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Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 1996-10 > 0846453976


From: "James P. Robinson III" <>
Subject: Re: Oldest male line?
Date: Sun, 27 Oct 1996 14:06:16 -0800


I hate to be a prig about this, but, while Pictish society appears
to have been matrilinear, I do not know of any cogent evidence that it was
ever matriarchal. Although the topic is not really germane to this list, I
would be very interested in any sources you have making a reasoned argument
for the Picts as a matriarchal society.
Jim

At 12:27 PM 10/27/96 -0500, Todd A. Farmerie wrote:
>Leonard M. Keane wrote:
>>
>> Interesting. I wonder if anyone has any specific lines they might want
>> to post about? The Picts of Scotland were the last matriarchal society
>> in western Europe that I know of, but of course their lineages are
>> already ancient and probably, I would think, not well documented.
>>
>
>This is an understatement. The Pict lines have all been reconstructed
>from lists of kings which only named their father. Connections through
>the female line have been hypothesized based on nomenclature and
>chronology, but with only a few exceptions, when the father was a
>foreigner known from other sources, scholars have been unable to do more
>than guess. (This hasn't stopped authors from generating extensive
>family trees for these kings, but these should be taken with an ocean of
>salt.)
>
>taf
>
>
--
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James P. Robinson, III


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