“Hoy en muchos lugares hay mujeres que tienen el poder supremo” – Thomas Hobbes y las amazonas

Abstract

: In Hobbes, we fi nd an image of the Undocile Body. An account that refers to the fi gure of the Amazons: women who, in the state of nature, consolidate a government. Perhaps a unique mention in early modernity that highlights the summa potestas of an entirely feminine sovereign regime. The purpose, in this paper, is to provide an interpretation of the relationship between the image of the Amazons and the doctrine of the original power that a mother can maintain. In the fi rst place, I defend the stronger claim that the cryptic statement “even today in many places there are women who have supreme power” is a consequence of the in fl uence that America exerts on Hobbesian thought. Thirdly, I argue that this last point allows us to show some contemporary po-litical uses that could emerge from the doctrine of original maternal dominance.