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From: VLSI%DEC-MARLBORO@sri-unix.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Matriarchal soceities
Message-ID: <15064@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 4-Jan-84 19:34:00 EST
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.15064
Posted: Wed Jan  4 19:34:00 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 7-Jan-84 01:31:22 EST
Lines: 43

From:  John Redford <VLSI at DEC-MARLBORO>

Re: the inquiry about matriarchies in science fiction:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

/jlr
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