Arguments have resounded over the decades about whether there has ever been a matriarchy like the ruling patriarchy. Some say it’s a Greek myth, some say patriarchy evolved when property was created, others argue that matriarchy doesn’t exist in the wild (bonobos have a matriarchal society), others use archeological finds to argue for it. DNA has now come to the rescue.
Patriarchy is defined by Oxford dictionary as: a system of society or government in which the father or eldest male is head of the family and descent is traced through the male line…. It is defined in Wikipedia as“Patriarchy is a social system in which men hold primary positions of authority and dominate women.” The Britannica defines it as “Patriarchy, hypothetical social system in which the father or a male elder has absolute authority over the family group; by extension, one or more men (as in a council) exert absolute authority over the community as a whole.” I can’t imagine why they say “hypothetical.” And finally Merriam-Webster defines it as: The meaning of patriarchy is social organization marked by the supremacy of the father in the clan or family, the legal dependence of wives and children, and the reckoning of descent and inheritance in the male line; broadly: control by men of a disproportionately large share of power.
The answer to the question of whether there has been a matriarchy like today’s patriarchy is no. Patriarchy is an incredibly stupid way to run a government, society, country, or family. Women aren’t that stupid. (Well most of them. I can think of some exceptions.)
Lovette Jallow in an article “Matriarchy is not a mirror of patriarchy” on April 16, 2025 described the Fulani matriarchal structure where bloodline is a governance structure. That sounds too much like royalty to me. Society was centered on children and care not control or punishment but on the interdependence that we all share. Women were at the front not just as nurturers but as warriors, mediators, and spiritual leaders. Many languages do not have gendered pronouns because persons were valued for who they are not whether they fit into a pre-selected role.
Most of the definitions of matriarchy focus on matrilineal transmission of property and/or power and many of those societies have existed and do exist. But in those societies, power is organized in a communal and shared structure that results in an egalitarian society allowing all people to benefit.
THE OLDEST FEMALE CENTERED SOCIETY FLOURISHED 9,000 YEARS AGO IN THE STONE AGE
In Catalhoyuk DNA was used to verify that the community was woman centered, and that property passed through the matrilineal line in this Stone Age community. While property passed through the female line, the society did not have the authoritarian and hierarchical structure that patriarchy does. Catalhoyuk flourished in south-central Turkey around 7,100 B.C.E. and was occupied for nearly 1,000 years.
The very clean homes were entered from the roof; bodies were buried beneath the floor, and symbolism and murals showed a wide variety of women’s bodies that were not thin. The female deity seemed to be prominent. If a baby died, the burial gifts for females were greater than the burial gifts for males.
Social and economic indicators showed no difference between women and men. Power seemed to be balanced equally. No house was grander than another; tools were distributed equally, and females and males received the same nutrition. Such equality was common in Paleolithic cultures. As property increased, it seems that society become imbalanced.
THE THRIVING BRONZE AGE MINOAN CIVILIZATION WAS ALSO WOMAN CENTERED.
The Minoan Civilization in Crete ran from about 2,600 to 1,100 B.C.E. It was known for its art, architecture, and political organization in which women played prominent roles. Women were highly visible in religion, sport, economic, and social areas. Women and men participated peacefully. No implements of war were found for 1,000 years. We can’t go 1,000 days without a war because violence is the hallmark of patriarchy.
Archeological research verifies that women held high positions, had active roles, participated in jobs like being a captain, a lumberjack, racing or boxing, and even bull fighting. The deity was also female and thus women sometimes had special treatment.
Women chose when and who to marry and controlled their own property even after marriage. Separation was on demand, and she kept her what we now call “separate property” and got half of what the couple had created as in the community property states do today.
The children were given the name of the mother, and she was able to confer rank by marriage, but he was not. Women sat on the throne and were attended by others. Women participated in education, trade, and arts. Not surprisingly, the civilization had a good standard of living and became a beacon of culture, education, and sophistication with its very forward thinking.
Antikythera Mechanism, the oldest known computer dating from 2,100 years ago, was found near Antikythera another Greek Island only 84 miles from Crete. It had 27 gears, and they hypothesize it charted the movements of the moon, planets, and other phenomena.
RESEARCH IN CHINA SHOWS A FEMALE LED SOCIETY 4,750 YEARS AGO
DNA research being done on a Neolithic settlement near what is considered the birthplace of Chinese civilization has found that family lines and inheritance were traced through the women not the men. It flourished from 2,750 BCE to 2,500 BCE. While the females in a particular cemetery all had the same mitochondrial DNA that comes only from the mother, men had a variety of DNA showing that they brought the genetic diversity to avoid inbreeding. It also shows that the men married into the woman’s clan and moved there rather than the woman leaving to go with the man to his family.
In these Chinese graves from nearly 5,000 years ago, they found evidence of craniotomy on one man’s skull i.e. they were doing brain surgery back then. That bolsters my belief that we used to be a lot smarter and have been getting dumber – even with technology – see Antikythera above. The burning of the library in Alexandria and the 300 years of the Dark Ages where they murdered 9,000,000 women who had herbal and medical expertise, not to mention property the church wanted, are both examples.
Matrilineal societies still exist in China near the foothills of the Himalayas in the southwest. The women own and inherit the property, and the children are raised in the mother’s family and take her name. The study was published online on 6 May 2025. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09103-x
Other evidence of matrilineal descent exists among Celtic tribes from 616 to 200 B.C.E. in southern Germany and in Iron Age Britain. In one of my trips to Abakan, in south central Russia, I returned to the Field of Kings where they claimed ancient kings were buried. Excavation had stopped at the sites during the Cold War and only just resumed. One man was making an area into a park and tourist attraction. He showed us a fort that exposed a castle below it when they began the excavation. Then he said they had found nine identical grave sites, perfect circles, with three people each in them.
I told him that I would bet him that when they excavated those, they would find women. He laughed and said of course not. It would be soldiers buried in that pattern for some reason they would figure out.
A year later, I came back. He told me that he was astonished because when they excavated the graves, sure enough, they were all female. This is the same guy who looked at a carving in rock and told us it was the sun and a ram’s horn. The women in the group said nope, it’s the moon and fallopian tubes. Once again, when the experts studied the carving, they agreed with us. That is the problem when you see everything through the male gaze.
AMERICAN MATRIARCHY: CHACO CANYON
It is known that many Native tribes had matrilineal structures and women were equal with men in decision making and in the councils. It was after the Europeans came to the continent that they insisted the only legitimate organizing principle was male headed and forced the tribes, once conquered, to adopt a European style.
On February 21, 2017, a study was published online in Nature Communications about Chaco Canyon in northern New Mexico showing their structure of matrilineal descent. The Chaco society with 650 rooms housed thousands of members over 330 years starting in 800 C.E. it showed that all the samples had the same mitochondrial DNA i.e. were the descendants of a single woman. Again it was an egalitarian society, where power passed along the maternal line and males were powerful only if they were sons of the powerful woman. The matrilineal structure is still present today in the western and Rio Grande Pueblos.
MINANGKABAU: THE LARGEST AND STILL EXISTING MATRILINEAL SOCIETY
The Minangkabau are the largest ethnic group on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. They are matrilineal with inheritance coming through the female line. The couple stayed in the wife’s home where the husband was considered a guest who visited his wife at night. The community house was controlled by the head woman with her sisters and daughters. Boys stayed with the women until they were circumcised and then stayed in the local mosque until married. Males remain responsible for the mothers and sisters’ clans. The main structure was communal with rooms adjacent where the woman, her children, and husband lived. The relationship was considered a commitment of the two not a binding union and separation had no stigma.
The landholding of women is a crucial function as that maintains the culture and society. As the families migrate to urban areas, the woman’s power is lost. The Minangkabau were prominent in the independence movement and believe strongly in egalitarianism i.e. no one is higher or lower than anyone else. Even their language has less hierarchical structure than other nearby languages.
This female centered society stressed education. In the American west, likewise it was women who insisted on setting up schools and libraries. Today Minang people are disproportionately among the educated elite in professions and government departments in the region. They exhibit expertise as writers, scholars, teachers, journalists, and in business. Though compared to others in Indonesia, they are a small population, they are one of the most successful.
Their ancient religion drives the matrilineal inheritance. To not conflict with Muslim beliefs, they have “high inheritance” that is home and land that passes to the female and “low inheritance” that is earnings of the father that passes with sons getting twice what daughters get.
The Minangkabau are the largest matrilineal society in the world, about seven million, with property, family name and land passing down from mother to daughter. Unfortunately the men still have a bigger role in religious and political affairs. But the property ownership ensures that women hold an advantageous position compared to other societies where women have no power at all.
CONCLUSION
Matrilineal societies, female focused societies, are better for everyone – women, men, children and the earth. They have been found and still exist from Turkey to Greece to China to North America and to Indonesia – literally spanning the globe – and have proven to be a far better governmental structure than what prevails today. No wonder the patriarchs in power try to hide this reality.
Men fear that if women had power they would do as the men have – i.e. they know what they are doing is wrong and they don’t want it done to them. You can see that thinking in much of the projection of the party in power who accuse the other side of doing precisely what they are doing. I can’t even think up some of the things they are doing.
But in fact, history shows that women won’t do that. Angry we are; strong we are; but vicious we are not. (Again with some exceptions for the brainwashed.) Like it or not, these men are the children of women. Women must educate their boys better. Men of sense must join the women’s movement, support the 28thAmendment (ERA), and stand up for an egalitarian society that honors all.