Uncovering the Truth

Behind Matriarchal
Societies in the Ancient
World
A theme common amongst the mythology of ancient
cultures is a belief in the existence of a Golden Age , when
humans lived uncorrupted, in peace and harmony,
experiencing prosperity and societal stability. While the
theme is common, there is much variation in its form and
detail across those cultures. Some scholars believe that the
foundation of this Golden Age in human prehistory was a
matriarchal society . One in which women ruled ; a society
underpinned by feminine values, until its collapse into
patriarchy sometime between 10,000 and 5,000 years
ago, leaving men and their male gods ruling societyʼs
values and structures.

For many, this Golden Age of Matriarchy is no more than a

hopeful expression of feminist desire - a myth, now
debunked, that at one time served the interests of a
particular feminist vision but for which the evidence has
been found lacking and the benefits of which to the
feminist cause have been considered highly questionable.
 The Garos are an indigenous people of india and are one
of the last remaining matriarchal societies in the world.
(Vishma Thapa / CC BY-SA 4.0 )

Definition of “Matriarchal” Society

However, so much of this analysis depends upon definition.
Dr. Heide Goettner-Abendroth has lamented the lack of any
clear definition of a matriarchal society . She considers the
concept “so indistinct that nearly everyone could
understand it in different ways”. Clearly, the case for finding
such a prehistoric matriarchal society will be at its weakest
if a matriarchy is defined narrowly as simply the opposite of
patriarchy, as a society “ruled” by women instead of men.
On the other hand, if any non-patriarchal society is by its
very nature considered matriarchal, there will clearly be far
greater latitude in identifying such a societal framework in
pre-history. Or is it somewhere between these two
extremes that a true matriarchy is to be understood? In my
view it is.

In seeking to identify the existence of a prehistoric

matriarchy in which women “ruled”, it is noteworthy that
most anthropologists do not consider that there are, or ever
have been, any societies that are known to be “matriarchal”
in this sense. Their identification as “matriarchal” is
considered to represent a confusion with a number of other
related but distinct societal structures, such as matrilineal
(tracing kinship through oneʼs mother), matrilocal (families
remain located close to the maternal line), and matrifocal
(where the mother is head of the family).

Dr. Goettner-Abendroth has agreed that matriarchies will

by definition never be found if one is looking simply for a
society in which women take the “ruling” role of men that
characterizes patriarchal societies. But this she argues is
because a matriarchy will not be based on domination by
any gender, but upon maternal values which will exhibit as
caretaking and nurturing negotiation-oriented
communities, with complementary equality for women and
men alike.

So understood, she has found “abundant evidence” for the

existence of many matriarchal societies, to be found today
in Asia, America, and Africa. All, she notes, are “ gender
egalitarian societies , and many of them are fully
egalitarian”, with “no hierarchies, classes, nor domination of
one gender by the other”. Most academics exclude
egalitarian societies from the concept of “matriarchy”. In my
view, they are mistaken in doing so.

Egalitarian Societies verses

Patriarchal and Matriarchal Societies
Consistent with the well documented egalitarian structure
of the worldʼs oldest continuous culture, that of Australian
Aboriginals, a 2015 study reported in Science of
contemporary hunter gather communities (in the Congo
and the Philippines) also found them to exhibit egalitarian
social structures. Indeed, this study has merely confirmed
numerous previous findings. Dr. Peter Gray has commented
that:

“During the twentieth century, anthropologists

discovered and studied dozens of different hunter-
gatherer societies, in various remote parts of the world,
who had been nearly untouched by modern influences.
Wherever they were found - in Africa, Asia, South
America, or elsewhere; in deserts or in jungles - these
societies had many characteristics in common. … In
each of these societies, the dominant cultural ethos
was one that emphasized individual autonomy, non-
directive childrearing methods, nonviolence, sharing,
cooperation, and consensual decision-making. Their
core value, which underlay all of the rest, was that of
the equality of individuals.”
Savanna Pumé couple on a hunting and gathering trip in
the llanos of Venezuela. While the man hunts, and the
woman gathers does that denote an equalitarian society?
(Ajiimai / CC BY-SA 4.0 )

Importantly, the 2015 study also supported the evolutionary

advantage that ancient hunter gatherer societies would
similarly have enjoyed with egalitarian social structures,
providing “the selective context for expanded social
networks, cumulative culture, and cooperation among
unrelated individuals.” It is with the subsequent transition to
agriculture and pastoralism that humans see the
emergence of gender inequality, and the domination of
patriarchy that now characterizes our Western society.

Venus Figurines – Do They Imply

Matriarchal Rule?
In my view, ancient hunter gatherer communities were very
likely egalitarian, and so matriarchal. In support of this
conclusion, Dr. Simon Butler has noted that “[a]n apparent
dominance of female representation in prehistoric art has
been equated by some with female dominance or power in
society, and to the existence of wide-ranging matriarchal or
matrifocal societies prior to the emergence of patriarchies”.
Amongst this prehistoric art, there are more than 200
representations of women in what are commonly described
as “ Venus figurines ”. Found mostly in Europe and
generally dating back to the Paleolithic era, as much as
40,000 years ago, he comments that they “have been
variously interpreted as fertility symbols, lucky charms or
toys, or as images of goddesses, priestesses, worshippers,
ancestors or matriarchal rulers”.

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in the Female Wiles
Venus of Hohlefels, the earliest Venus figurine, Paleolithic
period, mammoth ivory, female representation in
prehistoric art has been equated by some with female
 dominance or power implying a Matriarchy Society.
(Ramessos / CC BY-SA 3.0 )

One of the more controversial claims is that they

demonstrate the worship of a mother earth goddess, and in
doing so support the view that these ancient cultures were
matriarchal. Generalizations are of course dangerous and
probably no single interpretation of their function would be
true of all of the figurines. Moreover, Dr. Butler has correctly
observed that in any event “any sacred status as
goddesses does not necessarily imply increased social
status for women.”

However, whatever the ultimate merits of this claim, more

significant to my mind is that these mostly palm-sized
figurines commonly exhibit heads devoid of detail, but with
large breasts, buttocks, hips and thighs, and legs that taper
to a point at the feet. Dr. LeRoy McDermott has suggested
that “these anatomical details do not add up to an accurate
image of the human figure” simply because they reflect
“the fixed angle of self-regard which accounts for both the
odd ‘realism of parts considered independently one from
anotherʼ … and … [the] conclusion that the figures appear
‘centered on the torso, breasts, thighs, and abdomen,ʼ with
the rest ‘attenuatedʼ or ‘dwindling awayʼ above and below”.
In other words, in at least some cases the woman
represented has carved the figurine herself, looking from
her own perspective down upon her body.

While not without its critics, this interpretation of the origins

of at least some of the figurines is to my mind quite
compelling. Of course, as Dr. McDermott has recognized,
“[i]dentifying where the artist stood when creating a
representational work does not tell us what it meant to its
creator or how it was used or seen by others”, but in my
view it does say something about the place of women in
that community. It challenges the common assumption that
these prehistoric figurines were carved only by men. It
reflects a community in which women also enjoyed a role in
its artistic life, whatever symbolic or other function/s the
figurines otherwise had within the community.

Cave Art – Was it Matriarchal?

This is also supported by research that has suggested that
women may be responsible for much ancient cave art .
While human handprints (positive images) and human hand
stencils (negative images) occur in cave art on every
inhabited continent, the largest (and arguably most well-
known) form part of the Upper Paleolithic cave art
concentrated in southern France and northern Spain,
generally dated to the period between 40,000 and 12,500
years ago. A study by Dr. Dean Snow, comparing hand size
and finger lengths, has disproved the traditional
assumption that this cave art was produced mainly, if not
exclusively, by men. Indeed, to the contrary, Dr. Snow found
that those who made the hand stencils in the caves were
predominantly women.
 Cueva de las Manos located Perito Moreno, Argentina.
This cave art dates between 13,000–9,000 BC. The hand
stencils in the caves were made predominantly by women.
(Marianocecowsk / CC BY-SA 3.0 )

Stone Tools – Made by Women

Similarly, stone tool production has generally been
assumed to be an exclusively male activity in ancient
communities. However, as early as 1991 the late Dr. Joan
Gero concluded that women in prehistory “can be
suspected of making as many stone tools as men”. This
conclusion has been supported by a more recent University
of Florida study of an extant Ethiopian community where
women were found to dominate the making of stone tools,
and which the authors of the study consider suggests that
women in prehistory probably similarly had an active part in
creating stone tools.

While none of these studies in or of themselves tells us the

nature of the gender structures of prehistoric hunter
gatherer communities, they each show female participation
in the economic, social, and cultural life of these
communities in areas traditionally understood to have been
the province solely of men. Taken together, they are at least
suggestive of an egalitarian social structure in these
communities.

Tools from the Stone Age, whether in a Matriarchy Society

and Patriarchy Society, it is determined that women were
found to dominate the making of stone tools. ( ExQuisine /
 Adobe)

Animals Represented in Paleolithic Art

It is interesting too that the animals represented in
Paleolithic art are not identical with those animals most
economically important or hunted. Rather, Dr. Walpurga
Antl-Weiser has noted that species were chosen to be
represented not merely because of their economic value
but because they had a deeper meaning to the community.
While there are regional choices as to which animals are
represented, he identifies mammoths as having a supra
regional importance throughout the Upper Paleolithic, while
other animals represented included bison and lions.

In the modern world, elephants (with whom it appears

mammoths shared a similar social structure), (North
American) bison and lions are all matriarchal. As Dr. Antl-
Weiser concludes that “[w]e can be rather sure that people
reflected on the abilities and qualities of animals and
compared some of these qualities with their own”, it might
legitimately be asked whether it was the matriarchal
qualities of these species that inspired their representation,
even if only in respect of some of the representations.

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Drawings from the ceiling of Altamira cave in Spain, bison
and lions are considered matriarchal. ( bereta / Adobe)

Venus-Style Figurines Pre-Dating

Homo Sapiens
It is also interesting that other Venus-style figurines of an
age pre-dating homo sapiens have been found in Israel and
Morocco. The Venus of Berekhat Ram and the Venus of
Tan-Tan have been claimed to be the earliest
representations of the human form, dating to between
230,000 and 700,000 years ago and between 300,000
and 500,000 years ago respectively. Given their age, it is
recognized that they would have been made by
Neanderthals or perhaps even predating Neanderthals,
being created by an earlier hominid like Homo erectus . In
that regard, it may be noteworthy that Neanderthal
communities are considered to have shared many of the
basic social and demographic characteristics of modern
hunter gatherer communities and indeed have been
suggested to have been matriarchal.

"Venus of Tan-Tan" (left) and "Venus of Berekhat Ram"

(right), Museum of Human Evolution, Spain. (Dbachmann /
CC BY-SA 4.0 )

On balance, there are strong grounds for concluding that

the communities of our ancient hunter gatherer forebears
were likely egalitarian in nature and so matriarchal in their
social structures. Such societies are based upon maternal
values, exhibiting as caretaking and nurturing negotiation-
oriented communities, for women and men alike; a reality
giving substance and form to the maligned mythology of a
Golden Age of Matriarchy. Which only begs the question –
What would our society be like if only we could escape the
domination of patriarchal rule?

Top image: Matriarchal woman Source:

wichansumalee / Adobe Stock

I would like to thank my friend and writing colleague, Ms.

Marianne Schmidt, for her insightful comments in the
development of this note.

By Dr. Philip Jamieson

References