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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!dartvax!betsy
From: betsy@dartvax.UUCP (Betsy Hanes Perry)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: Matriarchal soceities
Message-ID: <574@dartvax.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 7-Jan-84 20:36:09 EST
Article-I.D.: dartvax.574
Posted: Sat Jan  7 20:36:09 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 8-Jan-84 01:24:12 EST
References: <15064@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Organization: Dartmouth College
Lines: 33

A fine book in this vein is _When Voiha Wakes_, by Joy Chant
(also the author of _Red Moon and Black Mountain_).  It concerns
a society in which women are the farmers, rulers, and property-owners
of society.  Men are craftsmen, supposedly because 'it allows them
to make up for not being able to bear children'.  
 
This is a far subtler book than many role-reversals; it pays due 
attention to the logical consequences of a society's beliefs.
(For instance, since men leave their families at an early age
to join craftsmens' guilds, their primary socialization
is as guild-members.  Women see themselves as members of families.
Both guilds and families have secrets to which members of the
other sex are not privy.  As a result, sex relationships
tend to be short and shallow.  What can you discuss with a social
alien?  For long-term companionship, people tend to stick to 
members of their own sex.)
 
The book is more than a thought-experiment, though; it rotates
around the lives of two people, and we see their society through
their eyes, not through those of an omniscient observer.  It's a
romantic novel and a thoughtful one.  I recommend it highly.
 
Betsy Hanes Perry
decvax!dartvax!betsy
 
P.S.  Does ANYONE out there know if/when Joyce Ballou Gregorian
plans to publish a sequel to 'Castledown'?  'The Broken Citadel'
and 'Castledown' are supposed to be two parts of a trilogy,
but it was eight years between their publication dates.  It's
a long time between books...
-- 
Betsy Perry
decvax!dartvax!betsy