Historians, anthropologists, archaeologists, and women’s rights activists have pondered this question, and as a science journalist, it has preoccupied me for years. In 1973, sociologist Steven Goldberg published The inevitability of the patriarchal system, A book that argues that the fundamental biological differences between men and women are so deeply ingrained that in every iteration of human society, patriarchy will always win. No matter how we approach the subject, men, who are by nature stronger and more aggressive, will always have the last word, he argues.
The problem with this theory is that patriarchal dominance is not universal. Around the world, there are many matrilineal societies, which are organized around mothers rather than fathers, and whose names and property are passed from mother to daughter. In some regions, matrilineal traditions go back thousands of years.
For decades, Western scholars have devised theories to explain why these societies exist. Some have claimed that matrilineal descent persisted only among hunter-gatherers or simple farmers, not in large-scale society. Others have argued that society functions best when men go off to war more often, leaving women to head the household. Still others have argued that matrilineal descent ends once livestock starts to be raised, because men want to control these resources, which can exacerbate the problem. Linking paternal authority to property And to the ground.
Yet matrilineal societies are defined as isolated cases, “with special, fragile, rare, and perhaps doomed lineages,” says Linda Stone, an anthropologist at Washington State University. In academic circles, this problem is known as the matrilineal puzzle. Patrilineal descent, on the other hand, is seen as needing no explanation at all. It simply exists.
