Matrician

In the present state of society we need not go far to find many a man who would give all the waltzes and polkas that a matrician genius ever invented, and throw all the new-fangled flourishes upon piano and guitar into the bargain, for healthful breakfasts [...]

Instead, Bettina traces her lineage through "Foremother," whose oil portrait watches over the homestead; she is described as a "matrician" who "in life as in the portrait, . . . approved of nothing"

In essence, Wisdom's home serves as a multivalent symbol that illuminates her indispensable value as well as her noble status; it identifies Wisdom's fundamental role in the establishment of a household and depicts her as a wealthy matrician

The society consists of a number of matricians which, as each is exogamous, are linked together by ties of kinship and marriage. This sort of society is very common throughout the islands off the mainland.

However, the household was controlled by its senior women; because of the residence pattern, the men were unrelated outsiders who belonged to different matricians.

In order of rank, the matricians were the pig, dog, snake, and iguana clans.

Forfend that her stern shade ever resent a comparison with such frail creatures ! She carries the historic ' prowde countenance of the Geraldines ' of her day. Aristocratic, matrician, and placid, though deeply traced with sorrow

Her father is a successful businessman and her rather forceful mother a philosophy don; and Florence's life in a matrician and intellectual North Oxford household - you feel sure it's in one of those substantial brick crescents next to the Parks - is vivid in its intricate particularity.