Matriarchy isn't rare

A matriarchy is a society that is modeled on the relationship between mother and child. Matriarchy may or may not be paired with gynarchy (rule by women).

A patriarchy is a society based on the relationship between father and child. Patriarchy is often sustained by androcratic government (rule by men).

Patriarchy has been more common for the last 2000 years. But matriarchy is not so rare.

Examples of matriarchy

• Iroquois longhouses were run by a woman's council, including Kandiaronk's Wendat.
• Pueblo nations, like the Hopi and Zuñi, were arguably matriarchal.
• the Minangkabau, a Sumatran Muslim group, self-identify as matriarchal.
• In the art of the Minoan Crete (of 1700 to 1450 BCE) at Knossos, women are larger and hold symbols of command, while males are naked or scantily clad athletes shown bringing tribute or in poses of subservience.
• Çatalhöyük embraced women's knowledge and leadership.
• Art from Nebelivka features prominent female figures.

Since the past is surely more diverse than the present it is unwise to assume (as most archeologists and anthropologists have) that patriarchy is the default.

Idealizing matriarchy

Just as hippies of the 1960s idealized Indigenous American societies (like Rousseau before them), radicals of the late 1800s to early 1900s claimed all Neolithic societies were matriarchal.

Idealizing trivializes our ancestors and peers.

More: the Noble Savage.

Matilda Joyce Gage (1826-98)

Prominent feminist and anti-Christian. Adopted by the Mowhawks.

Believed the Haudenosaunee were one of the last remaining matriarchal Neolithic societies. Believed that all early societies were matriarchal, worshiping a Great Goddess.

Mother-in-law to L. Frank Baum. She's the reason that Oz has many good witches and princesses, but no legitimate male authority figure.

Otto Gross (1877-1920)

Anarchist. Student of Freud.

Believed that the superego was patriarchy and needed to be destroyed to unleash a benevolent, matriarchal collective unconscious, which had been buried in us since the Neolithic.

Gross attempted to destroy his super ego with drugs and polyamory.

Carl Jung took Gross' collective unconscious idea, but left out the women.

Gross also invented the introvert-extrovert binary.

And he collaborated with Franz Kafka, Max Weber, and the Dadaists.

Women invented agriculture

At risk of committing the same mistake, Graeber and Wengrow argue that societies led by women are more peaceful and inventive.

In particular, they claim that women are responsible for agriculture.

Plant harvesting and use is almost always a female activity, as far back as it is possible to trace. This is one of the only universal truths about human social systems that Graeber and Wengrow make. They say it's possible things were reversed sometime in the past, but there's no evidence yet of such a major shift.

Plant knowledge would have made women the first scientists. As cultivators they were botanists. As makers of food and medicine they were chefs and pharmacists. As basket-weavers and rope-makers, they were mathematicians.

The science of Neolithic women, the original farmers, was not a science of domination and classification, but one of collaboration, nurturing, persuasion, and even trickery. They didn't aim for assured results, but rather an increased probability of favorable results.

Claude Levi-Strauss calls this type of science "Concrete." Although he wouldn't admit that it was done by women.