Oh hey, anthropology questions on a primarily western instance filled with Americans and Europeans, this will end well.
Simple answer: It heavily depends on the region and time period, there were periods of equality and periods of great inequality in every area of the – it was Greece. and the Germanic tribes that eventually formed Rome. That is the reason why it is prevalent in western culture as a meme, as well as anywhere western culture colonized.
Complex Answer:
Women have historically been equal to men or held in higher positions of power than men for most of human history. In early human societies (and intact uncontacted societies today, from observation) there was no clear sexual hierarchy, so we can conclude it didn’t really start there. From western development we see women in equal roles in pre-dynastic Egypt and across multiple middle eastern areas. While some greek tribes (and for that matter some germanic tribes) did have women in spiritual or leadership roles, this was incredibly uncommon and as ‘European’ culture became the ‘civilized’ culture, women took on a much more subservient, lesser role in society; as they saw the male form as more capable.
As one culture and viewpoint started to dominate, it started to leak in and infect practically every aspect of society. Early Catholicism and christianity, for instance, had women as equals, though the church lost that idea by the 9th century. By the 19th century when we see modern women’s liberation movements, a fully patriarchal society had developed which was incredibly domineering and widespread. Thanks to colonization by western European powers.
There does seem to have been a pretty widespread shift around 5000-3000 BCE (7000-5000 years ago) where a number of different populations across Europe, Asia, and North and East Africa all shifted in a relatively small time window to a patriarchal (literally “father-lead” for people who aren’t familiar with what the term actually means) social structure. Interestingly this also coincides with a rapid loss of genetic diversity in the y-chromosome suggesting it was highly hazardous to the health of most men when this shift happened. Some have speculated that this is the point at which we went from minor territorial disputes and some mild raiding to the emergence of organized “warfare”, though the evidence is circumstantial. While cultures still often went back and forth between being more egalitarian and more patriarchal, that seems to be a major historical turning point. In the (roughly) 300,000 year history of Homo sapiens, and the several million year history of the Homo genus, that’s a relatively recent.
Oh hey, anthropology questions on a primarily western instance filled with Americans and Europeans, this will end well.
Simple answer: It heavily depends on the region and time period, there were periods of equality and periods of great inequality in every area of the – it was Greece. and the Germanic tribes that eventually formed Rome. That is the reason why it is prevalent in western culture as a meme, as well as anywhere western culture colonized.
Complex Answer:
Women have historically been equal to men or held in higher positions of power than men for most of human history. In early human societies (and intact uncontacted societies today, from observation) there was no clear sexual hierarchy, so we can conclude it didn’t really start there. From western development we see women in equal roles in pre-dynastic Egypt and across multiple middle eastern areas. While some greek tribes (and for that matter some germanic tribes) did have women in spiritual or leadership roles, this was incredibly uncommon and as ‘European’ culture became the ‘civilized’ culture, women took on a much more subservient, lesser role in society; as they saw the male form as more capable.
As one culture and viewpoint started to dominate, it started to leak in and infect practically every aspect of society. Early Catholicism and christianity, for instance, had women as equals, though the church lost that idea by the 9th century. By the 19th century when we see modern women’s liberation movements, a fully patriarchal society had developed which was incredibly domineering and widespread. Thanks to colonization by western European powers.
There does seem to have been a pretty widespread shift around 5000-3000 BCE (7000-5000 years ago) where a number of different populations across Europe, Asia, and North and East Africa all shifted in a relatively small time window to a patriarchal (literally “father-lead” for people who aren’t familiar with what the term actually means) social structure. Interestingly this also coincides with a rapid loss of genetic diversity in the y-chromosome suggesting it was highly hazardous to the health of most men when this shift happened. Some have speculated that this is the point at which we went from minor territorial disputes and some mild raiding to the emergence of organized “warfare”, though the evidence is circumstantial. While cultures still often went back and forth between being more egalitarian and more patriarchal, that seems to be a major historical turning point. In the (roughly) 300,000 year history of Homo sapiens, and the several million year history of the Homo genus, that’s a relatively recent.