Gender, succession and dynastic rule

Abstract

This paper considers ruling women through the lens of gender and succession, mostly between 1300 and 1800; it underlines the fundamental impact of matrilineal succession on worldwide dynastic practice. First the paper asks how women surfaced and survived as sovereigns in a world that defined paramountcy in male terms. Second, it examines how changing patterns of descent, the rise of world religions and modernization have affected regional variations in the occurrence of sovereign women. Third, it revisits the ‘matrilineal puzzle', scrutinizing divergences between matrilineal and patrilineal formats of dynastic power. Finally, the fourth section of the paper reviews the connections between matriliny, the empowerment of women, and ‘contractual' kingship. The paper as a whole connects the historical examination of matriliny to recent work by archaeologists and evolutionary biologists on ‘female biased kinship’. It rekindles the age-old debate about the status of women in early history, shows the relevance of matriliny for current research, and makes explicit the patrilineal bent in common interpretations of dynastic power.

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