Johann Jakob Bachofen

He postulated an archaic "mother-right" within the context of a primeval Matriarchal religion or Urreligion. Bachofen became an important precursor of 20th-century theories of matriarchy, such as the Old European culture postulated by Marija Gimbutas from the 1950s, and the field of feminist theology and "matriarchal studies" in 1970s feminism.

• Name — J. J. Bachofen • Born — 22 December 1815 • Birthplace — Basel, Switzerland • Died — 25 November 1887 (aged 71) • Place of death — Basel, Switzerland • Field — Roman law, anthropology • Spouse — Louise Bachofen-Burckhardt

Born into a wealthy Basel family active in the silk industry, he attended services at the French Reformed Church in Basel. After attending the Gymnasium, Bachofen studied in Basel and in Berlin under August Boeckh, Karl Ferdinand Ranke, and Friedrich Carl von Savigny, as well as in Göttingen. After completing his doctorate in Basel, he studied for another two years in Paris, London, and Cambridge. He was appointed to the Basel chair of Roman law in 1841. In 1842, he travelled to Rome with his father to, as he described it, see his spiritual homeland with his own eyes. After returning to Basel, he was appointed to the appellate court, and his subsequent book on Roman law received academic acclaim. He was also elected to the Grand Council of Basel. He retired from his professorship in 1844 after the local press suggested that his family’s wealth had helped him obtain the university position. In 1845, he also resigned from the Grand Council. He served as a judge for twenty-five years, resigning after his marriage to Louise Bachofen-Burckhardt. In 1848, he undertook a second journey to Rome, during which he witnessed the Roman revolution. This experience led him to shift his research focus from classical antiquity to early antiquity. Between 1851 and 1852, he travelled to Greece, Magna Graecia, and Etruria. He published most of his works as a private scholar.

• Illustration — Tomb of the Bachofen family in the Wolfgottesacker. The statue was sculptured by Richard Kissling His mother Valeria Merian Bachofen died in 1856 but he kept living in the same house as his father. It was the same house which would become the seat of the Civil Register of Basel between 1962 and 1983 and part of the Antikenmuseum Basel und Sammlung Ludwig in the 1980s. In 1865, he married the at the time twenty five-years old Louise Bachofen-Burckhardt from a noble family of Basel. He would buy a house at the square before the Minster of Basel and a son was born. Louise Bachofen Burckhardt would live in the house at the Minster Square after her husband would die in 1877. Johann Jakob Bachofen is buried at the Wolfgottesacker cemetery in Basel. The tomb was sculptured by Richard Kissling.

Bachofen's 1861 Das Mutterrecht proposed four phases of cultural evolution which absorbed each other: • Hetaerism: a wild nomadic 'tellurian' [= chthonic or earth-centered] phase, characterised by him as communistic and polyamorous, whose dominant deity he believed to have been an earthy proto Aphrodite. • Das Mutterecht: a matriarchal 'lunar' phase based on agriculture, characterised by him by the emergence of chthonic mystery cults and law. Its dominant deity was an early Demeter. • The Dionysian: a transitional phase when earlier traditions were masculinised as patriarchy began to emerge. Its dominant deity was the original Dionysos. • The Apollonian: the patriarchal 'solar' phase, in which all trace of the Matriarchal and Dionysian past was eradicated and modern civilisation emerged.

• De legis actionibus de formulis et de condictione. Dissertation Basel. Dieterich, Göttingen 1840. • Das Naturrecht und das geschichtliche Recht in ihren Gegensätzen. Basel 1841. reprint: Off. Librorum, Lauterbach 1995, • Römisches Pfandrecht. Schweighauser, Basel 1847. reprint: Keip, Goldbach 1997, • Ausgewählte Lehren des römischen Civilrechts. Leipzig 1848. reprint: Keip, Goldbach 1997, • Versuch über die Gräbersymbolik der Alten. Basel 1859 • Oknos der Seilflechter: ein Grabbild: Erlösungsgedanken antiker Gräbersymbolik. Basel 1859. reprint: Beck, München 1923 • Das Mutterrecht: eine Untersuchung über die Gynaikokratie der alten Welt nach ihrer religiösen und rechtlichen Natur. Stuttgart: Verlag von Krais und Hoffmann, 1861 (Internet Archive link) • abbreviated edition, ed. Hans-Jürgen Heinrichs. (Suhrkamp Taschenbücher Wissenschaft; Nr.135.) Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1975 • excerpts edited as Mutterrecht und Urreligion: eine Auswahl, ed. Rudolf Marx. (Kröners Taschenausgabe; Band 52) Leipzig: A. Kröner, 1927; Stuttgart, 1954; 6th ed. 1984. • Antiquarische Briefe vornemlich zur Kenntniss der ältesten Verwandtschaftsbegriffe. 2 vols. Trübner, Strassburg 1880 & 1886. • Römische Grablampen nebst einigen andern Grabdenkmälern vorzugsweise eigener Sammlung. Basel 1890 • Gesammelte Werke (collected works) ed. Karl Meuli. Basel: B. Schwabe, 1943–1967, in 8 volumes (I-IV, VI-VIII and X) • I. Antrittsrede; politische Betrachtungen • II. Das Mutterecht, erste Hälfte • III. Das Mutterecht, zweite Hälfte • IV. Die Sage von Tanaquil • VII. Die Unsterblichkeitslehre der orphanischen Theologie: Römische Grablampen • VIII. Antiquarische Briefe • X. Briefe • Myth, Religion and Mother Right Princeton University Press, translated by Ralph Manheim, 1967 • An English Translation of Bachofen's Mutterrecht (Mother Right) (1861): A Study of the Religious and Juridical Aspects of Gynecocracy in the Ancient World Volumes 1-5: • Vol 1. "Lycia," "Crete," and "Athens" Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen, translated by David Partenheimer, 30 January 2008 • Vol 2. "Lemnos" and "Egypt" Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen, translated by David Partenheimer, 1 April 2007 • Vol 3. Orchomenus And the Minyan's And India And Central Asia Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen, translated by David Partenheimer, 30 June 2006 • Vol 4. "Elis", "The Epizephyrian Locrians", and "Lesbos" Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen, translated by David Partenheimer, 1 June 2005, • Vol 5. Mantinea; Pythagoreanism and Subsequent Doctrines; The Cantabri; Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen, translated by David Partenheimer, 1 January 2003

Johann Jakob Bachofen worked in philology. He was employed by University of Basel. Recorded position is judge. He belonged to German Archaeological Institute.

Johann Jakob Bachofen is recorded as gender studies scholar, judge, philosopher, sociologist and university teacher.