The matriarchs, Nadia Ferroukhi and Laure Adler

“These matriarchal societies exist and to discover them, to bring them to light while they still remain today an unthought or a fantasy is, in itself, important to think differently about the relationship between the sexes”, writes Laure Adler in the introduction to the inspiring “work of recognition of the feminine” spanning 10 years by Nadia Ferroukhi. Dedicated to the late anthropologist Françoise Héritier, who supported the multilingual globetrotter photographer in her research from 2012 to 217, this album testifies in a series of paintings of a solemn beauty of everyday life and the traditions of 10 societies where women are at the center of economic, social and cultural activities. Matriarchy is not the exact opposite of patriarchy, men are not crushed there, but rather on the periphery of power. As among the Minangkabaus of Indonesia, the largest matrilineal group in the world with six million inhabitants. A confusing journey that feels good and gives hope.

The matriarchs

★★★★

Nadia Ferroukhi and Laure Adler, Albin Michel, Paris, 2021, 176 pages

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