Johann Jakob Bachofen (22 December 1815 – 25 November 1887) was a Swiss antiquarian, jurist,

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...

, anthropologist, and professor for

Roman law Roman law is the legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (c. 449 BC), to the '' Corpus Juris Civilis'' (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor Ju ...

at the

University of Basel The University of Basel (Latin: ''Universitas Basiliensis'', German: ''Universität Basel'') is a university in Basel, Switzerland. Founded on 4 April 1460, it is Switzerland's oldest university and among the world's oldest surviving universit ...

from 1841 to 1845. Bachofen is most often connected with his theories surrounding prehistoric

matriarchy Matriarchy is a social system in which women hold the primary power positions in roles of authority. In a broader sense it can also extend to moral authority, social privilege and control of property. While those definitions apply in general ...

, or ''Das Mutterrecht'', the title of his seminal 1861 book ''Mother Right: an investigation of the religious and juridical character of matriarchy in the Ancient World.'' Bachofen assembled documentation demonstrating that

motherhood ] A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of gesta ...

is the source of human society, religion, morality, and decorum. He postulated an archaic "mother-right" within the context of a primeval

Matriarchal religion A matriarchal religion is a religion that focuses on a goddess or goddesses. The term is most often used to refer to theories of prehistoric matriarchal religions that were proposed by scholars such as Johann Jakob Bachofen, Jane Ellen Harrison, ...

or ''

Urreligion ''Urreligion'' is a postulated "original" or "oldest" form of religious tradition (the German prefix expressing the idea of "original", "primal", "primitive", "elder", "primeval", or "'"). The concept contrasts with that of organized religion, ...

''. Bachofen became an important precursor of 20th-century theories of matriarchy, such as the

Old European culture Old Europe is a term coined by the Lithuanian archaeologist Marija Gimbutas to describe what she perceived as a relatively homogeneous pre-Indo-European Neolithic and Copper Age cultural horizon or civilisation in Southeastern Europe and part ...

postulated by

Marija Gimbutas Marija Gimbutas ( lt, Marija Gimbutienė, ; January 23, 1921 – February 2, 1994) was a Lithuanian archaeologist and anthropologist known for her research into the Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures of " Old Europe" and for her Kurgan hypothesis ...

from the 1950s, and the field of

feminist theology Feminist theology is a movement found in several religions, including Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Neopaganism, Baháʼí Faith, Judaism, Islam and New Thought, to reconsider the traditions, practices, scriptures, and theologies of those reli ...

and " matriarchal studies" in 1970s feminism.

Biography

Born into a wealthy

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...

family active in the silk industry and attended the service of the

French Reformed Church The Reformed Church of France (french: Église réformée de France, ERF) was the main Protestant denomination in France with a Calvinist orientation that could be traced back directly to John Calvin. In 2013, the Church merged with the Evang ...

in Basel.Stagl, Justin (1990).p.21 After having attended the Gymnasium, Bachofen studied in Basel and in Berlin under August Boeckh, Karl Ferdinand Ranke and

Friedrich Carl von Savigny Friedrich Carl von Savigny (21 February 1779 – 25 October 1861) was a German jurist and historian. Early life and education Savigny was born at Frankfurt am Main, of a family recorded in the history of Lorraine, deriving its name from the cast ...

as well as in Göttingen. After completing his doctorate in Basel, he studied for another two years in Paris, London and Cambridge. He was called to the Basel chair for

in 1841. In 1842 he travelled to

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

accompanied by his father to according to him, see his spiritual homeland with his own eyes. Having returned to Basel, he was called to the appelate court and his next book on roman law received the acclaim of the academics. He would also become elected into the Grand Council of Basel. He retired from his professorship in 1844, after in the local press it was suggested the wealth of his family would have helped him assume the job at the University.Stagl, Justin (1990).p.12 In 1845 he also quit from the Grand Council. As a judge he would stay for twenty-five years and resign after his marriage to Louise Bachofen-Burckhardt. In 1848 he undertook a second journey to Rome in which he witnessed the

Roman revolution ''The Roman Revolution'' (1939) is a scholarly study of the final years of the ancient Roman Republic and the creation of the Roman Empire by Caesar Augustus. The book was the work of Sir Ronald Syme (1903–1989), a noted Tacitean scholar, and ...

, changed his research focus from the

classical antiquity Classical antiquity (also the classical era, classical period or classical age) is the period of cultural history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD centred on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ...

but the early antiquity.Stagl, Justin (1990).p.13 In 1851–1852 he travelled to Greece, Magna Graecia, and Etruria. He published most of his works as a private scholar.

Personal life

His mother Valeria Merian Bachofen died in 1856 but he kept living in the same house as his father.Stagl, Justin (1990).p.14 It was the same house which would become the seat of the Civil Register of Basel between 1962 to 1983 and part of the

Antikenmuseum Basel und Sammlung Ludwig The Antikenmuseum Basel und Sammlung Ludwig (Basel Museum of Ancient Art and Ludwig Collection) is one of the many museums in the city of Basel, Switzerland and a heritage site of national significance. In 1961 the city of Basel decided to esta ...

in the 1980s. In 1865, he married the at the time twenty five-years old Louise Bachofen-Burckhardt from a noble family of Basel. He would buy a house at the square before the Minster of Basel and a son was born. Louise Bachofen Burckhardt would live in the house at the Minster Square after her husband would die in 1877. Johann Jakob Bachofen is buried at the ''Wolfgottesacker'' cemetery in Basel. The tomb was sculptured by

Richard Kissling Richard Kissling (15 April 1848 – 19 July 1919) was a Swiss sculptor, and medallist. Biography Born in Wolfwil, Switzerland, Kissling went through apprenticeship as a plasterer before moving to Rome for 13 years, studying under the sculptor Fe ...

''Das Mutterrecht''

Bachofen's 1861 ''Das Mutterrecht'' proposed four phases of cultural evolution which absorbed each other: # Hetaerism: a wild nomadic 'tellurian' _chthonic_or_earth-centered.html" ;"title="chthonic.html" ;"title=" chthonic"> chthonic or earth-centered">chthonic.html" ;"title=" chthonic"> chthonic or earth-centeredphase, characterised by him as communistic and polyamorous, whose dominant deity he believed to have been an earthy proto Aphrodite. # Das Mutterecht: a matriarchal 'lunar' phase based on agriculture, characterised by him by the emergence of chthonic

mystery cult Mystery religions, mystery cults, sacred mysteries or simply mysteries, were religious schools of the Greco-Roman world for which participation was reserved to initiates ''(mystai)''. The main characterization of this religion is the secrecy a ...

s and law. Its dominant deity was an early Demeter. # The Dionysian: a transitional phase when earlier traditions were masculinised as patriarchy began to emerge. Its dominant deity was the original

Dionysos In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; grc, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, festivity, and theatre. The Romans ...

. # The Apollonian: the patriarchal 'solar' phase, in which all trace of the Matriarchal and Dionysian past was eradicated and modern civilisation emerged.

Reception

There was little initial reaction to Bachofen’s theory of cultural evolution, largely because of his impenetrable literary style, but eventually, along with furious criticism, the book inspired several generations of ethnologists, social philosophers, and even writers:

Lewis Henry Morgan Lewis Henry Morgan (November 21, 1818 – December 17, 1881) was a pioneering American anthropologist and social theorist who worked as a railroad lawyer. He is best known for his work on kinship and social structure, his theories of social evol ...

;

Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ,"Engels"
'' The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State'';

Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novell ...

;

Jane Ellen Harrison Jane Ellen Harrison (9 September 1850 – 15 April 1928) was a British classical scholar and linguist. Harrison is one of the founders, with Karl Kerenyi and Walter Burkert, of modern studies in Ancient Greek religion and mythology. She ...

, who was inspired by Bachofen to devote her career to

mythology Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narra ...

;

Walter Benjamin Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin (; ; 15 July 1892 – 26 September 1940) was a German Jewish philosopher, cultural critic and essayist. An eclectic thinker, combining elements of German idealism, Romanticism, Western Marxism, and Jewish ...

;

Carl Jung Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, phi ...

; Erich Fromm; Robert Graves; Rainer Maria Rilke; Joseph Campbell;

Otto Gross Otto Hans Adolf Gross (17 March 1877 – 13 February 1920) was an Austrian psychoanalyst. A maverick early disciple of Sigmund Freud, he later became an anarchist and joined the utopian Ascona community. His father Hans Gross was a judge turned ...

; Erich Neumann and opponents such as

Julius Evola Giulio Cesare Andrea "Julius" Evola (; 19 May 1898 – 11 June 1974) was an Italian philosopher, poet, painter, esotericist, and radical-right ideologue. Evola regarded his values as aristocratic, masculine, traditionalist, heroic, and defiant ...

. In 1930s his work was acclaimed by several prominent academics in the German speaking world. Friedrich Engels analysed Bachofen's views as follows: :"(1) That originally man lived in a state of sexual promiscuity, to describe which Bachofen uses the mistaken term " hetaerism"; :(2) that such promiscuity excludes any certainty of paternity, and that descent could therefore be reckoned only in the female line, according to mother-right, and that this was originally the case amongst all the peoples of antiquity; :(3) that since women, as mothers, were the only parents of the younger generation that were known with certainty, they held a position of such high respect and honor that it became the foundation, in Bachofen's conception, of a regular rule of women (gynaecocracy); :(4) that the transition to monogamy, where the woman belonged to one man exclusively, involved a violation of a primitive religious law (that is, actually a violation of the traditional right of the other men to this woman), and that in order to expiate this violation or to purchase indulgence for it the woman had to surrender herself for a limited period." (Friedrich Engels, 1891: see link below)

Emile Durkheim Emil or Emile may refer to: Literature *''Emile, or On Education'' (1762), a treatise on education by Jean-Jacques Rousseau * ''Émile'' (novel) (1827), an autobiographical novel based on Émile de Girardin's early life *''Emil and the Detective ...

credited Bachofen with upsetting the "old conception" that the father must be "the essential element of the family". Before Bachofen, Durkheim claims that "no one had dreamed that there could be a family organization of which the paternal authority was not the keystone". Bachofen's actual writings are that matriarchy originated as a rebellion against promiscuity, because of the sexual strains it caused them, to institute matriarchy and monogamy. As has been noted by Joseph Campbell in ''Occidental Mythology'' and others, Bachofen's theories stand in radical opposition to the Aryan origin theories of religion, culture and society, and both Campbell and writers such as Evola have suggested that Bachofen's theories only adequately explain the development of religion among the pre-Aryan cultures of the Mediterranean and the Levant, and possibly Southern Asia, but that a separate, patriarchal development existed among the Aryan tribes which conquered Europe and parts of Asia. Engels said that Bachofen had proved his theory that Matriarchy was promiscuous, but Bachofen, argued the opposite, that Matriarchy introduced monogamy.

Works

* ''De legis actionibus de formulis et de condictione''. Dissertation Basel. Dieterich, Göttingen 1840. * ''Das Naturrecht und das geschichtliche Recht in ihren Gegensätzen.'' Basel 1841. reprint: Off. Librorum, Lauterbach 1995, * ''Römisches Pfandrecht.'' Schweighauser, Basel 1847. reprint: Keip, Goldbach 1997, * ''Ausgewählte Lehren des römischen Civilrechts.'' Leipzig 1848. reprint: Keip, Goldbach 1997, * ''Versuch über die Gräbersymbolik der Alten.'' Basel 1859 * ''Oknos der Seilflechter : ein Grabbild : Erlösungsgedanken antiker Gräbersymbolik.'' Basel 1859. reprint: Beck, München 1923 * ''Das Mutterrecht: eine Untersuchung über die Gynaikokratie der alten Welt nach ihrer religiösen und rechtlichen Natur''. Stuttgart: Verlag von Krais und Hoffmann, 1861
Internet Archive link
** abbreviated edition, ed. Hans-Jürgen Heinrichs. (Suhrkamp Taschenbücher Wissenschaft; Nr.135.) Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1975 ** excerpts edited as ''Mutterrecht und Urreligion: eine Auswahl'', ed. Rudolf Marx. (Kröners Taschenausgabe; Band 52) Leipzig: A. Kröner, 1927; Stuttgart, 1954; 6th ed. 1984 . * ''Antiquarische Briefe vornemlich zur Kenntniss der ältesten Verwandtschaftsbegriffe.'' 2 vols. Trübner, Strassburg 1880 & 1886. * ''Römische Grablampen nebst einigen andern Grabdenkmälern vorzugsweise eigener Sammlung.'' Basel 1890 * ''Gesammelte Werke'' (collected works) ed. Karl Meuli. Basel: B. Schwabe, 1943–1967, in 8 volumes (I-IV, VI-VIII and X) ** I. Antrittsrede; politische Betrachtungen ** II. Das Mutterecht, erste Hälfte ** III. Das Mutterecht, zweite Hälfte ** IV. Die Sage von Tanaquil ** VII. Die Unsterblichkeitslehre der orphanischen Theologie: Römische Grablampen ** VIII. Antiquarische Briefe ** X. Briefe * ''Myth, Religion and Mother Right'' Princeton University Press, translated by Ralph Manheim, 1967 * ''An English Translation of Bachofen's Mutterrecht (Mother Right) (1861): A Study of the Religious and Juridical Aspects of Gynecocracy in the Ancient World'' Volumes 1-5: ** ''Vol 1. "Lycia," "Crete," and "Athens"'' Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen, translated by David Partenheimer, 30 January 2008 ** ''Vol 2. "Lemnos" and "Egypt"'' Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen, translated by David Partenheimer, 1 April 2007 ** ''Vol 3. Orchomenus And the Minyan's And India And Central Asia'' Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen, translated by David Partenheimer, 30 June 2006 ** ''Vol 4. "Elis", "The Epizephyrian Locrians", and "Lesbos"'' Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen, translated by David Partenheimer, 1 June 2005, ** ''Vol 5. Mantinea; Pythagoreanism and Subsequent Doctrines; The Cantabri;'' Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen, translated by David Partenheimer, 1 January 2003

References

External links

Johann Jakob Bachofen Explorer of the Mother Right
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bachofen, Johann Jakob 1815 births 1887 deaths Swiss anthropologists Swiss sociologists Swiss philosophers Men and feminism Matriarchy