Patriarchy (anthropology)
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'''Patriarchy''' (from [[Greek language|Greek]]: ''patria'' meaning father and ''arché'' meaning rule) is the anthropological term used to define the condition where male members of a society tend to predominate in positions of power; with the more powerful the position, the more likely it is that a male will hold that position. The term "patriarchy' is distinct from [[patrilineality]] and [[patrilocality]]. "Patrilineal" defines societies where the derivation of inheritance (financial or otherwise) originates from the father's line; a society with [[matrilineal]] traits such as [[Judaism]], for example, provides that in order to be considered a Jew, a person must be born of a [[Jewish]] mother. "Patrilocal" defines a locus of control coming from the father's geographic/cultural community. In a [[matrilocal]] society, a woman will live with her father and/or brothers after marriage, and those males will hold a higher influence on the women's offspring to the detriment of the children's father. Most societies are predominantly patrilineal and patrilocal,{{Verify source|date=December 2007}} however ''all'' societies have been patriarchal.{{Verify source|date=December 2007}} Britannica claims that there have been many attempts to disprove this but that the consensus is that it is unsupported by evidence;<ref>Britannica 2007.</ref> instead a peer revied anthropological article, reviewing current literature on the subject, says that drawing from anthropological studies, it can now be concluded that "patriarchy is not a universal feature of human societies."<ref>Alice H. Eagly and Wendy Wood (2002) p.711</ref>
Human societies can be described in anthropology in terms of being patriarchal, matriarchal or [[equiarchal]] (where [[gender]] is unrelated to attainment) systems. Most known societies have been defined as patriarchal by some researcher, varying in the degree that the society allows variance from the norm.
Despite the paucity of evidence for the existence of matriarchal societies and the worldwide preponderance of patriarchal ones, anthropologists have documented cases of egalitarianism, such as in Vanatinai<ref>* [http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cup/catalog/data/023108/0231081200.HTM Lepowsky, Maria. 1993. <i>Fruit of the Motherland: Gender in an Egalitarian Society.</i> New York: Columbia University Press.]</ref><ref>Ortner, Sherry. Making Gender: The Politics and Erotics of Culture. Bonston: Beacon, 1996.</ref><ref>Du, Shanshan. Chopsticks Only Work in Pairs: Gender Unity and Gender Equality Among the Lahu of Southwest China. Columbia UP, 2002.</ref> Such cases disprove the claim that patriarchy is universal. Furthermore, the use of discreet, dichotomous categories (such as patriarchy and matriarchy) is in decline among anthropologists today since these categories are incompatible with the overlapping and sometimes contradictory gender ideologies and gendered practices existing in many societies.<ref>Ortner, Sherry. Making Gender: The Politics and Erotics of Culture. Boston: Beacon, 1996.</ref>
Still, the majority of the higher economic, political, industrial, financial, religious, and social positions of the world today are held by men. There are no known exceptions to this rule recognized by the [[American Anthropological Association]]. Anthropologist Donald Brown has listed patriarchy to be a "human universal" (Brown 1991, p. 137), which includes characteristics such as age gradation, personal hygiene, aesthetics, food sharing, rape, and other sociological aspects, implying that patriarchy is innate to the human condition.
All advanced industrial societies are variations of patriarchy. In countries such as [[Saudi Arabia]], patriarchy is distinctly visible, and in the [[Europe]]an nations patriarchy remains the underlying social structure in spite of some changes creating wider possibilities for both women and men. In both cultures, men still dominate public life. In [[Marxist]] cultures, there has also been an attempt to create an impression of [[egalitarian]] organizations based on gender equality.
In [[China]], for example, the [[National People's Congress]] consists of an equal number of men and women. There are, however, no women within the ruling [[Politburo of the Communist Party of China]]. Prior to its dissolution, the [[Soviet Union]]'s [[Congress of People's Deputies]] likewise consisted, by law, of equal numbers of men and women. However, the successor Russian [[Duma]], which unlike the predecessor Congress actually has power and is not a rubber-stamp organization, presently has only 35 woman deputies among the 450 members.[http://www.eng.yabloko.ru/Forums/Main/posts/1376.html]
==History==
According to English language professor [[Robert M. Strozier]], historical research has not yet found an "initiating event" of the origin of patriarchy.<ref name="Strozier">
Strozier, Robert M. (2002) ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=fuDdNSLXPI8C Foucault, Subjectivity, and Identity: : Historical Constructions of Subject and Self]'' p.46</ref>
Strozier in his work notes the logical consequence of such missing.{{Verify source|date=December 2007}}
Several researchers outside the field of anthropology have accepted the absence of matriarchy within history.{{Fact|date=December 2007}} However, others outside anthropology have speculated, contra anthropological consensus,{{Fact|date=December 2007}} that six thousand years ago (4000 [[B.C.E.]]), that the notion of [[fatherhood]] was "invented" making possible the "spread" of patriarchy.<ref>SEBASTIAN KRAEMER B.A., M.R.C.P., F.R.C.Psych (1991) ''[http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1545-5300.1991.00377.x The Origins of Fatherhood: An Ancient Family Process]'' Family Process 30 (4), 377–392. doi:10.1111/j.1545-5300.1991.00377.x</ref><ref>[[Wilhelm Reich]] [1936] ''The Sexual Revolution''</ref>
<ref name="Eagly99">Alice H. Eagly and Wendy Wood (1999) [http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/anthro/faculty/fiske/facets/eagly&wood.htm The Origins of Sex Differences in Human Behavior: Evolved Dispositions Versus Social Roles] American Psychologist, v54 n6 p408-23 Jun 1999</ref>
<ref>[http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=11879852 Ehrenberg, 1989]; Harris, M. (1993) ''The Evolution of Human Gender Hierarchies''; Leibowitz, 1983; Lerner, 1986; Sanday, 1981</ref>Feminist{{Fact|date=December 2007}} writers have also supported the analysis of ancient societies as patriarchal.
Already in 3100 [[B.C.E.]] of [[Ancient Near East]], some scholars see evidence of sexual domination on women, a restriction on their reproductive capacity, and their exclusion from "the process of representing the construction of history".<ref name="Strozier"/> With the appearance of the [[Hebrew]] cult, there is also "the exclusion of woman from the God-humanity covenant".<ref name="Strozier"/><ref>Lerner, Gerda (1986) ''[http://books.google.com/books?&id=Zc318kI-TPMC The Creation of Patriarchy]'' 8-11</ref>
Neo-Marxist scholars have argued that the global emergence of patriarchy as a seemingly hegemonic pattern of social organization is a function of the capitalist mode of production<ref> Leacock, Eleanor. Myths of Male Dominance: Collected Articles on Women Cross-Culturally. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1981.</ref>, while structuralists have attributed it to a universal tendency for societies to organize themselves around a binary of nature/culture that is mirrored in an opposition between female and male, the former being subjugated to the latter as nature is thought to be subjugated to culture.<ref>Ortner, Sherry. Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture? In M Rosaldo and L Lamphere, eds. Woman, Culture, and Society. Stanford: Stanford UP, 1974, pp.67-87.</ref> However, this structuralist position has been revised<ref>Ortner, Sherry. So, Is Female to Male As Nature is to Culture. Making Gender: The Politics and Erotics of Culture. Boston: Beacon, 1996, pp.173-180.</ref>, as evidence against the universality of gender inequality has surfaced.<ref> [http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cup/catalog/data/023108/0231081200.HTM Lepowsky, Maria. 1993. <i>Fruit of the Motherland: Gender in an Egalitarian Society.</i> New York: Columbia University Press.]</ref><ref>Ortner, Sherry. Making Gender: The Politics and Erotics of Culture. Bonston: Beacon, 1996.</ref><ref>Du, Shanshan. Chopsticks Only Work in Pairs: Gender Unity and Gender Equality Among the Lahu of Southwest China. Columbia UP, 2002.</ref>
The worldwide preponderance of patriarchy is also often linked, among the others mentioned above, with the [[Kurgan hypothesis]], by now widely accepted among scholars. At present, however, the historical reconstruction of this phenomenon remains contested among scholars.{{Fact|date=December 2007}}
==Definition==
Anthropological studies now defines patriarchy as a multidimensional condition of [[Power (sociology)|power]]/[[Social status|status]]. Whyte's 1978 comprehensive study examined 52 indicators of patriarchy, to which corresponded 10 relatively independent [[dimension]]s. The ten dimensions are:<ref>Wood and Eagly 2002, p.711-2</ref><ref>Whyte (1978) ''The status of women in preindustrial societies''</ref>
*(lack of) [[property]] control by women
*power of women in [[kinship]] contexts
*value placed on the lives of women
*value placed on the labor of women
*[[domestic authority]] of women
*ritualized [[female solidarity]]
*absence of control over women's marital and [[human sexuality|sexual]] lives
*absence of ritualized [[fear of women]]
*male-female joint participation in warfare, work, and [[Participation (decision making)|community decision making]]
*women's indirect influence on decision makers
==Appendix==
'''Patriarchies in dispute'''
{{Synthesis|date=November 2007}}
<p>This appendix provides one [[Patriarchy#Table|table]] and one [[Patriarchy#List|list]]. The table shows all patriarchal societies that have been ''alleged'' at one time or another to be matriarchal. The list gives, where available, quotes from the anthropologists who originally studied them ([[Ethnography|ethnographer]]s). In nearly every case it is clear from what the women and men who studied them report, that the societies were patriarchal not matriarchal, even before changes brought by contact with western culture. What some of the societies ''do'' typify, however, is matrilinearity or matrilocality, ''not'' matriarchy, because of clear features of male dominance. This is the evidence that verifies the statements made by Encyclopaedia Britannica, Margaret Mead, Cynthia Eller and Steven Goldberg elsewhere in this article, and has been mainly located using their [[bibliography|bibliographies]]. There are a lot of cultural groups in this appendix. No bias is intended against the more than 1,000 uncontroversially patriarchal cultural groups, nor against the few matrilocal or matrilineal cultural groups not mentioned here.</p>
==Table==
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! [[Autonym]] !! Continent !! Country !! Marriage !! Property !! Government !! Ethnographer !! Date !! F/M
|-
| [[Alor]]
| [[Asia]]
| [[Indonesia]]
|
|
| patriarchy
| Cora du Bois
| 1944
| female
|-
| [[Bamenda]]
| [[Africa]]
| [[Cameroon]]
| patrilocal
| only Kom matrilineal
| patriarchy
| [[Phyllis Kaberry]]
| 1952
| female
|-
| Bantoc
| [[Asia]]
| [[Philippines]]
|
|
| patriarchy
| Albert S Bacadayan
| 1974
| male
|-
| [[Batek]]
| [[Asia]]
| [[Malaysia]]
| patrilocal
|
| patriarchy
| Kirk Michael Endicott
| 1974
| male
|-
| [[Trobriand Islands|Boyowan]]
| [[Australasia]]
| [[Papua New Guinea]]
| patrilocal
| matrilineal
| patriarchy
| [[Bronisław Malinowski]]
| 1916
| male
|-
| [[Bribri]]
| [[North America]]
| [[Costa Rica]]
| matrilocal
| matrilineal
| patriarchy
| William Moore Grabb
| 1875
| male
|-
| [[Çatalhöyük]]
| [[Asia]]
| [[Turkey]]
| na
| na
| na
| [[James Mellaart]]
| 1961
| male
|-
| [[Chambri]]
| [[Australasia]]
| [[Papua New Guinea]]
|
|
| patriarchy
| [[Margaret Mead]]
| 1935
| female
|-
| [[Philippines|Filipino]]
| [[Asia]]
| [[Philippines]]
|
|
| patriarchy
| Chester L Hunt
| 1959
| male
|-
| [[Fore (people)|Gahuku-Gama]]
| [[Australasia]]
| [[Papua New Guinea]]
|
|
| patriarchy
| Shirley Glasse (Lindenbaum)
| 1963
| female
|-
| [[Hopi]]
| [[North America]]
| [[United States of America]]
| matrilocal
| both
| patriarchy
| Barbara Freire-Marreco
| 1914
| female
|-
| [[Iban people|Iban]]
| [[Asia]]
| [[Borneo]]
| both
| neither
| patriarchy
| Edwin H Gomes
| 1911
| male
|-
| [[Berbers|Imazighen]]
| [[Africa]]
| North [[Sahara]]
|
|
| patriarchy
| [[George Murdock|George Peter Murdock]]
| 1959
| male
|-
| [[Iroqois]]
| [[North America]]
| North East [[North America]]
| matrilocal
| matrilineal
| patriarchy
| [[Lewis Morgan|Lewis Henry Morgan]]
| 1901
| male
|-
| [[Jivaro]]
| [[South America]]
| West [[Amazon Basin|Amazon]]
|
|
| patriarchy
| R Karstan
| 1926
| male
|-
| [[Nubians|Kenuzi]]
| [[Africa]]
| [[Sudan]]
|
|
| patriarchy
| Ernest Godard
| 1867
| male
|-
| [[Kibutz]]im
| [[Asia]]
| [[Israel]]
| neither
| neither
| patriarchy
| Judith Buber Agassi
| 1989
| female
|-
| [[!Kung people|!Kung San]]
| [[Africa]]
| Southern [[Africa]]
|
|
| patriarchy
| [[Marjorie Shostak]]
| 1976
| female
|-
| [[Minicoy Island|Maliku]]
| [[Asia]]
| [[India]]
| separate
| matrilineal
| patriarchy
| Ellen Kattner
| 1996
| female
|-
| [[Minangkabau]]
| [[Asia]]
| [[Indonesia]]
|
| both
| patriarchy
| PJ Veth
| 1882
| male
|-
| Naxi
| [[Asia]]
| [[China]]
| only [[Mosuo]] separate
| only Mosuo matrilineal
| patriarchy
| [[Joseph Rock|Joseph Francis Charles Rock]]
| 1924
| male
|-
| [[Nair|Nayar]]
| [[Asia]]
| [[India]]
|
|
| patriarchy
| E Kathleen Gough
| 1954
| female
|-
| [[Tlingit]]
| [[North America]]
| [[United States of America]]
| matrilocal
| matrilineal
| patriarchy
| [[Aurel Krause]]
| 1885
| male
|-
| Wemale
| [[Southeast Asia]]
| [[Indonesia]]
|
|
| patriarchy
| Adolf E Jensen
| 1939
| male
|-
| Woorani
| [[South America]]
| [[Ecuador]]
|
|
| patriarchy
| John Man
| 1982
| male
|-
| Yegali
| [[Africa]]
| [[Madagascar]]
| na
| na
| na
| na
| na
| na
|}
==List==
{{Patriarchy (ethnographies)}}
==See also==
* [[Anthropology]]
* [[Antifeminism]]
* [[Chinese patriarchy]]
* [[Gender role]]
* [[Homemaker]]
* [[Masculinity]]
* [[Men's movement]]
* [[Nature versus nurture]]
* [[Pater familias]]
* [[Patriarch magazines]]
* [[Patriarchs (Bible)]]
* [[Sociology of fatherhood]]
== External links ==
* [http://www.mensstudies.info/RMBP.htm Regional Masculinities Bibliography Project]
* [http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994220 ''Cattle ownership makes it a man's world''] New Scientist (1. October 2003): Early female-dominated societies lost their power to men when they started herding cattle, a new study demonstrates
* [http://www.menweb.org/throop/books/goldberg/menrule.html Debate] Between Mark Ridley and [[Steven Goldberg]] on the [[The Inevitability of Patriarchy]]
== References ==
{{Reflist}}
*Alice H. Eagly and Wendy Wood (2002) ''[http://www.psych-shs.duke.edu/faculty/publications/wood.eagly.pdf A Cross-Cultural Analysis of the Behavior of Women and Men: Implications for the Origins of Sex Differences]'' [http://66.102.1.104/scholar?&lr=&q=cache:XVRUjmxVJ_wJ:www.psych-shs.duke.edu/faculty/publications/wood.eagly.pdf+] Psychological Bulletin 2002, Vol. 128, No. 5, 699–727
* Brown, Robert. (1991). ''Human Universals''. Philadelphia: Temple University Press
* Mead, Margaret. (1950). ''Male and Female'', Penguin, London.
[[Category:Anthropology]]