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One widespread belief claims that in some bygone periods of human existence, women enjoyed similar status to men, or perhaps dominated, leading to happier and less violent societies. Subsequently, the patriarchy arose, ushering in ages of conflict and oppression.

The Origins of the Gender System Debate

The concept of female-led societies and patriarchy as diametrically opposed—with a decisive transition between them—originated in the 19th century via Marxist theory, entering archaeology despite limited evidence. Thereafter, it permeated into public awareness.

Anthropologists, however, were often more sceptical. They documented significant variation in sex roles among cultures, including modern and historical ones, and some suspected that this diversity had been the norm in ancient times as well. Proving this was difficult, in part because determining physical sex—let alone gender—was often hard in ancient remains. But about two decades back, everything shifted.

The Breakthrough in Ancient DNA

The so-called ancient DNA revolution—the capacity to extract DNA from ancient bones and study it—enabled that abruptly it was feasible to identify the sex of ancient people and to examine their family connections. The isotopic composition of their bones and teeth—particularly, the ratio of isotopes present there—revealed whether they had resided in various locations and undergone dietary changes. The evidence coming to light due to these advanced methods indicates that variety in gender relations was absolutely the norm in prehistory, and that there was no clear watershed when a particular model gave way to its mirror image.

Hypotheses on the Rise of Patriarchal Systems

The Marxist idea, actually attributed to Engels, suggested that humans were equal before farming spread from the Middle East about ten millennia back. Accompanying the settled way of life and building up of wealth that farming brought came the need to protect that property and to set laws for its inheritance. As communities grew, men monopolised the leading groups that developed to coordinate these affairs, in part because they were more skilled at fighting, and assets gravitated to the paternal lineage. Men were additionally inclined to stay put, with their female mates relocating to join them. Women’s subordination was often a consequence of these changes.

An alternative theory, proposed by researcher a Lithuanian scholar in the mid-20th century, was that woman-centred societies dominated for an extended period in the continent—up to 5,000 years ago—when they were overthrown by arriving, male-ruled migrants from the plains.

Findings of Female-Line Societies

Matrilinearity (where property is inherited through the mother’s side) and female-resident patterns (where women stay together) often go together, and each are associated with greater female status and authority. In 2017, U.S. scientists discovered that for more than 300 years during the 900s AD, an high-status mother-line group inhabited Chaco Canyon, in what is now the southwestern U.S.. Later, this June, Chinese experts identified a matrilineal farming community that thrived for nearly as long in eastern China, more than three millennia prior. These findings join others, implying that female-descended societies have existed on all inhabited landmasses, at least from the advent of farming forward.

Influence and Autonomy in Ancient Societies

But, though they possess higher standing, women in matrilineal societies don’t necessarily hold decision-making power. This generally stays the preserve of men—just of women’s brothers instead of their husbands. And since ancient DNA and isotopes don’t reveal a great deal about female agency, gender power relations in prehistory remain a subject of discussion. Indeed, this line of work has forced scholars to consider what they understand by authority. Suppose the wife of a king influenced his court through patronage and informal networks, and his own policies by advice, did she hold less influence than him?

Archaeologists have identified several instances of couples sharing power in the metal age—the period after those migrants came in the continent—and later written accounts confirm to high-status women influencing policies in similar manners, continents apart. Maybe they did so in the distant past. Females exerting indirect influence in male-dominated societies could have predated Homo sapiens. In his recent publication about sex and gender, Different, ape expert Frans de Waal described how an alpha female chimp, a named individual, chose a successor to the alpha male—who outranked her—with a gesture.

Elements Shaping Sex Roles

Lately another aspect has become clear. Although the theorist was likely generally correct in associating property with patrilinearity, additional elements shaped sex roles, too—including how a community sustains itself. Recently, international researchers reported that traditionally matrilineal villages in Tibet have grown more gender-neutral over the last 70 years, as they moved from an agricultural economy to a trade-focused one. Struggle also plays its part. While matrilocal and male-resident societies are equally prone to conflict, notes researcher Carol Ember, internal strife—rather than battles against an outside group—prods societies towards patrilocality, because fighting groups choose to have their male offspring close.

Women as Hunters and Leaders

Meanwhile, proof is accumulating that women fought, hunted and served as spiritual leaders in the ancient world. Not a single position or role has been closed to them always, everywhere. And even if female decision-makers may have been rare, they haven’t been nonexistent. New ancient DNA findings from Trinity College Dublin demonstrate that there were no fewer than instances of female-line descent throughout the British Isles, when ancient groups controlled the island in the metal period. Alongside physical finds for women fighters and ancient descriptions of female tribal chiefs, it appears as if Celtic women could exercise hard as well as soft power.

Modern Matrilineal Societies

Mother-line societies still exist nowadays—a Chinese group are an example, as are the a Native American tribe of the southwestern U.S., heirs of those ancient lineages. These communities are dwindling, as national governments assert their male-dominant muscles, but they act as testaments that some vanished societies tilted more towards sex parity than numerous of our present-day ones, and that all societies have the capacity to change.