Изгледа да је матријархат кључ опстанка језика и идентитета Баскијаца (баскијске жене су сачувале преиндоевропски идентитет Европе
):
Strabo's account of the north of Spain in his Geographica (written between approximately 20 BC and 20 AD) makes a mention of "a sort of woman-rule—not at all a mark of civilization" (Hadington 1992), a first mention of the—for the period—unusual position of women. "Women could inherit and control property as well as officiate in churches. The evidence for this assertion is rather sparse however.
This preference for female dominance existed well into the 20th century:
...matrilineal inheritance laws, and agricultural work performed by women continued in Basque country until the early twentieth century. For more than a century, scholars have widely discussed the high status of Basque women in law codes, as well as their positions as judges, inheritors, and arbitrators through ante-Roman, medieval, and modern times. The system of laws governing succession in the French Basque region reflected total equality between the sexes. Up until the eve of the French Revolution, the Basque woman was truly ‘the mistress of the house', hereditary guardian, and head of the lineage.
While women continued to have a higher position in Basque than other western European societies, it is highly unlikely that any point the society was 'matriarchal', as is often falsely claimed about pre-Indo-European peoples in general. The 'Basque matriarchy' argument is typically tied to 20th century nationalism and is at odds with earlier accounts of the society.
Senior Basque women during the 16th century;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basques#SocietyBasque matriarchy: science and existence.
Attending to historic development, the aim of my work is to analyze feminine
figure in Basque culture, mainly why Basque women, from ancient times, have had a
superior status than other women in different social and cultural groups. This valued
status includes the possession of ritual or medical traditional knowledge and its
transmission in generations, because this wisdom appears closely related with feminine
gender.
file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Tomasevic/My%20Documents/Downloads/Basque%20matriarchy.pdf
