This new book by Angela Saini explores the complex history of male domination

Science journalist Angela Sainirsquos spirit of enquiry is unceasing And for good reason When in 2017 she wrote Inferior How Science Got Women Wrong there was a chapter that looked at male domination and ldquothe idea that this is how things have always beenrdquoSaini tells midday over a video call from New York ldquothat this is a widely held view That there is something in our biology that led to societies becoming the way they are now But there is very little evidence to back this Anthropologists quite universally agree that humans havenrsquot always been patriarchal in the way that we are nowrdquoThe one question that Saini was constantly asked by readers when Inferior launched was then how did societies become maledominatedAngela SainildquoTo be honestrdquo says Saini ldquoI didnrsquot have a great answer because the literature on the subject is so thin I wonder if thatrsquos because we do naturalise it patriarchy or because we assume that the answer is a simple onemdashthat this is just biologyrdquo Sainirsquos curiosity led her on a threeyearlong search for the roots of gendered oppression as she read up on and travelled to the worldrsquos earliestknown human settlementsHer latest work The Patriarchs How Men Came To Rule HarperCollins India uncovers a complex portrait of our past which may not offer an answer but upturns the way we think about how social structures were created ldquoWhen you look at this question properlyrdquo she argues ldquoyou realise the many layers to it that there is no one monolithic structure that we call patriarchy Itrsquos much more variegated around the worldrdquoThe material Saini was working with was endlessmdashldquoI could have written 50 volumes on itrdquomdashbut she had to be selective and make no assumptions ldquoThis is also a problem for academics in the area as well as archaeologists and anthropologists The further back you go into prehistory the more difficult it becomes to know what people were thinking You have to let go of everything whatever you are raised to believe in you have to try and relinquish it So right throughout the book I had to keep challenging myselfmdashhow much can I trust my own judgment of whatrsquos happening here and what can I say is unequivocally true and what is conjecturerdquoShe cites the example of Catalhoyuk a Neolithic settlement in southern Anatolia where the Seated Womanmdasha voluptuous nude female figurine seated in command between two felineheaded arm restsmdashwas discovered She was thought to be the Mother Goddess and the society was assumed to be matriarchal ldquoBut what we can now say given the evidence we have is that gender didnrsquot matter very much here to how people livedrdquoIn order to understand patriarchy better Saini who is of Indian origin also turned the lens on recent matrilineal societies closer home the Nairs of Kerala and the Khasis of MeghalayaldquoExisting matrilineal societies are crucial in helping us understand how much social variation there actually is in the world and secondly the ways in which they these societies have resisted the encroachment of patriarchy or sometimes succumbed to it It can be a lesson in how societies in the very distant past may have followed very similar routesrdquo What these societies also show us says Saini is that change is very rarely sudden ldquoIt doesnrsquot happen in one generation but over a stretched period of time and very subtlyrdquo She references authorhistorian Manu Pillai who discusses how a celebrated Malayalam novel in 1889 featured a new brand of Nair womanmdashldquoshe is tremendously dedicated to her man has the graces of an English lady and is horrified when her virtue is questionedrdquoEventually by 1920s and 1930 legislation in Travancore and Cochin brought ldquofurther assaults on the traditional matrilineal family setup of Nairsrdquo ldquoWhile matriliny was undermined in Kerala for hundreds of years today as a state it is trying to rediscover its matrilineal past and traditions and frame that as part of its futurerdquoOne of the things that she does discuss is how colonialism played a role in perpetuating patriarchy ldquoWhen I talk about empires spreading patriarchal systems itrsquos even those predating Romans Greeks and Mongolsrdquo she says ldquoIt was beneficial for them because systems of oppression whether they are classbased or genderbased benefit those in power because you invent classes of people who then can be exploited Patriarchy creates a group of people who will work for free Itrsquos no surprise why people have defended it so religiously and it has become so woven into our systems of power because for those incharge it ensured many benefitsrdquoThe early feminist movements then become an important expression of resisting such power dynamics ldquoIt would be a mistake to imagine that patriarchy was invented a very long time ago and that now we are simply living with its effects Patriarchy is constantly being reinvented and reassertedrdquo says Saini The fresh clampdown on access to abortion in the US the Taliban taking control of Afghanistan and rolling back education and work rights to women and the compulsory wearing of hijab and fresh conservative rules being imposed in Iran are oppressions as recent as they have been in the past ldquoWe cannot take for granted that our societies are becoming progressive We have to keep making a case for it and feminism helped make that case We need to frame equality as one that is not just for women but for everyonerdquo