Matriarchy (Matrilineality, Matrilocality and Inheritance)

Introduction

Before the Unification, a number of systems of lineality, locality and inheritance were practiced in the lands that became Equestria. The Ponies always had a greater tendency toward female-centered social systems than do Humans, but the big reason that matriarchy and the associated systems of matrilineality and matrilocality become predominant is due to the fact that the Unification was carried out by the two Royal Pony Sisters (rather than brothers). They naturally championed matrilineal and matrilocal systems, because under these systems they were able to inherit leadership of all the (mortal) rival Houses into which they secured their own adoption. It was very much in their interests to spread matriarchal ideas throughout the nascent national culture.

The issues of lineality, locality and inheritance may seem dry and technical compared to the romantic and sexual issues that I previously discussed, but they are in fact the skeleton on which everything else hangs. Young lovers pledging their troth may not consciously calculate in these terms, but the culture they belong to does -- and it affects the thoughts of even the dewy-eyed young lovers. To a civilization at a subsistence-agricultural level (as Equestria was until the Enlightenment, starting a couple centuries ago) the questions of how family lines are drawn, whose family considers one's cooperation and support essential and is willing to shelter one, and who inherits control of the family estate are crucial ones -- literally matters of life and death, at times.

I. Matrilineality

Every foal has two parents, a sire and a dam. "Lineality" determines to which family -- the sire's or the dam's -- the foal is considered to "belong."

To the Earth Ponies it would have always seemed obvious that one traces lineage by the dam. This is because one (almost) always knows who is the dam, while the sire may be a matter of speculation. This may seem shocking when one considers that the Earth Ponies are the most sexually-conservative of the three Kinds, but one should consider that (1) everypony may have a secret, (2) while one may have a good sense of the likely behavior of a mare one knows well, one cannot be as certain about the behavior of mares long-dead, as one may have to consider when tracing genealogy, and (3) especially in the more chaotic times which preceded the Unification, rape was far more common than it is today, so even a virtuous mare might sometimes not know who was the true sire of her foal.

This tendency was reinforced by the fact that the Earth Ponies were the most enthusiastic supporters of the Unification. Disliking all but defensive war, and composed largely of farmers and traders who suffered the most from anarchy, they were happy to pledge their loyalty to the Royal Sisters who promised to protect them from raiding Pegasi warbands and ambitious Unicorn lords -- and quite happy to see their own prejudices reinforced.

To look at an Earth Pony with whom we are quite familiar, consider Applejack. She is an Apple because her mother was an Apple; her father was an Orange. Because it's a direct relationship and her Orange family is rather self-consciously "modern," the Oranges were also willing to accept her into their family, but this was seen by everypony (including Applejack herself) as being a less "real" claim than her being an Apple. This is why her fillyhood epiphany regarding Honesty led her to realize that she was "truly" an Apple.

The Pegasi were also fond of matrilineage -- for the opposite reason to that of the Earth Ponies. Due to the prevalance of Sky-Madness among them, and the generally more wild and chaotic nature of their lives, it was not at all uncommon for Pegasus mares to bear bastard foals (though among the High Families this was and still is considered shameful). Since the Pegasi were obsessed with counting their lineages from noble warlike ancestors, they counted this lineage matrilineally to be certain of the line of descent. This was true even though the ancient Pegasi -- the descendants of the cultures of the Old Tribe, and of Pegasopolis and Derecho -- were patriarchal.

(Hence in Fluttershy Is Free High Lady Fluttershy traces her lineage from Commander Hurricane the First, who was male, through her mother Sweetwing, and the claim is not spoiled by her own illegitimacy).

Unicorns long attempted to maintain a patrilineal system, which is interesting because they tended to be sexually rather egalitarian (among the Unicorns of old, what was important was magical talent and training, rather than sex). The high Unicorn nobility is still patrilineal, though the Unicorn gentry has compromised and now traces significant patrilineal and matrilineal lines. Hence Twilight Sparkle is both a Twilight (through her mother) and a Night (through her father), though she probably considers the Twilight lineage more accurate and hence more important from a historical point of view. An example of a patrilineal royal lineage is that of Prince Polaris Blueblood, 52nd of His (male) Line.

II. Matrilocality

When a couple marries, which family do they join? The groom's, or the bride's?

The question sounds strange today, because in modern Equestria the couple is often wealthy enough to start their own household. But imagine oneself a Pony of over a thousand years ago, in which due to general mistrust and poverty most couples were far more dependent upon support from an established family than is the case now.

The answer depends in part on one's Kind. Among Earth Ponies, the answer would be simple: the bride's. One's offspring would be of the mare's rather than stallion's lineage, so one's matrilineage had the greater investment in protecting, nurturing, supporting and training them. Calculations of this sort could be quite cold during the desperate centuries when rival warlords marched on one another and one's only reliable claim to justice lay in what one -- and one's family -- could enforce at spear's point.

This meant that the Earth Ponies were a strongly matrilocal culture -- and they still tend to be today. It is mostly a matter of custom rather than law in modern Equestria, but everypony knows that when a stallion marries he is expected to go live with and join the mare's family, rather than the other way round. The exception would be if the mare had no family or a far inferior family to that of the stallion, in which case she might come to live with her husband's family -- but she would find this a humiliating turn of events, and would only agree to this out of deep love or desperation.

Suppose, for instance, that Big Mac gets married. Normally, he would expect to live with his bride's family. If he marries Pinkie Pie, for instance, he would in past times expect to go live at the Pie Rock Farm, where his great strength and courage would help work the farm and defend it against enemies. Of course, Pinkie doesn't live with her family right now, and her career requires that she reside in town rather than country. So they might get a house together in Ponyville -- or Big Mac could ask the head of household (technically Granny Smith, but increasingly Applejack) for permission to bring Pinkie to Sweet Apple Acres. (This would be not entirely traditional, but given that they would thus get to keep Big Mac's valuable labor the Apples might go for this provided Pinkie didn't feel humiliated by the situation). Note that if Pinkie didn't, it would largely be because Pinkie trusts Applejack, since by doing this Pinkie would be forgoing the chance to be her own head-of-household and would instead be living in a household run technically by Granny Smith and in practice by Applejack.

Among the Pegasi, locality is less based on sex and more on relative status. The custom is for the lower-status Pegasus to join the family of the higher-status Pegasus; if the two Pegasi are roughly equal in status, then there is a prejudice in favor of joining the mare's family -- but this is less important to the Pegasi anyway, as their family structures are far looser than is the case among the Earth Ponies.

If Rainbow Dash married Soarin, then he would probably come live with her, as RD is as an Element Bearer and close companion of Princess Twilight Sparkle of higher social status than Soarin. If she married Fluttershy, then normally RD would come live with Fluttershy, as High Lady Fluttershy outranks Rainbow Dash. Not that Fluttershy cares all that much for such conventions, but Rainbow Dash might.

Among Unicorns, the nuclear family is customary, and has been for a while, since Unicorns were normally rather rich compared to members of the other two Kinds. Consequently, friendly ties and claims are maintained with both families, but it is normal for the married couple to set up their own household, even if it's a small one. This is closest to the behavior of 21st-century Western Humans of all three Kinds.

For instance when Twilight Velvet married Night Light, they set up housekeeping together and raised their children in that house. It may have sometimes been a bit cramped, but they were both showing their independence from their own parents by doing this. Note that Twilight Sparkle does not live with either of her own parents, and did not even at the start of the series. Likewise, Rarity has set up housekeeping on her own and would probably expect to do so with whomever she married, with any movements being made on the basis of convenience and social status rather than lineality - and rather resents the fact that her parents often dump Sweetie on her, despite the fact that she demonstrably loves her little sister. Joining together in one huge clan is not the Unicorn way, save in times of great peril.

Inheritance

A family is a social mechanism for reproduction and for passing along wealth and influence from one generation to the next. One of the most important issues in any family is how the transition between generations is to be managed.

In any system of inheritance, the issue arises of to whom the major estate -- in an agricultural family the main farm -- shall be left. Obviously, one wishes to leave it to Ponies who are of one's lineage and whose children will be of one's lineage.

This means that if one practices matrilineage -- as do the Earth Ponies and Pegasi -- one wishes to leave it to one's daughters, for their children will also be of one's own family. Anything left to a son will leave the control of one's family the moment he marries and joins another family. One also normally keeps the bulk of the estate united, because a united estate enjoys economies of scale: over generations a family which divides the estate will dwindle in importance, while a family which keeps it together may still be able to use its wealth and influence to help even the later-born daughters.

Take Sweet Apple Acres again as an example. Granny Smith is the owner of this property. Her eldest daughter, Melanie Rose Apple, is deceased. She could choose to leave her estate to either her eldest daughter's eldest daughter, Applejack, or to her younger daughter, "Brown" Betty. Since she is in fact having Applejack run the farm for her, she will probably leave the bulk of the estate to Applejack. There will probably be provisions made for her younger daughter Betty and for Melanie's other two children, Big Mac and Apple Bloom: these would normally be of a sort so as to help Big Mac attract a bride and Apple Bloom afford an education.

The Pegasi do not normally have extensive landed estates, though they do own cloud houses and other aerial property. Ancestral weapons, armor and other relics are of greater importance to them. This is why Fluttershy has her family's ancestral honor blade in A Robust Solution -- it's a direct matrilineal inheritance from the days when that lineage dwelt in Derecho (and later, the North-Realm aka Crystal Empire). None of her ancestors have put it to its intended purpose, and -- thankfully -- neither does Fluttershy.

Unicorn inheritance is more flexible, and may be by either lineage. Unicorn estates are more often split unless they are landed estates, since to most unicorns their most important inheritance is genetic -- their magical talents -- or educational. To Twilight Sparkle, for instance, her most important inheritances have been her own strong magical talent and the love of learning which her parents passed on to her -- this means more to her than would title to land or an old ancestral seal.

All these have implications on character background and development. To take Big Mac as an example, one reason he probably doesn't marry is that he would be expected to go live with his bride's family, and this would mean he would not be available to help out at Sweet Apple Acres. As we see in "Applebuck Season," the farm is understaffed and all hooves are needed to work it at harvest time. Big Mac is intensely loyal to his sisters and would never do anything to endanger their future, even though he only stands to enjoy a minor inheritance from the estate. This is admirably self-sacrificing of him -- fortunately, Applejack seems to appreciate his virtues.

Consider Pinkie Pie. She's a second daughter -- Maud (eldest daughter) is likely to inherit and no time soon, as her parents aren't that old and could easily live for many more decades. Pinkie also has no interest in working the rock farm -- her talents lie in entertainment and politics. This makes her an undesirable bride from the point of view of landed status, but desirable from the point of view of being somepony who might want to marry a mare who wouldn't insist that he move onto her lands. (Of course, if Pinkie ever marries it will almost certainly be a love-match rather than a marriage of calculation, given her personality).

Since status in Pegasus society is very much based on athletic and martial accomplishments, Rainbow Dash is social-climbing by attempting to excel at athletics and join the Wonderbolts. This may affect more than her ego -- her chances of marrying a high-ranking Pegasus have a lot to do with how famous and glorious she becomes. When she courts Soarin, she is courting somepony who -- at the beginning of her saga -- is of higher social status than herself. Rainbow Dash is not at all cold and calculating in matters of the heart -- indeed she barely acknowledges their existence -- but when she thinks it would be "cool" to "date" Soarin, she is acting on her internalized assumptions about status.

Fluttershy doesn't give a damn about social status any more than she does about any other aspect of Pegasus society. A cynic might say this is easy, since she's about as high-born as any Pegasus can be. From a traditionalist perspective her supposed cowardice and lethargy rob her of her status-claims, but she knows how to make them subtly, and she does from time to time with great effect. Her affections are utterly independent of a quests for the status she does not value: as much as Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy is an extreme eccentric. Ironically, at least one of the entities she might wind up marrying is of higher status than anyone in Equestria save for the Princesses themselves.

Unicorns honor magical prowess, artistic skill and social sophistication. Rarity is most energetically and explicitly social-climbing, and she's using all three of these to do so. Her magical prowess at gem-finding and multi-object telekinesis finance and provide material for her career as a fashion designer, and she uses her multi-object telekinesis to avoid the need to hire assistants, thus cutting her costs and increasing her profit margin. She is most definitely a skilled artist in her chosen media. And she has developed a social polish far above her birth, and can pass for a proper lady even among the social elite. She dreams of marrying somepony who is of higher status than herself, and thus acquiring a secure status claim. She's warm and emotional about her crushes, but they are based very firmly on internalized status assumptions, even more so than those of Rainbow Dash.

Twilight Sparkle is both very much a product of her cultural assumptions -- in the highest and morally-noblest sense of the word -- and has ascended above them. As a Princess, the only way for her to marry above her rank would be to marry (Ruling Princesses) Celestia or Luna themselves, and the issue of inheritance is irrelevant to her because she is in line to inherit Equestria (and may wind up being granted some portion of the land long before the death of any immortals). Twilight is notable for having very un-mercenary affections, and displaying the most perfect manners while respecting others for their inner natures rather than status displays. She is at once in one sense above the whole Unicorn system of status, and in another sense exemplifying "class".

Conclusion

Sex roles affect every aspect of life, and family is no exception.

Comments

[BirdsBooksBrownies]

Just out of curiosity, what are your thoughts regarding the Apple/Pear story? And would this change any of the issues you discussed in this blog post?