權力的質徵：母系親屬制度中的性別、年齡與情感

Qualisigns of Power: On Gender, Age and Sentiment in a Matrilineal Society

母系親屬制度的權力觀念經常被浪漫化，乃至於與母權制相混淆。十九世紀末，瑞士學者巴霍芬提出「母權論」，主張人類早期社會為女性統治，之後被父權制度所取代。二十世紀上半葉，繼嗣理論興起，駁斥深具演化論色彩的母權論，認為母系社會的繼嗣原則和性別權力關係存在著內在不穩定性：由於繼嗣群體身分為女性追溯，而權力仍由男性掌握，造成男性在繼嗣群體領袖（母舅）與家父長（父親）兩種角色之間拉扯──也就是所謂的「母系之謎」。此外，人類學者也認為貨幣經濟將造成財產傾向父系繼承，進而導致母系制度的弱化乃至消失。近來研究則主張「母系」應被視為特性的叢集而非特殊的社會型態，指出上述看法的性別偏見，更以實例說明「母系」制度儘管歷經殖民與現代化，依然具備高度韌性。本文以存在著母系親屬制度的西太平洋民族誌為基礎，提出：「權力不穩定性」屬於該社會的特殊權力性質──分散與相互制衡。此種制衡機制從家內親屬關係貫穿至村落與全島政治的各個層次。「年長女性」（puwelwol）是分散權力中的重要制衡力量。面對政府與傳統權威所推動的國家級開發案，年長女性集體現身並強烈表達意見，透過身體質徵（qualisign）──即沉重、緩慢與皺褶的身體形象，具現化為了他人而受苦（gaafgow）的道德勞動。在著重「心之不透明性」（mental opacity）的社會中，年長女性的身體質徵誘發的同情共感（runguy）發揮重要作用，有效延緩了土地租賃與島嶼觀光化的進程。她們的現身、行動與力量，需置於母系親屬制度的權力觀念與情感結構來理解。親屬與情感的政治性，將是未來探討太平洋島嶼公民運動不可忽視的主題。

Conceptualizations of power in matrilineal kinship have often been romanticized and even confused with matriarchy. In the late nineteenth century, Johann Jakob Bachofen proposed the theory of matriarchal prehistory (Das Mutterrecht,“mother right”), arguing that early human society had been ruled by women but was later replaced by patriarchy. In the first half of the twentieth century, within the context of structural functionalism and descent theory, matrilineal societies were often regarded as inherently unstable, particularly because of the so-called“matrilineal puzzle”: the perceived tension between descent traced through females and authority vested in males, who were torn between the leader of the descent group (as maternal uncle) and the patriarch of the household (as father). Matriliny was also viewed as fragile in the face of economic advancement and as something that would eventually disintegrate, particularly as gendered disparities in cash incomes increased. More recent studies, however, have highlighted the gendered presumptions embedded in these earlier analyses, arguing that“matriliny”should be understood as a cluster of characteristics rather than a systematic totality or social typology. Case studies in Africa and Micronesia further demonstrate the notable resilience of matrilineality despite colonial and postcolonial transformations. Based on fieldwork in Yap (Wa’ab), a tropical island in the Western Pacific with covert yet significant matriliny, this article offers an alternative perspective on gendered authority in matriliny. Yap’s social organization includes non-localized matrilineal groupings (genung) that trace descent through women, coexisting with father-to-son inheritance of house estates (tabinaw). I argue that what earlier scholarship characterized as matrilineal“power instability”is a constitutive feature of a decentralized power dynamism, locally phrased as“checks and balances.”This dispersed configuration of power operates across multiple social scales, from domestic kinship relations to village and island-wide politics. A major illustration is the rights of mafean: the father’s sisters and their descendants hold significant supervisory and guardianship rights over their brother’s children and their associated land, thereby preventing power from being monopolized by the successor. Elderly women (puwelwol) similarly constitute important nodes within the balance of power in community life. Regarded as“almost like men”after menopause, they are endowed with elevated respect and the capacity to veto communal decisions. In 2012, a Chinese consortium proposed a large-scale development project—including hotels, resorts, golf courses, and casinos—for the island of Yap. Although supported by the national and state governments as well as traditional authorities, the proposal generated unprecedented concerns among island residents. A grassroots group has since formed in response, with elderly women playing a prominent role. In a society noted for its high degree of“mental opacity,”elderly women voiced strong disagreement in public, unsettled conventional protocols of political communication, and rendered visible otherwise unarticulated tensions surrounding land, authority, and future-making. I argue that, by embodying the qualisigns of heaviness, slowness, and aged corporeality, elderly women evoke compassion (runguy) for the maternal labor of nourishing and suffering for others (gaafgow)—labor that anchors (yuluw) the next generation to the land and motivates customary land transfer. This intersubjective axis of sentiment constitutes a core ethical foundation of Yapese social life and operates as a potent political force, slowing land leasing and the island’s shift toward mass tourism. The analysis highlights the dispersed power relations embedded in matriliny. What previous scholarship portrayed as the“fragility”of matriliny is recast here as a distinctive strength of its inherent powerbalancing mechanisms. Positioned within comparative Pacific studies, the article also cautions that matriliny does not necessarily engender gender equality. Attending to qualisigns, sentiment, and gendered authority further demonstrates the methodological vantage of examining the nuanced dimensions of political action. More broadly, the article shows that the political is not external to kinship but emerges through its ethical and relational textures, offering a critical analytic lens for understanding social movements in the Pacific Islands.