Social Sciences
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The Patriarchs: The Origins of Inequality
For fans of Sapiens and The Dawn of Everything, a groundbreaking exploration of gendered oppression-its origins, its histories, our attempts to understand it, and our efforts to combat it
For centuries, societies have treated male domination as natural to the human species. But how would our understanding of gender inequality-our imagined past and contested present- look if we didn't assume that men have always ruled over women? If we saw inequality as something more fragile that has had to be constantly remade and reasserted?
In this bold and radical book, award-winning science journalist Angela Saini explores the roots of what we call patriarchy, uncovering a complex history of how it first became embedded in societies and spread across the globe from prehistory into the present. She travels to the world's earliest known human settlements, analyzes the latest research findings in science and archaeology, and traces cultural and political histories from the Americas to Asia, finding that:
From around 7,000 years ago there are signs that a small number of powerful men were having more children than other menFrom 5,000 years ago, as the earliest states began to expand, gendered codes appeared in parts of Europe, Asia, and the Middle East to serve the interests of powerful elites-but in slow, piecemeal ways, and always resistedIn societies where women left their own families to live with their husbands, marriage customs came to be informed by the widespread practice of captive-taking and slavery, eventually shaping laws that alienated women from systems of support and denied them equal rightsThere was enormous variation in gender and power in many societies for thousands of years, but colonialism and empire dramatically changed ways of life across Asia, Africa, and the Americas, spreading rigidly patriarchal customs and undermining how people organized their families and work.
In the 19th century and 20th centuries, philosophers, historians, anthropologists, and feminists began to actively question what patriarchy meant as part of the attempt to understand the origins of inequality. In our own time, despite the pushback against sexism, abuse, and discrimination, even revolutionary efforts to bring about equality have often ended in failure and backlash. But The Patriarchs is a profoundly hopeful book-one that reveals a multiplicity to human arrangements that undercuts the old grand narratives and exposes male supremacy as no more (and no less) than an ever-shifting element in systems of control.
For centuries, societies have treated male domination as natural to the human species. But how would our understanding of gender inequality-our imagined past and contested present- look if we didn't assume that men have always ruled over women? If we saw inequality as something more fragile that has had to be constantly remade and reasserted?
In this bold and radical book, award-winning science journalist Angela Saini explores the roots of what we call patriarchy, uncovering a complex history of how it first became embedded in societies and spread across the globe from prehistory into the present. She travels to the world's earliest known human settlements, analyzes the latest research findings in science and archaeology, and traces cultural and political histories from the Americas to Asia, finding that:
From around 7,000 years ago there are signs that a small number of powerful men were having more children than other menFrom 5,000 years ago, as the earliest states began to expand, gendered codes appeared in parts of Europe, Asia, and the Middle East to serve the interests of powerful elites-but in slow, piecemeal ways, and always resistedIn societies where women left their own families to live with their husbands, marriage customs came to be informed by the widespread practice of captive-taking and slavery, eventually shaping laws that alienated women from systems of support and denied them equal rightsThere was enormous variation in gender and power in many societies for thousands of years, but colonialism and empire dramatically changed ways of life across Asia, Africa, and the Americas, spreading rigidly patriarchal customs and undermining how people organized their families and work.
In the 19th century and 20th centuries, philosophers, historians, anthropologists, and feminists began to actively question what patriarchy meant as part of the attempt to understand the origins of inequality. In our own time, despite the pushback against sexism, abuse, and discrimination, even revolutionary efforts to bring about equality have often ended in failure and backlash. But The Patriarchs is a profoundly hopeful book-one that reveals a multiplicity to human arrangements that undercuts the old grand narratives and exposes male supremacy as no more (and no less) than an ever-shifting element in systems of control.
Editorial Reviews
"A useful resource for scholars and students of gender studies and cultural anthropology."
-Kirkus Reviews
"Saini makes a persuasive case that patriarchy is more vulnerable to change than it appears. It's a game changer."
-Publishers Weekly
"The Patriarchs...shows that more equal societies are possible and do thrive – historically, now and everywhere."
-The Guardian
"In The Patriarchs, Angela Saini [turns] to archaeology, anthropology, and ancient history to warn readers that neither gender equity nor patriarchy is preordained."
-Science
"Angela Saini is one of today's most incisive and important writers about humanity's troubling turns, twists, and biases. The Patriarchs, a book that is at turns myth-busting, startling, enraging, surprisingly hopeful, and addictively readable, wholly underlines that point. Don't miss it."
-Deborah Blum, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of Love at Goon Park: Harry Harlow and the Science of Affection
"Based on extensive interviews with leading experts, this wide-ranging book injects new life into debates on the origins of patriarchy. Saini shows how much theorizing about the roots of gender inequality is a ‘racket,' resting on shaky assumptions about human biology and social norms, and serving to naturalize what it should seek to question: the penetration of household and family relations by predatory systems of power and exploitation."
-David Wengrow, coauthor of The Dawn of Everything
"Gripping and beautifully written, Saini's The Patriarchs is mind-bending. The Patriarchs compels us to look beyond what is and what was, and imagine what could be."
-Jennifer Shahade, author of Chess Queens: The True Story of a Chess Champion and the Greatest Female Players of All Time
"In a world sewn together by the myth of permanence, The Patriarchs offers a portal to possibility: the way things are is not necessarily how they could have been. Male supremacy was never inevitable; it was a political choice. Once again, Angela Saini has the receipts. She is scientific journalism at its best-equally engaging and enraging in her forensic denaturalization of power."
-Alok Vaid-Menon, author...
-Kirkus Reviews
"Saini makes a persuasive case that patriarchy is more vulnerable to change than it appears. It's a game changer."
-Publishers Weekly
"The Patriarchs...shows that more equal societies are possible and do thrive – historically, now and everywhere."
-The Guardian
"In The Patriarchs, Angela Saini [turns] to archaeology, anthropology, and ancient history to warn readers that neither gender equity nor patriarchy is preordained."
-Science
"Angela Saini is one of today's most incisive and important writers about humanity's troubling turns, twists, and biases. The Patriarchs, a book that is at turns myth-busting, startling, enraging, surprisingly hopeful, and addictively readable, wholly underlines that point. Don't miss it."
-Deborah Blum, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of Love at Goon Park: Harry Harlow and the Science of Affection
"Based on extensive interviews with leading experts, this wide-ranging book injects new life into debates on the origins of patriarchy. Saini shows how much theorizing about the roots of gender inequality is a ‘racket,' resting on shaky assumptions about human biology and social norms, and serving to naturalize what it should seek to question: the penetration of household and family relations by predatory systems of power and exploitation."
-David Wengrow, coauthor of The Dawn of Everything
"Gripping and beautifully written, Saini's The Patriarchs is mind-bending. The Patriarchs compels us to look beyond what is and what was, and imagine what could be."
-Jennifer Shahade, author of Chess Queens: The True Story of a Chess Champion and the Greatest Female Players of All Time
"In a world sewn together by the myth of permanence, The Patriarchs offers a portal to possibility: the way things are is not necessarily how they could have been. Male supremacy was never inevitable; it was a political choice. Once again, Angela Saini has the receipts. She is scientific journalism at its best-equally engaging and enraging in her forensic denaturalization of power."
-Alok Vaid-Menon, author...
Readers Top Reviews
SunshineFifth Genera
Angela Saini has done an amazing job bathing, correcting, and constructing all of these data points from antiquity to the current present and delivers it in a way that captivates, even as it frustrates as it gives light to more data as it defines patriarchy throughout time and the massive effects that it has had in multiple societies; communities, and religions. Well done; critical reading to understand these threads between familial relations and into legislature and history. I am hopeful we can impact these themes for our future and put an end to gender inequality and misogyny.
Friend of Bulgaria
I picked up a copy of this book at my local library and loved it from start to finish. Saini is a science journalist and the book is smart and accessible to a general audience.
For anyone who has wondered how patriarchy developed, all over the world and throughout time, this is the book to read. Meticulously researched, clearly and engagingly written, this is a book I will be gifting to friends and family. I love that I can share it with the men in my life, because the telling of history is so nuanced and fair. As a science writer, her tone is neutral and factual, and as a human being she extends benefit of the doubt where appropriate, and the book ends with optimism. Saini has made a hugely important contribution to our understanding of patriarchy, and also to our ability to talk about it in our personal lives.
Josh
I've read Angela Saini's two former books and i've got to say she is an incredible science communicator. She really does the research and presents the realities of her findings. In the Patriarchs she is not trying to say that matriarchies used to rule the world but more so that a lot of cultures actually leaned more toward egalitarianism. She actually dismisses a lot of the more recent myths of ancient matriarchal utopias, (although some female lead societies definitely did exist.) In league with her other books as an important and much recommended read.
Larry K
“States institutionalized human categorization and gendered laws; slavery influenced patrilocal marriage; empires exported gendered oppression to nearly every corner of the globe; capitalism exacerbated gender disparities; and religions and traditions are still being manipulated to give psychological force to the notion of male domination.” Struck, disturbed, troubled, etc. by the observation regarding “human categorization.” My life’s experience only confirms it’s pervasiveness and perversity. I’m likewise profoundly troubled as I recognize institutions (e.g., country and church) of which I am part (and am grateful for in so many ways) create, contribute to, and perpetuate an environment in which categorizations have been and are oppressive and exploitive. “Christianity” as herein characterized is a generalization. Individuals may and do vary from the stereotype. The God I have and continue to come to know and the God I worship, my God, loves each of His children without regard to classifications humankind seems so predisposed even unable not to create and exploit. Nonetheless, I believe that such proclivities which are not divine have found root among societies within those institutions. I believe in the divine origin of gender. I believe in the divinity of procreation. I'd be intentionally irrational and ignorant to disregard the distinction between genders in procreation. However, what is an unavoidable distinction differs mightily from what has become, through errant thought and behavior, intended or otherwise, systemic institutionalized oppression and exploitation of any human. I believe many in those organizations are blind to the distinction between divine expressions of thought, speech, and being as contrasted with oppressive and exploitative manifestations and expressions in thought, word, and deed. I note the persistent uneven distribution of work at home. I like to believe I’m less inclined to error. But am I? What am I blind to? Surely I too am conditioned by my environment. P.S. I believe the author has been careful to acknowledge what is known vs what is not and yet to assert potential meanings and application. Nicely done.
