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A persistent notion claims that in some bygone eras of human existence, women had equal status to men, or even dominated, resulting in happier and less violent societies. Then, male-dominated systems arose, bringing ages of strife and subjugation.

The Roots of the Gender System Discussion

The idea of female-led societies and patriarchy as polar opposites—with a decisive transition between them—originated in the 19th century through socialist theory, influencing anthropological studies despite little evidence. Thereafter, it spread into popular consciousness.

Social scientists, however, were often more sceptical. They documented great diversity in gender relations among cultures, both modern and historical ones, and some theorized that such variety was the standard in ancient times as well. Proving this proved difficult, in part because determining physical sex—let alone gender—frequently proved tricky in old skeletons. Then about two decades back, everything shifted.

The Revolution in Ancient DNA

The much-touted ancient DNA revolution—the ability to recover DNA from old remains and analyse it—enabled that suddenly it became possible to identify the gender of ancient people and to trace their kinship ties. The chemical makeup of their skeletal remains—specifically, the ratio of elemental variants found there—indicated whether they had lived in different locations and undergone dietary changes. The picture emerging due to these advanced methods indicates that diversity in sex roles had been absolutely the rule in ancient eras, and that there was not a clear watershed when a particular model gave way to its mirror image.

Theories on the Rise of Patriarchal Systems

The Marxist idea, in fact credited to Engels, suggested that humans were equal until agriculture spread from the Near East about 10,000 years ago. Accompanying the settled way of life and building up of resources that farming brought came the need to protect that wealth and to establish rules for its inheritance. As communities grew, men took over the leading groups that developed to manage these matters, in part because they were better at fighting, and wealth passed to the paternal lineage. Men were additionally inclined to stay put, with their wives moving to live with them. Women’s subordination was frequently a consequence of these shifts.

Another theory, put forward by researcher Marija Gimbutas in the 1960s, held that woman-centred societies dominated for an extended period in the continent—until five millennia back—after which they were toppled by arriving, patriarchal migrants from the plains.

Evidence of Matrilineal Societies

Matrilinearity (where wealth passes down the mother’s side) and matrilocality (where women stay together) frequently go together, and each are linked with greater women’s standing and authority. In 2017, U.S. geneticists discovered that for more than three centuries around the 10th century, an high-status matrilineal group lived in Chaco Canyon, in what is now New Mexico. Then, this June, Asian researchers reported a matrilineal agricultural community that flourished for nearly as long in eastern China, over 3,000 years earlier. These findings add to others, implying that matrilineal societies have existed on all populated continents, at least from the arrival of agriculture forward.

Influence and Autonomy in Prehistoric Societies

But, even if they enjoy higher status, women in matrilineal societies may not hold decision-making power. This generally stays the domain of men—specifically of maternal uncles instead of their husbands. And because ancient DNA and chemical traces don’t reveal a great deal about women’s autonomy, sex-based hierarchies in prehistory continue to be a matter of debate. In fact, such research has forced researchers to consider what they mean by authority. If the wife of a male ruler influenced his court via patronage and back channels, and his decisions by counselling, was she any less powerful than him?

Experts know of several instances of pairs sharing power in the bronze age—the period after those migrants came in the continent—and later historical records attest to elite women shaping decisions in similar manners, across the globe. Maybe they acted similarly in the distant past. Women wielding soft power in patriarchal societies could have predated Homo sapiens. In his recent publication about gender roles, Different, primatologist Frans de Waal described how an alpha female chimp, Mama, anointed a successor to the alpha male—her superior—with a gesture.

Elements Influencing Gender Relations

Lately another aspect has become clear. While the theorist was likely broadly correct in linking property with male-line inheritance, other factors shaped sex roles, too—including how a society sustains itself. Recently, international scientists found that traditionally matrilineal villages in Tibet have become more gender-neutral over the last 70 years, as they transitioned from an farming-based system to a market-oriented one. Struggle also plays its part. While female-resident and male-resident societies are equally prone to conflict, says anthropologist Carol Ember, within-group disputes—rather than war against an outside group—prods societies towards patrilocality, because warring clans prefer to keep their male offspring nearby.

Women as Warriors and Authorities

At the same time, proof is accumulating that women fought, pursued game and served as shamans in the distant past. Not a single position or role has been barred to them in all times and places. And though women leaders were perhaps uncommon, they were not absent. Recent genetic analyses from an Irish university demonstrate that there were at least instances of female-line descent throughout the British Isles, when Celtic tribes controlled the island in the metal period. Combined with archaeological evidence for women fighters and Roman descriptions of female tribal chiefs, it looks as if Celtic women could wield hard as well as soft authority.

Contemporary Matrilineal Societies

Matrilineal societies persist nowadays—the Mosuo of China are an example, as are the a Native American tribe of the southwestern U.S., heirs of those Chaco Canyon lineages. These communities are dwindling, as state authorities assert their male-dominant muscles, but they serve as reminders that some extinct societies tilted closer to gender equality than many of our modern ones, and that every culture have the potential to change.