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One persistent belief suggests that in certain bygone periods of human history, women had equal standing to men, or even ruled, leading to happier and more peaceful societies. Subsequently, the patriarchy arose, bringing ages of strife and subjugation.

The Roots of the Gender System Discussion

This idea of matriarchy and patriarchy as diametrically opposed—following a decisive switch between them—originated in the 19th century through socialist thought, entering archaeology despite limited evidence. Thereafter, it spread into popular consciousness.

Social scientists, by contrast, tended to be more sceptical. They observed great variation in gender relations among cultures, including modern and historical ones, and some theorized that such variety had been the norm in ancient times as well. Proving this was challenging, in part because identifying physical sex—not to mention gender—was often tricky in old skeletons. Then about 20 years ago, that shifted.

The Breakthrough in Ancient DNA

The so-called ancient DNA revolution—the capacity to recover DNA from ancient bones and study it—enabled that suddenly it was feasible to identify the sex of long-dead individuals and to examine their kinship ties. The isotopic composition of their skeletal remains—specifically, the proportion of elemental variants present there—revealed whether they had resided in different places and experienced shifts in nutrition. The picture coming to light due to these advanced methods shows that diversity in sex roles had been absolutely the norm in prehistory, and that there was not a clear turning point when a particular model gave way to its mirror image.

Theories on the Emergence of Male-Dominant Systems

One influential idea, actually attributed to Marx’s collaborator, proposed that humans were equal before agriculture spread from the Middle East about ten millennia back. With the more sedentary way of life and building up of resources that agriculture introduced arose the need to protect that property and to establish rules for its inheritance. When populations grew, men took over the leading groups that developed to manage these affairs, in part because they were more skilled at warfare, and assets gravitated to the paternal lineage. Male kin were also more likely to remain in place, with their female mates relocating to live with them. Female oppression was frequently a consequence of these shifts.

Another theory, put forward by researcher a Lithuanian scholar in the mid-20th century, held that woman-centred societies dominated for an extended period in the continent—until 5,000 years ago—after which they were overthrown by arriving, male-ruled nomads from the plains.

Evidence of Female-Line Societies

Matrilinearity (where property is inherited through the female line) and female-resident patterns (where female kin remain in one place) often co-occur, and both are associated with higher female status and influence. In recent years, U.S. geneticists reported that for more than three centuries around the 900s AD, an high-status matrilineal group lived in Chaco Canyon, in what is now New Mexico. Then, this June, Chinese researchers identified a female-line farming community that flourished for nearly as long in China’s east, over 3,000 years earlier. Such discoveries add to previous evidence, implying that matrilineal societies have existed on all populated continents, at least from the arrival of farming on.

Influence and Agency in Prehistoric Societies

But, even if they enjoy higher status, females in mother-line societies may not make decisions. This generally remains the preserve of men—just of maternal uncles rather than their spouses. And since ancient DNA and isotopes can’t tell you a great deal about female agency, gender power relations in prehistory continue to be a matter of debate. Indeed, this line of work has forced researchers to consider what they understand by authority. If the female consort of a male ruler shaped his court via support and back channels, and his decisions by advice, was she any less powerful than him?

Archaeologists have identified multiple instances of pairs sharing power in the metal age—the period following those migrants came in Europe—and later written accounts attest to elite women influencing decisions in such ways, continents apart. Perhaps they acted similarly in the distant past. Women wielding indirect influence in patriarchal societies may even have predated Homo sapiens. In his 2022 book about sex and gender, Different, primatologist a noted scientist described how an dominant female chimp, a named individual, anointed a successor to the top male—who outranked her—with a kiss.

Factors Shaping Sex Roles

Lately something else has emerged. While the theorist was likely broadly correct in linking property with male-line inheritance, additional elements affected sex roles, too—including how a society makes a living. In February, Chinese and British scientists found that traditionally female-line villages in a highland region have become more gender-neutral over the past several decades, as they moved from an farming-based system to a market-oriented one. Struggle also has a role. Although female-resident and male-resident societies are equally warlike, says researcher a Yale expert, within-group disputes—rather than war against an external enemy—pushes societies towards male residence, because fighting groups choose to keep their male offspring nearby.

Women as Warriors and Authorities

Meanwhile, proof is mounting that women engaged in combat, pursued game and acted as spiritual leaders in the ancient world. No role or position has been closed to them always, everywhere. And even if female decision-makers may have been uncommon, they haven’t been absent. New genetic analyses from an Irish university demonstrate that there were at least instances of female-line descent throughout Britain, when Celtic tribes controlled the island in the metal period. Combined with physical finds for female warriors and Roman descriptions of women leaders, it looks as if ancient European women could exercise direct as well as soft power.

Modern Female-Line Societies

Matrilineal societies persist today—a Chinese group are an example, as are the Hopi of Arizona, descendants of those ancient lineages. These communities are dwindling, as national governments flex their male-dominant muscles, but they act as reminders that certain vanished societies leaned closer to sex parity than many of our present-day ones, and that every culture have the capacity to change.