Patriarchal Precedents: Sexuality and Social Relations

338 Pages·2022·16.997 MB·English

by  Rosalind Coward

Routledge Revivals
Patriarchal Precedents
First published in 1983, Patriarchal Precedents is an ‘excavation’ of the term
patriarchy. Rosalind Coward shoes how the debates about patriarchy and
matriarchy were crucial to social theories in the nineteenth century, discuss-
ing how the resolution of these debates resulted in our present ways of (mis)
understanding the family, sexual relations, and sexual characteristics. Rosa-
lind Coward argues that the violent debates around patriarchy tell a salutary
tale about how the term presupposed as much as it set out to explain. She
demonstrates how it was used in Marxism and psychoanalysis in ways which
blocked any radical thinking about sexual relations, and how the arguments
against the term patriarchy within anthropology still have to be taken ser-
iously. She argues that in order to advance our understanding of how power
is exercised in sexual relations, of the place which sexual relations have
within society and the construction of sexual characteristics, a series of pre-
suppositionsaboutsexualrelationsmustnowbeclearedaway.Thisbookwill
beofinterest tostudentsofgenderstudies,women’s studies,sexuality,men’s
studies, sociology, and anthropology.

Patriarchal Precedents
Sexuality and Social Relations
Rosalind Coward
Firstpublishedin1983
byRoutledge&KeganPaulLtd
Thiseditionfirstpublishedin2022byRoutledge
4ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,Oxon,OX144RN
andbyRoutledge
605ThirdAvenue,NewYork,NY10017
RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup,aninformabusiness
©RosalindCoward1983
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedorreproducedorutilisedin
any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrievalsystem,withoutpermissioninwritingfromthepublishers.
Publisher’sNote
Thepublisherhasgonetogreatlengthstoensurethequalityofthisreprintbutpoints
outthatsomeimperfectionsintheoriginalcopiesmaybeapparent.
Disclaimer
The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and welcomes
correspondencefromthosetheyhavebeenunabletocontact.
ALibraryofCongressrecordexistsunderISBN:0710093241
ISBN:978-1-032-35629-7(hbk)
ISBN:978-1-003-32778-3(ebk)
ISBN:978-1-032-35639-6(pbk)
BookDOI10.4324/9781003327783
Patriarchal
precedents
Sexuality
and social relations
Rosalind Coward
Routledge & Kegan Paul
London, Boston, Melbourne and Henley
First published in 1983
by Rout ledge & Kegan Paul Ltd
39 Store Street, London WC1E 7DD,
9 Park Street, Boston, Mass. 02108, USA,
296 Beaconsfield Parade, Middle Park,
Melbourne, 3206, Australia, and
Broadway House, New town Road,
Henley-on-Thames, Oxon RG9 1EN
Set in 11/12 Journal by
Academic Typing Service, Gerrards Cross, Bucks
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
TJ. Press; Padstow, Cornwall
©Rosalind Coward 1983
No part of this book may be reproduced in
any form without permission from the
publisher, except for the quotation of brief
passages in criticism
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Coward, Rosalind.
Patriarchal precedents.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Feminism -Philosophy. 2. Social sciences -
Philosophy. 3. Patriarchy. I. Title.
HQ1206.C727 1982 305.4*2. 82-12206.
ISBN 0-7100-9324-1
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 1
1 The dissolution of the patriarchal theory 17
2 The meaning of mother-right 46
3 Sexual antagonism: theories of sex in the social
sciences 75
4 The impasse on kinship 100
5 The concept of the family in marxist theory 130
6 The woman question and the early marxist left 163
7 The patriarchal family in Freudian theory 188
8 Psychoanalysis and anthropology:
the interpretation of social practices 221
Conclusion: sex and social relations 253
Notes 287
Bibliography 311
Index 322
v