patriarchy 復習
Nothing became Glasgow more on International Women’s Day last week than the unveiling of a statue of Mary Barbour in Govan. To call this a mere statue is like saying Lionel Messi is a decent inside forward. It depicts Barbour, one of her arms aloft, leading a group of women into battle with the spiv landlords who were trying to put them and their families on to the streets. …
Similarly, we’ll never know how many gifted and able women have been prevented from sharing their gifts by a patriarchy that often discriminated in favour of incompetent men. Some women are now breaking free of these bonds but they are discovering that the methods being used to silence them are primitive ones from a darker age. (Skip the rest)
今回取り上げる語は、patriarchy /péɪtriὰɚki/ です。文脈から「男性中心社会、家長制度」と判断することができますが、特に気になったのは語源です。語の構成とともに、以下で確認していきます。
まず意味を Cambridge Dictionary でみると、“a society in which the oldest male is the leader of the family, or a society controlled by men in which they use their power to their own advantage” と定義されています。また同書にこの語の対義語は matriarchy とありました。
次に語源を OED でみると、“Mid 17th century: via medieval Latin from Greek patriarkhia, from patriarkhēs ‘ruling father’ (see patriarch).” とあり、patriarch を同書でみると “Middle English: from Old French patriarche, via ecclesiastical Latin from Greek patriarkhēs, from patria ‘family’ + arkhēs ‘ruling’.” とあります。ここにはキリスト教の考えが反映されていることがわかりました
近頃は一家の大黒柱が男性であり、男性が強いという考えが弱まってきていると思います。主夫がドラマで取り上げられ、ブームになったのを覚えています。流行とは面白いですね。(OkaUchi)
