Beena
Encyclopedia
Beena is a form of marriage used in pre-Islamic Arabia, in which a wife would own a tent of her own, within which she retained complete independence from her husband, a form of matriarchy
Matriarchy
A matriarchy is a society in which females, especially mothers, have the central roles of political leadership and moral authority. It is also sometimes called a gynocratic or gynocentric society....

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The term was suggested by John Ferguson McLennan
John Ferguson McLennan
John Ferguson McLennan , was a Scottish ethnologist and lawyer. He was born at Inverness.He studied at King's College, Aberdeen, where he graduated with distinction in 1849, thence proceeding to Cambridge, where he remained till 1855 without taking a degree...

, who noted that in Ceylon the marriage when a husband goes to live in the wive's village is called "beena marriage", and suggested to use "beena" as a general term for this kind of marriages.
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