"A family or domestic group is matrifocal when it is centred on a woman and her children. In this case the father(s) of these children are intermittently present in the life of the group and occupy a secondary place. The children's mother is not necessarily the wife of one of the children's fathers."[1] In general, according to Laura Hobson Herlihy citing P. Mohammed, women have "high status" if they are "the main wage earners", they "control ... the household economy", and males tend to be absent.[2] The term was coined in 1956.[3] Men's absences are often of long durations.[4]
Alternative terms for 'matrifocal' or 'matrifocality' include matricentric, matripotestal, and women-centered kinship networks.[5]
The matrifocal is distinguished from the matrilocal, the matrilineal, and matriarchy (the last because matrifocality does not imply that women have power in the larger community).
Characteristics and distribution[edit]
According to anthropologist Maurice Godelier, matrifocality is "typical of Afro-Caribbean groups" and some African-American communities.[6] These include families in which a father has a wife and one or more mistresses; in a few cases, a mother may have more than one lover.[6] Matrifocality was also found, according to Rasmussen per Herlihy, among the Tuareg people in northern Africa;[7] by Raymond T. Smith (according to Herlihy), in some Black Caribbean families in British Guyana;[8] according to Herlihy citing other authors, in some Mediterranean communities;[4] and, according to Herlihy quoting Scott, in urban Brazil.[9]
