Matrilineal Societies: The backbone of reproduction in an all female world.
In this first post discussing the science, culture, anthropology and more from the world of After Man’s earth, we’re going to focus on a unique method of reproduction and child rearing that was adopted worldwide in a response to the sudden loss of all men and a drastic contraction of society after the events of the late 21st century.
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What is a Matrilineal society? According to Brittanica, it is a "group adhering to a kinship system in which ancestral descent is traced through maternal instead of paternal lines (the latter being termed patrilineage or patriliny). Every society incorporates some basic components in its system of reckoning kinship: family, marriage, postmarital residence, rules that prohibit sexual relations (and therefore marriage) between certain categories of kin, descent, and the terms used to label kin. A lineage is a group of individuals who trace descent from a common ancestor; thus, in a matrilineage, individuals are related as kin through the female line of descent." (http://www.britannica.com/topic/matrilineal-society)
In the world of After Man, this form of society became the dominant method around which all means of reproduction were determined after the initial rapid adoption of artificial insemination on a worldwide scale to prevent the loss of the species. Vast swaths of society were lost before emergency methods could be used to spread this technology around the world. Centers for fertilization were placed on ships and sailed around the world and eventually major city centers became the gravitational centers of habitation and survival. Inside these major city centers, smaller societies were encouraged based on the concept of matrilineal societies seen in Earth’s cultures around the world, most notably the Mosuo people of western China. This enabled various cultures and ethnicity groups to preserve their unique past while ensuring the optimal setting for support through child-birth and rearing.
As an example, the city of New York, famous for its boroughs, became one of three major metropolitan centers around which the surviving species in North America were moved to along Washington City and San Francisco. Other cities eventually were able to establish smaller centers for reproductive services and adopted a similar system of encouraging these smaller societies inside the cities to form. These societies vary based on culture or ethnicity, however they all share a few common elements. First, each shares the responsibility of child-rearing among all of the members of the society. Second, all members of the society must provide as least one egg or carry one child to term. This is a legal obligation of all citizens of the cities. Third, each society occupies a communal structure that includes schools, hospitals, stores as well as libraries and other centers for communal activity and is maintained by the members of that society with service support from the city when needed.
Not all members of each city belong to a society but all make use of them for child-care and support during child birth. All members of a city are required at the very minimum to work a period of 2 years in service to a society of their choice in varying capacity from administrative duties to educational roles to actual child-care. Those that choose to bear a child to term either for her own requirement or to bring another woman’s child to term for her are considered to have fulfilled that obligatory service. Those who choose to fulfill their obligatory service in either of these ways are guaranteed the time necessary away from their chosen careers without loss of pay or position. Some women choose to join in service to that society in a full-time capacity. In those instances, their position in another career is guaranteed to them to return to up to a minimum period of five years.
Some women who wish to remain in a professional position outside of a society choose to volunteer to be surrogate mothers for other women who wish to only give the minimum service to a society. These women have their obligatory service waived permanently and receive guaranteed time away from their profession for all medical needs and for the period of birth and recovery up to one year after birth. As these women will most likely carry multiple children to term throughout their careers, they work flexible hours in their profession but receive full pay for their time spent caring for their bodies during and after pregnancy.
Societies like these dominate all of the major population centers across the world. The largest of these are New York City, Washington City, San Francisco, Berlin, Frankfurt, Paris, Amsterdam, London, Madrid, Rome, Moscow, Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong, Beijing, Dubai, New Delhi, Cairo, Cape Town, Accra, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, and Sydney with smaller cities spread out across the continents, more so in North America, Europe, and east Asia.
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Please stay tuned for more information about the world of After Man. A portal/wiki will be created soon as a reference for this data. If you are interested in contributing to the studies of what this world looks like after such an event occurs, contact me via email. Be sure to share this project around so we can keep the momentum up and get this novel in your hands sooner!
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