I was thinking about that similarity too. Could it be a remnant from a time when the Semitic people were matriarchal?
The Jewish tradition that Jewish descent is reckoned through the mother has got to be of relatively modern origin.
In the Old Testament you will see plenty of Hebrew men taking foreign wives and concubines (often with bad results, as the wives cling to their worship of other gods and their husbands are corrupted) but the Hebrew women are NOT given to foreigners.
If you look at the Muslim marriage system in a Darwinian sense, it is enormously effective. Cousin marriage, women(wombs being the scarce resource) only allowed endogamy, men (sperm being the infinite resource) allowed endogamy, exogamy, and polygamy - these practices further both the conservation and the spread of genes. Throw in conquest, and they’ve got themselves quite a system.
People are just about always more upset about their women marrying out than their men marrying out - blacks, whites, Mormons, Muslims. Modern Jews may be an exception, but observant Jews don’t approve the practice at all.
Mrs VS
Could it be a remnant from a time when the Semitic people were matriarchal?
From the time that God (i.e., the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) chose Abram to be the beginning of the Israelite corporate entity and nation -- to the present time -- I basically don't know of a time when Jews were matriarchal. Can you give more details of what you're talking about? It doesn't fit what information we know from the time of Abram (God changed his name to Abraham later), to this present time, for the Jews.
Regards,
Star Traveler