Matriarchal or Patriarchal?

I met with some friends for lunch on Easter Sunday and was introduced to some very interesting 'friends of friends'...a South African couple who work closely with animals both here and in Africa.

The lady was talking about how many biologists are reviewing their theories of behavioural patterns of many animal species, ...and in particular to do with gender. She said that many are coming to the idea that the old view of the dominant male, established and maintained by brute force till overtaken, with his 'harem' of females was coming into question and that it was seen to be more likely that the paradigm seen with elephants is much more prevalent than hitherto imagined. This is where there is a matriarchal society with very strong family bonding over generations..... a much more altruistic and caring family picture of the wild than the 'dog eats dog' picture often portrayed. This was what she was finding in her own research with zebras.



When asked how people could have got it wrong, she said that for some centuries most of the naturalists were men and saw what they expected to see....male domination and behaviour more brutal than human's .....that with naturalists like Jane Goodall and Diane Fossey comimg on the scene in more recent years, new eyes and minds were on the case.

Well, I don't know enough about this new research to make too much direct comment till I find out more for myself ( though I do hope that indeed there is more co-operation and kindness rather than simple domination by brute force at play throughout nature) but several things really caught me.

One is how so many views about life on our planet are up for radical review right now, another was the reality that we all tend to look through our own 'biased' glasses... and the third that this new century is seeing a real re-balancing of the influence of men and women as thought leaders.