http://www.suppressedhistories.net/matrix/matrix.html"Matrix cultures are built on the natural fact that women give and sustain life, through their bodies, their love, attention, work, and their arts. Social, economic and cultural organization follows kinship through the mothers. All descendants of a female ancestor or a group of sisters, including sons, brothers, and uncles, belong to the maternal clan.
One outstanding trait of this extended family matrix is social motherhood, shared among the women of the central generation. All sisters’ children are regarded as sisters and brothers. Aunts may be called Mother by any of their sisters’ children, even if biologically “childless.” Maternal cousins are often nursed together and this milk bond is held sacred."
Edit to add this, more to the point;
Women's Peace-making Powers
The Lisu of Yunnan tell a story of how two tribes fought a big war in Nujiang valley over a marriage. “At noon during a major battle, a prestigious middle-aged woman of one side climbed a cliff. She took off her long skirt and waved it. She shouted to stop the battle. The two sides stopped fighting immediately and went back to their villages.” An old man expanded on this legend to a Chinese researcher, “Women had the right to stop war by the custom of that time. The two sides had to stop fighting if a woman of either side waves her skirt and calls for an armistice.”
A similar custom exists in Vanatinai, in the far southwestern Pacific. A woman taking off her skirt gives a signal for war or for peace, and this can also be a sign that she is extending protection to a captive enemy. Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) women also had this power of deciding the fate of captives, and North American peoples widely practiced full adoption of chosen captives into their families.
Shawnee and Miami women chiefs “could demand an end to blood feuds or wars”. These North American peoples, and among the Illinois, had a complete system of female chiefs, parallel to the male chiefs, with authority over war and peace, as well as directing preparations for important feasts and communal planting of crops. The importance of the female chiefs is illustrated by Henry Hay’s puzzled observation in 1789 that the young Miami chief Richardville “is so very bashful that he never speaks in council, his mother who is very clever is obliged to do it for him.”
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The Haudenosaunee had a saying, “Before the men can go to war, the women must make their moccasins.” The Cherokee had a similar tradition. Men could not go off to war without the dried food, moccasins, and other supplies provided by women. (Both these traditions also formally designated offices, such as the Ghigau or Beloved Woman of the Cherokee, with authority in political, diplomatic and military affairs.)
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