o f R o m a n II, w as th e d a u g h te r o f an in n k e e p er w h o ow ed h e r rise to
pow er to h e r o w n in trig u es.

101
 APPENDIX TO CHAPTER III

T h e triliterals in W alaf seem to com e, for the most part, from

a form er m ethod o f using prefixes which is no longer in use today.

e.g.: digen dja bdi -> dja b 6 t -» djabot = wom an who carries
on her back,
m other o f a family
aren bu sev -» bu sev -» busfcv -» busS
ground nut w hich small = sm all seed o f ground nut
vaj djay m ber -*• djay m ber -» djam bar? = brave boy who
cham pion

C ertain recent prefixes are still used.

e.g.: nit ku gav = ku gav = who is fast

the m an who fast
nit ku bah -» ku bah = who is good
the m an who good

It does not seem rash to explain the Sem itic ‘triliteralism ’ by

generalizing about this m ethod o f using prefixes. It will be understood
w hy, in suppressing the first consonant o f an Arab root for example,
one finds very often an African or Indo-E uropean root.

e.g.: b-led -» land = pays (Indo-European)

kelba -» lab = labber (Walaf)

B iliteralism would appear thus to be the prim itive state o f the

language.

102
 CHAPTER IV
ANOM ALIES NOTICED IN THE THREE ZONES
THEIR EXPLANATION

AFRICA

Even in this cradle, which seems to be that o f matriarchy par excellence,

facts can be pointed out w hich at first sight appear surprising and
in tru th contradictory.

REIGN OF QUEEN HATSHEPSOUT

She was the first queen in the history o f hum anity. T h is fact
in itself m erits attaching particular im portance to the circum stances
w hich surrounded her ascension to the throne. T h is latter is one o f
the particular features o f E gyptian history w hich intrigues m odern
historians the most. T o understand these features, let us have a look
at her genealogy, w ith M aspero.
She was the only living child o f Queen Ahmosis and o f Thothm es
I, both o f w hom , brother and sister, were children o f Am enothes
I and his sister A khotpou II. Some tim e before his death, T hothm es
I crow ned H atshepsout his daughter and m arried her to T hothm es
II, son o f another o f his wives; thus H atshepsout and T h o th m es II
were half-sister and half-brother. C ontrary to the opinion widely held
am ong western historians, the m other o f T hothm es II was not a con­
cubine o f T h o th m es I, in com parison w ith the m other o f H atshep­
sout. She was an equally legitim ate wife, over whom the first wife
o f the pharaoh only just took precedence. She cannot be com pared
w ith a w om an acquired in a raid or by other m eans and throw n into
a harem to provide bastards o f a king whose only legitim ate children
and sole heirs were the children born o f the queen. I f this were so,

103
the king could never have given his noble heiress in m arriage to this
his bastard son.
Let us im agine the hypothetical case o f a pharaoh who m arried
on the same day, in the same m anner, his two sisters, born o f the
same father and m other and consequently having the same degree
o f nobility. N o law forbids this to the pharaoh. I f his two wives give
b irth to two children o f the same sex on the same day, these have
both the same rights to the throne. L et us now vary one o f these
two conditions: date o f marriage, degree o f nobility o f the two women.
T here result automatically from this certain consequences with regard
to the rights o f succession of the children but these are far from being
com parable to those which would be imposed on bastards. If the
degree o f nobility o f the two m others is equal, it is the child o f the
first wife who would have the succession rights, if he were the first­
born. I f the second wife, while being just as legitim ately m arried as
the first, is o f less noble blood, her children have less rights to the
throne, even if they are older. I f she was originally a slave, her children
have still less right to inherit, though not com pletely deprived o f it,
and are legitimate children. A bastard, from the African point o f view,
is a child had from a woman not married according to custom, whether
she be princess, o f com m on birth or a slave. He can inherit nothing.
N ow Q ueen H atshepsout, according to M aspero, derived from
her m other, Ahm osis, and her grandm other Akhotpou, rights o f suc­
cession superior, not only to those o f her husband and brother
T h o th m es II, b u t to those o f her own father, T hothm es I, the reign­
ing pharaoh. Here matriarchy can be seen in operation: it is the greater
or lesser nobility o f the m other w hich supports the right to the throne
to the exclusion o f the father, who, even in certain cases such as this,
can be replaced by a heavenly father. H atshepsout, supported by the
priests, finished by substituting A m m on for her own father. It will
be rem em bered that w hen Athena did this, in the G reek legend, in
contrast to H atshepsout, it was to blot out her female line o f des­
cent, an idea which would never have occurred in Egypt, where
m atriarchy reigned.
M aspero affirm s that, in the eyes o f the Egyptian nation, H a t­
shepsout was the legitim ate heiress o f the ancient dynasties. She had
a daughter by T h o th m es II; but the latter had, by one o f his wives
nam ed Isis, a son T h othm es III, raised for the priesthood in the

104

i
 Theban Tem ple o f Ammon. In spite o f his secondary role, Thothm es
II was able to associate T hothm es III to the throne, and placed him
under the guardianship o f H atshepsout. T h e latter, playing the role
o f m other, m arried him to her daughter, who was also called H at­
shepsout M ariri. T h e m other H atshepsout continued to rule
nonethless, while keeping this household o f children away from
power. It was at her death that T h o th m es III, aged 20, became
Pharaoh.
Supported by the priests o f A m m on, she wished to be a pharaoh
in every sense o f the word and even went so far as to wear a false
beard, the symbol o f authority. T h is m anner o f representing herself
as a pharaoh was purely symbolic.
At the death oTThothm esTr^ his son, the future great conqueror,
was still only a child and this is one o f the reasons why H atshepsout
had no difficulty at all in exercising her regency, and prolonging it
for twenty-two years.
In actual fact, it seems that in Egypt it was the wom an who
inherited the political rights, but that in as m uch as she was naturally
physically inferior, it was her husband who reigned, while she assured
the u terine continuity o f the dynasty. T h u s H atshepsout proved her
almost m asculine energy, in organising the first expedition to the
Coast o f Som aliland in the land o f P u n t, from whence she brought
back, am ong other riches, varieties o f plants she was later to adapt
to Egypt. She developed trade and had built for her the sum ptuous
tom b o f Deir-el-Bahari.

THE AGE OF PTOLEMY

T h is corresponds with the thirty-eighth dynasty, which is the last

foreign dynasty. Afterwards, Egypt becam e a Rom an province. It
num bered tw enty sovereigns and lasted two hundred and seventy-
five years. O f this period we shall deal only w ith those reigns which
concern the subject here treated. T he Greek kings adapted themselves
to E gyptian tradition and custom s: it was in this m anner that m ar­
riage between brothers and sisters came to be practised by them . T his
happened in the case o f Ptolemy I V Phi/opator who, after m urdering
his father, m arried his sister and whom , in tu rn , tired o f her, he later
killed.

105

k
 Ptolemy V I ascended to the throne at the age o f five, under the
guardianship o f his m other, Cleopatra. O n his death Ptolemy Euergetes
I I seized the throne o f Egypt, m arried his sister-in-law and m urdered
his nephew . Ptolemy V II Soter II succeeded him: he m arried in suc­
cession his two sisters, and was forced to flee the country and aban­
don the throne as the result o f the intrigues o f his m other, Cleopatra.
H e was replaced by his younger brother, Ptolemy IX , who was the
favourite child o f C leopatra. H ow ever, she lost no tim e in trying to
get rid o f him , but her son was too quick for her and had his m other
assassinated.
Ptolemy X (or Alexander II) came to the throne after some
difficulty. Indeed, after the death o f Soter II - who had been recalled
- his daughter Berenice became queen. Alexander II m arried her in
order to become king and later had her m urdered. T he Egyptian peo­
ple were never to forgive him this crim e. He died in exile at T yre,
after taking care, in his will, to leave the K ingdom o f Egypt to the
Rom ans. T h en came the reign o f A uletus, who was driven out and
replaced on the throne by his two daughters, Cleopatra and Berenice.
O n the death o f C leopatra, the R om ans replaced Auletus on the
throne: he took advantage o f this to put to death his daughter Berenice
and all her adherents.
T h e eldest son o f Auletus and his sister Cleopatra - the Cleopatra
w ho was to rem ain celebrated in history - m ounted the throne of
the death o f th eir father. She m arried successively her two brothers,
w ho died one after the other. Forced to flee by the Egyptians, she
withdrew for a while to Syria, but was brought back by the victorious
troops o f Julius Caesar, by whom she had a son, Ptolemy Caesarian.
She seduced Antony at T arsus in Cilicia and the latter proclaimed
her ‘Q ueen o f K ings’ an d 'h er son C aesar, ‘K ing o f Q ueens’. After
the defeat o f Antony by Octavian, Cleopatra hid in a tomb and spread
rum ours o f her death in order to get rid o f Antony. T h e latter did
indeed com m it suicide, but during his death agony had the painful
surprise o f knowing that Cleopatra was still alive. T he queen counted
on her charm s to bew itch Octavian: when he resisted, she felt herself
to be lost, since she had plotted against Rom e, and she com m itted
suicide by letting herself be stung by an asp. Egypt then fell under
Rom an dom ination .1
In spite o f the adoptive m atriarchy im posed on the foreign

106
sovereigns from Greece by the tradition o f Egyptian royalty, violence
and intrigue continued to rule the true lot o f princes and princesses.
Egyptian history o f the age o f Ptolem y offers m ore than one trace
o f kinship with that o f Byzantium. T h e queens o f the Hellenic period
were all born o f the same blood and intriguers, rather than of authentic
queens sanctioned by tradition. T hey were Aryan wom en who were
adapting them selves to Southern custom s and their case m ust not
be confused w ith that o f the queens o f true m atriarchal custom .
Indeed, disregarding Byzantium which has already been considered
as a separate eastern com plex, it is in vain even at this early age that
we should seek a queen ruling alone in Rome, which was less touched
by the Southern influence.

AMAZONISM

T h e legend o f the Am azons related here, is that w hich was gathered

and handed down by D iodorus Siculus. It is essential to give a sum ­
m ary o f this before proceeding to a detailed study o f the idea o f
Am azonism .
According to D iodorus, the Am azons, supposedly o f Africa,
formerly lived in Libya. T hey disappeared several generations before
the T ro jan W ar, while those o f T herm odon, in Asia M inor, still
flourished. T h ere had been in Libya, several races o f wom en w ar­
riors, am ong w hom were the Gorgons against whom Perseus fought.
T o the West o f Libya at the edge o f the earth, lived a people governed
by wom en. T h e latter rem ained virgins until their m ilitary service
had been com pleted; then they approached the m en, became
magistrates and fulfilled all other public duties. M en were kept apart
from these functions and from the arm y. After the wom en had given
birth to children, the m en served as nursem aids. T h ey were crippled
at b irth to render them unable to bear arms. T h e w om en had their
right breasts rem oved so that they could shoot better w ith a bow.
T h ey lived on an island called the H espera and situated towards the
West, in Lake T ritonis; this lake takes its name from the River T riton
which flows into it. T h is is found near the Atlas M ountains. T h e
Amazons subdued all the tow ns o f the Island except M ene, which
was considered to be sacred and w hich was inhabited by
ichthyophagous E thiopians. T h ey subjugated afterw ards, in the

107
 vicinity, the nom adic Libyan tribes and built at Lake T rito n is the
tow n o f C hessonesus ( = peninsula). T h ey conquered the Atlantes.
M yrina, the queen o f the A m azons, had a body o f 2000 wom en
cavalry, experienced in horsem anship. A fter her victories over the
Atlantes and even the G orgons, she had the bodies o f her com rades
crem ated. Finally, the Am azons and the G orgons were wiped out
by Hercules, during an expedition to the West: from where the ‘Pillars
o f H ercules’.
D u rin g her reign, M yrina w ent to Egypt and became friendly
w ith H o ru s the son o f Isis, who was at that tim e king o f the country.
From there she went to wage war on the Arabs, destroying a very
large nu m b er o f these. After this she subdued Syria, Cilicia and
Phrygia, stopping at the River Caicus. She founded Cym ene, Pitane,
Priene and fought against the people o f T h ra c e .2
In spite o f the theory generally adm itted, it is easy to see that
the society th u s described possesses nothing m atriarchal: it reflects
rather, although it is only a legend, the unpitying and systematic
vengeance o f one sex on another. T o stay w ithin the logic o f this
tradition, we are obliged to suppose an earlier period w hen the men
o f a certain region had the habit of considering all the female members
o f th eir com m unity as slaves on whom any sort o f treatm ent could
be inflicted. T h e women, following a victorious revolt, took their
revenge by practising a consum m ate technique o f degradation o f the
m en. Physically, the latter were crippled from birth in such a way
as to be useless for m ilitary service: their education was conceived
in such a fashion as only to inculcate lowly sentim ents, to the exclu­
sion o f any ideas exalting courage or honour. T h ey would have been
disposed of, purely and sim ply, had they not been necessary for pro­
creation. T h e idea o f m arriage or o f a household, or o f any sort of
life in com m on was unthinkable.
M atriarchy is not an absolute and cynical trium ph o f woman over
/m an ; it is a harm onious dualism , an association accepted by both
' sexes, the better to build a sedentary society where each and everyone
could fully develop by following the activity best suited to his
< physiological nature. A m atriarchal r 6gim e, far from being imposed
/ on m an by circum stances independent o f his will, is accepted and
defended by him .
A m azonism , far from being a variation o f m atriarchy, appears

108
as the logical consequence o f the excesses o f an extrem e patriarchy.
Am ong the Amazons, their habits, the facts revealed, their dw elling
place, tend to make us interpret their regim e in the sense w hich has
just been indicated.
If they are looked at closely, one can perceive that the Amazons
- w hether those o f Africa or Asia M inor - lived exclusively among
the Aryan populations o f nom ads, practising the most extrem e form
o f a patriarchal regime.
T h e localisation in Africa o f the G orgons and o f the other
Amazons o f M yrina has misled many minds. But if attention is given
to details o f the site, it will be noted that this was essentially in
Cyrenaica (Lake Tritonis), inhabited by white nomadic Libyans, called
Peoples o f the Sea and o f whom the early contingents were already
on the spot since 1500 B.C.
It will be remembered that Cyrenaica was the birthplace o f Athena
and Poseidon, two divinities adopted by the G reeks, but that they
were always considered as o f Libyan origin. Poseidon was indeed
the god o f a people w hich came from the sea, as did the Libyans.
It was on the Cyrenaican peninsula that there was a town called
Hesperis. Finally, the distance between the shores o f the Peloponnesus
and C yrenaica is shorter than that w hich separates this region from
the valley o f th e Nile.
It is custom ary to m aintain that the E gyptians in particular, and
Africa in general, knew nothing o f the horse, w hich originated from
the E urasian steppes before the invasion o f the Hyksos. T h e
dom estication o f this anim al seems thus to have been prim itively,
the exclusive property o f the Aryans. N ow the horse was pre­
em inently the m ount o f the Amazons.
T h e latter also practised crem ation, so typical o f the N orthern
cradle.
T h ey fought against all the nom adic A ryans, and spared the
E thiopian city considered to be sacred, w hose nam e evokes that o f
M enes, the first king o f Egypt. T h e ir queen becam e friendly with
H orus, a sedentary king. In contrast she led an expedition against
nom adic Arabs. T h e tradition seem s, therefore, quite coherent, sur­
prising as that may appear. T h e analysis w hich can be m ade o f this
seems to lead to the thought that the Am azons indeed issued from
an Eurasian cradle, where a ferocious patriarchy reigned. T h is is the

109
reason why they revolted and why, following on their trium ph, they
were to fight everyw here against the upholders o f that regime and
were to spare, or even make friends w ith, the representatives o f a
regim e where the m em bers o f their sex had always been allowed to
develop freely.
It is w rong to suppose that there existed Amazons everywhere
th roughout the world. It is by an im proper com parison that this
appellation was given to certain women o f South Africa on the pretext
that they could fight as well as m en, w hen they offered none o f the
other characteristics o f Am azonism , particularly th eir contem pt for
m en, etc.
Follow ing a sim ilar error there has equally been talk o f the
Am azons o f Dahomey. A king o f D ahom ey, Ghezo (1818-1858),
fighting against the Yoruba, suzerains in his country, used all the
national resources at his disposal in order to win. It was in this way
that, to free h im self from the G uardianship o f Benin, he was forced
to create com panies o f female cavalry, who fought with such energy
that m odern historians have likened them to the Amazons. T h e fact
that these com panies were created and led by m en, proves that the
situation o f these wom en was radically different from that o f the
classical Am azons, who could not conceive o f fighting under male
orders. T h ere is no question here o f an autonom ous fem inine
organisation w ithin a m asculine society whose authority m ight be
ignored. T h ey are no m ore Amazons than the m em bers o f the aux­
iliary w om en’s corps o f m odern European armies. All their attributes
come from the m en, who conceived their form ation; thus they have
nothing intrinsically the same or comparable to the self-determination
o f the Am azons. H atred o f m en is foreign to them and they possess
the consciousness o f being ‘soldiers’ struggling only for the libera­
tion o f their country.

THE PEUL MATRIARCHY

T h e sociology o f the Peul com m unity is, w ithout a doubt, o f the

greatest interest to the social sciences. T h ere are few peoples whose
study has caused so m uch to be w ritten o f them . T h e collection o f
apparent contradictions encountered among them has often
discouraged scientists or led them astray. And today the most

110
extravagant hypotheses exist regarding them . T herefore the interest
aroused by unpublished m aterial can be understood.
T h e first difficulty w hich m ust be overcome is to arrive at an
explanation, from the hypotheses on w hich this study is based, o f
how the nomadic Peuls could practise matriarchy. T he opposite would
seem logical. T h e answer is linked to a knowledge o f the origins o f
this people. F rom where did they come?
T h ere are two im portant facts on the basis o f w hich it can be
stated almost with certitude, that the Peuls originally came from Egypt
and that certain o f them even belonged to the royal branch o f the
ancient pharaonic dynasties. Indeed it is the ontological notions o f
Ra and K a which are found to be the basic totem ic names o f the
Peuls. Now the totem ic name is essentially an ethnic index in Black
Africa. Ba-Ra, Ba-Ri, K a-Ra, Ka-Re, all these nam es used by the
Peuls are composed, visibly, o f Egyptian roots, derived from the most
au thentic and the most secret theogony. It is known that, until the
proletarian revolution which took place at the end o f the ancient
E m pire, only the pharaoh possessed an im m ortal K a and enjoyed
the right o f an O sirian death.
W hatever was the real nature o f Ba and K a to the ancient Egyp­
tians, the fact th at they are to be found in the form o f totem ic names
and w ithout any possible doubt, am ong the Peuls, seems to confirm
the theory o f M oret, who wished to dem onstrate Egyptian totem ism ,
proceeding from an analysis o f these notions .3
In another connection, M oret was to write about Ba and Ka:

The Ka who has just been united with the Zet is a divine being
who lives in the sky and only manifests himself after death...
In the text of the ancient Empire, to express the idea of dying,
the expression ‘go to his Ka’ is employed. Other texts make it clear
that there exists in heaven an essential Ka... this Ka... presides over
all intellectual and moral forces; it is he who, at one and the same
time, nourishes the body, beautifies the name, and produces physical
and spiritual life....

Once the two elements are united, Ka and Zet form the com­
plete being who symbolises perfection. This being possesses new pro­
perties, which make of him an inhabitant of the heavens who is called
Ba (soul?) and Akh (spirit?). The soul Ba represented by the bird Ba,

111
 complete with a human head, lives in the sky... As soon as the king
is reunited with his Ka, he becomes Ba.4

It m atters little w hether M o re t’s interpretation is correct or not;

it perm its us to em phasize the im portance o f these concepts in Egyp­
tian thought.
It is thus not by chance that the name K a is the noblest and most
au thentic o f Peul names.
It has often been supposed that the Peuls were at first white peo­
ple, who had become m ore and m ore Black by interbreeding. T h e
analysis o f the Peul language, its deep grammatical kinship with other
languages o f the African group (W alaf, Serere, O ld Egyptian...),
incline one to suppose the contrary .5 Indeed if present-day France
were to become a Black nation by the progressive invasion o f an out­
side elem ent, even at the end o f the transform ation the m ainstay o f
its culture, that is, its language, would remain French assum ing that
society itself had not been com pletely overthrow n. T h e new mixed
elem ents would continue to speak French. I f the Peuls were a group
o f conquerors o f a higher cultural level, propagators o f a civilisation
coming from no-one knows where, even in mixing with other peoples
un d er such conditions o f superiority it is their culture w hich should
be transm itted and it is their tongue which should have been imposed
on the African aboriginals, instead o f the opposite being the case.
We are therefore obliged to suppose that they were orignally
genuine Africans progressively crossed w ith outside elem ents. Only
this hypothesis makes the known facts intelligible, in allowing an
explanation o f why, in spite o f their evident racial m ixture, the Peuls
speak a Black language w hich cannot be linked w ith any Sem itic or
Indo-European group and that m atriarchy is at the basis of their social
organisation, in spite o f their nom adism . For the rest they have all
the cultural traits com m on to the more or less mixed peoples o f Black
Africa, the Y oruba, Sarakolle, etc...
In so far as the Peul were o f Egyptian origin, they were Africans
o f sedentary, agricultural habits practising m atriarchy. Following the
break-up o f ancient Egyptian society - disappearance o f sovereignty
- they m ust have em igrated at quite a late date w ith their herds o f
cattle. T h ro u g h force o f circum stances they w ould thus have passed
from a sedentary life to a nom adic one. But it can be understood

112
then, that the m atriarchy o f the first epoch would continue to govern
social relationships; the more so since it is doubtless excessive to speak
o f an absolute nomadism o f the Peul. In reality he was semi-nomadic;
Black Africa is studded w ith villages o f Peuls inhabited throughout
the whole year. Only the younger people o f the group walk behind
the herds across whole provinces looking for pastures, to return to
their starting point at the end o f the season.
It could be objected that the names quoted are not the only ones
used by the Peuls. C ertainly, this is so: but they are most authentic
since the Peuls do not share them with any other African people,
while their other nam es can be used by m em bers o f different ethnic
groupings. T h u s Diallo is at one and the same tim e a nam e o f the
Peul and o f the T o utcouleurs; Sow, o f the Peul and the Laobi, etc.
T h is explanation perm its us to understand the m atriarchy o f the
Peul, his nom adism , his totem ism , his ethnic origins and those o f
his language. T h e m atriarchy o f this sem i-nom adic people ceases to
constitute a valid objection to the theory m aintained here.

AFRICAN PATRIARCHY

It is found that the present tendency o f the internal evolution o f the

A frican family is towards a patriarchy m ore or less attenuated by
the m atriarchal origins o f the society. We cannot emphasize too m uch
the role played in this transform ation by outside factors, such as the
religions o f Islam and Christianity and the secular presence o f Europe
in Africa.
T h e African who has been converted to Islam is autom atically
ruled, at least as far as his inheritance is concerned, by the patriar­
chal regim e. It is the sam e w ith the C hristian, w hether Protestant
or C atholic. But in addition, colonial legislation tends everywhere
to give an offical status to these private choices, as is attested by a
verdict delivered at D iourbel in 1936 by the C om m issioner C ham ­
pion, regarding the inheritance o f the lands o f the village o f T hiatou,
near G aouane: the dispute was settled in favour o f M agatte Diop
who succeeded in establishing her right to inherit, in the patrilineal
line, in accordance w ith F rench law, to the prejudice o f her father’s
niece, Gagne-Siri-Fall, sister o f Dieri Fall, who invoked the matrilineal
line, w hich was the only one valid, she m aintained, for the garmis,

113
that is to say, the dynastic families and the nobility.
Finally, ancestral ties tend to become distended by the force o f
the exigencies o f m odern life, which dislocates the ancient structures;
and the African m ore and m ore feels h im self to be as near to his son
as to his u terine nephew . But am ong certain people who have not
yet had any real intellectual and moral contact with the W est, such
as the Sereres, the m atrilineal heritage still prevails. T h e son gets
nothing, the nephew inherits everything.
It is also to these three factors that it is necessary to im pute the
changing o f the names o f children, who cease to bear that o f their
m aternal uncle, that is, o f their m other, to take that o f their father.
It has already been seen that in 1253 w hen Ibn Batouta visited M ali,
this im portant process had still not taken place in the African family.

PO LY G A M Y

As different thinkers, Engels am ong others, have already stressed,

polygamy is th e specific trait o f no single people; it has been and
continues to be practised by the upper classes in all countries, perhaps
not in different degrees, but in different forms. It was custom ary
am ong the G erm an aristocracy o f the tim e o f T acitus, in G reece at
the time o f Agam em non, throughout the whole o f Asia and in Egypt
am ong th e family o f the pharaohs and the dignitaries o f the court.
In all these countries, w ithout damage to the existing m orality, this
luxury was open to anyone if he had the m eans; but m onogam y was
the rule at the level o f the mass o f the people, particularly in Africa.
In so far as Africa is considered to be the land o f polygam y, it is
im portant to emphasize this fact. In sculptural and pictorial represen­
tations, the m onogam y o f the people is proved by the num erous
couples depicted.
It seems that this was so in all Africa d u rin g the late M iddle
Ages, u n til the ten th century, which m arks the extension o f Islam
to the native populations, through the Alm oravidians. Polygamy
tended in this way to become general, w ithout ever ceasing to be
a sign o f social rank. T h u s, it is not rare to see m em bers o f the lower
classes who, seeking to ieceive them selves about their own social
rank, m arry several wives.
It is to these notes about polygamy that it is proper to connect

114
the study o f what has been called the ill-treatment o f African women.
Once again, it is the m atriarchal conception which will enlighten us
in an intelligible fashion regarding the facts. It im plies, indeed, a
relatively rigid dualism in the daily life o f each sex. T he socially adm it­
ted division o f labour reserves to the m an the tasks involving risks,
power, force and endurance; if, as a result o f a changed situation due
to the in tervention o f some outside factor - cessation o f a state o f
war, etc... the tasks o f a m an came to be w hittled dow n, so m uch
the worse for th e woman: she w ould nonethless continue to carry
out the household duties and others reserved to her by society. For
the m an could not relieve her o f this w ithout losing prestige in the
eyes o f all. It is in fact unthinkable, for example, that an African
should share a feminine task with his wife, such as cooking or washing
clothes or rearing children, any European influence, o f course, being
disregarded. T h e d im in u tio n o f the tasks of the m an comes from
the suppression o f national sovereignties which causes the disap­
pearance o f a large fraction o f the tasks o f responsibility. T his diminui-
tion can also be seasonal, as a function o f cultivation and the harvests;
in tropical countries, at two seasons o f the year, during the long dry
period, involuntary unem ploym ent is frequent am ong m en, whom
the feeble econom ic activity o f the country is unable to occupy. In
the fields it is the husband who digs the land and the wife who sows.
At the time o f th e harvest, it is the husband who uproots the peanuts,
for exam ple, and the wife who gathers them . In reality, rural preoc­
cupations are far from being so rigid, and it is rot rare to find a woman
doing certain tasks w hich are not vey arduous, such as cultivating
the soil. But it can certainly be confirm ed that the position o f the
m an in this w ork is superior to that o f his wife. M ost often she
prepares the food and brings it to the fields, while her husband works.
T h e European travellers who crossed Africa like meteors often brought
back piteous, striking descriptions o f the fate o f these poor women,
who were m ade to work by th eir husbands, while the latter rested
in the shade. In contrast, the Europeans who have visited Africa and
stayed there for a greater or lesser period o f tim e, are not sorry for
the African wom en: they find them very happy.
M oreover th is situation has been unchanged since ancient times:
the couples to be seen on the African m onum ents o f Egypt are united
by a tenderness, a friendship, an intim ate com m on life - the like o f

115
which is not to be found in the Eurasian world o f this period: Greece,
Rome, Asia. T h is fact, in itself, would tend to prove that Ancient
Egypt was not Sem itic: in the Sem itic tradition, the history o f the
world begins w ith the fall o f m an, his ruin being caused by a wom an
(the m yth o f Adam and Eve). In ancient Egypt and the rem ainder
o f Black Africa, in every age - except for some slight Arab influence
- the isolation o f wom en under the supervision o f eunuchs, a prac­
tice so typically E urasian, is absolutely unknow n.

EURASIA

T h e extent o f the field to be exam ined, and the m ultiplicity o f facts

to be considered, obliges us to discuss only the most outstanding o f
these.

NEOLITHIC MATRIARCHY

In the sixth m illennium , after the Ice Age and the warm ing o f the
clim ate, m en grouped them selves in fortified villages or in lake-
dwellings. It is not known w hether or not they were m agdalenians
from caves or just some new race originating in Asia. However that
may be, the m en o f that period already practised an em bryonic form
o f herding and agriculture. It is pointed out that am ong the anim als
w hich were dom esticated were cattle, sheep, pigs, horses and dogs.
And am ong the cereals cultivated (corn especially) the cultivation
o f flax provided the thread for weaving (clothing). T h e men o f this
period were thus sem i-nom adic agriculturists, and specialists in
prehistoric studies attribute to them the practice o f m atriarchy. T h is
is the case w ith M e n g h in a n d K ern quoted by T urel:

This ancient form of agriculture is characterised by the clearing

of the land by means of spades, by the perfecting of the axe, by the
mace, the wooden shield, matriarchy and the lunar myths... The
predominant role of the woman in the labour of digging was the source
of matriarchy, which designates the concentration of human life
around the source of its food. The woman, possessing the means of
cultivation, acquires social predominance. The succession goes from
mother to daughter and the mate enters the family of his wife...
The primitive cultivators were not so attracted to ornaments as
 the totemic clans. They appear to have had less imagination and their
ideas were much narrower. In contrast, they were prey to attacks of
religious terror.6

In reality no explicit records exist o f the organisation o f the human

family o f 8,000 years ago. T he above-m entioned conclusions have
only been draw n by studying present-day societies which are still
at the N eolithic stage and extrapolating the results found in ancient
epochs. At best it has been possible to extract w ith m ore or less cer­
titude, the existence, at this far distant period, o f a fertility cult, thanks
to the discovery o f the steatopygous statuettes (the Venus o f W illen-
d o rf and others) whose area o f dispersion extends from W estern
E urope as far as Lake Baikal in Asia and to Japan. It is rather likely
that the ‘predom inant role o f the wom an in the labour o f digging’
is exaggerated. From all tim e it seems natural that the most arduous
work was accom plished by m en, no m atter w hat the latitude. It was
certainly not women who m anufactured the agricultural im plem ents
such as the spades, etc. N either was it the wom en who m ust have
broken the first virgin piece o f land. T h e m en m ust have done this
work in addition to that o f fishing and hunting, as is the case today
in many prim itive societies. T h e advent o f m atriarchy is linked to
the fact that in a truly sedentary society, the woman, instead o f being
almost a deadweight on the society, can supply an appreciable
economic contribution, w ithout any com m on m easure with that per­
m itted by a nom adic life; it is discovered, im m ediately, that in such
a regime, she is more fitted to transm it the rights o f inheritance, than
man. Indeed, even in a sedentary life, m an is relatively m ore m obile
and has fewer attachm ents than wom an, whose social m ission seems
to be to remain in the home. T h e boy in an African family, for exam ­
ple, can be com pared to a bird on a tree: he can fly away at any
m om ent and is a potential em igrant who, even in certain instances,
does not return to the home. H e owes his actions to the girls who
are attached to him: hence the m atrilineal transm ission o f family
interests. I f man were to transm it them , it can be seen that they would
soon be com prom ised and lost to the outside world. T hese ideas are
very fam iliar to Africans who know their society well.
At the tim e o f the lake dwellings, if we can judge by the im por­
tance o f the systems o f defence erected for protection from external
nature - enem y num ber one - the precariousness o f life m ust have

117
lim ited the role which a wom an could play in society; she m ust have
been petrified, not only by religious, but also m aterial terror, con­
stantly fed by the struggle for life, against animals, the forces o f nature
and neighbours. A num ber o f pointers have led certain w riters to
explain the presence o f the steatopygous statues, by the arrival and
settlem ent in Southern Eurasia o f Southern populations, perhaps
African, d u rin g the Aurignacian age.
T h is was so in the case o f D um oulin de Laplante:

It was at this time that a migration of Africoids of the Hottentot

(Khoikhoi) type, leaving South and Central Africa, might have covered
Notth Africa, Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt and brought with it by force
a new civilisation to Mediterranean Europe: the Aurignacian. These
bushmen (Khoisan) were the first to trace rough designs on rocks
and to carve limestone figures representing very fat women, monstrous
pregnant women. Is it to these Africans that the lower Mediterra­
nean basin owes the cult of fertility and of the Mother-Goddess ?7

T h e opinion o f Furon, while slightly more nuanced, is nonetheless

a sort o f confirm ation:

During this time, in Africa, and in the East, which know nothing
of the Solatrian and Magdalenian Periods, the Aurignacian Africoids
extended themselves directly in a civilisation, called Capsian, whose
centre appeared to be Tunisia. From there it seems to have reached,
in one direction, North Africa, Spain, Sicily and Southern Italy,
disputing thus possession of the Mediterranean basin with the Cauca­
sians and Mongolians; in the opposite direction as far as Libya, Egypt
and Palestine. Finally it subjected to its influence the Sahara, the
Sudan and Central Africa as far as South Africa.8

A bout the steatopygous statuettes which have just been m en­

tioned, F uron writes:

All these statuettes having a ‘family air’, the idea of a fertility

cult must certainly be admitted, since it would be unbelievable that
France, Italy and Siberia were peopled by people of the same race,
Africoids, of which the women were steatopygous.9

118
 T h e presence o f a southern Africoid element in Southern Europe
during the A urignacian Age is confirm ed by the presence o f the
G rim aldi M an.

GERMANIC MATRIARCHY

As the N eolithic m atriarchy o f the N o rth , if the G erm an m atriarchy

were proved, it would tend to confirm th at universality o f this
phenom enon. But in this, as in other cases, the scantiness o f the
records invoked to support it is o f a sim ilar order.
N othing is m ore open to doubt than this G erm anic m atriarchy.
Bem ont and M onod, relying on the works o f Caesar and T acitus,
say this:

The Germans did not know a dowry system, but the wives gave
presents to their husbands.
The ordinary freeman had to be satisfied with only one wife;
polygamy was only permitted to the nobility. In certain tribes widows
were not allowed to remarry: ‘a woman takes only one husband, as
she has only one single life, to ensure that she loves the state of mar­
riage and not her husband’ (Tacitus). The father of a family had exten­
sive rights over his wife, whom he could expel if she were unfaithful,
whom he could even sell in case o f necessity, over his children whom
he could abandon, over his freemen and over his slaves; but this
authority ceased in the case of his eldest son or his married daughter;
once the father became too old he no longer counted as an active
member, and it was the son who replaced him. The Germans know
nothing of wills: the nearest blood relations inherited by right; the
women were excluded from inheriting land. The sons were equal
amongst each other:' there is no certain trace of a law of
primogeniture.10

It is difficult to consider as m atriarchy a regim e where, after all,

the wom en gave presents to their husbands, while the latter could
sell them in case o f necessity and abandon his children; w here she
was excluded from inheriting land, where the son inherited from the
father and not the nephew from the uncle, where the nearest blood
relations inherited, to the exclusion o f those o f uterine descent. Since
a m arried daughter left her father’s authority and could be sold by

119
her husband, this im plies that she was no longer a m em ber o f her
natural family, contrary to w hat would occur under a m atriarchal
regime. We are thus in the presence o f a patriarchal regime w ith its
most atrocious exigencies, such as the abandonm ent o f children: it
is only under such a regime that a father can abandon his children
when no longer able to feed them , for in a m atriarchal regime his
own children do not belong to him . In the latter case, it is the uncle
who has the right to sell his nephew and the latter inherits from him:
hence the expression in W alaf, previously quoted.
The abandonment o f children and the burial o f infant girls, considered
as useless mouths to feed, were common practices throughout the whole
o f the patriarchal Eurasian world, where this often appeared as a harsh
necessity. W ith ancestral habits helping, this practice rem ained
custom ary am ong the Greeks even after their settling down, and they
were stupefied to see the Egyptians raise all their children w ithout
distinction o f sex, instead o f abandoning an appreciable num ber at
b irth , as so m uch rubbish:

But once the desire of male posterity had been satisfied, they made
no concessions to those born later. The Greeks noticed, almost with
stupefaction, that in Egypt it was the practice to ’raise’ all the children:
by this is meant that it was not the practice there, as in Greece to ‘expose’,
that is to say, to abandon, the wailing newborn children among the refuse
of everyday life.'1

T h e only fact w hich subsists in favour o f a m atriarchy after a

profound exam ination o f G erm anic society, is therefore the im por­
tance accorded to the nephew , especially in the m atter o f hostages,
w here he was preferred to the son. N ow it is quite possible that this
could have been a practice introduced by the Phoenicians w ithin the
fram ework o f the com m ercial contracts they entered into w ith the
G erm ans.

CELTIC MATRIARCHY

It has not been possible to speak o f an Irish m atriarchy except

by associating w ith this custom practices foreign to it: thus H ubert
quotes Strabo, who seems to take Pythias as his authority for stating
that the Irish knew neither m other nor sister.
120
 According to C aesar, the Celts o f G reat Britain had one woman
for each group o f ten or twelve m en, com posed vaguely o f brothers,
fathers and sons. W hoever brought the wom an to the household was
the nom inal father o f the children who were born. H ere we are face
to face w ith a type o f polyandry w hich m ust not be confused with
group m arriage.
Polyandry is the exlusive property o f the Indo-A ryans, w ith the
exception o f the Semites. It consists o f forcing a wom an, against her
will, to assure the descent o f a group o f brothers or others. W e have
seen it flourish in A thens, as here in an Anglo-Saxon country.
It seems, extraordinary as this may appear, that the Arabs con­
tributed enorm ously to the am atory education o f western m an o f the
M iddle Ages. T o them is owed the birth o f court life.
H ubert explains the Celtic polyandry by the economic inferiority
o f the wom an in the social system: from a m aterial point o f view
the m en w ere interested in introducing as few w om en as possible
into the group. H e rem arks that G allic wom en accom plished their
m ilitary service like the m en, whom they accom panied into battle.
It was the same with the Irish women regarding their right to
landed property. T h ey were gradually freed from this by the C hris­
tian C h urch. T h ey began by buying them selves out o f m ilitary ser­
vice by abandoning h a lf the property to the family.
‘T h e norm al family o f the C elts, in spite o f these exceptional
facts and these relics o f the past, is almost purely agnatic. T h e women
are agents o f natural kinship, but not o f civil relationship. T he son
o f a wom an does not form part o f the line o f descent o f his grand­
father, except in one instance: that o f a m an having no male heir,
who m arries his daughter and reserves for him self the child yet to
be born, who becomes legally not his grandson but his son. T h is
family is grouped around a hearth, w hich has been the centre o f its
w orship, and has not ceased to hold a central place in representing
its nature and its u n ity .’ 12
T h e patria potestas (paternal power) o f the head o f the Gallic
family was identifical w ith that o f the Rom an. According to Caesar
he had the right o f life and death over his children.
T h is authority only ended w ith the death o f the father among
the Irish, and at fourteen years o f age (age o f m ilitary service) among
the G auls; following this the young m an then came under the

121
protection o f a chieftain. Still according to Caesar, as quoted by
H ubert, the husband had the same right of life and death over his wife.
Polygam y was custom ary.

The concubines, in Irish, ‘ben urnadma’, were bought at the great

annual feasts, for the period of a year.13

T h e condition o f the m other had no influence on that o f her

children.
T h e transm ission o f an indivisible asset, such as the kingship,
did not descend from father to son. T h ere was chosen, am ong the
living relatives on the father’s side, the one having the most right,
a younger bro th er or, for exam ple, a cousin.
As in all Indo-Aryan societies, Celtic society had its lower orders
com posed o f ‘declasses' (especially those having lost at the w inter
games); o f dispossed, expelled from the families to escape a blood
debt or debt o f m oney, etc. T hese ‘w ithout hearth or house’ were
very num erous in G aul, according to Caesar.
T h e existence o f the immense class o f ‘outlaw s’ leads H. H ubert
to w rite as follows:

The Celtic world found in these institutions internal reasons of

evolution which led it, after the formation of aristocracies, to create
the plebs which tend to become democracies.14

T h ere were also to be found the same blood custom s such as

the ‘h ead-hunting’ which was a cultural institution com m on to the
G auls and the Irish.
T h e author, quoting Posidonius, shows that the horsem en hung
the em balm ed heads o f their dead enem ies on the hindquarters o f
their horses. T h ey used to boast o f the large sum s offered by the
families o f the dead for the return o f these hunting trophies.
T h ey have been found as effigies on certain G allic coins.
T h e C eltic society is thus clearly patrilineal and endow ed with
all the other cultural traits relating to this custom .
M atrilineal descent always expresses an anom aly every tim e its
existence is not in question.
‘T h e descent o f personnages like C uchlulainn and C onchobar

122
is indicated by the name o f the m other. T hey were indeed o f irregular
b irth and Irish law was precise in attrib u tin g to the m other’s family
the children born outside o f m arriage .’ 15

ETRUSCAN MATRIARCHY

T h e existence o f this would not be surprising if the profound m eri­

dional influence to which this people must have been subjected is taken
into account. It remains, however, very doubtful. If the T rojan origin
o f the Etruscans is assum ed, it will be rem em bered that Aenas, when
running through the ruined streets o f T ro y where he had lost his
m other, tried especially to save his father and the dom estic altar, the
hearth, according to Virgil: the sacred fire o f the altar was never allowed
to die out, in spite o f the long sea-crossing to Rome, where it served
to found a new city, in the Aryan m anner. It is known, according
to Fustel de C oulanges, that the care o f a perm anent fire is specifi­
cally an Indo-E uropean custom . It could be feared, at the m ost, that
Virgil had retraced the E truscan origins according to Rom an ideas.
T h e presence o f the figures o f Am azons in E truscan art is an
additional argum ent against the existence o f a m atriarch in E truria.

THE AMAZONISM OF THE THERMODON

T h e story o f the tradition which follows is taken from Diodorus.

O n the banks o f the R iver T h erm o d o n , there once lived a people
ruled by wom en, practised, like the m en, in the art o f war. O ne o f
them , clothed w ith royal authority, and rem arkable for her strength
and bravery, form ed an arm y com posed o f wom en, inured it to the
hardships o f w ar and used it to subdue several neighbouring peoples.
T h is success having increased her renown, she m arched against more
distant peoples. T h e good fortune w hich was still favourable to her
du rin g this expedition inflated h er arrogance. T h e queen claim ed
to be the d aughter o f M ars, forced the m en to spin wool and per­
form the work o f wom en; she made laws, according to which the
m ilitary functions belonged to the w om en while the m en were kept
in the hum iliation o f slavery. T h e wom en crippled the male children
at b irth in the arms and legs, so as to render them unfit for m ilitary
service; they b u rn t away the right breasts o f the girls so that their

123
prom inence did not handicap them in combat. It is for this last reason
th at they were given the nam e o f Am azons. Finally, th eir queen,
celebrated for her wisdom and her warlike spirit, founded at the mouth
o f the River T herm odon a large tow n called T hem iscyre and built
there a famous palace. She was careful to establish a strict discipline
and w ith the aid o f her arm y she pushed the lim its o f her em pires
as far as T anais. In the end she m et a heroic death in com bat, defen­
ding herself valiantly. H er daughter, who succeeded to the throne,
anxious to im itate her m other, even surpassed her in many things.
She trained the young girls in hunting, from their earliest years, and
accustom ed them to the fatigues o f war. She instituted sacrifices on
a grand scale to M ars and Diana o f T aurus. Taking her armies beyond
T anais she subdued num erous peoples and extended her conquests
as far as T h race. O n her return to her own country, laden w ith the
spoils o f war, she raised splendid tem ples to M ars and D iana and
won the love o f her subjects by the justice o f her governm ent. A fter­
wards she undertook an expedition in the opposite direction, con­
quered a large part o f Asia M inor, and extended her dom ination as
far as Syria. T he queens who succeeded her as her direct heirs reigned
w ith splendour and added even more to the power and renow n o f
the nation o f Amazons. After m any generations word o f their valour
had spread to all the earth. Hercules, the son o f Alcimene and Jupiter,
received, it is said, from Eurystheus, the task o f bringing back for
her the belt o f the Amazon Hippolyte. As a result, Hercules embarked
on an expedition and won a great battle in w hich he destroyed the
arm y o f the Am azons... T h e barbarians revolted. Penthesilea, the
daughter o f M ars and the Q ueen o f the Am azons, who had escaped
the m assacre, fought for a long tim e afterw ards at the side o f the
T ro jan s against the Greeks, and died at the hand o f A chilles .16
It appears from this text that the Amazons o f Asia and those o f
Africa behaved in the same m anner. A lthough o f E urasian origin,
it was th eir own society for which they had an aversion. T h eir con­
quests were made in Europe and in Asia, but Africa was excluded.
T h e last o f them fought beside the T ro jan s, allied to Egypt, against
G reece, w hich personified the patriarchal regime. After their first
victories, they becam e sedentary, building tow ns and devoting
them selves to agriculture, rejecting the nom adic life.

124
 Their warlike ventures successfully concluded, the victorious
heroines created homes for themselves, founded cities and devoted
themselves to agriculture.17

Among the Amazons the queens succeeded to the throne

system atically. T h is was the result o f a reaction against the patriar­
chal regim e; it was not the sign o f a m atriarchy. In the latter, to the
girl, heiress and legitimate guardian o f the throne by inviolable right,
was associated a man - often her brother - who envisaged and
executed the great decisions o f national interest. T h e re was thus no
exclusiveness but a partnership. T h is is why the kingdom s o f C en­
tral Asia, m entioned by T u rel, m ust not be considered as ruled by
a m atriarchy:

Besides these fragments, vestiges of a system originally much

vaster, the reports by Chinese writers about a gynaecocratic state in
Central Asia (where woman was able to conserve her political and
social dominance until the seventh century A.D.) merit all our
attention.18

T h e technique o f debasem ent o f the m en is the same: they spin

wool. It is known that such was the occupation o f the degenerate
Asiatic king Sardanapolus.

That is to say that he wore the transparent gown of the Lydian

prostitutes and occupied himself carding wool, like Sardanapolus and
other Asiatic sovereigns of the same type.19

It is in vain the equivalent o f these custom s could be looked for

in Africa and particularly in Egypt, leaving foreign influence out o f
consideration.

ASIA: REIGN OF QUEEN SEMIRAMIS

It is once again from D iodorus that we m ust take the story o f the
exploits o f the legendary queen Sem iram is.
Since she is the most celebrated o f all the wom en known to us,
it is necessary to show how, from a hum ble condition, she arrived
at the pinnacle o f glory. D aughter o f Venus and a Syrian shepherd

125
according to legend, she was raised m iraculously by doves, who had
nested in large num bers on the spot w here she had been abandoned.
T h e shepherds, having discovered the child, gave it to the head o f
the royal sheep-folds who was called Sim m a: hence the nam e o f
Sem iram is; others say that this nam e m eans ‘dove’ in Syrian. She
was given in m arriage to M enones, one o f the king’s courtiers, who
took her to N ineveh and had by her tw o children, H yapate and
H ydaspe. In view o f her intelligence, she was associated w ith her
husband in all his work. T h e king N inus em barked on the conquest
o f the province o f Bactria. H e besieged the capital, the tow n o f Bac-
tria, but was repulsed. Sem iram is, w ho was in the king’s suite, put
her intelligence to w ork and produced a happy ending to the ven­
ture o f N in u s, by finding a m eans o f skirting the fortifications o f
the town, while diverting the attention o f the defenders. This brought
her the hom age o f the king, who asked for her hand in m arriage,
proposing to her form er husband that he give her u p to him . T h e
king, who had threatened to blind the courtier, obtained satisfaction,
but the latter hanged h im self and Sem iram is becam e queen. N inus
had from her a son, N inyas. W hen he died, he left Sem iram is as
queen. T o her is attibuted, if not the founding, at least the im prove­
m ent o f B abylon .20
C ertainly these tales are legendary and it would not do to take
them literally. H ow ever Sem iram is did exist, as did the other legen­
dary sovereigns about which history possesses few records: M enes,
M inos, the Amazons, etc. Sociology, which seeks among other things
to grasp the m ental habits o f people, far from being em barrassed by
these legends, finds in them m uch upon which to reflect. By study­
ing them it is possible to reach the social and sentim ental attitudes
o f the people who produced them . C ertainly, it would be necessary
to know at w hat period the legend was born, if it is indeed
characteristic o f the historical period o f which it is wished to attribute
it. T hese ideal conditions being impossible to fulfil, there must always
rem ain a large part which has m erely been interpreted, which it is
possible, at best, to attem pt to restrict. But it is very necessary to
proceed th u s, if one wishes to try w riting the history o f these early
periods o f hum anity o f w hich very little evidence has survived.
Sem iram is was not, like the African queens, a princess by birth,
sanctified as queen by tradition. She was a courtesan o f hum ble birth,

126
------------------------

who was led to take power by favourable circum stances. She was thus
an adventuress, like all the Asian queens. Behind them there was
no m atriarchal tradition.
T herefore in considering the three zones: Africa, Europe and
Asia, the situation o f the w om an can be sum m arised as follows:
In Arica: including Egypt and E thiopia, the wom an enjoyed a
liberty equal to that o f a m an, had a legal individuality and could
occupy any function (Candace, Q ueen o f Ethiopia and com m ander
o f her army). She was already em ancipated and no public act was
alien to her.
In Asia: by tradition, she was nothing. H er whole fortune came
from adventure and a courtesan’s life - at least in the region to which
we have lim ited this study. H ere the ideas o f concubine and harem
assum e th eir proper m eanings.
In Europe, during the classical age (Greece, Rome), no courtesan’s
adventures, no go-between and no accident could lead a wom an to
reign. She occupied a position sim ilar to that o f a slave, to the extent
th at, having no juridicial individuality she was unable to serve as
a w itness, was cloisted in the gynaeceum , was unable to take part
in any public deliberation, her husband had right o f life and death
over her, and had the right to sell her and her children, whom he
could also abandon. However, the ‘prostitutes’ were the only women
who enjoyed the esteem and the consideration o f the intellectual elite,
w ithout, nevertheless, having the possibility o f becom ing ‘courtesan
queens’ as in Asia. Such a woman was Aspasia, the mistress o f Pericles,
who dism issed his lawful wife to live w ith her, in spite o f public
outcry; such were also the G reek courtesan Agathocles, with Ptolemy
IV Philopator, who killed his father and sister-wife Arsinoe, and other
G reek wom en, the m ost celebrated o f w hom was R hodophis.
T h e E uropean wom an was not even em ancipated by the Code
Napoleon as has been stressed by Engels; it was not until after the
end o f the last war that F rench w om en obtained the vote.
R eturning to Asia, it can be said th at, as in Byzantium , the suc­
cession to the throne was only regulated by violence and intrigue,
to the exclusion o f every idea o f m atriarchy. T h e Persian kings took
the habit o f nam ing their successors, while still alive, and often
political assassination did the rest.
According to M aspero, C yrus ordered his succession in advance

127
by designating his eldest son, C am byses, who killed his younger
b rother to avoid having any rival.
Cam byses was also the first Aryan to m arry his sister, according
to the Egyptian custom , w ithout it being known w hether - taking
into account his num erous epileptic fits and his depravation, related
by H erodotus - this act did not arise from a sadistic and incestuous
intention.

LYCIAN MATRIARCHY

According to H erodotus, the Lycians descended from Lycos, the son

o f Pandion, K ing o f Athens; bu t the first inhabitants o f Lycia were
em igrants from C rete, under the leadership o f Sarpedon, the brother
o f M inos. T h e Lycians named their children exclusively by the name
o f the m other.

Their genealogy was based solely on maternal descent and it was

the social rank of the mother which alone classified the children among
them. Nicholas of Damascus completes this information by adding
details relating to the rights of succession which were exclusively
reserved to daughters and which, according to him, arose from Lycian
custom, an unwritten law which Socrates defines as emanating from
divinity itself.21

It was not S arpedon’s son who succeeded him , but his daughter
Laodam ia. An attem pt has been made to justify this Lycian custom ,
by the necessity o f providing a dowry for the daughters. T urel recalls,
regarding this subject, that in Rome it was repeated, ad infinitum ,
that the girl w ho m arried thus w ithout a dow ry could not be
distinguished from a concubine.

The son, according to ancient testimony, receives from his father

the spear and the sword. These must suffice to provide for the
necessities o f his existence. But if the daughter is deprived of her
heritage, she would be forced to sacrifice her virginity in order to
acquire the fortune which would secure a husband for her.
...and, in spite of the constitution of their people, essentially
patriarchal in form, the Attic writers find that the best use than can
be made of the maternal fortune is to endow the daughter with it,
in order to preserve the latter from corruption .22
128
 T h ere would have been nothing surprising in the Lycians prac­
tising m atriarchy if they had, in reality, originated in C rete, as the
tradition m aintains. H owever, in the reported facts there is a major
contradiction which m ust be acknowledged. In a m atriarchal regime,
as has already been seen, it is the individual who inherits, that is
to say, the daughter, who at the same tim e receives the dow ry, since
it is she who does not leave her clan or her family. And this is
absolutely logical and well founded on fact, w hen traced back to its
origin. T h e fact o f subordinating the heritage o f the daughter to the
necessity o f endow ing her at the tim e o f her m arriage, puts us in
the presence o f a patriarchal regim e in full force, where the wom an
m ust com pensate for her inferiority o f rank by bringing a dow ry to
her husband. It is there to satisfy the im perious necessity o f endow ­
ing the girls in all Indo-European societies, a necessity which led
sometimes to their being killed off, or being got rid o f by selling them,
that they seem to have been led to agree to leaving them a legacy
- a heritage which could serve as a dowry. It is in vain that one seeks
in G reco-R om an society after it had become sedentary, a m aterial
reason outside the conditions o f patriarchal life justifying this dowry;
it is an extension o f a custom which dates back to the period o f
nom adic life. In consequence, the Lycian m atriarchy is, to say the
least, doubtful. In fact at first sight it com prises two irreconciliable
facts: on the one hand, the transm ission o f political rights by the
daughter which is a sign o f an authentic m atriarchy, and on the other
hand, the bringing o f a dowry to obtain a husband, a no less sure
sign o f an authentic patriarchy. But can it not be said that such a
juxtaposition o f custom s is proper to a zone o f confluence such as
Asia M inor?

129
 CHAPTER V

f
A COM PARISON OF OTHER A SPECTS OF THE
NORTHERN AND M ERIDIONAL CULTURES

T h e com parative study o f the M eridional and N o rth ern structures

and o f th eir realisations can be generalised and extended to dom ains
other than that o f the family. T h e subject o f this study makes it
necessary to com m ence at this point. O n the other hand, it was not
u n im p o rtan t to know, despite current opinion, w hich o f the two
sources had first offered to woman the possibility o f self-development.

THE IDEA OF THE STATE: PATRIOTISM

T h e sedentary life and the nom adic life not only gave rise to two
types o f family, but equally to two form s o f the state. Collectivism
is the logical consequence o f agricultural sedentarism . T h is led, at
an early date (especially in the particular case o f Egypt) to what Andre
A ym ard calls the imperial vocation o f the N ear East.

AFRICA

It is known that the form o f the N ile valley dem anded from the
population, from the time they installed themselves there, undertak­
ings and a general com m unal activity on the part o f the nom es and
all the tow ns to cope with natural phenom ena, such as the floods
o f the river. T h e obligation to break the too-narrow isolating limits
o f the prim itive family, that is the clan; the necessity o f having a
strong central power transcending the individual and co-ordinating
the work, adm inistrative and cultural unification, all this was implicit
in the material conditions o f existence. T h u s the prim itive clans soon
merged, to become no m ore than adm inistrative divisions (the nomes).

130
T h e state appeared w ith its apparatus o f governm ent perfected to
the smallest details, w ithout our being able to trace, except through
legend, the anterior existence o f a period o f nom adic life. A nd this
is valid for E gypt, E thiopia and the rem ainder o f Black Africa.
T h e feeling o f patriotism is, above all, a feeling o f national pride.
T h e individual is subordinated to the collectivity, since it is on the
public welfare that the individual welfare depends: thus private right
is subordinated to public right. T his does not mean that the individual
is a negligible quantity and that the M eridional civilisations, in con­
trast to the N o rth ern ones, put little value on hum an individualities
or on hum an personality.

EUROPE

In E urope, am ong the Aryans, the nom adic style o f life makes o f
each clan, th at is o f each family, an absolute entity, an autonom ous
cell, independent in all its purposes, self-sufficient from an economic
or other point o f view. In addition, the head o f the family does not
have to account to anybody, there is no authority higher than his
own, no religion above his, no m orality outside dom estic m orality.
T h is situation, born during nomadic life, perpetuated itself for a long
time after sedentarisation; Fustel de Coulanges showed that individual
right am ong the Aryans was anterior to the foundation o f cities, and
that this is the reason w hy, for a long tim e, the state had no power
to interfere in the private life o f families, that is to say that in Rome
and G reece du rin g whole centuries a m an could kill his son, his wife
or his slaves, or sell them , w ithout com m itting a crim e against the
state, w hich was then the city. Public authority stopped at the door
o f a m an’s house.

The time when man believed only in domestic gods is also the
time when only families existed. It is quite true that these beliefs were
able to continue afterwards, and even for a very long time, when cities
and nations were formed. Man cannot free himself easily of opinions
which have once taken control of him .1

As the au th o r remarks, these institutions, conceived solely for

nom adic life, were to form a barrier to political and social evolution

131
for a long tim e after the establishm ent o f sedentary life.

One can thus catch a glimpse of a long period during which men
knew no other form of society than the family. It was then that
domestic religion arose, which could not have been born in a society
otherwise constituted, and which was even an obstacle to social
development. It was at this time also that there was established ancient
individual right, which was later to clash with the interests of a wider-
reaching society, but which was in perfect harmony with the state
of society in which it was born...

In death itself or in the existence which followed it, families did

not mix with each other. Each continued to live separately in its tomb,
from which strangers were excluded. Each family had also its own
property, that is, its portion of land, attached inseparably to it by
its religion: its gods the Termes (the boundary stones) guarded the
enclosure, and its Manes watched over it. The isolation of each pro­
perty was so obligatory, that the two domains could not border one
on the other, and there had to be left between them a stretch of land
which was neutral and which remained inviolate.2

Joint use, even between tw o houses, was a sacrilege. On the for­

m ation o f th e cities, the law o f isolation prevailed.

Between two neighbouring cities there was something more

impassible than a mountain: this was the series of sacred boundary
stones, this was the difference of cults, this was the barrier which
each city raised between the stranger and its gods.3

N othing could be com m on to two cities. Because o f the religion,

no other form o f social organisation than the city was possible. Each
was sovereign, w ith its own system o f weights and measures, its calen­
dar, its feasts and its records and could not conceive o f any over­
riding authority. W hen a tow n was conquered, says Fustel de
C oulanges, it could be sacked, all the inhabitants killed or sold as
slaves, b u t foreign sovereignty could not be substituted for that o f
its citizens and the tow n governed as a colony. T h e very nature of
the institutions was opposed thus to the unification o f the territories
to form a nation.
It is thus, following on an outside influence, probably Southern

132
and Egyptian and aided by the changing conditions o f life, that the
G reco-Latins reached, little by little, the idea o f a national unity,
o f an em pire. Fustel de C oulanges correctly remarks:

If the political institutions of the Aryans of the East are com­

pared with those of the Aryans of the West, almost no analogy can
be found. If, on the contrary, the domestic institutions of these
different people are compared, it will be perceived that the family
was constituted on the same principle as in Greece and Italy.'1

W hile the dom estic institutions o f the Aryans belonged to them

in their own right, their political institutions seems to have been bor­
rowed from outside.
T h is particularism o f institutions, which did not provide for the
case o f the foreigner, and the xenophobia w hich was a consequence
o f it, explains the frenzied patriotism o f the G reco-Latins. T h e free
m an, w hen a stranger in a tow n, at least until the first revolutions,
was obliged to become the ‘clien t’, th at is, the slave, o f a citizen o f
the city w hich protected him . T h e idea o f a stranger being free and
enjoying a juridical individuality never occurred to the Greco-Latins.
To kill a stranger was not a crime; the laws making no provision for
his case, he was unable to lay a complaint against anyone and could
not be tried by any tribunal. A man was only a man at home.

The little country was the family circle, with its tomb and its
hearth. The great country was the city, with its Prytaneum and its
heroes, with its sacred precinct and its territory marked by religion.
The sacred ground of the fatherland, said the Greeks. This was not
an empty word. This soil was truly sacred for man, since it was
inhabited by his gods. State, city, fatherland, these were not abstract
words, as in modern times: they really represented an ensemble of
local divinities who were worshipped daily by those who believed
in them with all their souls...
...Such a fatherland is not only a domicile for man; let him leave
these holy walks, let him pass the sacred limits of the territory and
he will no longer find any religion or any social tie of any sort.
Everywhere else, other than in his native land, he is outside ordered
existence and outside the law; everywhere else he is without gods
and outside normal life. It is only there that his dignity as a man
and his duty lie. Only there can he be a man.5

133
 G reco-L atin patriotism , N orthern, is therefore specifically dif­
ferent from Egypto-African patriotism , w ith regard to the reasons
which are at their origin. T h e xenophobia o f the N orthern countries,
in contrast to the xengghiiia o f the countries with a matriarchal regime
was such that at the tim e o f H erodotus, in the fifth centry, only a
soothsayer had as yet acquired Athenian nationality, while in Egypt,
according to Fontanes, from the tim e o f the tw elfth dynasty, Black,
W hite and Yellow m en had already been adm itted to live as equal
citizens .6
As m uch as the strength o f individual right revealed the existence
o f a nom adic period preceding the beginnings o f the form ation o f
the cities, so was public right, w ith tim e, going to take precedence
over private institutions; and finally, the life o f the individual was
going to be com pletely subordinated to that o f the state. In reality,
individual liberty in the patriarchal age only existed for the heads
o f families. L ater it no longer existed for anyone, with the strengthen­
ing o f the authority o f the city-state; the latter took charge o f the
education o f th e children, could direct each citizen to perform any
definite task, exiled those am ong the citizens who were too virtuous
(ostracism) and even intervened in their private feelings:

There was nothing in man which was independent... Private life

did not escape the omnipotence of the state. Many Greek cities for­
bade the men to remain unmarried. Sparta punished not only those
who did not marry, but even those who married late. In Athens the
state could lay down the labour to be done, and in Sparta, the use
of leisure. It exercised its tyranny in the smallest things: in Locri,
the law forbade men to drink pure wine; in Rome, Meletus and
Marseille, this was forbidden to women. It was common practice for
dress invariably to be determined by the laws of each city: the govern­
ment of Sparta regulated women’s hairstyles, and that of Athens pro­
hibited their taking more than three robes when travelling. In Rhodes
the law prohibited the shaving of beards, in Byzantium, it punished
by a fine anyone found to possess a razor at home; in Sparta, on the
contrary, it required moustaches to be shaved off.
The state had the right not to tolerate malformations or defor­
mities among its citizens. Consequently it ordered the father, to whom
such a child was born, to put it to death. This law was to be found
in the ancient codes of Sparta and Rome. We do not know if it existed
in Athens; we only know that Aristotle and Plato included it in their
134
 ideal forms of legislation. There is in the history of Sparta a trait
which Plutarch and Rousseau admired greatly. Sparta had just suf­
fered a defeat at Leuctra and many of its citizens had perished. On
receiving this news, the parents of the dead had to show themselves
in public with cheerful countenances. T he mother who knew that
her son had escaped the disaster and that she was going to see him
again, had to weep and show signs of distress. The mother who knew
she would never see her son again, showed her joy and ran through
the temples thanking the gods. Such was thus the power of the state
which ordered the reversal of natural sentiment and was obeyed.1

W hat indeed rem ains o f the individual liberty w hich seems so

characteristic o f the N orthern cradle since antiquity? N othing, for
the period in w hich we are interested; we have seen it ceased to exist
shortly after the establishm ent o f sedentary life, and that even before,
it was only valid for the ‘pater fam ilias’.
After contact w ith the M eridional states and w ith the end o f
nom adic life, the N ortherners were to conceive a particular type o f
state w hich rem ained m arked by the after-effects o f the preceding
period. It very soon developed into a totalitarianism w hich in our
day w ould be know n as ‘nazism ’ and w hich has no counterpart in
the South, in Egypt, Ethiopia and the rest o f Black Africa. It is quite
probable that the Egyptian citizen was crushed under the weight o f
taxes and forced labour at the time o f the construction o f the pyramids,
but he never knew this intrusion o f the state in his private life. It
is im possible to quote from the history o f A ncient Egypt, Ethiopia
or Black Africa, a single instance w here th e authority o f the state
had im posed the abandonm ent o f children for the sole reason that
they were born deformed, or had allowed any limitation on their birth.
O n the contrary, the respect for life and th e hum an person was such
that, according to H erodotus, when a N ubian citizen was condemned
to death, the state was content to order him to do away w ith himself,
but his own m other then watched, out o f patriotism and civic duty,
that the sentence was carried out and took it upon herself to do it
if her son failed to do so. T his recalls, it is true, the death o f Socrates,
condem ned to drink hem lock. But the S outhern influence, in N o r­
thern countries, was not confined to the fram ew ork o f the state, it
was also to be found at the legislative level, in the im provem ent o f
living conditions and the equality o f the citizens. W hen Solon was

135
designated by the Athenians to draft a code which would govern their
public and private life, he drew his inspiration officially from Egyp­
tian wisdom . Plato relates that he w ent to Egypt to becom e initiated
by the Egyptian priests who, at the tim e, considered the Greeks as
children; in fact they were only younger in the ways o f civilisations
C ould one reconcile the status given to the individual in M eri­
dional societies, w ith the cases o f hum an sacrifices found in them ?
In fact these latter are com m on to all hum anity. Am ong the Greeks,
in the beginning, the bodies o f conquered enem ies were eaten either
cooked or raw; traces o f this custom are to be found in the Iliad.
Agam em non, the com m ander o f the G reeks, sacrificed his daughter
Iphygenia, before leaving for T roy, in order to appease the gods o f
victory. H is grandfather had already served to his brother, at table,
the flesh o f his nephews. This was, according to tradition, at the origin
o f the frightful destiny which overtook the H ouse o f the Atreus, that
o f Agam em non. Am ong the H ebrew s A braham m arks the dividing
line; it was from his tim e on that custom s became less harsh and
that one saw the beginning o f the substitution o f anim als for hum an
beings destined for sacrifice. T h e replacem ent o f Isaac, his son, by
the ram brought by an angel, following the terrible divine com m and
w hich tradition is at pains to justify, can only be interpreted in this
m anner.
In Egypt, scenes representing perhaps hum an sacrifice, which
go back to prehistoric times, are sculptured on the Palette o f N arm er,
discovered by Q uibell at Hierakonpolis. In contrast it seems that the
H ebrew s still practised sacrifices o f this kind until the fifth century,
at the tim e w hen H erodotus visited Egypt. T hey have also been
reported am ong certain G erm anic tribes.
In Black Africa, this only survived in a very fragm entary form,
in D ahom ey, in the M ossi country, contrary to widespread belief.
As to antrhopaphagy properly speaking in the cases where it really
existed, it was linked especially with econom ic penury, as was the
case in Europe during the M iddle Ages, or in antiquity for the armies
o f Cam byses m arching against Ethiopia.
T h e difference between the two cradles therefore not only gave
birth to two different types o f family; it was also responsible for two
types o f state, irreducible one to the other. But the N orthern city-
state, w hich was a sedentary organisation based on ideas acquired

136
 in nom adic life, showed itself less adaptable to the new conditions
o f life o f the citizens who served it. It therefore explodes u n d er our
very eyes, so to speak, during the historical period, to give way to
the M eridional type o f state: that w hich one can call the territorial
state, in contrast to the city-state, covering several towns and tran s­
form ing itself at times into an em pire. Such was the evolution o f the
Rom an city until the m om ent o f its apogee, when it could consider
the M editerranean as an inland sea: mare nostrum.
T h e evolution o f patriotism was a corollary to that o f the state,
w ith the disappearance o f Aryan xenophobia.

ROYALTY

T h e necessities o f collective agricultural life required, at an early stage,

the existence o f a co-ordinating secular authority, which was not long
in transcending society to take on a supernatural or divine character:

From the beginning, the king was god almost literally in order
to bring to mind his all-powerfulness and his superiority over the
common man. It was on the contrary the literal expression of a belief
which constitutes one of the essential particularities of Egypt. This
belief has, moreover, evolved since then, but it has never lost its
force.8

King-god; this idea never seems especially to have struck the atten­
tion o f the A ryans; the kings am ong them were, at the m ost,
interm ediaries between divinity and the ordinary m ortal, to whom
they transm itted the divine com m ands w ithin the fram ework o f a
well-established cerem onial ritual. But they were in the eyes o f all,
and this even in the m ost far-off times.
At this tim e, w hen the social function o f the Aryan king was
still not superfluous, the latter, remarks Fustel de Coulanges, enjoyed
a holy and inviolable authority. Royalty was well able to do w ithout
all the repressive apparatus needed by m odern states to make
them selves obeyed.

Royalty was established quite naturally, at first in the family, later

in the city. It was not devised by the ambitions of certain people;
it was born of a necessity which was manifest to the eyes of all. During

137

.
 long centuries it was peaceful, honoured, and obeyed. The kings had
no need of material force - they had no armies, no finances; but, sus­
tained by beliefs which had a hold on men’s minds, their authority
was holy and inviolable.9

T here reigned, consequently, a confusion between the priesthood

and the secular power. O ne was really a priest-king, in terpreter o f
the divine will, but not a god. W hen royalty was overthow n, and
the religious beliefs rem ained, people turned to ‘fate’ to learn the
divine will regarding the choice o f m agistrates.

Plato expressed the thoughts o f the ancients when he said: ‘the

man whom fate has chosen, we say is dear to the gods and we find
it right that he should command. For all the positions which touch
on sacred things, we leave to the gods the choice of those who are
agreeable to them and we rely on fate to decide’. The city believed
thus that its magistrates were received from god.10

T h e reasons w hich presided over the choice o f an African king

and o f the one who could be called his first m agistrate, were quite
different. It was not the gods who nom inated the m ost suitable can­
didate, by the interm ediary o f draw ing lots and on the basis o f one
knows not what criterion.
T h e choice o f the African, w hether he was ancient Egyptian,
Ethiopian or came from another part o f Africa, particularly the Bantu,
was linked with the idea he had o f the world o f beings and o f essences;
thus to a whole ontology and metaphysics which the Rev. E. Tem pels
calls ‘B antu P hilosophy’. T h e whole universe is divided up into a
series o f beings, o f quantitatively different forces, which are thus also
qualitatively different. From this is derived a hierarchy or natural
order. Each o f these pieces o f essences, o f ontological beings, appears
to us in the guise o f a m aterial body, either anim ated or inorganic.
T hese forces, said to be vital forces, are additive, that is to say, that
if I carry on me in the form o f talism an, am ulet, - call it what you
will - the organ where the vital force o f an anim al is supposed to
be fixed (claw or tooth o f lion, for example), I add this force to mine.
For an enem y com ing from the outside to be able to destroy me in
an ontological and consequently in a physical fashion he m ust total,
by sim ilar means, an am ount o f vital force superior to that at my

138
disposal, now that I have associated w ith m y own that o f the lion.
T his universe o f forces is governed by a weight, a sort o f law o f gravita­
tion, which requires that the position o f each body be naturally a
function o f the weight o f the being, o f its quantity o f vital force. T he
opposite would break the universal harm ony and the natural
accom plishm ent o f phenom ena would be seriously disturbed. It is
to an ontological disorder o f this nature that is im puted the appearance
o f droughts, poor harvests, clouds o f locusts and epidem ics o f plague,
etc... T herefore it is order and natural harm ony w hich requires that
every living or inorganic being should be in its place, and particularly
that man m ust occupy his own proper place.
Such is the necessity w hich governs the choice o f the king. T h e
latter m ust be, am ong all living people, the one having the greatest
q u antity o f vital force. It is only subject to this condition that the
country will never know any disaster. It will be understood why,
according to H erodotus, the m acrobian Ethiopians designated as king
the strongest and healthiest one am ong them . An insight can also
be obtained into the profound m eaning o f the feast o f Zed in Egypt,
said to take place at the ritual death o f the king. W hen the king, at
the end o f a long reign and having reached a certain age, had really
lost his vigour in the eyes o f all, the question arose o f renewing this
by magic rites w hich, it was said, could only augm ent his vital force
since at the end o f the cerem ony he was apparently as old as before.
If his vigour had changed, this could only be in an ontoglogical fashion
in the dom ain w hich can be called, in a hum an being, his vital force.
It seems that, in these prim itive times, the king was purely and
sim ply put to death, after reigning a certain num ber o f years, at the
end o f which it was considered that the vigour w hich perm itted him
to carry out his functions was exhausted.

During the reign ceremonies of the same kind were repeated.

They were jubilees: but the meaning of most of them was richer than
that of simple feasts. They were concerned with restoring to the king
in their former vigorous freshness, the religions and magical forces
on which depended the prosperity of the country. Doubtless these
ceremonies represented an adaptation of the brutal customs which,
in the beginning, terminated in putting him to death and replacing
him by a younger successor."

139
 Seligman has shown that this vitalist conception o f ancient Egypt
is exactly the sam e as that o f the rest o f Africa, even in the present
d ay.1J Am ong certain African peoples the king was in fact put to
death after a reign - the duration o f w hich varied, but in the case
o f the M boum o f C entral Africa was ten years; the cerem ony taking
place before th e harvest o f the m illet. Am ong the peoples who still
practise the ritual o f p utting their kings to death m ust be cited the
Y oruba, the D agom ba, the T cham ba, the Djoukon, the Igara, the
Songay, the W ouadai, the Hausas o f G obir, o f Katsina and o f Daoura,
and the Shillouk .11 T h is practice also existed in ancient M eroe, that
is, in the S udan at K hartoum , and in U ganda-R uanda.
Such a king was at the same time a priest, who in Egypt, delegated
his priestly functions to an offical who perform ed them daily in the
tem ple.
T h e A frican king was distinguished from the N o rth ern king by
his divine essence and by the vitalist character o f his functions. One
was a m an-priest, the other was a god-priest am ong the living: the
king o f Egypt was indeed the hawk god H orus, living for the greatest
benefit o f all even in his sporting activities:

Hunting and fishing, he still carries out his conventional r61e of

sovereign, since he always shows himself in so doing, skillful, strong
and careful, while hunting at least - even crocodiles and hippopotami
existed in the swamps - to clear the country of wild animals.14

T h e king in Egypt and in E thiopia was also the leading farm er;
he is often to be found depicted as digging the first sod (a sign o f
blessing?) to open the excavation o f a canal. According to C aillaud,
who discovered M eroe, he was called the first farm er in the land o f
Sennar, that is in N ubia. It was to him that was owed the fertility
o f the fields and the absence o f social disasters o f all sorts. It was
also considered quite normal that he should take - ritually, so to speak
- a fraction o f the harvests o f everyone, for the upkeep o f his own
family and his servants.
It was so in the early kingdoms until the administrative apparatus
introduced corruption. Obviously the function of defending the coun­
try was also incum bent on the king, but in the agrarian m eridional
countries, d u rin g the long periods o f peace, the m ilitary role o f the

140
king was toned down and took second place after his priestly and
agricultural role. T h in g s went on this way, until the tim e when the
S outhern world was m enaced and invaded by the Indo-E uropeans,
during the second m illennium .

Numbers of the Egyptian sovereigns seem to have lived

peacefully, and the frequent eulogies of peace, almost in modern tones,
constitute not the least remarkable oddity in even the official literature
o f Egypt.15

Before the attacks on the N ortheners, war was not a prerogative

o f the S outh, neither was agriculture that o f the N orth. It was
therefore, in all probability, on contact w ith the S outhern world o f
the Aegean that the N orthern invaders o f Greece and Italy acquired,
little by little, the habit o f practising, o f respecting and even finally
o f considering agriculture as som ething sacred, as is the custom in
the southern cradle. T h ere is indeed som ething contradictory in
nom ads m aking the cultivation o f the earth into som ething divine.
T h u s m any proofs exist to show that on the Italian peninsula it was
the Etruscans who initiated the R om ans, even including the ritual
m arking out o f towns by m eans o f the plough. In Greece, tradition
says that it is to Cecrops and Etyptos, both sons o f Egypt, that one must
go back fo r the adoption o f agriculture as a national activity.

RELIGION

In the dom ain o f religion, as well, the difference betw een the N o r­
thern and M eridional conceptions is no less great.
M ircea Eliade, in his History o f Religions, wished to show the
universal character o f certain religious beliefs, such as the chtonico-
agrarian rites w hich were to be found more or less in all societies
at their origins. How ever a thorough exam ination o f the facts forces
us to reject this point o f view. It is inconsistent, for exam ple, for
the culture and religious thought o f a nom adic people to com m ence
by agrarian rites. It would therefore only have been after settlem ent
that the Aryan nom ads adopted, at the same tim e as agriculture, the
rites and religion corollary to it. So that if allowances are not made
for chronology, there is a risk o f generalising beliefs w hich, in the
beginning, were very strictly localized.

141
 Eliade has clearly shown that w ith the discovery o f agriculture
was born a religion founded on a cosmic triad, become atm ospheric:
the sky, or father-god, through the rain, fertilized the earth or mother-
goddess so that the vegetation-daughter could be born. T hese three
cosmic divinities were not long in becoming anthropom orphic - mean­
ing, to become incarnated in hum an beings - in the persons o f Osiris,
Isis and H orus, but a period when w ithout any doubt the Aryans
were still nom ads and practised quite a different kind o f w orship,
on w hich com parative linguistics allows us to shed some light. T h e
evidence o f Caesar is formal on this point and confirm s that until
a recent period, the N orthern and M eridional beliefs rem ained
distinct.

The practices of the Germans are very different: for they have
no Druids to preside over the worship and scarcely bother with
sacrifices. They count only the gods they can see and whose benefits
can be felt, Vulcan, the sun and the moon: they have never heard
of the others.16

From T acitu s we discern that the M eridional influence was

already am ong the Suebian G erm ans (the Swabians o f today) who
‘made sacrifices to Isis’, beginning th u s to adopt the agrarian rites
o f the South. V endryes has shown what was the extent and depth
o f his recent M eridional religious influence.
From Fustel de C oulanges we learn that the religious base o f
the nom adic patriarchal family was ancestor worship.

It is a great proof of the antiquity of these beliefs and these prac­

tices to find them at the same time among the peoples living on the
shores of the Mediterranean and among those of the Indian penin­
sula. It is certain that the Greeks did not borrow this religion from
the Hindus, nor the Hindus from the Greeks. But the Greeks, Italians
and the Hindus belonged to one and the same race: their ancestors,
at a far distant period, had lived together in Central Asia. It was there
that they first conceived these beliefs and established these rites. The
religion of the sacred fire dates, therefore, from the far-off and obscure
period when there were still no Greeks, Italians or Hindus and when
there were only Aryans. When the tribes separated from each other,
they carried this worship with them, one to the shores of the Ganges,

142
 the others to the shores of the Mediterranean. Later among these
separated tribes which had no further contact with each other, one
worshiped Brahma, another, Zeus and still another, Janus; each group
made its own gods. But they all preserved, as an ancient legacy, the
first religion they had conceived and practised in the common cradle
of their race.17

According to the author, it can be seen that the gods o f nature,

such as Zeus, were adopted at a relatively late date, contrary to the
opinion w hich says that their origin dates back to the tim e o f the
steppes and is based on linguistic analogies w hich are at least doubt­
ful. In showing that there is nothing in their nature to prevent their
being w orshipped by strangers and that they are not xenophobic,
he contrasts them with the family gods, w hich could not suffer the
presence or the w orship o f a stranger. D om estic w orship separated
individuals even to the grave, for even in the after-life the families
did not m ix. For a long tim e this form o f w orship was suprem e over
others; Agam em non, victorious general, returning from T roy,
addressed h im self first to his family gods to thank them:

It is not Jupiter he is going to thank; it is not in a temple that

he was going to take his joy and gratitude; he offers the sacrifice of
thanksgiving at the hearth in his home.18

In the beginning, the national divinities them selves were

dom estic, and belonged to private families.

It needed considerable time before these gods left the bosom of

the families which had conceived them and regarded them as their
patrimony. It is even known that many of them never were detached
from this sort of domestic bond. The Demeter of Eleusis remained
the private divinity of the family of the Eupolmides; the Athena of
the Accropolis of Athens belonged to the family of Butades. The
Potitii of Rome had a Hercules and the Nautii, a Minerva...
It happened in the course of time that the god of a family, hav­
ing acquired great prestige in the minds of men and appearing to
be powerful in proportion to the prosperity of that family, a whole
city wished to adopt it and devote to it a public cult in order to obtain
its favours. This is what happened to the Demeter of the Eumolpides,
the Athena of the Butades and the Hercules of the Potitii.19
 T h is private domestic character is a common feature o f the Aryan
and Sem itic gods. Indeed, even after the trium ph m onotheism in
the hu m an consciousness,. Jehovah was to rem ain the god o f his
‘chosen people’, as he was, in the beginning, the tribal god whom
no stranger could w orship. T here is no universal salvation: H e only
loves and saves his own. Like Zeus, H e is vindictive and irascible
and makes H is presence felt by thunder.* H e m ust even have been,
in the beginning, a sort o f Agni god - fire w orship - so typical o f
the N o rth ern cradle. It will be rem em bered that it was in the form
o f a long colum n o f smoke, a burning bush or some other volcanic
m anifestation, that H e appeared either to M oses or the people as a
guide. Fustel de Coulanges insists that, for a considerable length o f
time, the idea o f a universal god never touched Greco-Roman thought.

It must be recognized that the ancients, excepting certain rare

superior intellects, never represented God as a unique being exercis­
ing power over the whole universe. Each of their innumerable gods
had his own little domain: to one it was a family, to another, a tribe
and to a third, a city: this was the world which sufficed to the pro­
vidence of each of them. As to the God of the human type, some
philosophers were able to guess at it, the mysteries of Eleusis made
it possible to glimpse at it for the most intelligent of their initiates,
but the mass of the people never believed in it. For a long time man
only understood the divine being as a force which protected him per­
sonally, and each man or group of men wished to have his own
gods.20

T h e inclination was probably not to m onotheism , because Fustel

de C oulanges counted the num ber o f gods there were in Rome: they
were m ore num erous than the citizens: ‘there are in Rome more gods
than citizens. ’.2I
W hat is know n o f prim itive w orship in this city allows us to say
that the L atins did not, in the beginning, exhibit their gods. T h is
peculiarity, instead o f arising from a spirit o f abstraction, conform s
rather to the necessities o f nom adic life. T h e same m aterial reasons
which necessitated the crem ation o f ancestors in order to render their
* It w o u ld be in te re s tin g to stu d y th e ety m o lo g y o f T o r , th e ex p ression by w h ic h th e S em ites
o f to d ay (A rabs) d esig n ate M t. Sinai w h ere M o se s sp o k e w ith Jeh o v a h th ro u g h the voice o f
th u n d e r. T h o r is th e G e rm a n ic god o f th u n d e r.
ashes portable, forbade also the carrying o f sculptured figures o f
ancestors or o f other gods during the long journeys. It must therefore
be recognised that the material non-representation o f a divinity seems
to originate in a N o rthern cultural trait. T h e Scythians them selves,
in spite o f th eir prim itive state, only depicted Ares (M ars, god o f
war) in the im provised form o f a sword planted on a heap o f wood.
T h e religious situation was quite different in the south, in Africa.
W ith the aid o f the m ildness o f th eir physical surroundings, the
N ubians and the Egyptians had, at an early date, m ore than a th o u ­
sand years before the G reco-Latins and the Sem ites, the idea o f an
all-powerful G od, creator o f all living things, benefactor o f all
hum anity w ithout distinction, and o f w hom anyone could become
a disciple and gain salvation. Such a god was Am m on who, until
the present day, is the G od o f the whole o f W estern Africa: he is
the one described by Marcel Griaule in his Dieu d ’Eau (God o f Water);
Am m a, G od o f the Dogons, is indeed the god o f w ater, o f hum idity,
o f fertility. H e has the same attributes as A m m on, in the Sudan as
well as in N igeria am ong the Yoruba. P lutarch, in Isis and Osiris
thinks that the name signifies, in Egyptian ‘hid d en ’, ‘invisible’. It
can be rem arked that, in a present-day A frican language like W alaf,
whose kinship w ith ancient Egyptian is not to be doubted, the root
Am rn m eans the fact o f being, w hich is existence, in contrast to
nothingness.
H ow ever that may be, in Egypt the w orship o f A m m on was not
long in enriching and m aking very im portant the caste o f priests who
served it. T h ere followed the reaction o f A khnaton, surrounded by
circum stances which are not very well known. Breasted considers
this pharaoh as the first inventor o f the purest form o f m onotheism
in the history o f h u m anity .22 T h e G od Aton as conceived by him
was not distinguishable by any form o f statuary representation; the
solar disc sym bolised his power, and by its brightness and its rays
gave fresh life to all nature. It had, therefore, one trait in com m on
w ith the N o rth ern gods, and certain historians are inclined to think
that this fact could be linked either w ith the central origin o f the
grandm other o f A khnaton, or to the influence o f his wife N efertiti.
W hen H erodotus insists on the piety o f the Egyptians and when
he affirms that ‘they are also the first to proclaim the doctrine that
the soul o f m an is im m ortal’, historians do not think that he
exaggerates .25

145
 C ertainly there can be found, as a particular trait in E gypt and
in Black Africa, this unrestrained w orship o f anim als, this zoolatry,
which the G reeks jeered at so m uch, and o f which Andre Aym ard
remarks that no traces were to be found in Semitic Asia. These beliefs
- w hether they are given the nam e o f totem ism or zoolatry - which
make possible the identification o f a hum an being and an anim al,
taken and analysed from the outside, m isled, for a certain tim e,
W estern thinkers such as Levy-Bruhl. It was following a generalised
study o f these that the latter affirm ed that the principle o f identity
ought not to operate am ong peoples whose m em bers were capable
o f considering them selves at one and the same tim e as anim als and
authentic hum an beings; they would be ruled by a prim itive pre-
logical m entality, the difference betw een w hich and that o f the
civilised adult w hite male could not be made up by intellectual pro­
gress accom plished in a hum an lifetim e. T h ere were two distinct
levels. T h e au th o r before his death, retracted this and considered
that the word ‘sym bolism ’ would be more exact to characterize this
type o f m entality.
In reality, only a knowledge o f the ontology o f the peoples under
the reign o f zoolatry w ould have allowed one to avoid falling into
these errors. In a m entality where the essence o fj.hings, ontology
par excellence, is the vital force, the exlerior form s o f beings ancToF
objects become secondary and can no longer constitute a barrier either
for totalling two vital forces or for identifying two o f them , because
they are equal quantities or because the beings they anim ate have
been led in th eir existence to proceed to a social contract, a sort o f
blood pact. T h u s , if the beauty o f the plum age o f the parrot or o f
the peacock attracts me, becomes confused w ith my aesthetic ideal,
there is nothing to prevent me from choosing it, for this single p ar­
ticular trait, as my totem . I m ight also have been tem pted to choose
the lion, because o f its strength, or the falcon, because o f its vigilance...
Evidently, all these choices which, in the beginning, were m ade at
the level o f the clan, express themselves by an identification o f essences
which is only conceivable by a vitalist m entality, governed by a
philosophy o f the B antu type. And it is seen that it is not due to
change that am ong the^Blacks o f Black Africa and the ancient Egyp­
tians, who all practised totem ism or zoolatry, that vitalism was at
the basis o f their conception o f the universe. W hile in the Sem itic
and Aryan world the association o f an anim al and a hum an being
had, as A ndre A ym ard has rem arked, only a sym bolic character; in
the African world the philosophy w hich is the basis o f life, allows
us to identify these two beings w ithout contradicting the principle
o f identity, w ithout o ur being able to evoke a prelogical m entality.
Here, the exterior form is not the first reality, it is perhaps not illusory,
but secondary, and no serious classification could come from it. T h e
pharaoh and the falcon were one and the same essence, although enjoy­
ing different exterior forms: D iana’s hind or the Gallic cock are only
symbols, otherwise the Indo-Europeans would have known totemism.
It was w ithin the framework o f such thought, that were logically
situated the philosophical doctrines such as that o f the reincarna­
tion or m etem psychosis o f Pythagoras. H erodotus, in paragraph 124
o f his second book takes up ironically the attribution o f this doctrine
to Pythagoras. H e says there that he knows someone in Greece who,
wishing to give him self a reputation as scholar and philosopher
attributed to him self this doctrine w hich was invented by the E gyp­
tians, but w ho, by discretion, he does not wish to name.
T h e conception o f life after death and that o f moral values are
the natural ornam ents o f religion and philosophy. In this dom ain
the M eridional and N orthern conceptions remain irreducible and bear,
undeniably, th e im print o f the cradles in w hich they were born.
In the nom adic cradle, w here reigned an endem ic state o f war
following on a lack o f central power to decide between tribes and
individuals, the defence o f the group was the first concern. And all
moral values related to war, contrary to all expectations for those
people coming from the Southern cradle. It was only possible to enter
the G erm anic paradise Valhalla if one were a w arrior fallen on the
field o f battle. In this case only did the Valkyries come to gather the
body o f the dead fighter and take it to paradise. But there as well
the gods passed their tim e, to prevent boredom , in fighting am ong
them selves d u rin g the day, and in drinking at night. T h ey would
all have died o f hunger had not Frigga, the daughter o f W otan,
cultivated golden apples for them in her garden. For the rest, the
gods were m ortals like other m en; they were corrupted by life and
were all to die so that another world, pure and regenerated, could
again be born. Such is the thought contained in W agner’s Tetralogy,
which was adopted in a particular m anner by the N azis, bu t w hich

147
is nothing else than that contained in the Niebelungen:

Those who fell in battle or who died of their wounds were admit­
ted to heaven, the dwelling-place of the gods (Valhalla) where lived
the Valkyries and where Fricka, the wife o f Odin, received the heroes
and presented them with the drinking-horn. The shades passed their
days in fighting and their nights in feasting, and the German wished
for no worthier recompense for his valour. Besides, these gods were
no more immortal than the world created by them; they let themselves
be corrupted, like men, through evil habits; they will then be con­
demned with the world and will perish, but in the same way as night
follows the day, they will be reborn, purified, no longer to die. The
elements of the primitive epics are to be found once again, mixed
with ancient and Christian traditions in the Eddas, collections of Scan­
dinavian traditions composed in Iceland from the tenth to the thir­
teenth century.24

A young Germ an had the right to shave his beard only by moisten­
ing it w ith the blood o f an enemy killed in battle. R obbery was an
honourable exercise in risk and hardening w hen it was com m itted
outside the tribe, according to T acitus.
T h e G reek O lym pus is identical w ith the G erm anic Valhalla as
far as the moral values w hich reign there and the occupations and
the sentim ents o f the gods are concerned. Zeus trium phed by force
over the rest o f the gods in a battle waged with the help o f Prometheus.
His soul was the seat o f indescribable intrigues, crim inal ideas and
choleric outbursts. He recoiled before no injustice, no sentim ent,
however horrible it was, he, the master o f Olym pus, who could covet
the wife o f another god.
T h e Assyrian conception o f the Beyond was very close to that
o f the Aryans; am ong the Assyrians, indeed, it was the soldier who
fell in battle w ho w ent to paradise. T h e ir cruelty was proverbial:
it has been thought - and not w ithout dread - that if their art is so
anatomical, this is due to the deep knowledge o f the hum an muscular
system obtained in skinning their prisoners alive, especially the chiefs.
N othing was more com m onplace am ong them than the m utilation
o f a m em ber, the putting out o f an eye or the cutting off o f an ear
or a nose.
In this way, during all the nom adic period and for a long tim e
after settlem ent in fixed abodes, the idea o f justice seemed unknow n
to the Aryans. All their moral values were the opposite o f those o f
the Southern cradle and were only to become m ilder on contact with
this region. C rim e, violence, war and a taste for risk, so m any sen­
tim ents born o f the clim ate and the early conditions o f existence,
all predisposed the Aryan world, extraordinary as this may appear,
to a great historical destiny. W hen the Aryan threw h im self against
the Southern cradle to conquer it, he was to find it badly defended,
w ithout any notable fortifications, since it was accustom ed to a long
period o f peaceful coexistence. It was after having been subjected
to these first invasions that the Egyptians, particularly, raised for­
tifications, at the gates o f their country, as at Sinai. It was following
on similar circumstances that the Sidonians fortified their town, which
was nonetheless destroyed in the tw elfth century B.C. to give way
to T yre.
T h e N u b ian s and Egyptians o f antiquity felt very com fortable
in their own country and did not wish to leave it; they were not con­
querors, b u t were distinguished by their spirit o f justice and piety.
W hen Queen Candace took com m and o f her armies, it was to defend
the national soil against the troops o f A ugustus Caesar com m anded
by the general Petronius. She fought nonetheless w ith such energy
that Strabo said 'she had a courage surpassing that o f her sex’. Egypt
only became a conquering and imperialist nation by reaction, by self-
defence after the occupation o f the Hyksos, under the eighteenth
Dynasty; particularly under T hothm es III who is often called the
Napoleon o f Antiquity. He conquered Palestine and Syria and pushed
the frontiers o f Egypt as far as the upper E uphrates at Kadesh. For
this seventeen expeditions were requiredCOn the eighth he left Egypt
by sea and landed in Phoenicia, had boats built at Byblos and had
them carried across the desert to the E uphrates, w hich he was thus
able to cross and defy the M itanians. T h e renown o f this victory
assured him the subjection o f those great w arriors the Assyrians, the
Babylonians and the H ittites, who all paid tribute to him . C onse­
quently the Egyptian dom ination under T h o th m es III extended to
the foothills o f the Elam ite chain. T h e Egyptians practised at that
time a sort o f assimilation policy, which consisted o f taking the young
princes who were heirs o f the conquered kingdom s, giving them an
Egyptian education and sending them back hom e, so that they could
transm it E gyptian civilisation.

149
 T h e conquests o f Shaka who is also called the N apoleon o f South
Africa o f m odern times are, in m any respects, equal to those o f
T h o th m es III.25
T h e spirit o f conquest seems to have entered W est Africa d u r­
ing the Islamic period w ith religious conquerors such as El-Hadji
O m ar in the nineteenth century.
As to the attitude o f Sam ory, it is to be com pared w ith that o f
V ercingetorix. T h ere was a national resistance.
It was therefore on contact w ith the outside world that Black
Africa, as a whole, was to study ardently in the school o f war, and
to excel in this finally; so easy is it for the hum an being to adapt
him self, especially w hen this is dictated by necessity.
T o the mediocrity o f living conditions offered by nature, the N or­
therners responded by religious conceptions o f a m eagre nature,
strongly im printed with materialism. T hey had, so to speak, no reason
to be grateful to this hostile nature.
It was quite different for the Southern cradle w hich seems to
be the favoured land o f religious idealism . T h e Egyptian gods
transcended hum anity by their virtues, their generosity and their spirit
o f justice. At the b irth o f their nation, O siris was already there, w ith
his spirit o f equity: in the beyond, on his divine throne, he presided
over the tribunal o f the dead; his absolute justice is sym bolized by
the scales o f T h o t and A nubis, w hich weigh the actions o f the dead
before rew arding them or punishing them . T h is is the same state
o f m ind met everyw here in Black Africa; on this subject can be
invoked the testim ony o f Ibn Batouta who visited the Sudan in the
th irteen th century:

W H A T I H A V E S E E N T O B E G O O D IN T H E C O N D U C T O F
T H E BLACKS

Acts o f injustice are rare am ong them : o f all peoples, th is is the

one least inclined to com m it these and the sultan (African king) never
forgives anyone w ho is guilty o f one. T h ro u g h the length and breadth
o f the co u n try reigns perfect security; people can live there an d travel
w ithout fear o f robbery or depredation. T h ey do not confiscate the
goods o f w hite m en w ho die in th e ir country; even w hen the value
o f these is im m ense, they do not to u ch them ; on th e co n trary , they
appoint trustees o f the inheritance, chosen am ong th e w hite m en and

150
 it remains in their hands until the rightful owners come to claim it.26

T h e ensemble o f these moral conceptions and the social solidarity

resulting from them gives to Black Africa the following triple character
upon w hich one can ponder.
Black Africa is one o f the lands o f the world where man is poorest,
that is, w ho at the present tim e, possesses the least; but it is the only
country in the world where destitution does not exist in spite o f this
poverty, thanks to the existence o f a rightful solidarity. It is also the
first country in the world where criminal activity is weakest. It would
be interesting to com pare the statistics o f crim es com m itted in the
rest o f the w orld w ith those - especially crim es o f debauchery -
actually com m itted by genuine Africans in Black Africa.*

L IT E R A T U R E

T h e accent will be placed on the essential difference betw een Greek

literature and that o f Egypt: the particular taste o f the Greeks in
developing the tragic style.
We can try to find the reason for this by disregarding the stim ula­
tion o f the creative will o f artists by artificial means, such as the awar­
ding o f prizes at the Olym piades.
T h e them es always deal, through the action o f destiny, w ith a
blind fatality w hich tends system atically to destroy a whole race or
line o f descent. T h ey all betray a feeling o f guilt, original w ith and
at the same tim e typical o f the N orthern cradle. W hether it is a ques­
tion o f O edipus or the A trides and A gam em non, there is always a
flow, a crim e com m itted by the ancestors, which has to be expiated
irrem ediably by their descendants, who, from this fact and despite
whatever they do, are utterly condem ned by fate. Aeschylus tried
to reduce the severity o f this state o f affairs by doing his utm ost to
introduce the idea o f justice, which would allow an innocent posterity
no longer to be punished, but to be absolved.
T h e Sem itic conception is identical. T h e original sin was
com m itted by the very ancestors o f the hum an race and all hum anity,

* I f o n e reflects th a t in th e U .S .A ., a cc o rd in g to a re c en t re p o rt o f th e F .B .I., a c rim e is c o m ­

m itted every few seco n d s, th e necessity o f en co u rag in g in B lack A frica p reventive sociological
studies w ill be u n d e rsto o d .

151
condemned from this tim e to obtain its bread by the sweat o f its brow,
had to atone for it. T h is point o f view has been adopted and taught
by m odern religions such as C hristianity and Islam.
I f such a feeling o f guilt had really invaded the Indo-European
conscience to the degree shown in its literature, even at the present
day, it m ust be adm itted that there exists a sort o f incommensurability
between the N o rth ern and S outhern conscience. N o idea to the
A frican is so herm etically sealed o ff as the feeling o f guilt conceived
in this m anner. N o trace o f it can be found in ancient Egyptian
literature. Even to the C hristian or Islam ic African it rem ains a
m ysterious dogm a w hich has never existed in his consciousness.
Since the m anner in which this feeling o f culpability is introduced
in n o rthern literature is always artificial, it could be asked what are
the real m otives, specific to the N o rth ern cradle, w hich have given
birth to it. Among other crimes could we invoke once more the second-
rate place given to wom en in Aryan society? Did the N orthern cons­
cience feel guilty about her? A scholar could show this w ithout dif­
ficulty by relying on an analysis o f the tragic theatre o f antiquity.
T h e them es dealt with often reflect only this aspect. Oedipus, The
Suppliants o f Aeschylus, etc. In this latter play, it is necessary to note
that the legend on which Aeschylus based his work - that o f the
Danaides - is o f G reek origin. But a num ber o f the scenes narrated
take place in Egypt and it has been wrongly deduced that the legend
is E gyptian.27
How ever that may be, it is rem arkable that the Egyptians did
not create a tragic theatre. It can be supposed that their social struc­
ture, the m anner o f their life and their psychology were unfavourable
to such a cultural activity.

T H E B IR T H O F T R A G E D Y O R H E L L E N IS M A N D
P E S S IM IS M O F N IE T Z S C H E

It can be said that tragedy, in its classical form , that in which it has
been handed dow n to us, is the typical G reek literary form , not to
say the Aryan one. I f it is easy to discern at the origin o f all trad i­
tions, an em bryonic dram atic literature (the M ysteries o f Osiris), it
was only am ong the G reeks that could be found a moral terrain
propitious to the glorifying o f the form , and its elevation to the level

152
o f classicism. T h e content o f G reek consciousness was, and still
rem ains, the natural raw m aterial o f all tragedy. We m ust think o f
the leading place occupied there by the strong feeling o f crim e, which
by social reaction is often expressed by a horror o f m urder, the idea
o f guilt w hich is corollary to it, the retention in the male conscience
o f the discordance, unfair relations o f the sexes, following on the social
restraint o f wom en; all these facts m ust be thought o f if we are to
understand that Greece was the chosen land o f tragedy. One o f the
originalities o f N ietzsche consisted in large m easure in the posing
o f this problem .

W e m ust appeal to all the aesthetic principles set forth u p till

now , to be able to find our way in this labyrinth w hich is the true
origin o f th e G reek tragedy. I do not believe I am statin g an ab su r­
dity in claim ing that this question has still never been seriously asked,
and consequently still less resolved, how ever num ero u s have already
been th e speculations attem pted w ith the aid o f floating scraps o f the
trad itio n o f antiq u ity , so often shredded apart or re-sewn one to the
other.
T h is tradition declares, in the most formal way, that tragedy came
out o f th e tragic chorus, and that it was only, in th e beginning, the
ch o ru s and nothing b u t th e ch o ru s.28

According to Nietzsche, to give birth to tragedy, there was

necessary the synthesis o f a D ionysian m usical elem ent and Apolli-
nian elem ent w hich was plastic and intelligible. T o dem onstrate this
he was led to give a particular significance to the satyr in the Greek
theatre; he saw there a natural im aginary entity, contrasting with
civilised m an covered round w ith a sort o f desiccated politico-social
shell which prevents him from realizing this prim itive identification
w ith nature, sung by the chorus o f satyrs; at the very least, it was
in coming under the effect o f its Dionysian music, and allowing oneself
to be consum ed by it, that it was possible to attain the state o f ecstasy
w hich perm its one to grasp life in its prim ordial unity.

I believe that the civilised G reek felt h im self th u s consum ed in

th e presence o f the chorus o f Satyrs, and the m ost im m ediate effect
o f D ionysian tragedy is that the political and social in stitu tio n s, that
is th e gulfs w hich separate one m an from the o th e r, disappear before

153
 an irresistible feeling which draws them back to a state of primitive
identification with nature. The metaphysical consolation afforded us,
as I have already said, by all real tragedy, the thought that life, at
its basis, and in spite o f the changeableness of appearances, remains
imperturbably powerful and full of joy; this consolation appears with
manifest clarity in the form of a chorus of satyrs, of a chorus of natural
entities, whose life exists in an almost indelible manner behind all
civilisation; who in spite of the metamorphoses of generations and
the vicissitudes o f the history of peoples, remain eternally unaltered.
The profound soul of the Hellene is fortified by the accents of
this chorus, this soul so incomparably fitted to feel either the slightest
or the most cruel sufferings; it had contemplated, with a penetrating
eye, the terrible cataclysms of what is called the history of the world
and had recognised the cruelty of nature; it found itself then exposed
to the danger of aspiring to the Buddhist annihilation of the will.
Art saved it and through art - life reconquered it.M

U nfortunately, the ecstatic rapture o f the D ionysian state stops

w ith the m usic, and the reality o f everyday life reappears in all its
nakedness and with all that it contains o f cruelty and deception; while
this short vision o f ‘pure tru th ’ is sufficient to destroy the will and
make all hum an activity appear alm ost absurd.

In this sense, Dionysian man is similar to Hamlet; both looked

into the essence of things with a determined eye; they looked and
were disgusted by action because their activity could change nothing
of the eternal essence of things: it seemed to them ridiculous or
shameful that it be their business to put right a world out of order.
Knowledge kills action and for the latter the mirage of illusion is
necessary - that is what Hamlet teaches us. It is not the cheap wisdom
of Hans the dreamer who, by thinking too much and as if by an excess
of possibilities, cannot bring himself to act; it is not thought, no! -
it is real knowledge, the vision of the horrible truth, which destroys
all impulse, all motive for acting, in Hamlet as well as in Dionysian
man.
Then no consolation can any longer prevail; desire leaps over
a whole world towards death and despises the gods themselves;
existence is denied, and with it the false reflection of its image in
the world of gods or in an immortal beyond. Under the influence
of the truth beheld by him, man no longer discerns now from

154
 anyw here anythin g but the horrible and absu rd o f existence; he
u n d erstan d s now w hat is sym bolic in the fate o f O phelia; he can now
recognise the w isdom o f Silenus, the god o f the forests; disgust m ounts
to his th ro at and in this im m inent danger o f the w ill, art appears like
a saviour bringing a healing balm ; it alone has the pow er to transm ute
th is disgust o f w hat is horrible and absurd in existence into ideal
im ages, w ith th e aid o f w hich life is rendered possible. T h ese images
are the sublim e, w here art m asters and subdues th e ho rrib le and the
com ic, w here art delivers us from th e disgust w ith the absurd. T h e
ch orus o f satyrs o f the dith y ram b was the salvation o f G reek art; the
accesses o f despair, evoked just now , disappeared thanks to the
m ediating w orld o f these com panions o f D ionysiu s.50

For the au th o r, the satyr, like the shepherd o f m odern idylls,

symbolises an aspiration tow ards the original prim itive state: it
represents nature still free from all taint o f knowledge, still not violated
by any civilisation. So, in the eyes o f the G reeks, it was exactly the
opposite o f a m ere puppet.

T h e satyr...sym bolises the w hole o f th e sexual pow er o f n atu re

that the G reek had learnt to regard w ith an apprehensive and respect­
ful am azem ent.51

N ietzsche, until this, had only stressed the effect o f tragedy, that
is to say, o f D ionysian m usic, by plastic A pollonian m eans, on the
soul o f the civilised Greek. After having insisted on this salutary effect,
he penetrated m ore deeply into the subject m atter o f the dram a to
bring out the sentim ents w hich are the basis o f it and which serve
to support it. T h ey are the same as those m entioned above; the feel­
ing o f crim e, guilt, original sin and then, although less clearly
expressed, a terrible feeling o f em barrassm ent tow ards wom an, who
has been m ade the scapegoat o f Aryan society. All these sentim ents
are specifically Indo-A ryan and Sem itic; N ietzsche insists on them
in the case o f both peoples, in different degrees, to account for the
pessim istic ideas which are at the foundation o f their conception of
the universe and o f civilisation. It is in an analysis o f the legend o f
Prom etheus th at he finds the argum ents perm itting him to support
this point o f view:

155
 T h e legend o f P rom etheus is an original p ro p erty o f th e entire
A ryan race and a docum ent w hich testifies to its faculty for the p ro ­
found and the tragic; and it w ould not even be difficult to believe
that this m yth had the same characteristic significance as th e legend
o f the fall o f m an had for the Sem itic race, and th a t th ere existed
betw een these tw o m yths a degree o f kinship sim ilar to that betw een
b ro th er and sister. T h e origin o f this m yth o f P rom etheus is the
inestim able value accorded by a naive hum anity to fire... B ut that
m an could have fire freely at his disposal and that he did not receive
it as a ray o f light, seem ed to th e prim itive soul to be a sacrilege,
as stealing from divine nature. W hatever h u m an ity could acquire o f
the highest and most precious it obtained through a crim e and it m ust
th ereafter accept th e consequences, that is, the to rre n t o f ills and
torm ents w ith w hich the angry im m ortals m ust afflict the hum an race
in its noble ascension. T h is is a harsh th o u g h t w hich, by the dignity
it confers on crim e, contrasts strangely w ith the Sem itic m yth o f the
fall o f m an, w here curiosity, lying, covetousness, in short a w hole
procession o f the more specially fem inine sentim en ts are regarded
as the origin o f evil. W hat distinguishes th e A ryan conception is the
sublim e idea o f effective sin considered as the tru e P rom ethean v ir­
tue; and this furnishes us at the sam e tim e w ith th e ethical founda­
tion o f pessim istic tragedy; the justification o f hum an suffering, the
justification not only o f the transgression o f m an, b u t also o f the evils
w hich are a consequence o f it.12

In the beginning tragedy was therefore entirely a setting for

hum an suffering whatever the cause o f this: N ietzsche is categorical:
the prim itive hero o f all G reek tragedy is Dionysus, later heroes are
only his masks, his transfigurations. In the same way the Dionysian
tragic elem ent o f the dram a was gradually w hittled dow n from this
beginning. T h e individualization o f the general types, the refinement
o f the psychological study o f the characters by Sophocles, the im ita­
tion o f the m yth by E uripides, in short, the advent o f the Deus
exmachina, succeeded in destroying the ancient tragedy:

It is an indisputable tradition that G reek tragedy in its oldest form

had as a sole object the sufferings o f D ionysus, and that d u rin g the
longest period o f its existence, the only hero on the stage was pre­
cisely Dionysus. But it can be affirmed with equal certitude that before
and until the tim e o f Euripides, he never ceased to be the tragic hero,

156
 and that all the celebrated personages o f the G reek theatre, Prometheus,
O edipus, etc., are only disguises o f the original hero, Dionysus. T h a t
behind these disguises is hidden a god, such is the essential cause o f
the typical ideality, so often adm ired, o f these glorious figures...
In this w ay we possess all th e constituents o f an idea o f a p ro ­
found and pessim istic w orld, and at the sam e tim e also the teaching
o f the m ysteries o f the tragedy.
W hat then was your purpose, O sacrilegious E uripides, w hen you
tried to enslave once m ore this dying person? H e perished in your
b ru tal hands and you then had recourse to a disguise, an im itation
o f the m yth...
W e recognize on the other hand, the action o f th is anti-Dionysian
spirit, enem y o f the m yth, in the grow ing im portance o f psychological
refinem ents and o f the depiction o f characters in the tragedy o f
Sophocles. T h e character m ust no longer be generalized, developed
into an eternal type, but m ust on the co ntrary act individually by
accessory traits and artificial shades o f m eaning, in the m ost
scrupulous precision o f all the lines, so that the sp ectato r no longer
receives an im pression o f the m yth but that o f a striking natural tru th
and the pow er o f im itation o f the artist....

B ut it is in the denouem ent o f th e dram as th a t is m ost clearly

m anifested the new anti-D ionysian spirit. T h e end o f ancient tragedy
evoked the m etaphysical consolation outside o f w hich the taste for
tragedy rem ains inexplicable; these harm onies o f peace from another
w orld, it is perh ap s from an O edipus at C olonus th a t they resonnate
m ost purely. N ow the spirit o f m usic has abandoned tragedy an d the
latter is dead, in the strict sense o f the w ord; for w here can one
h enceforth derive this m etaphysical consolation?
So, to the tragic discord, a satisfactory earthly ending was sought;
the hero, after having been sufficiently to rtu red by fate, obtained by
a fine m arriage, by divine tokens o f esteem , a well deserved rew ard.
T h e hero had becom e a gladiator to w hom , after he had been
ap propriately flayed and covered w ith w ounds, was eventually
accorded his liberty, th e ‘D eus ex m ach in a’ has replaced the
m etaphysical consolation.31

T h e explanation o f the birth o f the tragedy by Nietzsche remains,

in spite o f everything, inadequate; the reader finds many difficulties
in the way o f grading the roles o f music and o f suffering, in the con­
ception o f the author. Is it the pure form o f m usic, w ith its divine

157
W agnerian effects on the soul, or is it hum an suffering, o f which
music is only the particular tragic expression, which is the fundam en­
tal elem ent? T h e author would seem to prefer the first hypothesis,
w hen the second seems m ore justifiable. T h e delicacy and nuance
o f his thoughts do not allow his point o f view to be confused with
that o f de G obineau on the birth o f art in general. T h e latter states
w ithout am biguity that, w herever there exists a valid art, it is the
result o f a synthesis o f two com plem entary factors: the one o f Black
origin and arising from sensibility, the inferior aspect o f the hum an
being; the o ther, or Aryan origin and arising from reason, from the
cerebral, the superior side o f the hum an being. It is tem pting to
identify this double aspect w ith the D ionysian and Apollonian com ­
ponents o f N ietzsche. And if this is so, N ietzsche’s book could have
been entitled not The B irth o f Tragedy, w hich is restrictive, but The
Birth o f A rt.
It seems m ore satisfactory to consider tragedy as the staging o f
the most distressing ideas, o f the destiny o f a people, by a privileged
m em ber, that is, a rational artist, whose soul has been able to serve
as a repository for all the collective em otions. In this case, m usic,
or rather the m usicality o f dram atic expression, is only the reflec­
tion o f a reality profoundly experienced and transposed to the stage.
By proceeding chronologically from this hypothesis another
explanation could be attem pted.
O ne first idea seems out o f the ordinary. W hy did the Greeks
choose, not a native m yth, but the foreign legend o f D ionysus? For
D ionysus is indeed a foreign G od, easily identified w ith Osiris,
w hether one starts w ith the G reek tradition or that o f Egypt. N ietz­
sche h im self rem arks th at, according to legend, D ionysus was cut
in pieces and thrown to the winds by the Titans, during his childhood;
his m other D em eter was plunged into m ourning and was only to
be comforted on learning that she could again give birth to a Dionysus:
the god was to be reborn. W hen he was cut into pieces he was w or­
shipped u n d er the name o f Zagreus. T here can easily be recognised
in this ‘G reek’ legend the m yth o f the death and the resurrection
o f Osiris, cut into pieces and scattered by his brother Seth; the latter
representing the god o f evil, o f sterility and o f jealousy. In the same
way O siris was reborn. According to H erodotus, the Egyptians con­
sidered Osiris and D ionysus as identical.

158
 ...for the E gyptians do not all w orship the same gods, excepting
Isis and O siris, the latter o f w hom they say is the G recian
D ionysus.34

T h e ‘father o f history’ is convinced o f the foreign origin o f the

god, for all his attributes are in contrast to the m anners and custom s
o f the Greeks. H e is an adopted figure. How did he arrive on the
national soil? H erodotus tell us this:

M elam pus, th e son o f A m ytheon, cannot, I th in k , have been

ignorant o f this cerem ony - nay, he m ust, I sho u ld conceive, have
been well acquainted w ith it. H e it was w ho intro d u ced into G reece
the nam e o f Bacchus, the cerem onial o f his w orship, and the
procession o f the phallus. H e did not, how ever, so com pletely
apprehend the whole doctrine as to be able to com m unicate it entirely,
b u t various sages since this tim e have carried o ut his teaching to
greater perfection. Still it is certain th a t M elam p u s intro d u ced the
phallus, and that th e G reeks learnt from him the cerem onies w hich
they now practise. I therefore m aintain that M elam pus, w ho was a
wise m an and had acquired the art o f divination, having becom e
acquainted w ith th e w orship o f B acchus thro u g h know ledge derived
from E gypt, introduced it into G reece, w ith a few slight changes,
at the same tim e that he brought in various oth er practices. F or I
can by no m eans allow that it is by m ere coincidence th at the Bac­
chic cerem onies in G reece are so nearly the sam e as the Egyptian
- they w ould th en have been m ore G reek in their character, an d less
recent in their origin. M u ch less can I adm it th at the E gyptians b o r­
row ed these custom s, or any o th e r, from the G re ek s...35

It can thus be seen how D ionysus, the Egyptian national god,

was introduced at a late date into G reece and the rest o f the N o r­
thern M editerranean. H e probably used a land route, w hich would
explain the num erous inscriptions relating to his w orship which are
to be found in T hrace and to which G renier makes allusion. But
no fact, no other tradition would perm it us to situate his origin in
T hrace or in Asia. We m ust now exam ine his attributes, which con­
trast so clearly w ith Greek and Aryan custom s in general. T hey
explain, at the same time, the indescribable enthusiasm with which
the wom en w elcomed him , and the resistance to the pitiless struggle
w hich the m en in the Aryan M editerranean pu t up against him.

159
 T h e Indo-Europeans experienced a great deal o f trouble to pre­
sent clearly and faithfully the m yth o f D ionysus, w ithout transform ­
ing it by m aking it coarse, im m oral, lewd, etc., when the spirit, the
nature o f D ionysus ‘m ounted on his p an th er’ is opposed to lust. As
has been shown by T u re l, D ionysus is not the god o f anarchy in the
domestic life, the conjugal union is sacred to him, as well as the fidelity
o f those who are m arried, but he is the enem y o f physical restraint,
o f all that w hich is anti-natural; he is on the side o f the developm ent
o f hum an beings and, in particular, o f that o f woman. H e is the god
whose teaching contains all the secret aspirations o f the Aryan woman,
so constrained and stifled by society. H e is the god o f individual
liberty, o f the duality o f sexes in the hum an order. T o present him
in the form o f a Bacchus, god o f w ine, always drunk and in search
o f lewd pleasures w ithout end is, so to speak, a sacrilege. D ionysus
is none other than the exportation to the Aryan countries o f the M eri­
dional social, conjugal and dom estic ideal. From that tim e the m yth
throw s a garish light on reality; the enthusiasm o f the wom en, as
m uch as the resistance o f the men, is explained in Greece, as in Rome:
the w om en, m arried or not, who practised the w orship o f Dionysus
were condem ned to death by their guardians. We are present here
at a dram atic aspect o f the struggle between the meridional and Aryan
values to take hold o f hum an consciousness. T h e degree o f a civilisa­
tion is m easured by the relations between the m an and the woman.
Dionysus is the liberator of the Aryan woman; he spreads his teachings
in G reece, at the m om ent w hen one could see in this country two
brothers m arrying the same w om an to ensure the only thing which
counted in the Aryan world - a line o f descent.
T hose am ong m odern sociologists who com pare, perhaps
unconsciously, technical progress and m oral progress, cannot avoid
distorting, in the inferences they draw from their enquiries in m eri­
dional countries even today, this m oral advantage o f m atriarchal
agricultural societies, in explaining the place occupied by women
in these by the sway o f a prim itive instinct still solidly rooted in the
coarse m ateriality o f the earth - D ionysian goddess o f fertility like
Isis - in contrast to the spirituality o f the ethereal regions where Apollo
reigns w ithout dispute: the god o f pure reason who has no need o f
wom an to give b irth to H era, his daughter.
O ther sociologists, on the other hand, restore to this set o f beliefs
their real significance.

160
 T h e m ysteries (of D ionysus-Bacchus) w hich had deposed m uch
o f the form er tran sp o rt were a w orship o f natural fertility, o f genera­
tion and o f life. B ut it is no longer a question o f terrestrial life;...*6

C ertainly, at the m om ent o f initiation, am ong o th er practices

linked w ith agricultural life and the w orship o f fertility, ‘there is
uncovered the phallus hidden u n d er a piece o f clo th ; it is m ade to
fall, w ith other sym bols, on the bow ed recipient. T h e effect o f these
cerem onies was, in likening the bacchant to his god, to assure his
eternal bliss.

T o G renier, who quoted C um ont, the m ysteries o f Bacchus,

w hich were th u s practised in Rome, were o f Egypto-Asiatic origin.
T h e liturgic m aterial o f this w orship is a collection o f fertility sym ­
bols, which is the opposite o f pornographic representations; these
are the elem ents o f an agrarian religion. T h e processions, at the time
o f the feasts o f Dionysus in Egypt, such as are described by Herodotus,
are exactly the same, to the last detail, as the processions which accom­
pany, on the 25th o f December, the lamps in Senegal: these are proces­
sions celebrating the b irth o f C hrist, but it was most probably not
the W estern C hristians who introduced these particular rituals to
Africa, unless the M eridional ‘carnivals’ o f Europe had this character,
w hich w ould have to be verified. It is therefore probable that there
is here a juxtaposition o f two fragm ents o f traditions, apparently dif­
ferent, but both fundamentally sacred. It seems essential, to reproduce
the passage o f H erodotus to which allusion is m ade, to make fast
the ideas and facilitate research.

...In other respects the festival is celebrated almost exactly as Bac­

chic festivals are in G reece, excepting that the E gyptians have no
choral dances. T h ey also use instead o f phalli, another invention co n ­
sisting o f images a cubit high, pulled by strings, w hich the w om en
carry round to the villages. A pip er goes in front and the w om en
follow, singing hym ns in honour o f Bacchus. T h ey give a religious
reason for the peculiarities o f the im age.18

N ow that the moral nature o f the gods has been sufficiently

revealed at the same tim e as the M eridional and Aryan dom estic con­
ceptions, there can be seen more clearly the catastrophes and upheavals

161
w hich the teaching o f D ionysus m ust have produced in the Indo-
European societies; it must have broken the bronze armour with which
the Aryan m an surrounded these, opened the floodgates o f the
feminine consciousness, brought the exaltation and hope o f the woman
to th eir highest degree, and posed w ith the conscience o f the Aryan
m an the gravest problem he had ever had to solve. Life on the E u ra­
sian steppes, u n d er the conditions o f nom adism - it has been seen
- had given him the habit o f seeing in wom an less a com panion in
society than an instrum ent for ensuring his descent, o f paying a debt
to his ancestors by prolonging the racial line and in not letting it
die out w ith him , in assuring thus his im m ortality. H ere economic
conditions are essentially concerned: they have im posed this style
o f life and the religious and m oral superstructure pertaining to it.
But m an is established in sedentary life; it goes w ithout saying that
most o f the ideas inherited from the nom adic life have become inade­
quate, particularly the social ideas, if one may say so. T h e dram a
com es from the acquisition o f new habits: a conscience cannot be
cleansed by w iping it over w ith a sponge. T h e only ideas suitable
for the new style o f life are foreign ideas fashioned in the agricultural
sedentary M eridional w orld at the same time. T h e shock o f these
on the A ryan’s consciousness was to produce the most terrible
upheaval that had ever been experienced. T hese are not simply
im aginary views or gratuitous speculations. It has been seen that in
the reality o f everyday life, in Rome as in Greece, this shock gave
rise to a definitive reaction, w hich went as far as m urder am ong the
m en, since it is im possible to over-estim ate the num ber o f women
actually condem ned to death for the sim ple fact that they had become
disciples o f Dionysus. But a practical attitude, provisionally
efficacious, is insufficient to resolve such a deep and delicate p ro ­
blem o f social m orality. T h is m ust, therefore, inevitably be placed
and thought over again on the higher level o f art and o f philosophy;
only at this level, where serenity o f m ind is m ore guaranteed, can
one try to find a solution o f a perm anent character, and in default
o f this, pose the problem , in a more or less veiled fashion, w ithout
resolving it. Such a transposition o f reality is peculiar to art, and
it can be understood how the Greek tragedy had found its favourite
them e in the m yth, however foreign, o f Dionysus. By its double
character it was more suitable than the indigenous legends. Dionysus,

162
or Osiris, is the god who suffered, physically speaking, in so far as
he was hacked to pieces. T h e Egyptians only showed this aspect o f
the physical suffering o f O siris, reflected in the m oral suffering o f
Isis. As N ietzsche has underlined, D ionysus is a prototype; he was
to be the divine disguise w hich w ould cover all forms o f suffering
o f the hum an conscience am ong the G reeks; P rom etheus, O edipus,
etc., are only replicas o f him . But it is im possible to stage Dionysus
w ithout transposing on him , consciously or unconsciously, the social
conflict born o f the eruption o f the god into the Aryan world. It is
this aspect o f the problem which shows through in the choirs o f satyrs.
T h e role o f the satyrs symbolises a social situation, a problem that
the G reeks seem to have been apprehensive o f facing correctly or
suitably; they were th u s led to deform it, to disfigure it, to the point
that at first sight it becomes unrecognizable, by parodying the role
o f the satyrs. T h e satyr is a Greek creature, added to the Egyptian
m yth o f O siris, o f D ionysus.
As has been stressed by N ietzsche, the fundam ental character
o f the m yth was to become blurred in the later theatre o f Greece:
it was scarcely to be detected in the perm anence o f the subjects dealt
w ith, the tragedies bearing alm ost w ithout exception the names o f
women as titles. Euripides who, moreover, dealt with almost the same
subjects as Aeschylus and Sophocles, wrote Helen, The Phoenician
Women, The Trojan Women, Iphigenia in Tauris, Electra. Even where
apparently, as in Oedipus, the title is a m asculine name, the content
varies little and one is brought back by some indirect m eans, to the
same problem .
T h e analysis o f the legend o f P rom etheus led N ietzsche to make
o f effective crim inality a constitutional elem ent o f the Aryan con­
sciousness.* By going deeply into the m yth o f the blacksmith in Black
Africa and in Ancient Egypt, we arrive easily at a hero equivalent
to P rom etheus, the fire-stealer and benefactor o f hum anity by the
new techniques he brings. H ere also the idea o f crim e is not absent,
but it is dim inished and reduced rather to the level o f a grave mistake
- a sort o f indiscretion com m itted w ith regard to the gods. Its conse­
quences w ould only be fatal to the descendents o f the m an who
* L e t u s re m e m b e r th e co m b a ts o f th e g la d ia to rs w h ic h w ere a n atio n al sp o rt. ‘C h ris tia n s ’
covered w ith p itch w hose b o d ies w ere tran sfo rm ed in to lig h ted to rch es illu m in ate d the g ardens
o f N e ro ; so m a n y crim es w ere c o m m itte d at th e v ery apogee o f R o m a n c ivilisation.

163
com m itted it and they would be restrictive; there would in no way
arise any feeling o f perm anent guilt weighing on the whole of
hum anity and obliging the latter to create for itself a pessim istic
universe. T h e universe o f the M eridional w orld is optim istic. Osiris
had no feeling o f guilt, neither has his son H orus, nor his wife Isis.
Seth, the criminal, is the only one who could have this: it is he who is
the personification o f evil and only he, to the exclusion o f all the rest
o f right-thinking hum anity, will suffer the consequences.
T h e sentim ent o f Aryan guilt is the same as the Sem itic sin aris­
ing from the ‘fault o f a w om an’ and certain exegetists see in this the
result o f knowledge: knowledge = consciousness o f good and evil.
T h e apple w hich Adam was made to eat by Eve could only sym ­
bolize that. O n these grounds it is really through his knowledge that
Prom etheus became a sinner and a criminal: Nietzsche does not make
this com parison since for him knowledge and the determ ined con­
tem plation o f pure tru th m ust lead to inactivity, if there were not
the magic art as succour.
H ere also the explanation o f Aryan crim inality, o f Sem itic sin,
does not stand up to com parison and analysis. It cannot be denied
that the ancient Egyptians had acquired knowledge o f a degree
required by the foregoing exegeses. T hey would then, in consequence,
have acquired the sam e sense o f guilt, contracted the same notion
o f sin, extending to every hum an being, if such were the fatal cor­
ollary, in the hum an conscience, o f the acquisition o f knowledge.
It was certainly otherw ise and the Egyptian m ental universe - and
the M eridional, in general - is quite optim istic, in a conscious and
reasoned m anner. It would not be exact to say, or to m aintain, that
the Dogons o f the Cliffs o f Bandiagra had at their disposal a
philosophic system o f speculative thought conscious o f itself; but it
is not exaggerated to admit that they have a coherent cosmogony which
explains, in a satisfactory m anner for their consciousness, all aspects
o f the Universe, as has been shown by Marcel Griaule in God o f Water
(Dieu de I’Eau). Am ong them , the prim itive ancestor had also stolen
the secret o f the gods; a fault had been com m itted from the beginn­
ing in procreation, but this was rather a fault found am ong hum an
beings, created by the gods after a certain experience, and it was
immediately corrected and reabsorbed, instead o f forming till the end
o f tim e the sentim ent o f some unknow n, irrational, undeserved fault

164
w hich m ust be expiated throughout one’s whole life.
C onsequently, it is by referring to the respective cradles o f the
Aryans and the M eridionals, that one can understand this divergence
in the contents o f the hum an consciousness which apparently should
be one, uniform . It has already been seen that, in passing from South
to N o rth , geography, clim ate and the conditions o f existence effec­
tively reversed the moral values, which become opposed to each other
like the two poles: every defect here is a virtue there. It is by
rem em bering the criteria o f the war-like, northern m orality p ar­
ticularly o f the Aryan G erm ans, a m orality necessitated by the con­
ditions o f life, that one can understand the slow form ation, through
contact w ith antagonistic outside influences, o f a feeling o f moral
unease term inating in the idea o f guilt am ong some o f them , o f sin
am ong others, both specifically N o rth ern sentim ents, although col­
lective. N ietzsche was therefore right in m aking crim inality and sin
a constitutional com ponent o f the Aryan conscience... T h e slight
nuance w hich he introduces betw een the innerm ost recesses o f the
Aryan and Sem itic consciences seems valid; but it shows that the
Semites are basically Indo-E uropeans, that they served as a cushion,
as a buffer betw een the two cradles in the same way as the Slavs bet­
ween the Aryan world and the Far East. In both cases there was a
more or less profound upheaval o f norm al traits and original
physiques.
Tragedy is therefore a specific creation o f the Aryan consciousness
w hich was the sole th ing, perhaps in the w orld, to contain from the
beginning the elem ents indispensable to its birth.

165
 CHAPTER VI
IS THE COM PARISON BETW EEN BLACK AFRICA
OF TODAY AND ANCIENT EGYPT
HISTORICALLY ACCURATE?

Fustel de Coulanges showed that one o f the principal causes o f errors

by historians consisted o f spontaneously picturing the past according
to the present. T h e foregoing comparisons between Africa and ancient
Egypt will only, therefore, appear objective and scientific, in so far
as it is possible to show that we have been able to avoid this tendency
and we are sufficiently surrounded by guarantees. T h e question is,
in a b rie f analysis, o f showing that the caste system which governs
African society conserves its structure and sets itself against internal
upheaval, and that it allows us today to com pare, on many points,
the body concerning African and E gyptian facts. For the rest it has
been proved, in the principal theory, that the African developm ents
in question go back, very certainly, at least to the first m illenium .
It is indispensable to insist at the outset on the specificity o f the
caste system. Its originality rests in the fact that the dynamic elements
o f society, whose discontent could have given rise to transform ations,
are satisfied w ith their social condition and do not seek to change
it: a m an, said to be o f an inferior caste, would categorically refuse
to enter a so-called higher caste if m aterial interests alone were at
stake; contrary to the proletarian who would w illingly take the place
o f the em ployer. Society is divided into slaves and free men. In
Senegal, the free m en are the gor, com posed o f ger and o f neno.
T h e ger com prise the nobility and all free m en w ithout any
m anual profession other than that o f agriculture, which is considered
as sacred.
T h e neno com prise all the artisans: cobblers, blacksm iths,
goldsm iths, etc. T hese trades are hereditary. T h e djam (slaves) are
divided into three categories: the djam hour, who are the slaves o f

166
the king, the djam negtiday, who are the slaves o f the family or o f
the country o f the m other, the djam neg bay, who are the slaves o f
the family or o f the country o f the father.
T h e ger form the so-called ‘higher’ caste. T h ey cannot exploit,
for m aterial ends, the m em bers o f the inferior castes, w ithout
them selves losing caste in the eyes o f the people; they are, on the
contrary, supposed to assist them in every way; even if they are less
wealthy they must deprive themselves if a man o f ‘lower’ caste applies
to them . In exchange the latter owe them moral respect.
T h e originality o f this system arises from the fact that the manual
worker instead o f being cheated out o f the fruit o f his labour - as
the artisan or serf o f the M iddle Ages, or to a lesser extent the modern
workm an - can, on the contrary, increase it, by adding to it goods
given by the noblem an. C onsequently, if there were to be a social
revolution, it would be accomplished from above and not from below.
But there is som ething better: the m embers of all the castes, including
the slaves, are closely associated w ith authority; w hich leads to con­
stitutional m onarchies, governed by councils o f m inisters where all
the authentic representatives o f the people appear.
It will be understood that there has never been, in Africa, a revolu­
tion against the regim e, but only against those who adm inistered it
badly, th at is to say, unw orthy princes.
F or every caste, inconveniences and advantages, transference o f
rights and com pensation, all balanced each other. So it is outside
consciousness, in m aterial progress, in the influences received from
outside, that m ust be sought the ‘locomotive o f history’. T aking in
account its isolation, it will be understood why African societies have
rem ained relatively unaltered, to the point where we are able today
to lay down m any points o f com parison with ancient Egypt.
T h e only elem ent w hich w ould have any interest in overthrow ­
ing the order o f African society, because he is alienated w ithout any
com pensation, is the slave o f the father’s house. He has been unable
to do so for reasons arising from the pre-industrial character o f the
society, concentration, etc. T h e clan system, which is also found in
Africa, is a prim itive stage, where the em bryonic division o f labour
has not already taken the form o f the caste system. T h e forms o f
alienation o f m ore developed societies being absent, this system also
has a tendency to become petrified.

167
 T h e gram m atical relationship betw een the African languages o f
today, such as Walaf, and ancient Egyptian o f the eighteenth dynasty,
such as is w ithout any doubt expressed in the conjugation below,
shows that the comparison o f the two realities, far from being illusory,
is legitim ate and that it is conceivable, even in different fields.
T h e root k e f = to capture, to seize violently, to tear, in m odern
W alaf as well as ancient Egyptian (2400 to 750 B.C.) will be chosen
as our example o f conjugation.

C lassical E g y p tia n 1 W a la f

KEF i I have seized K E F n5 I have seized

K B F ek (m) K E F nga T h o u has seized
j T h o u hast seized
K E F et (0 K E F na H e h as seized
K E F ef(rn ) ) H e o r she has K E F et ) O n e has
K E F es (0 ) seized K E F es ) seized
K E F nen W e have seized K E F nen W e have seized
K E F ten Y ou h ave seized K E F n g en Y ou have seized
K E F sen T h e y have seized K E F nanu T h e y have seized

W alaf, at the present tim e, expresses the fem inine by a different

gramm atical procedure from that o f classical Egyptian. It consists
o f following the nam e by: male or female. M oreover this process
existed in certain cases in Egyptian, but never became general.2
According to M iss H om burger, it is only in African languages that
the generalization was m ade, as a sort o f extension o f an evolution
outlined in E gyptian during the period o f decline.
It will be understood, therefore, that the fem inine forms o f the
Egyptian conjugation disappear in W alaf where, when they are m ain­
tained, as in the th ird person singular, they become equivalent to
the m asculine forms and the whole is expressed in a form o f a
pleonasm . In this way light is throw n on certain gram m atical facts
in Walaf, w hich have rem ained obscure u p till now.
M ore and m ore investigations are com ing every day to confirm
this profound cultural relationship betw een ancient Egypt and the
rest o f Black Africa. It is in this way that Jean C apart and Georges
C ontenau exam ine the supposed Sem itic character o f the Egyptian
language.

168
 T o w hat linguistic fam ily th en is connected the language o f th e
hieroglyphic inscriptions? A fter having affirm ed m ore an d m ore
clearly in successive editions o f his E gyptian gram m ar (1894, 1902,
1911), th e relationship o f the E gyptian language w ith the Sem itic
languages, the languages o f East A frica and the B erber languages o f
N o rth A frica, Professor E rm an explains these relations w ith m uch
less firm ness in the last edition o f his w ork (1928). Faced w ith these
hesitations, it th u s seems w iser, at the present tim e, to draw o n e ’s
in spiration from the latest conclusions o f P rofessor E rm an: ‘T h e
E gyptians are S em itic N u b ia n s.’3

T h e latest studies o f M asson-O ursel tend, purely and sim ply,

to identify the ancient Egyptian genius with that o f present day Africa,
and insist on the breadth and depth o f the Egyptian cultural influence
on Black Africa across N ubia.

In lending itself to the N egro m entality, the Intellectualism born

o f Socrates and A ristotle, Euclid and Archim edes adapted itself there;
the Egyptologist perceives this m entality like a backcloth behind the
refinem ents o f th e civilisation w hich he m arvels at....

L ed to perceive w hat m ust be a tru ism , the A frican aspect o f the

E gyptian m ind, we can u nderstand in this way m ore th an one trait
o f its cu ltu re....

F rom now on, in this order o f research w ork so valuable to the

investigation o f the thought, we begin to catch a glim pse o f the fact
that a large part o f the Black C o n tin en t, instead o f being as sim ple-
m inded and ‘savage’ as one had supposed, reflects in m any directions
across the vast isolation, by desert or by forest, the influences w hich,
th ro u g h N u b ia, Libya and E thiopia, cam e from the N ile .1

T h u s because o f the relatively static character o f African society

w hich prom pted Frobenius to write that Africa is ‘a tin o f preserves
o f ancient civilisation * it is possible today to establish a com parison
with the past, surrounding ourselves, nonetheless, by the precautions
necessary to rem ain on scientific ground.

169
 CHAPTER VII
DISTUR BIN G FACTS

U n d er this heading we are going to analyse a certain num ber

o f facts suggested by the vocabulary o f the languages o f the people
we have studied.

A N C E S T O R W O R S H IP

T h e universal character o f this has been em phasized: em phasis was

laid, at the m ost, on the difference o f form s taken by this worship
when passing from the Indo-European cradle to the M eridional cradle.
Among the Indo-Europeans everything gravitated around the gens
(genos): the clan o f the father sym bolizing the patriarchal regim e,
patrilineal descent; all the ideas o f patrilineal consanguine relation­
ships are contained in this term which seems typically Indo-European.
T h is is one o f those rare expressions o f which it never enters one’s
m ind to doubt the authenticity whenever an attem pt is made to define
the m inim um o f roots constituting, at the present state o f our
knowledge, the prim itive foundation o f Indo-European.
T h e end o f the preceding chapter shows that the vocabulary o f
certain African languages, such as Walaf, could have dated from any
ancient times. N ow , there exists in W alaf a root, geno = the pater­
nal waist, patrilineal descent in the strict Indo-European sense, so
m uch so that the expression ‘Sama geno (a)g bay!’ = ‘On the waist
o f my father!’, is an oath. T his root has proliferated as m uch in W alaf
as in the Indo-E uropean languages and, curiously enough, the sense
o f the proliferations is often com parable.
T h e parallel would be m ore convincing and m ore exhaustive if
it were possible to find the same root in ancient Egyptian.
N ow there exists in the hieroglyphic script a sign representing
the tail o f an anim al, whose name is transcribed gen. It has not been

170
possible to itdentify the anim al in question; it is not known exactly
if the expression transcribed is the nam e o f the anim al, or that o f
the determ inative: for the rest, in Egyptian the determ inative has

W ALAF IN D O - E U R O P E A N

GEN - to go out G E N M E N = o f m ost noble breast

(W alaf)
GENTE = b a p tis m (cerem on y o f th e = w ell b o rn m an, th e noble
c o m in g -o u t o f th e new b o rn
c h ild o n e w eek after b irth )

GEN = b e tte r p e rso n = g e rm a n , by regressive

d issim ilatio n from th e n o u n
‘generation’ (Indo-European)*

GEN = m ale sex

= a n im a l’s tail

often a vocal value and is pronounced in the same way as the specific
name. T h u s confirm ation o f the root gen seems probable enough in
Egyptian. T h e uncertainties which rule the vocabulary do not allow
o f our being more affirm ative.

The dictionaries of the Egyptian language contain an infinite

number of words of which the meaning can perhaps only be given
at the moment by a very general indication: e.g., ‘Verb expressing
a movement, or a violent action’. Often the more definite translation
is accompanied by this reservation: ‘or something analogous'... It also
happens that zoological and botanical determinations come up against
difficulties, of which this is an example. Certain texts from the most
ancient times speak of a type of wood, used in building, which the
Egyptians sought in Lebanon. The first Egyptologists translated the
name ‘Ash’ by ‘Acacia’. Victor Loret showed that it was in fact the
Cilician fir which is to be found today everywhere in the Taurus.
The translation which many authors had adopted: 'Cedar of Lebanon’,
is therefore wrong.1

It can also be em phasized that the Egyptians - no more than any

other ancient people - had never prepared an academ ic dictionary
and that consequenly the vocabulary collected according to the texts
(The Book o f the Dead, The Pyram id Texts, etc.) is necessarily
* S am ba M am a d o u h as c o n firm ed th e e ty m o lo g y o f th ese In d o -E u ro p e a n ro o ts for me.

171
fragm entary. It therefore often happened that Egyptian expressions
w hich have not been certified survived in related African languages;
but only further systematic investigations will make this point o f view
sufficiently conclusive.
According to Fustel de C oulanges, patrilineal relationships are
marked by worship: the sharing o f the funeral meal, the performance
o f the same w orship for the same ancestor.

T h e principle o f consanguinity was not the m aterial act o f b irth ;

it was w orship. T h is is clearly seen in India. T h e re the head o f the
fam ily tw ice in each m o n th , offers a funeral meal; he presents a cake
to the m anes o f his father, another to his paternal grandfather, a third
to his paternal great-grandfather, but never to those from w hom he
descends by w om en. T h e n , going back still fu rth e r, b ut always in
th e same line, he makes an offering to the fo u rth , fifth and sixth
generations o f ancestors. O nly for these, the offering is som ew hat
lighter: a sim ple d rin k o f w ater and a few grains o f rice. Such is the
funeral m eal; an d it is according to the perform ance o f these rites
that consanguinity is reckoned.J

T hese rites are also to be found - as far as the funeral meal is

concerned - am ong the Sereres o f Senegal; but the ancestor to whom
this w orship is made is in the m aternal line; and the practice o f
totem ism causes him always to be represented in his ‘anim al form ’:
the Tur, w hich is, most o f the tim e, a non-poisonous snake which
lives in the place reserved for the libations and moves about freely
in the h o u se.’ T h is is what explains that tur m eans ‘libation’ in
W alaf and in Serere; turu = to offer libations. T h e latter are reserved,
as am ong the Indo-Europeans, only for m em bers o f the family
descended from the same ancestor: the relation o f consanguinity which
exists am ong them is called mbok = sharing (understood: the funeral
meal)? bok = to share, is the corresponding verb. It is characteristic
that it serves to indicate the notion o f consanguinity; it reflects more
its religious aspect than its biological. It is only by extension that
the w ord can mean: to have in com m on; bok nday = to have the
same m other in com mon.
Every family has its totem ic nam e, that o f its mythical ancestor,
o f its clan, o f its genos, so to speak, but w ith a m atrilineal base. For
exam ple the G uelw ar D io u f have as a totem a sort o f lizard, called

172
Mboss£: they are the only ones to have the right to make libations
to this anim al.
L ar — G od o f the hearth (E truscan, R om an, Peul)4
L a r = O bject o f w orship (Walaf)
It is not only in the field o f ancestor w orship that are met facts
as disturbing as this because o f the etym ology o f the words which
designate them .

M E D IT E R R A N E A N V O C A B U L A R Y

A whole vocabulary, dating from the Aegean age, that is, from a period
when the Indo-European world, in view o f its cultural instablity, was
particularly permeable to foreign influences, could be put in question.
N o one perhaps as m uch as Victor Berard has em phasized the
unilateral Egypto-Phoenician influence undergone by Greece.

It is from the sea also and its people that the Greek poet Homer
received a number of foreign words, either as names of places and
proper names, or as common names. One could draw up quite an
ample vocabulary of these to show how it is necessary, moreover,
to turn to the ideas and the theories of the Phoenicians or of their
Egyptian masters to explain a number of the turns of phrase or
metaphors of Homer...
To get to Egyptos or to return from there, Menelaus and the
Cretan pirate had to go by way of Phoenicia. To get into the Homeric
poems, the Egyptian tale (the tale of the shipwrecked man) could have
taken the same route....

Our Odyssean story therefore presents a mixture of Egyptian and

Semitic things, which is, properly speaking the character of Phoeni­
cian works.
I do not therefore believe in the role of a Ulysses Homer. I believe
in the work of a literate poet knowing how to read as well as to write
and borrowing from a written source the materials for his descrip­
tions and his legends. This source came to him directly or indirectly
from the Phoenicians.5....

Most of the other Greek islands have preserved until today the
indelible memory of this period in the names that they still bear.
These names, indeed, which the Hellenes have transmitted for

173
 th irty centuries, D elos, Syros, Casos, Paxos, T h aro s, Sam os, etc.,
m ean nothing in G reek, but in ancient tim es they w ere accom panied
by G reek appellations w hich every H ellenic ear readily understood:
O rtygia ‘the Island o f Q uails’; A ghne, ‘the Island o f F o am ’; Plateia,
‘th e Flat Island’; A eria, ‘the A iry Islan d ’. T hese G reek appellations,
forgotten today, w ere only the translations o f m ysterious nam es for
w hich a Sem itic etym ology can surely account: Casos-A chne, Paxos-
Platei, Thasos-A eria, Sam os-H ysele, D elos-O rtygia, are so m any
‘d o u b lets’ as the geographers say...
In the old d oublets o f the G reek M editerran ean it seems that the
first term is the original one, and the second is a later copy: the Semites
created the first: the H ellenes su b stitu te d the second for this. For
it cannot be seen w hen or how or w hy the H ellenes, if the G reek
appellation had been the prim itive original, w ould later have ab an ­
doned this expression o f their ow n language and preferred a foreign
nam e. T h e P hoenicians had ruled over the Pelasgian w aters before
th e A chaean H ellenes; the later history o f the A chaean occupation
m akes no fu rth er m ention o f th e ir sovereignty... T h e Odyssey p ro ­
vides the decisive index on this p o in t.6

N o thing is m ore debatable than the etym ology o f the expression

‘b arbarian’, often considered as Indo-European. According to
T hucydides, H om er never used it and he gives the reason for this:

...H e does not even use the term barbarian, probably because the
H ellenes had not yet been m arked o ff from the rest o f the w orld by
one distinctive a p p e lla tio n ...7

T h ere is to be found in Book II o f H erodotus quite a curious

passage relating to the term ‘barbarian’: the Pharaoh Needs u n d er­
took the cu ttin g o f a canal linking the N ile w ith the Red Sea but
he had to stop the work...

...in consequence o f an oracle w hich w arned h im ‘that he was

labouring for the b arb a ria n ’. T h e E gyptians call by the nam e o f b ar­
barians all such as speak a language different from th eir ow n.8

It could have been thought that ‘barbarian’ is an expression essen­

tially G reek, and that H erodotus used it to translate an equivalent
Egyptian idea. W hat goes before permits us to doubt this interpretation.

174
 It m ust be added that the expression has not become widespread in
Indo-E uropean languages; and that its structure - the doubling o f
the root bar to form a substantive - is an essential characteristic o f
the African languages in contrast to the Indo-European languages.
It is curious to note that bar = to speak quickly (in Walaf),
barbar-lu = to pretend to speak rapidly; examples could be multiplied
to em phasize th e proliferation o f this root in Walaf.
Okeanus: stretch o f water (in Greek): it is H om er who introduced
the word into poetry, according to H erodotus (Book II), but it is not
Indo-European.
Cyane = a pit filled with water (in Walaf).
Zeus is considered as the European god par excellence. He is iden­
tified w ith all the atm ospheric phenom ena in the heavens; he is in
tu rn god o f light, o f storm s and o f rain, according to Albert G renier,
who em phasizes also the etymological unity o f his name in different
Indo-E uropean languages.

T o th e S anskrit Dyaus (root div, to shine) corresponds the G reek

Zeus, the L atin Jupiter, the old N orse, Tyr, the G erm an ic, Z iu. P ro ­
perly speaking it is the lum inous sky.9

T h is point o f view about the etym ology o f Zeus is also that o f

Piganiol.

P erfectly faithful to the Indo-E uropean trad itio n , the Persians

give the nam e Z eus to all heavenly b ein g s.10

T he author refers to paragraph 131 o f Book I o f Herodotus, where

the same idea is m entioned.
It em erges, in essense, from these quotations, that Zeus is not
identified w ith the sky, but w ith heavenly space, the space between
heaven and earth where develop all the atm ospheric phenom ena and
w hich by a rather disquieting coincidence, to say the least, is also
called D yau in W alaf, Djaw = day, in Bantu.
Obviously, it w ould be naive on o u r part to wish to draw scien­
tific tru th s from such a vague parallel between African and Indo-
European expressions, especially when the antecedent evidence
regarding the African languages is so rare. It can even be remembered

175

.
th at, in linguistics, it is always relatively easy to com pare any two
languages from any part o f the globe; it is the opposite which would
be rather difficult: to prove that two languages have absolutely no
bond o f relationship.
N onetheless it still happens that the m ystery exists, since the
parallel has been established, not w ith secondary Indo-European
expressions, but with the several certain authentic expressions which
have been able to be used to construct the very theory o f Indo-
E uropean: genos, Zeus, etc...

176
 CONCLUSION

In conclusion, the M eridional cradle, confined to the African

continent in particular, is characterised by the m atriarchal family,
the creation o f the territorial state, in contrast to the Aryan city-state,
th e em an cip atio n o f w om an in dom estic life, xenophilia,
cosm opolitanism , a sort o f social collectivism having as corollary a
tranquillity going as far as unconcern for tom orrow , a material
solidarity o f right for each individual, w hich makes moral or material
misery unknown to the present day; there are people living in poverty,
but no one feels alone and no one is in distress. In the moral dom ain,
it shows an ideal o f peace, o f justice, o f goodness and an optim ism
w hich elim inates all notion o f guilt or original sin in religious and
m etaphysical institutions. T h e types o f literature most favoured are
the novel, tales, fables and comedy.
T h e N o rth ern cradle, confined to G reece and Rom e, is
characterised by the patriarchal family, by the city-state (there was
between two cities, said Fustel de Coulanges, som ething more
im passable than a m ountain); it is easily seen that it is on contact
w ith the Southern world that the N ortherners broadened their con­
ception o f the state, elevating them selves to the idea o f a territorial
state and o f an em pire. T h e particular character o f these city-states,
outside o f w hich a m an was an outlaw , developed an internal
patriotism , as well as xenophobia. Individualism , moral and material
solitude, a disgust for existence, all the subject-m atter o f m odern
literature, w hich even in its philosophic aspects is none other than
the expression o f the tragedy o f a way o f life going back to the Aryans’
ancestors, are all attributes o f this cradle. An ideal o f war, violence,
crim e and conquests, inherited from nom adic life, w ith as a conse­
quence, a feeling o f guilt and o f original sin, which causes pessimistic

177
religious or m etaphysical systems to be built, is the special attribute
o f this cradle.
Technical progress and modern life, the progressive emancipation
o f m odern wom an under the very influence o f this individualism ,
so m any factors make it difficult to recall the ancient condition o f
servitude o f the Aryan woman.
T h e literary style par excellence is tragedy or drama. T h e African,
since the agrarian m yths o f Egypt, never went beyond the cosmic
dram a.
African solidarity is not a scientific solidarity, the latter being as
effective as it is bereft o f hum an w arm th. African solidarity could
enrich scientific socialism w ith this latter factor.
T h e social distress o f which m ention has been made above arises
from m aterial insecurity and m oral solitude; it is absolutely distinct
from the disappointm ent and intellectual malaise o f the m odern
scientist.
T h e scientist was untroubled during the whole o f the reign o f
the geocentric system ; that is, until the Renaissance. T h e n the
discovery o f infinity came to upset his reason and even his conscience.
In his new conception o f the universe in expansion, the galaxies which
rotate in em pty space, at distances which can only be counted in light-
years, the im m ensity o f their duration as opposed to the hum an
phenom enon produce in him an intellectual bew ilderm ent. He is
crushed by the infinity o f space and the duration o f time. He is disillu­
sioned by the peripheral position o f man in the universe, by his purely
accidental presence. H e tends to ask, w ith Solom on, if all is not pure
vanity.
Nevertheless things must have a meaning; the labour o f the scien­
tist m ust be inserted into the fram ework o f a general activity, highly
useful for civilisation and for the universe, otherwise absurdity would
rule on a cosmic scale. How can one escape this fatality? Scientists
assign today to the solar system a duration o f life o f fifteen billion
years; then the sun will go out; if it has not exploded before then
to destroy everything by fire w hich will mean death by cold. And
then, perhaps, after an im m easurable lapse o f tim e, the same cycle
would take shape anew, absurdly, somewhere in space, and go through
the same phases once more. T h e scientist m ust find the m eans o f
avoiding this disconcerting eventuality to which his own investigations

178
are leading him in his indestructable will to penetrate the unknow n.
H ere also, the cultural past o f nations and peoples can influence
the pessim istic or optim istic views, w hich can be adopted to give
a m eaning to the higher activity o f the hum an m ind, to look to the
future o f the species.
In his Phenomene H umain Father Teilhard de Chardin, in a gigan­
tic effort o f synthesis, tries to show that evolution necessarily leads
tow ards an end; but the end in question is m etaphysical and does
not satisfy the scientist, concerned w ith the concrete and w ith what
is tangible. But the question is so disconcerting that m any W estern
scientists (physicists, m athem aticians, biologists) arrive at a vague
deism .
It can be deduced, from what has been said, that most o f the
future African scientists, taking into account their cultural past, will
belong rather to the category w hich adopts a reasoned optim istic
view-point.
Perhaps they will consider that once earthly hum anity
accom plishes itself, instead o f dying o f boredom in the most com ­
plete idleness, m an will realise that his task has only begun. H e will
discover then that it is absolutely w ithin his possibilities, well before
fifteen billion years o f reflection, to tame the solar system and to reign
there as far as the peripheral planet P luto, in a practically eternal
m anner. W ill m an perhaps arrive at this by nourishing the sun w ith
unstable satellites formed o f sidereal m atter, which finish by falling
into its mass, or perhaps by restoring to the sun the energy radiated
by it, by the acceleration o f hydrogen nuclei from huge artifical elec­
trom agnetic fields? T o refuse a therm odynam ic ‘heat d eath’, to
stabilise the solar system , to protect it from dangerous m eteors, to
solidify the gaseous planets, to reheat those o f the periphery to make
them habitable, to prevent the appearance and proliferation o f
biological m onsters, to control the clim ates and the evolution o f the
planets, to discover and m aintain all the practicable routes in the
system, to com m unicate with the nearest stars in the galaxy, perhaps
to create a superm an w ith a longer life, such perhaps will be the
enthusiastic preoccupations o f the scientist o f tom orrow . Life would
thus in its own way have trium phed over death, m an would have
made an earthly paradise w hich w ould be almost eternal, and at the
same time would have trium phed over all the pessimistic philosophical

179
and m etaphysical systems, all the apocalyptic visions o f the destiny
o f the species. A grandiose stage in the evolution o f t he hum an con­
sciousness would have been passed over. M an would appear as a god
o f ‘Becom ing’ in the H egelian sense o f the word.
T h e universe o f tom orrow will in all probability be im bued with
African optim ism .

180
 APPENDIX
NOTES ON ‘THE RESURRECTION OF HOMER.
THE HEROIC AGE’ BY VICTOR BERARD

Rarely has an historian insisted on the Egyptian influence on

Greece to the same extent as Victor Berard.
He underlines first o f all the frequency o f inter-relationships as
long ago as the H om eric age, the gilded luxury in which the Achaean
world lived - H elen already received precious gifts from the
inhabitants 'of Thebes in Egypt, the city where the houses overflow with
riches’.
Egypt was already famed for its doctors who were the most
knowledgeable in the world.

T h is same H elen was able freely to obtain in T h eb es, the fam ous
n eponthes, anaesthetic and narcotic com bined, w ith w hich she
deadened the pain or the anxieties o f her gu ests.1

According to the author, the objects found in C rete suggest that

relations w ith Egypt go back into a limitless antiquity: a vase found
at Knossos ‘can be ascribed to a model w hich was only to be found
on the N ile in pre-dynastic tim es or during the first and second
dynasties’.
T h e Island itself is even said to have been annexed by the
Pharaohs:

It seems th a t th irte en centuries before the Ptolem ies, w ho were

to perform the same task, tw enty-tw o centuries before the C alphs,
w ho were to repeat it, thirty-tw o centuries before M ehem et Ali, who
un dertook it and succeeded for a short tim e, the pharaohs annexed
the Isle o f Crete to their empire: their vassals and tributaries in Phoenicia
w ere their political agents and th e ir com m ercial representatives.2

181
 T h e seals o f A m eonophis III and o f his queen T ii, found in the
M editerranean, allow us to m ark the date o f the beginning o f Greek
history w ith certainty.

T h e history o f the G reek countries begins in these X V Ith to XVth

centuries before o u r era: the Aegaean and M ycenaean m onum ents
can consequently be enfram ed from that tim e in a chronology to which
d ocum ents from E gypt and G reece them selves refer. T h e seals of
A m enophis III and his queen T ii (1411-1380 B.C.), found in C yprus,
R hodes, C rete and M ycena, furnish the first certain date for the full
advancem ent o f this A egaeo-L evantine civilisation, w hose c o n trib u ­
tion the H ellenes ascribed to M inos, the son o f E u ro p a the P h o en i­
cian w om an, to C adm us th e T y ria n and D anaus the E gyptian, who
im ported w ritten laws, the alp h ab et, the horse, th e w ar chariot and
the galley o f fifty o ars.3

T h e Achaeans began to study in the school o f the Egypto-

Phoenicians, learned from them to construct the fast Hom eric vessels
w ith a crew o f fifty-two men ‘w hich com posed the fleets o f T y re and
Sidon and o f w hich the Egyptian m onum ents o f the X V th century
B .C ., have preserved for us the likeness: all the details o f their con­
struction and o f their rigging correspond with those o f the H om eric
cruiser, and w ith the fifty-oared galleys w hich the Levantines, and
later the W esterners, obtained from the Phoenicians and w hich the
whole o f the M editerranean o f the classic age, o f the M iddle Ages
and o f m odern tim es adopted for a period o f three thousand years,
and o f w hich two latest examples still appeared in the squadrons o f
our Louis X V .M
The heavy wagon with its wooden wheels which was the nom ad’s
house, was transformed on contact with the Egyptians into a light metal
chariot used by the Achaeans ‘sim ilar in every point to the chariots
o f the Pharaoh, described by M aspero’.
T h e au th o r quotes a passage in which M aspero describes the
chariots o f the Egyptian cavalry and asks the following question:

Is it o f H om eric warriors or o f Egyptian warriors that G. M aspero

speaks in this way? A nd w ould not such a H om eric verse as ‘G re at­
hearted horses flying tow ards the p la in ’, be the m ost literal tran sla­
tion o f such an E gyptian rep resentation o f a chariot in full

182
 career, in which the horses with long manes and tails (according to
the Homeric adjective) are flying, with both their forefeet beating
the air?6

T h e ties with Egypt and the N ear East were so profound that
the author supposes that Agamemnon, the leader o f Achaean feudality,
the symbol o f the form ation o f the G reek people, was not o f pure
Achaean blood, nor even o f H ellenic culture or race, for he was the
son o f A treus and the grandson o f Pelops the Phrygian, who settled
in Argos following his m arriage to an Achaean princess. He owed
his renown to his fortune. His sovereignty extended over the peninsula
w hich became the Peloponnesus.

Egyptians, Phoenicians and Hittites were therefore, the educators

of Achaea, but especially the Egyptians and Phoenicians.7

T h e author shows that the heroes o f the H om eric age conserve

close relations w ith T hebes in Egypt, since M enelaus exiled him self
there for seven years and returned laden w ith gifts. T hebes was full
o f foreigners: Sem ites, Libyans and Achaeans, as Byzantium was to
be later at the tim e o f the Byzantine Em pire.

It was even reduced to defending its territory, its past and even
its language, against these foreigners who presented themselves as
friends, allies or servants, and who infiltrated it peacefully... It
remained the most celebrated and richest city in the world; this city
of gold still attracted the attention and the covetousness of the
Achaeans...
How many are the Achaean nobles who must, before and after
Menelaus, have gone there and spent long months and long years,
in this capital of civilisation?8

In fact it was the whole o f Egypt which received an increasingly

im portant flood o f foreigners o f the Achaean race. Every tim e the
Pharaoh conquered the ‘peoples o f the sea’, ‘he spared the survivors,
enrolled them and distributed them throughout his construction yards
or in his m ilitary outposts. T hey became the best workers and the
best soldiers o f the king...
...D om iciled or quartered in barracks in T hebes and in the

183
Provinces, these m ercenaries m arried Egyptian wom en, m ixed with
the population, became respectable people and even im portant p er­
sonages, attaining honours and riches. U nder the X X th dynasty
(1200-1100 B.C .) in T hebes itself a good part o f the officers and
officials were Syrians and Berbers o f recent adaptation....
T h is exchange, o f wom en especially, effected a m ixing o f races
and o f civilisations, o f w hich the tales o f Eum aeus give us a good
example.
In Ithaca, the hero, Aigyptos the Egyptian, was always listened
to w ith attention w hen he rose to speak to the people.’9
T h e A uthor detects in the M editerranean toponym y the breadth
o f E gypto-Phoenician influence.

Two or three thousand years of almost continuous intimacy bet­

ween the islands of the Trfcs Verte and the Levantine civilisation had
the direct and indirect influence which can be imagined on the daily
life of the Achaeans: Rome did not react more strongly and more
deeply on our Western Europe...
...The art of this time, even in its most native form, was orien­
tal, with the character implied by this word; the love of decoration
and of display, of brilliance and of richness and even of flashiness,
fantasy and exuberance in the combination of skilful lines and precious
materials; the sentiments of universal life, of animal and vegetable
grace as much as human beauty; a sensual ardour towards movement
and joy, and a sort of dreamy languor and resignation in pleasure;
in sum, one knows not what exoticism, in comparison with our
Europe.10

B ut, at this distant tim e, the Phoenicians, who served as a link

w ith E gypt, were w ithout any possible doubt the vassals o f the
pharaoh: the author sees the proof o f this in the correspondence
exchanged by them .

The kings or suffetes of Tyre, Sidon, Arad and of Byblos, the

most noble Phoenician metropolitan centres, figured among these cor­
respondents who call themselves the servants of Amenophis, the dogs
of his house, his footstools and the dust under his feet."

V ictor B6rard w ent as far as an analysis o f the work o f H om er.

184
T o him the interdependence betw een the Odyssey and the Egyptian
m aritim e rom ances transm itted on papyrus is close. Several passages
o f the Odyssey are only to some degree fragm ents o f Egyptian prose
put into G reek verse.

For a long tim e, the E gyptian sea voyages in the M ed iterran ean
or in the R ed Sea and their long and com plicated journeys gave b irth
to m aritim e stories or novels, o f w hich the papyri have still only su r­
rendered tw o... The second story, w hich is the m ore rom antic, is this
tale o f the shipw recked m a n to which 1 have already alluded: he is the
fir s t in line o f the R obinson Crusoes. It takes the reader back to the
d istant tim es w hen the P epis an d the M en to u H etep s o f th e sixth
to the eleventh dynasties (2400-2100 B .C .) were already sending their
fleets from P ouanit to th e south o f the Red Sea, to buy perfum es,
drugs and rare animals: Salomon and H iram united to send their larger
vessels from T arsis, to take part in the same com m erce in th e same
spot. T h e E gyptian R obinson is the victim o f a shipw reck in far-ofT
w aters, w hich border on T o -N o u tri, land o f the gods (Ulysses quotes
w ords borrow ed from the language o f the gods). A tem pest sinks the
boat and all the crew, and our hero is cast alone on an island, inhabited
by a gigantic serpent w ith a h um an voice (like C irce and Calypso):
th is serp en t, a good family m an, w elcom es the shipw recked m ariner,
su p p o rts him , feeds him , foretells for him a h ap p y retu rn and
overloads him w ith presents w hen p u ttin g him on b oard the ship
w hich was to take him back hom e. (C irce acted in the same w ay.)12

Proteus, the heavenly sorcerer, who was m et by M enelaus at the

m outh o f the N ile, and all the history concerning him in which
Idothee was involved, find their equivalent in Egyptian literature:
Prouti is the nam e o f an Egyptian pharaoh, a legendary m agician.
On the papyri o f the thirteenth century B.C. we can find the
story told o f two sorcerer princes: they are sons o f P routi and future
Proutis them selves. T h ey are seeking the book o f T h o t, the book
o f magic par excellence, w hich allows those who possess it to place
them selves im m ediately beneath the gods; by its form ulas, it allows
one to cast spells on the sky, the earth, the night, the m ountains and
the waters; to know the birds and the reptiles, the fish which are
at the bottom o f the sea, for a divine force makes them rise to the
surface.

185
 T h e O dyssean P roteus know s th e unfathom able dep th s o f the
w hole sea and m akes the seals rise from the foam ing d e p th s.15

W hen, after all his m etam orphoses, the Odyssean Proteus

regained his hum an form, he no longer had ‘the august white head
o f hair and silver beard o f the E ternal F ather, as he would popularly
be imagined to have today. He wore a black wig bristling in the wind,
as is suited to Proteus the Egyptian. For the true Prouti never goes
out w ithout a blue or black w ig.’14
T h e pharoah o f E gypt wore a light wig, not o f hair or o f manes,
but o f metal and especially o f enam el. It was therefore a true coiffure
and not an im itation o f a head o f hair. Such wigs still exist in N orth
Africa and in Abyssinia. T h e Egyptian nobility wore wigs o f lapis
lazuli.
T h e Odyssean pharaoh ruled over the seas ‘as the pharaohs o f
the fables and the E gyptian caricatures ruled over the rats, the lions
or the cats....
T h e story o f K ing K houfoui and the M agicians featured a cer­
tain Didi who, thanks to the books o f T h o t, was followed by lions
across the country, as our Proteus was followed by seals.’15
Finally the predictions o f the great bearded serpent in the Egyp­
tian tale o f the shipw recked m ariner are the same as those made by
the divine T iresias to Ulysses.
T h e au th o r shows that the zephyr is only in Egypt a beneficent
w ind w orthy o f being sung in verse; granted its baneful character
in G reece and the northern M editerranean in general, ‘only by bor­
rowing from the m anners and the literature o f Egypt could the mistral
have been made the supreme pleasure o f a Hellenic paradise. T o think,
however, that after twenty-five centuries, the disagreeable zephyr (so
speaks the Odyssean poet wisely) has become in all the western
literatures w hich are disciples o f G reece, the breeze o f tender signs,
o f tranquil happiness and o f love!’16
Proteus in his transform ations changes him self in turn into a lion
w ith a mane, a panther, a giant boar, etc... O r it is the hippopotam us,
w hich the Egyptians called the river pig. T h is was the god o f
childbirth. It is found in G reece only on the M inoan m onum ents
o f Egyptian origin. Its presence, w rites Berard, is the indisputable
p roof to archeologists o f the Egyptian influence in pre-Hellenic Crete,

186
the cults o f which were transm itted to the Hellenised C retans. T he
author, in conclusion, asks the following question: ‘On the whole,
can it be denied that the Odyssean poet borrowed the episode o f P ro­
teus from the tales and rom ances o f pharaonic Egypt? But was this
a direct loan, from the Egyptian text to the G reek text?’17
H e thinks not: the Phoenicians, agents and vassals o f the Egyp­
tians, m ight have served as interm ediaries. But to him , the Egypto-
Phoenicians played the same civilising role tow ards G reece and the
H ebrew s, if not m ore so, as did G reco-Latin antiquity towards the
m odern W est.

The error of our predecessors was only in believing that the dawn
of modern times was also the awakening of creative and thinking
humanity, and that Homer and the Bible were the first sudden explo­
sions of literary genius. The recent discoveries of the archaeologists
in Egypt and Chaldea have fully revealed to us that during a long
Levantine antiquity, scholars, artists and poets had already created
masterpieces, which were also to serve as models for a hundred genera­
tions and of which Hebrews and Hellenes, far from being ignorant
of these, were the admirers and imitators and sometimes even the
copyists. Chaldea, Egypt and Phoenicia, Babylon, Thebes and Siron
were to the Hebrews and the Hellenes the same holy, beautiful,
learned and venerable antiquity as Jerusalem, Athens and Rome were
for Westerners.18

T h e Egyptian priests did not put their names to their discoveries,

as did the individualistic G reeks, and no inventor’s name has sur­
vived. O n th e contrary, they kept them jealously w ithin the bosom
o f th eir caste and only dispensed an exoteric elem entary teaching to
the people.
T h ey invented the notion o f initiation, which was the great
weakness which was to destroy their civilisation one day. T hey liked
to give to knowledge a revelatory character, and attributed their
discoveries and the results o f their experim ents to the god T h o t (M er­
cury, Hermes). It was thus very easy for the disciples they had initiated
to attribute to them selves the discoveries o f their m asters. W e know
today in an almost certain fashion that T hales o f M iletus, Pythagoras
o f Samos, A rchim edes o f Sicily, Plato, Solon, etc. had been pupils
o f the E gyptian priests, who at this period, even according to Plato,

187
considered the Greeks as relatively childish m inds. N ow it is
rem arkable that none o f the G reek scholars educated in this way in
Egypt - Pythagoras, the founder o f the school o f Greek m athem atics
in particular - ever thought o f separating his own discoveries and
those received from Egypt. T h is is all the m ore inexplicable since
Plutarch in Isis and Osiris dwells on the fact that among all the Greek
scholars initiated in Egypt, Pythagoras was the best liked by the Egyp­
tians, because o f his m ystical m ind. It is known that his science o f
num bers was for a long tim e a m athem atico-m ystical science.
Such a taste for the individual reputation o f the im m ortality o f
the nam e, such a lack o f intellectual honesty, did not fail to anger
the honest H erodotus, who showed, w ithout beating about the bush,
that Pythagoras was a plagiarist.*
H erodotus, whose b irth was separated by scarcely 16 years (?)
from the condem nation to death o f Pythagoras, does not speak o f
the latter as a m ythical person, b u t as a being who really existed.
T h is does not prevent certain people from thinking that Pythagoras
was only the personification o f the new philosophico-m athem atical
tendency (school).
T h e existence o f Pythagoras can be doubted; but this is not the
case w ith that o f Archim edes. His tom b has been found at Syracuse
in Sicily. Now all the mechanical inventions attributed to Archimedes
present a doubtful character; they existed in Egypt thousands o f years
before the b irth o f Archimedes. T h e builders o f the pyram ids o f the
ancient em pire knew the principle o f the lever; they em ployed the
latter, in a variety o f ways, to hoist tons o f rock to the tops o f the
pyram ids un d er construction. Now it is im possible to use such an
instrum ent w ithout immediately recognising the relationship between
mass and distance w ithout theorising.
A rchim edes is said to have discovered the endless screw, which
is at the origin o f enorm ous m echanical progress. But D iodorus
Siculus is quite definite: Archimedes could only have made this inven­
tion after his voyage to Egypt, where the hydraulic screw was already
in use and served to pu m p water. T h is appears so obvious that it
is readily accepted today that A rchim edes had at the most adapted
an Egyptian invention. T h e E gyptian screw exported in this way by

* Ibid., p p . 81, 82

188
Archimedes, served, as in its country o f origin, to ‘pum p w ater’ from
the silver m ines o f Spain. Finally, even the P rinciple o f A rchim edes
deals w ith this m echanics o f fluids. T here are, therefore, grounds
for pursuing the investigations. T h e outcom e would seem to be
obvious.
A nother fact, which is no less paradoxical, is to be noted. T h e
Hellenic intellectual genius came to light and was developed p rin ­
cipally outside A thens, and continental Greece, in Asia M inor
(Bergam, M iletus, Halicarnassus), Palestine (Antioch) and in Egypt
at Alexandria.
T h is rem ained true during and after the reign o f Alexander. T o
grasp the anom aly, it w ould serve as an example if one were to sup­
pose that Dakar was today the perm anent centre o f the creative power
o f France at th e height o f her glory.
It was in Alexandria that philosophy was to know a new advance
w ith the neo-Platonism o f Plotinus.
T h e m ost im portant library in the world at that time (which was
later to be b u rn t by fanatical C hristians), the most em inent doctors
practising dissection, engineers building ‘m odern m achines’
(thaum aturgists): flying pigeon in wood, steam reaction turbine,
‘H ero ’s sphere’, etc., all were found in Alexandria and not in Athens.
W hy? T h ere is no apparent reason, if it is not that the substructure
and the E gyptian intellectual tradition which had already lasted
thousands o f years offered to scientists conditions o f work w ith which
neither the E urope nor Asia o f that tim e could com pete. N othing
gives such an idea o f the inequality o f the foreign contributions to
Greece as this perm anent choice and the developm ent o f the Alex­
andrian science com pared w ith those in other centres o f Asia and
Europe, to those who would like to weight Africa and Asia equally
in this respect.
T h an k s to the ingenuity o f A lexandrian scientists the technical
progress realised in ancient times allowed the direct passage to an
industrial phase by the system atic utilisation o f the machine.
H ydraulic energy was put into service by ‘Demeter’. T h e motive
power o f steam was virtually his discovery as well.
But no scientist found it necessary to lighten the afflictions o f
the slave workers (they were so cheap), by substituting the m achine
for th eir servile labour.

189
 T h e slaves, for w hom this problem m ight have been o f interest,
were not in a position to carry out research or to apply it. Also, the
scientific results served to entertain the ruling classes, who even feared
the brutal transform ation w hich would be the consequence o f the
in troduction o f the m achine into the technical habits.
A ristotle said, but ironically: 'W hen the shuttle works by itself,
the slave will no longer be necessary’.
T h is is true: slavery would have been finished.
But th e idea could not enter his head o f devoting his researches
to making th e shuttle work by itself, in order to make all m en free.
He wished to show, by what he said, that slavery was a natural necessity.

190
 REFERENCES

INTROD UCTION

1. K arn ak H ouse, 1987.

2. T h ir d W orld Press, 1978.
3. See Julie W heelw right (ed ), Amazons and M ilitary Maids, P andora Press, 1989;
A ntonia F raser, Boadicea’s Chariot: The Warrior Queens, W eidenfeld and
N icholson, 1988.
4. See Ift A m adium e, Male Daughters, Female Husbands: Gender and Sex in an
AJrican Society, Zed Books, 1987.
5. See H eide G o ttn e r - A b en d ro th , Matriarchal Mythology in former Times and
Today, T h e C rossing Press, 1987. T h is w om an scientist and philosopher taught
philosophy at the univ ersity o f M u n ic h for ten years. In 1986, she founded
H A G IA - A cadem y and C oven for C ritic al M a tria rch a l R esearch and L iving,
a c om m unity dedicated to the ex p lo ra tio n and practice o f m atriarchal c u ltu re
and spirituality. See also publications by H ans-Juergen H ildebrandt. F or a M arx­
ist appraisal, see publications by C arolyn Fluehr-L obban in Current Anthropology
Vol. 20: 341-359 and Critique o f Anthropology Vol 7(1), 1987.
6. Sec A R A C H N E , A journal o f M a tria rc h a l S tudies, p u b lish ed by A rachne col­
lective, M atriarch al Research and R eclaim netw ork.
7. D io p ; G eorge Jam es, C h a n ce llo r W illiam s and now Black Athena (M a rtin B er­
nal), have p u t a full sto p once and for all to the fallacious claim th at ancien t
E gypt was a w hite civilization and not A frican. E gyptian civilization was not
just A frican, it was influenced by c u ltu re s o f interior A frica.
8. ‘T h e unm asking o f m ito ch o n d rial E ve’ in Science Vol. 238, O c t., 1987. A frica
is stated as th e single geographic orig in o f m odern hum ans. In a n o th e r article
titled ‘G enetic a n d Fossil E vidence for th e O rig in o f M o d e rn H u m a n s’, L . B.
S trin g er and P. A ndrew s state, “ B oth g en etics and palaeontology su p p o rt a
recent A frican orig in for m odern h u m a n s ra th e r than a long p eriod o f m ulti-
regional evolution accom panied by gene flow ” , Science, Vol 239, M arch 1988.
See also Newsweek, Ja n II, 1988, u n d e r th e headline ‘T h e search for A dam and
E ve’, we read, “ S cientists claim to have fo und our com m on ancestor - a w om an
w ho lived 200,000 years ago and left re silie n t genes that are carried by all o f
m an k in d ” . T h is is the m itochondrial D N A (m t D N A ) tran sm itte d only by the
m o th er. T h ere w ere o th er captions like ‘T h e dates o f E d e n ’ and ‘N o a h ’s A rk
m odel’.

191
 9. N ew spaper reports o f the address to the annual m eeting o f the Am erican Associa­
tio n o f the A dvancem ent o f S cience, ‘A frican Eve was m o th e r o f h u m an ity '
re p o rts 20 years stu d y by Professor A llan W ilson, a biochem ist at the u niver­
sity o f C alifornia at Berkeley, “ By m easuring the diversity o f m aternally inherited
genes in m odern racial groups, Professor W ilson and other scientists concluded
th a t th e oldest lineage was A frican, d a tin g back 140,000 to 290,000 years. T h e
first E u ro p ea n s and A sians w ere lin guistically “ d e a f m u te .” O nly the children
o f A frican w om en w ould in h erit the m aternally tran sm itte d ability to use
language” - The Guardian, 16th Ja n u a ry 1989. The Independent o f the same
day rep o rted , ‘Black Eve gave gift o f language in h erited b y m odern h u m a n s’.
10. T h is was the m ethodology I used in Male Daughters... In this book, I have also
suggested q u e stio n s for research on A frican w om en.

CH A PTER I

1 E um tfnides, vers 575, ss.

2 E u m e n id es, vers 6 27, ss.
3 E u m fn id c s, vers 604, ss.
4 F red erick E ngels, The Origin oj the Family, Private Properly and the State (New
Y ork, In tern a tio n a l P u b lish ers, 1943), p .25.
5 Ibid., p .27.
6 Ibid., p .34.
7 Ibid., p .75.
8 A eschylus, op. cit., p .280.
9 Ibid., pp. 287-288.
10 Ibid., p .288.
11 J. J. B achofcn's Das Mutterrecht (Basel, B enno Schw abe C o. V erlag, 1948).
12 L ew is M . M o rg a n , Systems o j Consanguinity and A ffin ity (W ashington, D .C .,
T h e S m ith so n ian In stitu te , 1871) - Vol. X V II.
13 M a u rice L e e n h a rd t, La Personne Melanisienne (M e lu n , 1942).

C H A P T E R II

1 A. Van G e n n e p , Mythes et Legendes d ’Australie (Paris, F. Guilmoto), p.23.

2 Ibid., p. 24.
3 Ibid., p. 26.
4 A n d ri A ym ard, Les Premieres Civilisations (P aris, Presses U niversitaires de
F rance, 1950), p p .200-202.
5 Ibid., p .200.
6 E ngels, op. cit., p .57.
7 Ibid., p.55.
8 Ibid., p p .57-58.
9 F ustel de C oulanges, La Cite Antique (H a ch e tte , 1930), pp.59-62.

192
10 A ym ard, op. cit., p .200.
11 E ngels, op. cit., pp. 12-13.
12 A n d ri A ym ard, op. cit., p.201.
13 E ngels, op. cit., p .43.
14 H en ri H u b e rt, Les Celtes (P aris, A lbin M ic h el, 1950), p .247.
15 M aurice Delafosse, Les Noir de l'Afrique (Vans, Payot et C ie, 1922), pp. 140-141.
16 E ngels, op. cit., p .40.
17 Ibid., p p .49-50.
18 Ibid., p . 36.
19 D elafosse, op. cit., p.62.
20 Ibid., p p .142-143.
21 E ngels, op. cit., p .26.
22 Ibid., p .27.
23 P iganiol, Les Origines de Rome (P aris, I.ib ra irie F o n tc m o in g , 1916), p p .87-91.
24 Ibid., pp.90-91.
25 Ibid., p p .93-101.
26 G re n ie r, op. cit., p .88.
27 Ibid., p.88.
28 Ibid., p p .85-86.
29 I.ois de M a n o u , L ivre X I, Penitence et Expiation (1843).

C H A P T E R III

1 Jam es G eorge F ra z e r, A tys and Osiris, a Study o f Comparative Eastern Religions

(L ib rairie O ric n ta liste , 1926), p. 117.
2 F razer, op. cit., p p . 135-134.
3 C ham p o llio n Ie Je u n e , lettres, (C oll. L ’U nivers, 1839), pp.30-31.
4 A. M oret and G . D avy, Les Clans aux Empires (La R enaissance d u L ivre, 1923),
p. 389.
5 H ero d o tu s, History ( New York, T u d o r, 1928), p .256.
6 Ibid., p.257.
7 Ibn B atouta, Voyage au Soudan, translation Slane, p. 12.
8 M . D elafosse, op. cit., p . 139.
9 A. R. Radcliffe-B row n a n d D. F ordc, Matrimonial and Family Systems in Africa
(Presses U nivcrsitaires, 1953), p. 120.
10 Ibid., pp. 184-185.
11 Ibid., pp.345-346.
12 Ibid., p.274.
13 T hucydides, The Peloponnesian W ar (N ew Y ork, M odern L ibrary, 1934), pp.5-6.
14 A drien T u re l, op. cit., p .37.
15 A n d ri Aymard and Jeanine A uboyer, I . ’Orient et la Grece Antique (Presses U niver-
s ita ir e s , 1955), pp.214-215.
16 H ero d o tu s, op. cit., p. 100.
17 Ibid., p p .99-100.

193
18 T u re l, op. cit., p p .95-96.
19 L o u is Benloew, La Grice avant les Grecs (P aris, 1877), p p . 132-135.
20 Ibid., p p .186-187.
21 L en o rm an t, Histoire ancienne des Phiniciens (P aris, 1890).
22 L. Benloew , op. cit., p. 3.
23 Andrfc A ym ard and J. A uboyer, Rome et son Empire (P aris, 1954), p. 17.
24 Ibid., p .22.
25 T itu s Livy, Roman History, Book 34.
26 C aesar, The Gallic War, Book 6, C h a p te rs 22 and 23.
27 T a c itu s , The Customs of the Germans, C h a p te rs 6, 7, 14, 17, 27.
28 Ibid., C h ap ters 18 and 20.
29 Ibid., C h ap ter 9.
30 J. V endryes, Les religions des Celtes, des Germains et des anciens Slaves, p .244.
31 C aesar, op. cit., Book 6, C h a p te r 21.
32 W alter V. W artburg, Problemes et Mtthodes de la l.inguistique, (Paris, 1946), p .41.
33 H ero d o tu s, op. cit., Book IV , p p .225-226.
34 T u re l, op. cit., p. 146.
35 H ero d o tu s, op. cit., Book 2, p. 103.
36 E ngels, op. cit., p .45.
37 F razer, op. cit., p. 132.
38 L en o rm an t, op. cit., pp.260-261.
39 Ibid., p. 373.
40 Ibid., p . 374.
41 Ibid., p p .384-385.
42 Ibid., p. 361.
43 Ibid., p . 385.
44 Ibid., p. 392.
45 Ibid., pp.429-4 30.
46 G enesis 12: 1, 4-6.
47 Ibid., 34: 20-21.
48 H oefer, C haldee, B abylonie (P aris, 1852).
49 L en o rm an t, op. cit., p p .484-486.
50 Ibid., p .583.
51 D r. G . C o n ten a u , Manuel d ’Archeologie Oriental, P aris, 1947.
52 A. A ym ard a n d J. A uboyer, l . ’Orient et la Grice Antique (Paris, 1955).
53 Ibid., p. 547.
54 Ibid., p p .548-550.
55 Ibid., p .555.
56 Ibid., p .556.
57 Ibid., p .550.
58 Q u o ted by L en o rm an t, op. cit., p p .96, 98.
59 G . C o n ten a u , op. cit., p.97.
60 Ibid., p .98.
61 Ibid.
62 A. A ym ard and J. A uboyer, op. cit., p. 132.

194
63 Ibid., p. 130.
64 Ibid., p. 129.
65 Diodorus Siculus, Universal History, Book I, Section I.

C H A P T K R IV

1 E. A m elineau, Resume de I'Histoire de l ’Egypte (P aris, 1894), pp. 170-176.

2 D iodorus S iculus, op.cit., Book III, par. 52-55.
3 M o re t, Des Clans aux Empires.
4 Morel, L'Egypte el la Civilisation du N il, p.212.
5 M o re t, Ibid., A ppendix.
6 T u re l, op. cit., p.20.
7 D u m o u lin de L ap lan te , Histoire generale synchromque (P aris, 1947), p. 13.
8 F u ro n , Manupel d ’archeologie prehistorique (P aris, 1943), pp. 14-15.
9 Ibid., p. 151.
10 C h . B tm o n t a n d G . M o n o d , Histoire de I’Europe au Moyen Age (P aris, 1921),
p p .21-22.
11 A. A ym ard a n d J. A uboyer, L ’Oreim et la GreceAntique,op.cit., p .49.
12 H . H u b e rt, op. cit., p .248.
13 Ibid.
14 Ibid., p .239.
15 Ibid., p p .247 a n d 236 to 292 to see in a general way.
16 D io d o ru s, op. cit., Book II, par. 45, 46.
17 T u re l, op. cit., p .75.
18 Ibid., p.17.
19 Ibid., p . 148.
20 D io d o ru s, op. cit., Book II, par. 4.
21 T u re l, op. cit., p p .25 a n d 26.
22 Ibid., p p .60 a n d 61.

CH A PTER V

1 Fustel de Coulanges, op. cit., pp. 124 and 125.

2 Ibid., p. 126.
3 Ibid., p.239.
4 Ibid., p. 125.
5 Ibid., pp.233-234.
6 Marius Fontanes, Les Egyptes (Paris, 1890), p. 169.
7 Fustel de Coulanges, op. cit., pp.265 and 266.
8 A. Aymard and J. Auboyer, L ’Orient et la Grece Antique, op. cit., p.22.
9 Fustel de Coulanges, op. cit., p.208.
10 Ibid., p .213.
11 A. Aymard and J. Auboyer, op. cit., p.24.

195
12 Seligm an, A study in Divine Kingship (L o n d o n , 1934).
13 W estcrm an n and B aum ann, Peuples et Civilisations de l ’Afrique (P ayot, 1941)
p .328.
14 A. A ym ard, op. cit., p .25.
15 Ibid., p .26.
16 C aesar, The Gallic War, Book V I, c h ap ter 21.
17 F ustel de C oulanges, op. cit., p .26.
18 Ibid., p .23
19 Ibid., p p . 140-141.
20 Ibid., pp. 172 and 173.
21 Ibid., p .255.
22 B reasted, La conquete de la civilisation (Payot).
23 H e ro d o tu s, op. cit., Book II, par. 124.
24 C h . B em ont and G . M o n o t, op. cit., p p .28-29.
25 T h o m a s M ofolo, Chaka, Une Epopee Bantoue (P aris, 1940).
26 Ib n B atouta, op. cit., p . 36.
27 A eschylus, op. cit.
28 N ietzsch e, The Birth o f Tragedy or Hellenism and Pessimism (N aissance de la
T ragedie ou H e llln ism e et Pessim ism e), traduit par M arno ld (Paris, 1947), p .67.
29 Ibid., p .74.
30 Ibid., p.75.
31 Ibid., p .76.
32 Ibid., p p .92-93.
33 Ibid., p p .98, 100, 158-160.
34 H e ro d o tu s, op. cit., Book II, par. 42.
35 Ibid., pp. 98-99.
36 G re n ie r, op. cit., p .204.
37 Ibid., p .204.
38 H e ro d o tu s, op. cit., Book II, par. 48.

C H A P T E R VI

1 G a rd in er, Egyptian Grammar (L o n d o n , 1927).

2 L ouise H o m b u rg e r, Les Langues Negro-Africaines et les Peuples qui les parlent
(P ayot, 1947), ch. X II.
3 Jean C apart and Georges C ontenau, Histoire de / ’Orient Ancien (Paris, 1936), p.52.
4 M asson-O oursel, La Philosophie et Orient (P aris, 1948), p .43.
5 Leo F ro b en iu s, Histoire de la Civilisation Africaine (Paris, 1933).

C H A P T E R VII

1 C a p a rt, op. cit., p .45.

2 F u ste l de C oulanges, op. cit., p .59.

196
 3 As am ong the R om ans, according to G re n ie r, op.cit.
4 H am pat6 Ba, C u ltu re Peul, “ Presence A fricaine” , Ju n e 1956, p .85.
5 V ictor B erard, L a Resurrection d ’Homere - A u temps des Heros (Paris, G rasset,
1930), pp. 99, 102, 145, 153.
6 Ibid., p p .52, 53, 54.
7 T h u c y d id e s, The Peloponnesian War, op. cit., p .5.
8 H ero d o tu s, op. cit., Book II, par. 58.
9 A lbert G re n ie r, Les Religions etrusque et romaine (P aris, 1948), p .88.
10 Piganiol, l.es Origines de Rome (F o n te m o in g et C ie, 1916), p . 117.

A P P E N D IX

1 Victor Berard, La Resurrection d ’Homere. A u temps des Heros, op. cit., p p .34 et 35.
2 Ibid., p . 36.
3 Ibid., p p .36, 37.
4 Ibid., p. 38.
6 Ibid., p .40.
7 Ibid., p.43.
8 Ibid., p .44.
9 Ibid., p p .47, 48.
10 Ibid., p p .6 1 , 62.
11 Ibid., p.72.
12 Ibid., pp. 107-109.
13 Ibid., p .90.
14 Ibid., p .50.
15 Ibid., p p .91,92.
16 Ibid., p .96.
17 Ibid., p .97.
18 Ibid., p p .81, 82.

197
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

W ith additions to the original by Amon Saba Saakana and Ifi

A m adium e.

Aeschylus (1966), The Orestia. M iddlesex, Penguin.

A m adium e, Ifi (1987), A frikan M atriarchal Foundations: The lgbo
Case. London: K arnak House.
------ , (1987), M ale Daughters, Female Husbands: Gender and Sex in
an African Society. L ondon/N ew Jersey: Zed Press.
A m elineau, E. (1894), R esum ( de V.Histoire de l'Egypte. Paris.
Aym ard, A ndre (1950), Les Premieres Civilisations. Paris: Presses
U niversitaires de France.
----- and Auboyer, Jeanine (1955), L ’Orient et la Grece. Paris: Presses
U niversitaires de France.
Ba, H am patd (1956), “ Culture P e u r , in Presence Africaine, June.
Bachofen, J.J. (1861), Das Mutterrecht. Basel: Benno Schwabe Co.
Verlag.
Batouta, Ib n (1843), Voyage au Soudan, trans. Slane. Paris.
B em ont, C h. and M onod, G. (1921), Histoire de I’Europe au Moyen
Age. Paris.
Benloew, Louis (1877), L a Grece avant les Grecs. Paris.
Berard, Victor (1930), L a Resurrection d ’Homere ■A u temps des hiros.
Paris: G rasset.
Breasted, H enry L a Conquete de la civilisation. Paris: Payot.
Buttles, Janet R. (1908), The Queens o f Egypt. London: Longm an
and G reen.
Caesar (1951), The Conquest o f Gaul. M iddlesex: Penguin. (T he
F rench edition is not supplied w ith publisher and date.)
C apart, Jean and C onteneau, G eorges (1936), Histoire de VOrient
Ancien. Paris.
C erny, Jaroslav (1954), “Consanguinous Marriages in Pharoanic
E g yp t”. Journal o f Egyptian Archaeology, 23-29.

198
C ham pollion Ie Jeune (1839), Lettres. Paris: C ollection l ’Univers.
C onteneau, G eorges (1947), M anuel d ’Archeologie Oriental. Paris.
C ottrell, Leonard (1967), Lady o f the Two lands. Indianapolis: Bobbs
M errill Co.
de Coulanges, Fustel (1930), La citi Antique. Paris: H atchette.
Delafosse, M aurice (1922), Les Noirs de l ’A frique. Paris: Payot et Cie.
de M anou, Louis (1843), Livre X I, Penitence et Expiation.
de L aplante, D um oulin (1947), Histoire generale synchronique. Paris.
D ickcrm an, L. (1894), “ The Condition o f Women in Ancient E g yp t”.
in Bull, o f the A m erican G eographical Society, Vol.26.
El Berki (1913), Description de l ’Afrique septentrionale, trans. Slane.
Algiers: T ypographic Adolphe Jourdan.
Engels, Frederick (1943), The Origin o f the Family, Private Property
and the State. New York: International Publishers. N ew edi­
tion (1972), edited and introduced by Eleanor Burke Leacock.
Figues, Eva (1976), “ The M yth o f the M other G od” in Psychology
T oday, Vol 2 (8). London.
Fontaines, M arius (1890), Les Egyptes. Paris: Editions Lem erre.
F uron, R aym ond (1943), M anuel d ’Archeologie prehistorique. Paris.
Frazer, Jam es George (1926), A tys and Osiris, a Study o f Comparative
Eastern Religion. L ibrarie O rientale.
F robenius, Leo (1933), Histoire de la Civilisation Africaine. Paris.
G ard in er,A .H . (1927), Egyptian Grammar. Oxford: C larendon.
G ennep, A. Van - , Mythes et Legendes d ’A ustralie. Paris: E. Guilm oto.
G onzalez, de Solien (1970), “ Towards a definition o f M atrifocality”
in W h itten , N .E . and Szwed, J .F ., eds., Afro-American
Anthropology. N ew Y ork/London.
G oodenough, W .H . (1976), “ Ow the Origin o f M atrilineal Clans: a
'just so' story” in Proceedings o f the American Philosophical
Society, Vol. 120.
G renier, Albert (1948), Les Religions etrusque et rotnaine. Paris: P.U .F .
G riaule, M arcel (1948), Dieu d ’eau. Paris: Editions du Chene.
H erodotus (19 ), The Histories. M iddlesex: Penguin.
H iggins, G odfrey (1829; 1977), The Celtic Druids. Los Angeles:
Philosophical Research Library.
H om burger, Luoise (1947), Les Langues Negro Africaines et les peuples
qui les parlent. Paris: Payot.
H om er (1950), The Iliad. M iddlesex: Penguin.

199
 H u b ert, H enri (1950), Les Celtes. Paris: Albin M ichel.
H ym an, H .H . (1969), "Black M atriarchy Reconsidered. Evidence front
secondary analysis o f sample surveys” in P ublic O pinion
Q uarterly, V ol.33.
Inglehart, H. (1983), Woman Spirit: A Guide to W om en’s Wisdom.
N ew York: H arper & Row.
% Jam es, Edwin O. (1959), The Cult o f the Mother Goddess: an
archaeological and documentary study. London.
Jam es, W endy (1978), “M atrifocus on African W omen” in A rdencr,
S., ed., Defining Females: The nature of Women in Society. L on­
don: Croom H elm .
K haldun, Ibn (1854), Histoire des Berberes et des dynasties musulmanes
de l ’Afrique Septentrionale, 4 Vols., trans. Slane. Algiers:
G overnm ent Printshop.
Lebeuf, A. (1963), “ The Role o f Women in the Political organization
o f African Societies” in Paulm e, D ., ed., Women o f Tropical
Africa. California: U niversity o f C alifornia Press.
L eenhardt, M aurice (1942), La Personne Melanesienne. M elun.
L enorm ant, Francois (1890), Histoire des Pheniciens. Paris: Editions
L6vy.
• Lerner,_G. (1986), The Creation of Patriarchy. Oxford: Oxford U niver­
sity Press.
Lowe, Robert H. (1929), The Origin of the State. New York: Harcourt.
M acM anus, Scum as (1921), The Story o f the Irish Race. N ew York:
Devin-Adair.
M acQ uitty, W illiam (1976), Island o f Isis. New York: C harles
/ S cribners’ Sons.
^ *Mason, Otis T ufton (1898), W om an’s Share in Primitive Culture. New
York: D. A ppleton & Co. (
M asson-O ourscl (1948), La Philosophe en Orient. Paris.
M eyerow itz, Eva L.R . (1950), The Sacred State o f the A kan. L on­
don: Faber.
M ofolo, T hom as (1940), Chaka, Une Epopee Bantoue. Paris. T h e
E nglish edition (1949): Chaka, the Zulu. London: Oxford
U niversity Press
M onaghan, Patricia (1981), The Book of Goddesses and Heroines. New
York: D utton.
M oret, A. and Davy, G. (1923), Des Clans aux Empires. Paris: La
R enaissance du Livre.

200
 M oret, A. (1926), L 'E gypte et la Civilisation du N il. Paris.
M organ, Lewis H enry (1963), Ancient Society, ed., Eleanor Burke
Leacock. New York: W orld P ublishing C om pany.
----- (1871), Systems o f Consanguinity and A ffinity. W ashington D .C.:
T h e Sm ithsonian Institute, V ol.X V II.
N eum ann, Erich (1974), The Great Mother, trans. R. M annheim .
Princeton: Princeton U niversity Press.
N ietzsche, Frederich (1947), Naissance de la Tragedie ou Hellenisme
et Pessimisme. Paris. English edition: The Birth o f Tragedy and
the Case o f Wagner. N ew York: Vintage Books.
O ppong, C. (1983), ed., Female and M ale in West Africa. London:
Allen & U nw in.
Piganiol (1916), Les Origenes de rome. Paris: L ibrarie Eontem oing.
RadclifT-Brown, A.R. and Eorde, D aryll (1953), M atrim onial and
Family Systems in Africa. Paris: Presses U niversitaires.
Reed, Evelyn (1974), W om an’s Evolution from M atriarchal clan to
Patriarchal fam ily. New York.
R Sanday, Peggy R. (19811k Female Power cmd. M ale Dominance.
o S g e. WloTi s<Sfc
Seligm an, C harles G abriel (1934), A S tudy in Divine Kingship. L on­
don: R outledge.
Sertim a, Ivan Van (1976), They Came Before Columbus: The African
Presence in Ancient America. N ew York: R andom House.
....... (1985), ed., Black Women in A ntiquity. N ew Jersey: Journal
o f African C ivilisations/T ransaction Books.
Siculus, D iodorus (1758), Histoire Universelle. Paris. New abridged
E nglish translation by Edwin M u rp h y (1985), Diodorus on
Egypt. N o rth C arolina: M cF arland & Co. Inc.
Tacitus (1948), The Agricola and the Germania. M iddlesex: Penguin.
T an n er, N . (1974), "M atrifocality in Indonesia and Africa and among
Black Am ericans” in Rosaldo, M .Z . and L am phere, L ., eds.,
Woman, Culture and Society. California: Standford U niversity
Press.
T hucydides (1934), The Peloponnesian War. N ew York: M odern
Library; and London: Penguin.
'♦T iffany, Sharon W. (1982), “The Poiver o f Matriarchal Ideas” in Inter-
n a tio n a rjo u rn a l o f W omen’s Studies, Vol.5.
T itu s, Livy, R om an History, Book 34.
Vendryes, J. (1920), Les religions des Celtes, des Germains et des anciens
Slaves. Paris: Laroux.
W alker, Barbara (1983), The W om an’s Encyclopaedia o f M yths and
Secrets. N ew York: H arper & Row.
W artburg, W alter (1946), Problems et Methodes de la Linguistique.
Paris.
W ebster, Panla (1975), “M atriarchy: A Vision o f Power” in Reiter,
R .R ., ed., Towards an Anthropology o f Women. London/New
York: M o nthly R eview Press.
W esterm ann and B aum ann (1941), Peuples et Civilisation de l ’A fri­
que. Paris: Payot.

202