Patriarchy

Michael R. Hill

The term patriarchy refers to an organization, institution, or society in which power, social control, material wealth, and high social status accrue predominantly to males rather than females. Patriarchy is one of the most enduring and pervasive of all social patterns. It appears in all eras, among all races, social institutions, and economic classes, and in virtually every known culture. Rising initially in early family and kinship structures, hierarchical patriarchal patterns are found today around the globe not only in family and kinship groups but also throughout the major social institutions, including language, family, economy, polity, religion, law, education, science, and medicine. Patriarchy derives fundamentally from early forms of family organization, and this theme was early explored by several noted scholars, including John Locke's The Two Treatises on Civil Government (1690) and Sir Henry Maine's Ancient Law (1861), Early History of Institutions (1875), and Early Law and Custom (1883). History ...

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