Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A social system based on equality of men and women.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Coined by Riane Eisler in The Chalice and the Blade (1987) from Ancient Greek γυνή (gynē, "woman"), λύειν (lyein) or λύω (lyō, "to solve, resolve; to dissolve, set free"), and ἀνήρ (anēr, "man").

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Examples

  • Minangkabau, the society recognized among anthropologists as the world's largest and most stable surviving matriarchy* (though some prefer to call it a gylany, matrix, matrifocal or matricentric society, or something else to avoid conjuring images of mythical Amazons).

    www.kyivpost.com 2010

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