Keeler boldly described the Kuna people of Central America as a “primitive matriarchy” (7), noting the role of the mother as final arbiter and power in the family.

Continuing his theme, Keeler brought out this comprehensive study of Kuna religion, arts, and social life. However, he offered a fraught line of thought in his comparison of the Kuna culture to unrelated Middle Eastern cultures, while, as a personalized account, his study displayed all the foibles of such an approach.

Using a more academic approach than Keeler in this unsensationalized view of Kuna women's power, Howe's article studied the matriarchal control of Kuna chiefs by their people, describing a sophisticated and intentional matriarchal structure behind the Kuna's egalitarian system.

Chiñas again attempted to define the social form of Juchitàn, this time by dubbing it “matrifocality,” but her new definition remained shaky due to her continued reliance on outdated terminology and Western analyses.

German ethnologist Bennholdt-Thomsen stepped into the discussion from a matriarchal perspective. In “ Die Würde ” (translating as, “The Dignity of Women is the Wealth of Juchitàn”), she showed the central role of women in resisting the impoverishment of the so-called “Third World” by forced capitalist development.

Bennholdt-Thomsen provided an insightful analysis of the society of Juchitàn, reinterpreting its economic and social organization of women in light of the gift economy and modern Matriarchal Studies, showing the reciprocal economy, a mixture of men's agrarian labor, women's locally markets, and gift-giving during festivals. The gift economy is described by her as the engine of this wealth-creating economy.

In FrauenWirtschaft (meaning, “The Women's Economy”), co- edited with Suhan and Müser, the authors illuminated the essential role of women in Juchitàn's intentionally independent subsistence economy. Additionally, they investigated the conception and practice of “gender,” in its variety of ways of life in Juchitàn.

German Moeschk-Olowaili gave a traveller report on the Kuna, in which she reinterpreted Kuna culture in a modern, matriarchal context.

Grasping the traditional interface of the twinned cosmos in the rich and complex worldview of the Iroquois, Tuscarora scholar Hewitt referred to its replication in the “Mother” and “Father” sides of the League (325).

Tuscarora scholar Hewitt again explicitly discussed the “Mother” and “Father” sides of the League (240–41).

Hewitt examined here the traditional role of women, before the disempowerment of the League by the American Revolution and the attacks following the establishment of the U.S.

Parker's Constitution is, perhaps, the best-known, and certainly the most accessible version of the Constitution of the Iroquois. A Seneca scholar, Parker listed the all-important women's portion of ancient League law, “Clans and Consanguinity,” sections 42–54, which recognized that the women, alone, possessed the land, giving them sole economic control, while outlining their jurisdiction over governmental positions.

In this paper, Kurath looked at the way women's ceremonial dances reflected and supported their high cultural prestige.

In this article, Brown surveyed economics as the key to Iroquoian women's high cultural standing.

The Ohio Seneca scholar Mann shows that the Iroquoian matriarchal structure was seeded by the Head Clan Mother, Jigonsaseh, one of the three founders of the Iroquois League in 1142 C.E., particularly in connection with her insistence on the use of an agricultural subsistence base of corn.

In Iroquoian Women, now considered a classic, the historian and Ohio Seneca Mann gathered up every possible source, for her lavish definition of Iroquoian matriarchy. Using Indigenous traditions as well as written documentation to present an Indigenous view of Iroquoian women at the social, political, economic, and religious levels of traditional society, she corrected the on-going misinformation about Iroquoian society.

Here, the Ohio Seneca scholar Mann presented a traditional view of the Native North Americans' rich twinned cosmology, composed of the female and male halves, from which women derived their high status, as keepers of the “blood” or “water” half.

In 1993, Marilou Awaitka offered an insightful presentation of the female-friendly and eco-friendly development of Cherokee cultural philosophy. Awaitka, herself Cherokee, examined the cultural content traditions of the female cultural first-mover of Cherokee tradition, Selu. She was able to trace out their impact on Cherokee philosophy.

One of the best historical discussions of the woodlands Cherokee women came from Purdue in this work. Carefully distinguishing between the Cherokee elites and the ordinary people, she showed that traditional women retained many of their original roles and rights, despite invasion, removal, and attempts by white settlers to force Christianity on the Cherokee.

The historian Carney, herself Cherokee, discussed the duties and rights of women of the traditional Cherokee, here looking at the centrality of War Women in their duties as speakers to the settlers.

Cherokee scholar Carney gathered up three centuries worth of significant letters, speeches, and other writings of female Cherokee leaders, demonstrating their centrality to the cultural and political survival of their people.

Eggan attempted to identify the derivation of the Choctaw matrilineal systems in this article.

Eggan looked at the forcible changes to Choctaw culture, including matrilineage.

A Choctaw, McGowan traced th e settler devastation of the Choctaw matriarchy, from invasion into the present. She looked at the despoliation of the once-strong Choctaw matriarchy by forced patriarchal assimilation imposed by the U.S., assessing the poverty that replaced the former plenty.

Indigenous scholar Pensatubbee traced the impacts of colonialism on Choctaw women's roles.

Since matriarchy as a concept was still being defended, not defined, Elsie Parsons urged in 1939 that none of the perceived male supremacy in Pueblo cultures existed other than in the wish-fulfilling stories told by the men (40–41).

Titiev reported that Hopi life was shaped by ceremonies, giving a detailed overview of the seasonal ceremonies of the Kachina cult, noting that all life-cycle feasts were carried out exclusively by women in the home, with men not present, a fact missed by earlier ethnologists, men, themselves, focusing on other men. Titiev also gave some valuable insights into the women's ceremonies.

Waters offered rich material in his source book on the myths, legends, ceremonial festivals, and history of the Hopi, as gleaned from the reports of thirty traditional leaders, including women, thus providing perspectives missing from standard, male-only reports.

Anthropologist Benedict closely looked at the matriarchal Zu ñ i people and offered one of the first comprehensive studies on Pueblo mythology, astounding some readers by reporting, among other things, that murder was unheard-of and that peace was the set-point of the culture.

Washburn's anthology provided a condensed overview of Hopi history, arts, crafts, and social organization, including as they touched women. Although all Western studies of Kachina lore remained hampered by the one-sided view stressing men's activities, Washburn included photos of traditional Hopi life, giving some indications of the long-ignored women's roles.

The most important recovery of Pueblo women's traditions was undertaken by the Laguna Pueblo scholar, Gunn Allen, in this pivotal work. Throughout, Gunn Allen retrieved specific stories of female spirits, resituating them in an Indigenous interpretation that focused on the women's power and position in the culture. Allen's breakthroughs are still reverberating in Native North American scholarship.

Schmidt's article (whose title translates as, “Regions and Layers of Culture in South America”) offered one of the first examinations of “mother right” among the Arawak of South America. Schmidt applied Bachofenian principles to his discussion.

From any perspective, Goeje's monograph is an excellent reconstruction of the endangered mythology of the Indigenous cultures of South America, especially that of the Arawak.

Rouse surveyed the different matrilineal groups comprising the Arawak in this article.

In this focused study of one group of the Arawak, Armstrong and Métraux provided considerable detail on the Goajiro way of life and world view, although, due to their era, they did so without directly recognising that the culture was matriarchal.

Divale looked at matrilocality in its diverse social forms, the Arawak inclusive. An instructive dissertation, this work did not become generally available until 1984.

In this article, whose title translates as “Traces of the Amazons”, Leite traced and summarized the historical material on the warrior women of the Amazon-River, who are in all probability related to the Arawak.