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The origin of social hierarchies, and the social and political position that women held
throughout the ages, plays a major role in feminist theories. Modern feminists in the
19th century began to question whether or not there was ever a time when women
were dominant over men as men dominate women in patriarchal societies; they
began to question whether matriarchy could ever have existed (Ehrenberg 1989:63).
Some feminists believe that men have dominated and oppressed women throughout
the ages; this requires that we rely on information from archeological evidence for the
existence or not of patriarchy since the beginning of time. However, two conflicting
viewpoints have evolved, namely the traditionalist and the feminist anthropologist
views, on whether a matriarchy ever existed before patriarchy.

Traditionalists believe that male domination is universal and natural and, that in
religious terms, God created women to be subordinate to men (Lerner 1986:16). The
phenomenon of sexual asymmetry, that is the assignment of different tasks and roles
to men and women, is the most pervasive reason for the rise of patriarchy, according
to traditionalist theorists (Lerner 1986:16). Traditionalist feminists focus on women’s
reproductive capacity and motherhood as the reasons for the sexual division of labour
and see this biological division as functional and just (Lerner 1986:17). Traditionalist
views changed over time, especially in their “defence of male supremacy based on
biological-deterministic reasoning” and during the 19th century, their views on
women’s inferiority became “scientific” (Lerner 1986:18). Darwin’s theory of the
survival of the fittest became the justification for the unequal distribution of wealth and
privileges because of women’s biological constitution as “scientific defenders of
patriarchy” (Lerner 1986:18). It was also Freud’s theory of the female ‘anatomy is
destiny’ that reinforces traditionalists’ explanations of women’s subordination and
inferiority.8

Feminist anthropologists, however, challenged these views. Male domination was not
universal because no evidence has been found of societies in which sexual
asymmetry carried any connotation of domination or subordination of women. The
sexes were complementary (Lerner 1986:18).