Patriarchy: How ‘Patriarchy’ started in the world? From Iran to Afghanistan, all the countries are trapped in it, can we get rid of it?

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patriarchy system

Highlights

  • Women against hijab in Iran
  • Right to abortion in America
  • Imprisoned in homes in Afghanistan

Patriarchy: Patriarchy, feminism… these are the words that we have been hearing for a long time, but now their discussion is gaining momentum once again. The latest case is from Iran, where women are protesting against the hijab. Just before this, women in Afghanistan took to the streets demanding their right to education and work. We also got a glimpse of this in Super Power America, where women took out rallies in the streets for abortion rights. Meanwhile many people believe that patriarchy has always been there, but surely it is not? Where did it actually start? Today we will try to find the answer to this question.

Patriarchy, after weakening somewhat in some parts of the world, has once again become stronger. In Afghanistan, the Taliban is once again strong, the country is in famine, but what is even more worrying is that women have been told to stay indoors and follow strict dress codes. And on another continent, some parts of the US are enacting laws to ensure that women can no longer legally have abortions. In both cases, the failure of the political leadership has allowed re-emergence of suppressed patriarchal ideas. It gives us a terrifying feeling of going back to the old days. But since when does patriarchy dominate our society?

The position of women in the science of mankind has long been a matter of interest. Contrary to popular belief, research suggests that patriarchy is not a ‘natural order of things’—it has not always been prevalent and may in fact eventually disappear. Ancient communities such as hunter-gatherers, gathering their food from plants and animals, were relatively egalitarian, at least compared to some of the regimes that came later. And women leaders and matriarchal societies have always existed.

male property

Reproduction is the basis of development. But it is not just the development of our bodies and minds – it is also linked to the development of our behavior and our cultures. For example, in order to maximize their reproductive success, men have often tried to control women and their sexuality. In nomadic societies with little or no material wealth, as was the case with most hunter-gatherers, a woman could not easily be forced to live together. The woman and her companion could live with their relatives or other people, and if they did not wish to live, they could live separately from them.

If a woman has children, it is difficult for her to live separately because the care of the father helps in the development and even survival of the children, but the woman could go elsewhere and be with her relatives if she wanted. Could stay or could find a new partner for herself. The origins of agriculture changed the game 12,000 years ago in some areas. It became necessary to protect the crops and it became necessary to stay in one place. Settlements began to form, and with it there were intra-group and inter-group conflicts. For example, in Venezuela the Yanomamo horticulturalist group lived in fortified houses and violently attacked neighboring groups and carried away their women as part of life.

Where cattle-rearing developed, the local population had to protect their livestock from other groups, leading to high levels of warfare. Since women were not as successful as men in war, being physically weak, this role was taken over by men, which helped them to gain power and put them in charge of the resources they were defending. As the size of the population increased and settled, problems of coordination arose. Social inequality began to emerge occasionally. Powerful people (usually men) who wielded resources, sided with the population by giving them some advantage, and the general population, men and women, often tolerated these elites simply so that they would not take away what they had. Take it

As farming and animal husbandry became more intensive, material wealth, now mainly controlled by men, became more important. The rules of kinship and lineage became more formal and marriages became more contractual to prevent conflicts between families over money. Transmission of land or livestock over generations has made some families wealthier.

monogamy vs polygamy

The wealth generated from farming and animal husbandry gave rise to the practice of polyandry (male with multiple wives). In contrast, women with multiple husbands (polyandrous) were rare. In most systems, raising girls was of greater importance, as they had the ability to have children and were usually more well cared for by the parents. The men used their wealth to lure young women by luring them with resources. The men gave money to the bride’s family and made her their wife, as a result of which rich men were able to have many wives, while poor men became single.

So it was men who needed that money to compete for marriage partners (whereas women acquired the resources needed for reproduction through their husbands). If parents wanted to maximize the number of grandchildren they had, it was wiser for them to pass their wealth to their sons rather than to their daughters. This led to formal rights of men over wealth and property. This also meant that after marriage, women often moved away from their homes to live with their husbands’ families.

In such a situation, the power of women started decreasing. If land, livestock and children were the property of men, then divorce was almost impossible for women. A daughter returning to her parents was undesirable because in this case she had to return the money given to her parents. Overall, the patriarchy was getting stronger now. Essentially, women were harboring gender bias against themselves. Monogamy had other consequences as well. Since the money still went to a wife’s children, the men made every effort to ensure that the children were theirs. They did not want to see their wealth unknowingly going to another person’s child. As a result, strict restrictions were placed on the sexuality of women.

Keeping women away from other men or keeping them in religious centers such as monasteries in India, or 2,000 years of tying women’s feet to keep them short in China, could all be its consequences. And in the current context, a ban on abortion makes sexual relations potentially difficult, traps people in the name of marriage and hinders women’s career prospects.

matriarchal society

It was relatively rare for money to flow in favor of women, but such societies did exist. These women-centred systems used to take place in a somewhat marginalized environment. Where there was little money to compete physically. For example, there are areas in Africa known as the ‘Matrilineal Belt’ where it is impossible to keep cattle for a variety of reasons. In some of these matrilineal systems in Africa, in general, women have more power. Societies with a prolonged absence of men, in which men are negligible due to long distance travel or the risk of high mortality, for example because of dangerous sea fishing in Polynesia or due to war in some Native American communities Which encouraged matriarchy.

Women in matriarchal systems often rely on their mothers and siblings instead of their husbands to help raise children. Such ‘community breeding’ by women, as seen in some matrilineal groups in China, makes men less interested (in an evolutionary sense) in investing in the home, as families not only include their wife’s children but the children of many other women are also involved. to which they are not related. It weakens the bond of marriage and facilitates the transfer of wealth between female relatives. In such societies women are less controlled sexually. Women control the money and pass it on to their daughters.

In matrilineal societies, both men and women can practice polygamy. The matrilineal Himba of southern Africa has the highest rate of such births. Even in today’s urban environment, high male unemployment often establishes more female-centric living arrangements, in which mothers help daughters raise their children and grandchildren, but often in relative poverty. But the introduction of material wealth, which could be controlled by men, has often led to the transformation of matrilineal systems into patrilineal systems.

As both men and women increasingly acquire their wealth, it is becoming increasingly difficult for the old patriarchy to control women. If girls benefit equally from formal education and job opportunities are open to all, then the argument of male-biased investment by parents is no longer valid. Patriarchy is not very necessary. We need institutions to help us solve the world’s problems. But if the wrong people come to power, patriarchy can arise again.

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