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A widespread belief claims that in certain bygone eras of human existence, women had equal status to men, or perhaps dominated, leading to more harmonious and less violent societies. Then, male-dominated systems arose, bringing centuries of strife and oppression.

The Roots of the Matriarchy vs. Patriarchy Debate

The concept of female-led societies and patriarchy as polar opposites—with a sudden switch between them—originated in the 1800s via socialist thought, entering archaeology with little proof. From there, it permeated into popular consciousness.

Anthropologists, by contrast, were often more sceptical. They documented significant diversity in gender relations among cultures, including modern and past ones, and many theorized that such variety was the norm in ancient times as well. Confirming this proved challenging, partly because determining biological sex—not to mention gender—was often hard in ancient remains. But around 20 years ago, that changed.

A Revolution in Genetic Analysis

This so-called ancient DNA revolution—the ability to extract DNA from ancient bones and analyse it—meant that abruptly it became possible to determine the sex of ancient individuals and to examine their kinship ties. The chemical makeup of their skeletal remains—particularly, the proportion of isotopes present there—revealed whether they had lived in different locations and undergone shifts in nutrition. The evidence emerging due to these new tools indicates that variety in gender relations had been very much the rule in prehistory, and that there was not a definite watershed when one system gave way to its opposite.

Hypotheses on the Rise of Male-Dominant Systems

The Marxist idea, in fact attributed to Engels, proposed that humans were equal until farming spread from the Near East approximately 10,000 years ago. Accompanying the settled lifestyle and accumulation of resources that agriculture introduced came the need to protect that wealth and to establish rules for its inheritance. As communities expanded, men monopolised the elites that developed to manage these matters, in part because they were better at fighting, and wealth passed to the paternal lineage. Men were also inclined to remain in place, with their wives moving to live with them. Women’s subordination was frequently a consequence of these shifts.

Another view, proposed by archaeologist Marija Gimbutas in the 1960s, held that woman-centred societies dominated for longer in Europe—until 5,000 years ago—after which they were toppled by incoming, patriarchal nomads from the steppe.

Findings of Matrilineal Societies

Female-line descent (where property is inherited through the mother’s side) and female-resident patterns (where women stay together) often co-occur, and each are associated with greater women’s standing and influence. In recent years, U.S. geneticists discovered that for over 300 years around the 10th century, an elite matrilineal group lived in Chaco Canyon, in what is now the southwestern U.S.. Then, this June, Asian experts reported a female-line farming community that flourished for a comparable duration in China’s east, more than three millennia prior. These findings add to previous evidence, implying that female-descended societies have been present on all inhabited landmasses, at least from the advent of agriculture on.

Influence and Autonomy in Prehistoric Societies

But, though they possess higher standing, females in matrilineal societies don’t necessarily hold decision-making power. That typically stays the preserve of men—specifically of maternal uncles rather than their husbands. And since ancient DNA and chemical traces don’t reveal a great deal about female agency, gender power relations in ancient times continue to be a matter of debate. In fact, this line of work has forced scholars to consider what they understand by authority. Suppose the wife of a king influenced his court through support and informal networks, and his own policies by advice, was she any less powerful than him?

Experts have identified several instances of couples ruling jointly in the metal age—the era after those nomads arrived in Europe—and later written accounts attest to high-status women influencing policies in similar manners, across the globe. Maybe they did so in earlier times. Females wielding soft power in patriarchal societies could have existed before Homo sapiens. In his recent publication about gender roles, a titled work, ape expert a noted scientist described how an alpha female chimp, Mama, chose a successor to the top male—who outranked her—with a kiss.

Elements Influencing Sex Roles

Lately something else has emerged. Although the theorist was likely broadly right in associating property with male-line inheritance, additional elements affected gender relations, too—such as how a community makes a living. In February, international researchers found that historically female-line villages in a highland region have grown more gender-neutral over the past several decades, as they transitioned from an farming-based system to a trade-focused one. Struggle also plays its part. While matrilocal and patrilocal societies are equally warlike, says anthropologist a Yale expert, internal strife—rather than battles against an outside group—pushes societies towards patrilocality, because warring clans prefer to keep their male offspring nearby.

Women as Hunters and Authorities

Meanwhile, proof is accumulating that women engaged in combat, pursued game and served as shamans in the ancient world. No role or role has been barred to them always, everywhere. And even if female decision-makers were perhaps rare, they were not absent. New genetic analyses from Trinity College Dublin show that there were no fewer than instances of matrilinearity throughout the British Isles, when Celtic tribes dominated the land in the iron age. Combined with physical finds for women fighters and ancient descriptions of women leaders, it appears as if Celtic women could wield hard as well as soft authority.

Contemporary Matrilineal Societies

Matrilineal societies still exist nowadays—a Chinese group are an example, as are the Hopi of the southwestern U.S., descendants of those ancient lineages. These communities are dwindling, as state authorities flex their male-dominant muscles, but they serve as testaments that some vanished societies tilted more towards gender equality than numerous of our present-day ones, and that all societies have the capacity to change.