Women of POWER: Matrilineal Chiefdoms and Matrilineal clans as well as Women as Chief/King or Warrior Women

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref

(List of matrilineal or matrilocal societies) “Matrilineal means kinship is passed down through the maternal line, the mother’s lineage, which can involve the inheritance of property and titles.” ref, ref

Chiefdoms are powers that are often believed to mobilize due to surplus labor, food, and prestige items. However, I see it as a cultural package that started with hunter-gather/fisher-foragers in west Siberia with the switch from a Matrilineal society to a patrilineal society from 8,000 to 7,000 years ago and from there spread this new war and powerful male thinking, but some Matrilineal societies changed to the war and power modal as well but kept being female-centered. I often talk as if they were completely wiped out by male clans, but not all were, and some became as horrible as male clans. One such major transfer of such ideas, which I think relates to the Tlingit (Matrilineal Na-Dene language connected to patrilineal Yeniseian languages such as the Ket People of  Siberia with mostly to Y-DNA haplogroup Q-M242 linking Tlingit and South America) of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America, were a Slaveholding, matrilineal clan chiefdom. And like 90% of South America shares their DNA and also, to me, likely somewhat influenced all Mesoamerican cultures and Moundbuilding cultures that had “Big Men/Big Women” pre/proto-chiefdoms, chiefdoms, and then clan monarchs: Kings/Empresses.

“The Ket language has been linked to the Na-Dené languages of North America in the Dené–Yeniseian language family. This link has led to some collaboration between the Ket and northern Athabaskan peoples. Although a potential link to the Na-Dené languages has been identified, this link is not accepted by all linguists. The Ket people e share their origin with other Yeniseian people and are closely related to other Indigenous people of Siberia and Indigenous peoples of the Americas. They belong mostly to Y-DNA haplogroup Q-M242. According to a 2016 study, the Ket and other Yeniseian people likely originated somewhere near the Altai Mountains or near Lake Baikal. It is suggested that parts of the Altaians are predominantly of Yeniseian origin and closely related to the Ket people. The Ket people are also closely related to several Native American groups. According to this study, the Yeniseians are linked to the Paleo-Eskimo groups.” ref

“Nganasans, Kets, Selkups, and Yukaghirs form a cluster of populations most closely related to Paleo-Eskimos in Siberia (not considering indigenous populations of Chukotka and Kamchatka). Kets are closely related to modern Selkups and to some Bronze and Iron Age populations of the Altai region, with all these groups sharing a high degree of Mal’ta ancestry. Implications of these findings for the linguistic hypothesis uniting Ket and Na-Dene languages into a language macrofamily. The Altai region was suggested as a homeland of the Yeniseian language family, and ancestors of the Yeniseian people were tentatively associated with the Karasuk culture (3200-2700 years ago) of the upper Yenisei. Yeniseian linguistic substrate is evident in many contemporary Turkic languages of this region (South Siberia): Altaian, Khakas, Shor, Tubalar, Tuvinian, and in Mongolic Buryat language. Yet Ket language lacks apparent affiliation with any major language family and is clearly distinct from surrounding Uralic, Turkic, and Tungusic languages.” ref

“However, recently, a tentative link was proposed between the Yeniseian language family and the Na-Dene family of Northwest North America (composed of Tlingit, Eyak, and numerous Athabaskan languages), thus forming a Dene-Yeniseian macrofamily. The Dene-Yeniseian-linkage is viewed by some as the first relatively reliable trans-Beringian language connection, with important implications for timing of the alleged Dene-Yeniseian population split, the direction of the subsequent migration (from or to America), the possible language shifts and population admixture Using these data, we investigated connections between Kets and modern and ancient Siberian and North American populations (including the Mal’ta and Saqqaq ancient genomes). In addition, we estimated Neanderthal contribution in Kets’ genome and in specific gene groups.” ref

“Mal’ta is a ~24,000 years ago old Siberian genome, recently described as a representative of ancient North Eurasians (ANE), a previously unknown northeastern branch of the Eurasian Paleolithic population. ANE contributed roughly 30–40% to the gene pool of Native Americans of the first settlement wave and about 50% to the Bronze Age Yamnaya culture in the Pontic-Caspian steppe. Massive expansion of the Corded Ware culture around 5,000-4,000 years ago, originating from the Yamnaya source, introduced the ANE genetic pool into Central and Western Europe and thus reshaped its genetic landscape. During the same period, the Afanasievo and Andronovo cultures, genetically similar to the Yamnaya culture, expanded into the Altai region (South Siberia) and later mixed with Siberian populations, giving rise to the Bronze Age Karasuk culture and later Iron Age cultures.” ref

“A global maximum of ANE ancestry occurs in Native Americans, with lower levels in peoples of more recent Beringian origin, i.e. indigenous populations of Chukotka, Kamchatka, the Aleutian Islands, and the American Arctic. In modern Europe, ANE genetic contribution is the highest in the Baltic region, on the East European Plain and in the North Caucasus. However, little is known about the distribution of ANE ancestry in its Siberian homeland. According to a single f₄ statistic, the Kets had the third highest value of ANE genetic contribution among all Siberian ethnic groups, preceded only by Chukchi and Koryaks. Thus, we suggest that the Kets might represent the peak of ANE ancestry in Siberia; the hypothesis we tested extensively in this study. We also investigated continuity between the modern Kets and Altaians and the ancient Bronze and Iron Age populations of the Altai region discussed above: the Karasuk culture samples dated to 3531-3261 years ago and Iron Age samples roughly dated to 2900-1100 years ago.” ref

“The 4,000-year-old genome from Greenland represents the Saqqaq archeological culture (4,500-2,800 years ago). This culture formed a continuum with Dorset and Norton cultures (2,500-1,000 years ago), collectively termed Paleo-Eskimo. Paleo-Eskimos were culturally and genetically distinct from modern Inuits and Eskimos. The Saqqaq culture is a part of the wider Arctic Small Tool tradition (ASTt) that had rapidly spread across Beringia and the American Arctic coastal regions (but not the interior) after 4,800 years ago, bringing pottery, bow and arrow to the northern North America. According to the archaeological data, the likely source of this spread was located in Siberia, namely in the Lena River basin (probably, in the Bel’kachi culture).” ref

“On genetic grounds, Paleo-Eskimos were also argued to represent a separate migration into America. ASTt spread coincided with the arrival of mitochondrial haplogroup D2 into America and the spread of haplogroup D2a; the Saqqaq individual bore haplogroup D2a1. The closest modern relatives of Saqqaq occur among Beringian populations (Chukchi, Koryaks, Inuits) and Siberian Nganasans. In addition, Saqqaq has been linked to Na-Dene-speaking Chipewyans (16% contribution to this population modeled with admixture graphs). However, mitochondrial haplogroup data argues against the proximity of Paleo-Eskimos to contemporary Na-Dene people, primarily due to the very high frequency of haplogroup A in the latter. Archeological evidence seems to support this argument.” ref

“There is no archaeological evidence of considerable trans-Beringian population movements between the inundation of the Bering Platform around 13,000-11,000 years ago and 4,800 years ago. Therefore, it is unlikely that the hypothetical Dene-Yeniseian language family has separated prior to 11,000 years ago, according to current concepts of time depth in language evolution, and hence ASTt could be the vehicle spreading Dene-Yeniseian languages and genes from Siberia to Alaska and to the American Arctic. However, as argued based on language phylogenetic trees in the framework of the Beringian standstill model, the Dene-Yeniseian languages have originated in Beringia and spread in both directions. Irrespective of the migration direction and their relationship to contemporary Na-Dene groups, Paleo-Eskimos are the primary target for investigating genetic relationship with the Kets.” ref

“In this study, we found that: (1) Kets and Selkups constitute a clade closely related to Nganasans; (2) Nganasans, Kets, Selkups, and Yukaghirs form a cluster of populations most closely related to Paleo-Eskimos in Siberia (not considering indigenous populations of Chukotka and Kamchatka); (3) unlike Nganasans, Kets derive roughly 30–40% of their ancestry from ancient North Eurasians; (4) Kets show genetic continuity with the hypothetical homeland of Yeniseian languages, as they are closely related to the ancient individuals of the Karasuk culture and to the later Iron Age individuals from the Altai.” ref

‘Ket-Uralic’ admixture component

“Using the GenoChip SNP array, we genotyped 130 K ancestry-informative markers in the Ket, Selkup, Nganasan, and Enets populations. Following the exclusion of first-, second- and third-degree relatives among the individuals genotyped in this study, we merged the GenoChip array data with the published SNP array datasets to produce a worldwide dataset of 90 populations and 1,624 individuals, focused on Siberia and America. The intersection dataset, containing 32,189 SNPs, was analyzed with ADMIXTURE. At K ≥ 11, ADMIXTURE identified a characteristic component for the Ket population. This component reached its global maximum of nearly 100% in Kets, closely followed by Selkups from this study (up to 81.5% at K = 19), the reference Selkups (up to 48.5%) and the Enets (up to 22.6%). The difference between the Selkups from this study and the reference Selkups can be attributed to a much closer geographic proximity of the former population to the settlements of Kets, with whom they have a long history of cohabitation and mixture.” ref

“The ‘Ket’ component occurred at high levels (up to ~20%) in four Turkic-speaking populations of the Altai region: Shors, Khakases, Altaians, and Teleuts. Notably, the Altai region was populated by Yeniseian-speaking people before they were forced to retreat north. Lower levels of the ‘Ket’ component, from 5% to 15%, were observed in the following geographic regions (in decreasing order): the Volga-Ural region, Central and South Asia, East Siberia and Mongolia, and North Caucasus. The ‘Ket’ component also occurred at a low level in Russians (up to 7.1%), Finns (up to 5.4%), and, remarkably, in the Saqqaq ancient genome from Greenland (7.2%, see below).” ref

“In order to verify and explain the geographic distribution of the ‘Ket’ admixture component, we have performed ADMIXTURE analysis on two additional datasets, different in population and marker selection. In summary, we suggest the existence of an admixture component with a peculiar geographic distribution, observed in some previous studies but not discussed there. In addition to the Kets, this component is also characteristic of Samoyedic-speaking and Ugric-speaking people of the Uralic language family: Selkups, Enets, Nenets, Khanty, Mansi, with a notable exception of Samoyedic-speaking Nganasans. The proportion of the ‘Ket-Uralic’ admixture component correlated strongly with the worldwide frequency of mitochondrial haplogroup U4 (Pearson’s correlation coefficient up to 0.8 and a corresponding p-value of 7 × 10⁻⁸) and with the frequency of Y-chromosomal haplogroup Q in Eurasian populations (correlation coefficient up to 0.9 and p-value 2 × 10⁻⁷).” ref

Kets in the context of Siberian populations

“In order to study the relationship of Kets and other Siberian populations with the relevant ancient genomes, we have constructed three additional datasets: the dataset based on the Ket genome sequences and the HumanOrigins array SNP data and two datasets based on genome sequences only. The Ket and Selkup populations were closely related according to multiple analyses. Nganasans appeared as the closest relatives of Kets according to statistics f₃ (Yoruba; Ket, X): the statistic for Nganasans was significantly different from that of the second-best hit. In general, outgroup f₃ statistics (Yoruba; Test, X) were tightly correlated between the Kets, the Selkups, and the Nganasans, with Pearson’s correlation coefficients ranging from 0.96 to 0.999, suggesting that these populations form a closely related group. In line with these results, Nganasans, Kets, Selkups, and Yukaghirs formed a clade in a maximum likelihood tree constructed with TreeMix on a HumanOrigins-based dataset of 194,750 SNPs.” ref

“In our ADMIXTURE analyses, the Saqqaq Paleo-Eskimo individual featured the following components: Beringian, Siberian, and South-East Asian. Thus, Saqqaq Paleo-Eskimo has mostly Beringian ancestry (similar to modern Eskimo, Inuits, Aleutians, Koryaks, etc.): see outgroup f₃ statistics and associated Z_diff scores, migration edges modeled with TreeMix and the ADMIXTURE results in the original study. Beringian ancestry in Saqqaq is combined with considerable Siberian ancestry: 32% or 28% as a sum of Siberian ADMIXTURE components in this study; ~25% according to ADMIXTURE analysis in the original study; from 31% to 57% according to f₄ statistic ratios calculated with various outgroups.” ref

“This ‘core Siberian’ component in Saqqaq is apparently most closely related to modern Nganasans and to the Nganasan-related clade in general. The Kets are the only representatives of this clade in the genome-based datasets in this study. According to the pairwise correlation between outgroup f₃ statistics, Kets are closer to Saqqaq as compared to Nivkhs, Altaians, Buryats, and Yakuts. According to Euclidean distances in the ten-dimensional space of principal components on the HumanOrigins dataset, Kets were a closer population to Saqqaq than Nganasans, Selkups, Yukaghirs and the other populations. However, the outgroup f₃ statistics (Yoruba; Saqqaq, Ket) in many cases were not significantly different from f₃ (Yoruba; Saqqaq, other Siberian population): e.g., see |Z_diff| scores < 3 for f₃ (Yoruba; Saqqaq, Nivkh). The same result was produced with f₄ (Saqqaq, Yoruba; Nivkh, Ket): an absolute Z-score was lower than 2.” ref

“Allentoft et al. have shown that in the early Bronze Age, the Altai region was inhabited by a genetically West Eurasian population of the Afanasievo archaeological culture, most similar to the Yamnaya culture with about 50% of ANE ancestry and to the modern Avars. In the late Bronze Age, this population apparently had been gradually admixed with Siberians, giving rise to the Karasuk culture and the later cultures of the Iron Age. The ancient genome ‘Iron Age Russia’, carbon-dated to 721–889 CE, is most closely related to the typical modern Siberians: Nganasans according to the outgroup f₃ statistic in the original study and Altaians or Koryaks according to the outgroup f₃ statistics and their pairwise correlations on our datasets lacking Nganasans.” ref

“However, according to various analyses, the ‘Iron Age Altai’ (dated roughly to 2900-1500 years ago) and the Karasuk (carbon-dated to 3531-3261 years ago) populations of two and six genomes, respectively, are most closely related to each other and to Kets. The outgroup f₃ statistics (Yoruba; Karasuk, X) on both genome-based datasets selected Kets as the best hit for Karasuk, although statistics for Mayans, Greenlanders, Mixe, Saqqaq, Mal’ta, Iron Age Russia, and Aleutian were not significantly different (|Z_diff| score < 3). Similarly, Native American, Beringian populations and Selkups were the best hits for Iron Age Altai and Karasuk according to the outgroup f₃ statistics in the original study (Kets were lacking in the dataset, see Allentoft, et al.). Importantly, the Karasuk culture has been tentatively associated with the Yeniseian-speaking people based on the toponymic evidence, and the Altai region is considered to be the homeland of the Yeniseian language family. As another piece to this puzzle, we observed genetic continuity between the Kets and the ancient genomes from the Altai.” ref

Mal’ta (ancient North Eurasian) ancestry in Kets

“The outgroup statistic f₃ (Yoruba; Mal’ta, Ket) was higher than statistics for all other Siberian and most Beringian populations. However, the statistic values were not significantly different within a large group of North Eurasians, according to Z_diff scores. Z_diff score for f₃ (Yoruba; Mal’ta, Ket) vs. f₃ (Yoruba; Mal’ta, Nganasan) equaled 7.4, 7.0 vs. f₃ (Yoruba; Mal’ta, Yukaghir) and only 2.7 vs. f₃ (Yoruba; Mal’ta, Selkup). Thus, we suggest that, unlike the other members of the Nganasan-related clade, Kets and, to a lesser extent, Selkups have a high proportion of Mal’ta ancestry, alternatively referred to as the ANE ancestry. The Mal’ta ancestry in Kets was further supported by the TreeMix analysis, specifically by a migration edge connecting Mal’ta to the Ket-Karasuk clade, with a weight of 43%. Taking into account the admixture coefficients for the two sequenced Ket individuals (Ket891 and Ket884), researchers selected Ket891 as an individual with lower values of the North European and Siberian admixture components (in the K = 19 dimensional space). In addition, Ket891 was identified as non-admixed by reAdmix analyses. Ket891 demonstrated a slightly closer genetic affinity to Mal’ta.” ref

“These results were consistent with calculations of f₄ statistic in two configurations: (X, Chimp; Mal’ta, Stuttgart) or (X, Papuan; Sardinian, Mal’ta), reproducing the previously used statistics. f₄ (X, Chimp; Mal’ta, Stuttgart) analysis tests whether the population X has more drift shared with Mal’ta or with Stuttgart (an early European farmer, EEF). Sardinians were used as the closest modern proxy for EEF in f₄ (X, Papuan; Sardinian, Mal’ta). All possible population pairs (X,Y) were tested by f₄ (Mal’ta, Yoruba; Y, X) on the genome-based dataset, including both Ket individuals. Compared to Kets, Mal’ta was significantly closer to none of the populations including Native Americans.

“Ket Q-M242 is believed to have arisen around the Altai Mountains area (or South Central Siberia), approximately 17,000 to 31,700 years ago. Q-M3 M3 (Q1a2a1a1), dated between 10,000-15,000 years ago, Haplogroup Q-M3 is one of the Y-Chromosome haplogroups linked to the indigenous peoples of the Americas (over 90% of indigenous people in Meso & South America). Today, such lineages also include other Q-M242 branches (Q-M346, Q-L54, Q-P89.1, Q-NWT01, and Q-Z780), haplogroup C-M130 branches (C-M217 and C-P39), and R-M207, which are almost exclusively found in the North America. Haplogroup Q-M3 is defined by the presence of the (M3) single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP). Q-M3 occurred on the Q-L54 lineage roughly 10-15 thousand years ago as the migration into the Americas was underway. There is some debate as to on which side of the Bering Strait this mutation occurred, but it definitely happened in the ancestors of the indigenous peoples of the Americas.” ref, ref

“The haplogroup C-M217 is now found at high frequencies among Central Asian peoples, indigenous Siberians, and some Native peoples of North America. Such as, males belonging to the Koryaks. The oldest sample with C2-M217 is AR19K in the Amur River basin (19,587-19,175 years ago). C2a-L1373 (estimated TMRCA 16,000 [95% CI 14,300 <-> 17,800] years ago) has been found often in populations from Central Asia through North Asia to the Americas, and rarely in individuals from some neighboring regions, such as Europe or East Asia. C2a-L1373 subsumes two subclades: C2a1-F3447 and C2a2-BY63635/MPB374. C2a1-F3447 includes all extant Eurasian members of C2a-L1373, whereas C2a2-BY63635/MPB374 contains extant South American members of C2a-L1373 as well as ancient archaeological specimens from South America and Chertovy Vorota Cave in Primorsky Krai. C2b1a1a P39 Canada,USA(Found in several indigenous peoples of North America, including some Na-Dené-,Algonquian-, orSiouan-speaking populations).” ref

“Q-NWT01 NWT01 (Q1a1a) Haplogroup Q-NWT01, dated between 4,000 and 7,000 years ago, Q-NWT01 is present in pre-Columbian populations in the Canadian Northwest. It also has been found in a specimen of the Saqqaq culture of prehistoric Greenland. In addition, Y-DNA that belongs to the Q-B143 subclade like the Saqqaq specimen from Greenland has been found in Koryaks, an Indigenous people of the Russian Far East culturally similar to the Chukchis of extreme northeast Siberia. Koryaks believe in a Supreme Being whom they call by various names: ŋajŋənen (Universe/World), ineɣitelʔən (Supervisor), ɣət͡ɕɣoletənvəlʔən (Master-of-the-Upper-World), ɣət͡ɕɣolʔən (One-on-High), etc. He is considered to reside in Heaven with his family and when he wishes to punish mankind for immoral acts, he falls asleep and thus leaves man vulnerable to unsuccessful hunting and other ills. Koryak mythology centers on the supernatural shaman Quikil (Big-Raven), who was created by the Supreme Being as the first man and protector of the Koryak. Big Raven myths are also found in Southeast Alaska in the Tlingit culture, and among the Haida, Tsimshian, and other natives of the Pacific Northwest Coast Amerindians.” ref, ref

“Q-M242 in Kets (central Siberia) at 93.8% and is found in Na-Dené speakers at an average rate of 68%. The highest frequency is 92.3% in Navajo, followed by 78.1% in Apache as well as has been found in approximately 94% of Indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica and South America. On the other hand, a 4000-year-old Saqqaq individual belonging to Q1a-MEH2* has been found in Greenland. Surprisingly, he turned out to be genetically more closely related to Far East Siberians such as Koryaks and Chukchi people rather than Native Americans. Today, the frequency of Q runs at 53.7% (122/227: 70 Q-NWT01, 52 Q-M3) in Greenland, showing the highest in east Sermersooq at 82% and the lowest in Qeqqata at 30%.

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

Ritual Mound Migrations: Kurgans, Dolmens, and later Pyramids likely all trace back to Siberia, helping show how Yeniseian languages, may have influenced Proto-Indo-European languages

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art 

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

The Center of the World “Axis Mundi” and/or “Sacred Mountains” Mythology Could Relate to the Altai Mountains, Heart of the Steppe, as well as a hub for Shamanism

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

Sacred Mounds, Mountains, Kurgans, and Pyramids may hold deep Mythology connections?

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

Religious/Ritual Ideas, including goddesses and gods as well as ritual mounds or pyramids from Northeastern Asia at least 6,000 years old, seemingly filtering to Iran, Iraq, the Mediterranean, Europe, Egypt, and the Americas?

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

Ancient North Eurasian

“A 2016 study found that the global maximum of Ancient North Eurasian (ANE) ancestry occurs in modern-day Kets, Mansi, Native Americans, and Selkups. ANE ancestry has spread throughout Eurasia and the Americas in various migrations since the Upper Paleolithic, and more than half of the world’s population today derives between 5 and 42% of their genomes from the Ancient North Eurasians. Significant ANE ancestry can be found in Native Americans, as well as in regions of northern Europe, South Asia, Central Asia, and Siberia. It has been suggested that their mythology may have featured narratives shared by both Indo-European and some Native American cultures, such as the existence of a metaphysical world tree and a fable in which a dog guards the path to the afterlife.” ref

Ancient Northern East Asian/ later became Ancient Northeast Asian
Ancient Paleo-Siberian
Mal’ta–Buret’ culture (Mal’ta boy MA-1)

Ancestral Native American, Ancient Beringian

14,000-year-old Ust-Kyakhta-3 (UKY) individual found near Lake Baikal

Amur River Region

Chertovy Vorota Cave/Devil’s Gate Cave

Afanasievo culture

Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex

Shaman Rock, on Olkhon Island, Lake Baikal, Siberia, with a natural rock image that resembles a dragon. And is one of the “Nine Holy Sites of Asia.”

Y-DNA Q and Tlingit

Y-chromosome analysis reveals genetic divergence and new founding native lineages in Athapaskan- and Eskimoan-speaking populations

“Abstract: For decades, the peopling of the Americas has been explored through the analysis of uniparentally inherited genetic systems in Native American populations and the comparison of these genetic data with current linguistic groupings. In northern North America, two language families predominate: Eskimo-Aleut and Na-Dene. Although the genetic evidence from nuclear and mtDNA loci suggest that speakers of these language families share a distinct biological origin, this model has not been examined using data from paternally inherited Y chromosomes. To test this hypothesis and elucidate the migration histories of Eskimoan- and Athapaskan-speaking populations, we analyzed Y-chromosomal data from Inuvialuit, Gwich’in, and Tłįchǫ populations living in the Northwest Territories of Canada. Over 100 biallelic markers and 19 chromosome short tandem repeats (STRs) were genotyped to produce a high-resolution dataset of Y chromosomes from these groups. Among these markers is an SNP discovered in the Inuvialuit that differentiates them from other Aboriginal and Native American populations. The data suggest that Canadian Eskimoan- and Athapaskan-speaking populations are genetically distinct from one another and that the formation of these groups was the result of two population expansions that occurred after the initial movement of people into the Americas. In addition, the population history of Athapaskan speakers is complex, with the Tłįchǫ being distinct from other Athapaskan groups. The high-resolution biallelic data also make clear that Y-chromosomal diversity among the first Native Americans was greater than previously recognized.” ref

“The peopling of the Americas is a question of fundamental importance in anthropological and historical disciplines. Much research on the issue has focused on testing the hypothesis that several separate migrations entered the New World, with each migration being associated with different linguistic, dental, and presumably, genetic characteristics. Under this model, Amerind is the largest, most varied, and oldest language family in the Americas. However, some have questioned the use and/or appropriateness of this linguistic classification. Despite this controversy, the designation of the Na-Dene and Eskimo-Aleut language families is well-established, although the inclusion of Haida with Athapaskan, Eyak, and Tlingit (forming the Na-Dene family) has been reconsidered.” ref

“In addition, there has been debate concerning the validity (or strict separation/genetic differentiation) between speakers of Athapaskan and Eskimo-Aleut languages. It has been argued based on blood group markers and cranial trait data that some Inuit are more closely related to non-Inuit groups and that certain Athapaskan-speaking populations have greater genetic affinity with non-Athapaskan groups. Complete correlations between genetics and linguistic classifications are lacking from mtDNA data. Even the dental traits used to justify a three-migration hypothesis did not group all Na-Dene speakers into a single category separate from the other two (Amerind and Eskimo-Aleut) groups and furthermore, suggested the inclusion of Aleuts with Athapaskan speakers from northwestern America. Thus, although it is generally accepted that the two language families differ from each other, it is not clear whether they have different genetic origins or instead, are the result of separate migrations from the same source.” ref

“Not surprisingly, the number and timing of migrations into the Americas are still vigorously debated. Previous work focused mostly on mtDNA variation in northern Native American populations. Work using the Y chromosome to explore these issues, however, used relatively low-resolution haplogroup and haplotype data or did not test the correlation between Y-chromosomal diversity and language use (Athapaskan vs. Eskimoan) in a localized geographic space. Here, we rectify this issue by generating the highest resolution nonrecombining region of the Y-chromosome (NRY) dataset to date for the Americas and analyzing populations that fill a major geographic gap between the previously studied Alaskan Inupiat and Greenlandic Inuit.” ref

“We characterized the NRY in Athapaskan [Gwich’in (Kutchin) and Tłįchǫ (Dogrib)] and Inuvialuktun (Inuvialuit) speakers from the Canadian Northwest Territories. This analysis led to the more precise identification of indigenous haplogroups and a better understanding of the extent of recent European admixture. In addition, by generating highly resolved Y-chromosome lineages, we were able to confirm the phylogeny of haplogroup Q, providing a detailed basis for future work. We also assessed whether Athapaskan and Eskimoan speakers derived from separate migrations (i.e., whether their genetic variation was structured by language) and examined the relationships of populations within and among these linguistic groups. In doing this assessment, we have expanded our understanding of the migration histories of Aboriginal [the term aboriginal describes indigenous populations in Canada, including First Nations (Indians), Inuit, and Métis] populations from northern North America.” ref

Results: Haplogroup Q Phylogeny.

“The structure of the haplogroup Q phylogeny is essentially the same as presented in the work by Dulik et al., but it is enhanced for Native American and Aboriginal Y chromosomes. The relative position of the Q1a3 branch was verified. A single Chumash haplotype possessed the four markers defining Q1a3 but lacked all nine markers defining Q1a3a, Q1a3b, and Q1a3c. Q1a3a remains defined as described in the work by Dulik et al. Five of the Aboriginal participants had the L54 marker, which defines Q1a3a1*, but lacked any additional derived markers, including the Native American-specific M3. The remaining samples from this branch had the M3 marker but none of the four derived markers common in South America.” ref

A number of haplogroup Q Y chromosomes did not belong to the Q1a3 branch. Most of these chromosomes had markers defining Q1a but lacked those markers that define Q1a1, Q1a2, Q1a3, Q1a4, and Q1a5. M323, which formerly defined Q1a6 , is now positioned as a derived mutation in relation to M346. A marker detected in this analysis, called NWT01, differentiated almost one-half of the Inuvialuit Y chromosomes from all others. We have classified these Y chromosomes as belonging to haplogroup Q1a6. In addition to this haplogroup, two samples had the P89 marker, which defines haplogroup Q1a5. Thus, three of six known Q1a branches are found in the Americas (Q1a3, Q1a5, and Q1a6).” ref

“We observed significant differences in NRY haplogroup frequencies among the three Aboriginal groups from northern Canada (Table 1 and Table S1). All populations had high to moderate frequencies of Q1a3a1a*. The Athapaskan-speaking Gwich’in and Tłįchǫ had higher frequencies of C3b than the Inuvialuit, whereas the Inuvialuit had significantly more Q1a6 lineages. Additional haplogroups that seem to be indigenous in origin were found at low frequencies in the Athapaskan groups. Four samples (three Gwich’in and one First Nation member from British Columbia) belonged to paragroup Q1a3a1*. We also identified 10 samples (9 Athapaskans and 1 Inupiat samples) that clustered with these haplotypes, suggesting a common origin for them. Another Q1a3a1* lineage belonged to a Mi’kmaq from Nova Scotia, but it is not clear that this person’s Y chromosome also shares a recent origin with these other haplotypes. Finally, one Tłįchǫ and one Slave belonged to Q1a5, whereas a similar Y-chromosome short tandem repeat (Y-STR) haplotype was found in one Alaskan Athapaskan. This SNP was previously described in the work by Karafet et al., although its geographic distribution was not discussed.” ref

“Earlier studies of Aboriginal and Native American Y chromosomes struggled to identify the number of indigenous founder haplogroups from those haplogroups that recently came from European and African sources. Based on our examination of genealogical information and high-resolution genotypes, we were able to distinguish between these sources; 48% of the Gwich’in and 43% of the Inuvialuit Y chromosomes were more typically found in Europeans. By contrast, only 19% of the Tłįchǫ lineages were nonindigenous. Comparisons of these data with data from worldwide populations (www.yhrd.org) showed exact or near matches between the haplotypes of nonindigenous lineages and those haplotypes of Europeans. Hence, although these men are Aboriginal, some of their genetic ancestry traces back to Europe.” ref

“Because variation accumulates with time, a relative chronology can be constructed by assessing haplogroup STR diversity, ρ, and mean pairwise differences. We noted that Q1a Y chromosomes had far greater diversity than C3 Y chromosomes, and within Q1a, those chromosomes with M3 (Q1a3a1a*) had the greatest amount. The Q1a3a1a* network exhibited only one definitive haplotype cluster, which was composed entirely of Athapaskan-speakers (mostly Tłįchǫ) and distinctive in having a duplication of the DYS448 locus. All other Q1a3a1a* lineages were dispersed among longer branches of the network, indicating that they derived from a common source much farther in the past. Tłįchǫ Q1a3a1a* showed the lowest intrapopulation variance (Vp) estimate, whereas values were higher in the Gwich’in and Inuvialuit. The low diversity of the Tłįchǫ is likely caused by a recent founder event. Interestingly, when comparisons were expanded to include populations from southeast Alaska, the Tlingit had far greater diversity within this haplogroup, possibly as a result of their geographic location and increased interaction with other Native Americans.” ref

“Haplogroups Q1a6 and C3b had roughly one-third of the diversity of Q1a3a1a*, suggesting that they arose more recently and at approximately the same time. The majority of Y chromosomes for each of these haplogroups belonged to single haplotype clusters, suggesting that they likely originated from two different ancestors relatively recently (one for each haplogroup). Q1a6 is especially important, because it is largely confined to the Inuvialuit, Inuit, and Inupiat populations. Although no SNP data were presented in the work by Davis et al., a number of their STR haplotypes were similar to the Q1a6 lineages and in several cases, shared with the Inuvialuit. Furthermore, Q1a6 may also be present in Greenlandic Inuit and Aleuts, although these populations were characterized with fewer STRs. Diversity estimates indicated the greatest assortment of haplotypes in the Yupik and less assortment in Inupiat and Inuvialuit. This trend of slightly decreasing values from west to east suggests an origin for Q1a6 in the westernmost Arctic and its dispersal through an eastward expansion.” ref

“Haplogroup C3b was found at comparatively high frequencies in Athapaskan populations. The Tłįchǫ and Gwich’in C3b lineages were similar to one another, forming a single large cluster. We reduced our NRY data to 8-STR loci haplotypes to compare them with published data and determine the directionality of movement by bearers of C3b Y chromosomes. Vp estimates for the 8-STR haplotypes showed the greatest diversity in the Tanana Athapaskans and Alaskan Athapaskans of the work by Davis et al., moderate values among the Tłįchǫ and Gwich’in, and the lowest values in the Apache, thus forming a north to south gradient of C3b diversity. The evolutionary mutation rate was used to calculate times to most recent common ancestor (TMRCAs), because previous estimates using the pedigree-based mutation rate gave values that were too recent and conflicted with nongenetic data.” ref

“In most cases, the estimates from Batwing were greater than those estimates from Network—a difference previously noted. Unlike ρ-estimates, the estimates generated with Batwing are useful only when the demographic model that is used is appropriate for the sample set. In this case, the model involves a population at a constant size that expands exponentially at time β. Although generally useful, the 95% confidence intervals of Batwing estimates show that the TMRCAs are not precise. In addition, if the root haplotypes were incorrectly inferred for the ρ-statistics, then the TMRCAs could be skewed. Regardless, the relative chronology of these haplogroups should not be affected. The TMRCAs for M3-derived Y chromosomes indicated a coalescent event between 13,000 and 22,000 years ago.” ref

“TMRCAs from each population were substantially more recent, although the dates mirror the diversity estimates in showing the varied collection of Q1a3a1a* haplotypes in each population. The TMRCAs for Q1a6 and C3b were comparable. For Q1a6, the TMRCA was between 4,000 and 7,000 years ago. The overall TMRCA estimate of the C3b lineages was 5,000 years ago with ρ-statistics and about two times that value with Batwing. Similar estimates were calculated for each of the ethnic groups, with a range between 4,000 and 6,000 years ago; Alaskan Athapaskans had greater diversity and an older TMRCA.” ref

“Much of the genetic research on northern Aboriginal populations has centered on the origins of Inuit peoples, particularly from Greenland, and the possible contributions of historic European (Norse) populations to their genetic makeup. This study has examined Y-chromosome diversity in the Inuvialuit to better understand the origin of their Aboriginal lineages. We accomplished this task effectively by using high-resolution haplotypes. In addition, the samples came from populations living in a region not previously well-described, thus filling a significant geographic void in genetic information about northern Aboriginal history.” ref

“From an mtDNA perspective, Inuit populations around the Arctic seemed similar to one another, with low levels of genetic diversity. The general model for Inuit origins proposes a discontinuity between the earliest inhabitants of Greenland (Paleo-Eskimo) and later (Dorset and Thule) cultures. Debate continues as to whether Inuit are wholly descended from Thule tribes that migrated across the Arctic about 1,000 years ago or whether modern Inuit formed out of interactions between the previous Dorset inhabitants and later Thule migrants. A complete ancient Paleo-Eskimo mitogenome was sequenced to test these models. The sample belonged to haplogroup D2a1, which does not appear in modern Inuit populations and is most similar to Aleut and Siberian Yupik D2a1a mitogenomes, suggesting a genetic discontinuity between ancient and modern Inuit populations.” ref

“From an NRY perspective, many Eskimoan Y chromosomes belonged to Q1a6, which has a TMRCA that predates the Paleo-Eskimo material culture. The Y chromosome of the ancient Paleo-Eskimo man was assigned to paragroup Q1a*, but the NWT01 locus was not sequenced. Assignment of the Paleo-Eskimo Y chromosome to Q1a6 does not conflict with these data or the TMRCA of Q1a6. Furthermore, autosomal analysis of the ancient Paleo-Eskimo genome suggested that this man had close affinities with the Nganasan, Koryak, and Chukchi of northeastern Siberia. In fact, four Koryaks also have Q1a* Y chromosomes, with the number of repeat differences being within the typical range of confirmed Q1a6 haplotypes. Thus, although a discontinuity in mtDNAs between the Paleo-Eskimo and modern Inuit has been shown, this finding may not be the case for Y chromosomes.” ref

“Our Q1a6 TMRCAs were comparable with the estimate that the work by Rasmussen et al. calculated from genomic SNP data for a migration from Siberia to the Americas. Although the work by Rasmussen et al. inferred a Siberian origin for this migration, an origin in northwestern North America with a subsequent back migration across the Bering Strait is equally likely (as seen with M3), given that Q1a6 is found at higher frequencies and with greater diversity in Eskimoan speakers. In addition, NRY lineages common to coastal Siberian populations (i.e., C3c and N1c) were not present in American Arctic groups.” ref

“In addition to identifying this Eskimo-Aleut haplogroup, we also noted significant genetic differences between Inuvialuit and Athapaskan speakers. Previous mtDNA studies found haplotype sharing between Inuit and Athapaskan speakers . This finding was evident from the high frequency of A2 mtDNAs in both linguistic groups and reduced genetic diversity relative to populations to the south—possibly caused by more recent reexpansions from Beringia or northwestern North America . In contrast, their Y-chromosome diversity was structured by language affiliation, which suggested that the distribution of genes and language are consistent with at least two migratory events. It is especially convincing given that some number of Inuvialuit and Gwich’in live in the same communities (Aklavik and Inuvik). Furthermore, within the Eskimoan-speaking populations, the Inuvialuit and Inupiat (Inuit speakers) and Yupik (Yupik speakers) have genetically diverged from each other.” ref

“However, the data for Na-Dene-speaking populations did not show the same correspondence between populations and language. The Tlingit, who speak the most divergent language of those languages in the Athapaskan-Eyak-Tlingit linguistic family, are not significantly different from the Gwich’in and Athapaskan Indians from Central Alaska. Because the Tłįchǫ speak an Athapaskan language closer to the language of the Gwich’in, we expected that the Tłįchǫ and Gwich’in would be more similar to one another than to the Tlingit. However, the Tłįchǫ were genetically distinct from other Athapaskan speakers, possibly because of their lower levels of European admixture. This finding, however, does not explain the small genetic distance between Tlingit and Gwich’in and may indicate that the Tlingit sample is too small and unrepresentative to allow for a complete comparison. The genetic differences between these Aboriginal groups do suggest that the spread of Inuit culture across the Arctic was not simply a cultural phenomenon and that Athapaskan Indians living in the interior were not differentiated by their cultural adaptations to local environments alone (at least from a strictly paternal genetic perspective).” ref

“Previous studies using Y-chromosomal data have not conclusively determined whether the Americas were peopled by a single migration event or multiple migrations. Initial data from STRs, Y-chromosome centromeric heteroduplexes, and surveys of the M3 marker suggested a single migratory event. The presence of haplogroup C in the Americas has been cited as evidence for a second migration and has also been used as evidence of a separate homeland for Native American progenitors. Our data are most consistent with the model in the work by Forster et al. that proposes a single migration into the Americas followed by a second subsequent expanding wave. The first wave was associated with the initial peopling of the Americas through Beringia, and the founding populations were likely composed of Q-MEH2 (xL54), Q-L54, and C-M217 Y chromosomes. Other Y chromosomes were likely present in the founding population at low frequencies but subsequently lost over time.” ref

“Q-L54 is unmistakably a founding haplogroup and provides a clear connection to southern Siberia, where L54 is also found. The designation of Q-L54 as a major founding haplogroup is also supported by the presence of Q-L54 (xM3) Y chromosomes in our sample set. However, the geographic distribution of this paragroup is not yet clear. By contrast, Q-M3 arose (either in Beringia or Alaska) from a Q-L54 founder and has been shown to be ubiquitous and diverse in most indigenous populations, pointing to its primacy in the first expansions of men throughout the Americas.
Furthermore, a handful of C-M217 Y chromosomes without the P39 marker were found in southeast Alaska and Colombia, South America. The spread of C-P39 involved mostly Athapaskan speakers and was associated with a second wave of expansion, which is the same as Q1a6 for Eskimoan speakers. These second wave expansions likely originated from American sources that amalgamated with the first wave inhabitants as they spread throughout the north. Because of the imprecision of TMRCA estimates, it is not possible to determine whether haplogroup C3b originated before Q1a6 or vice versa.” ref

“The disparities in language, culture, and Y-chromosome diversity between Athapaskan- and Eskimoan-speaking populations likely reflect the effects of demic expansions after the initial migratory event that brought human groups to the Americas. This second wave likely occurred roughly in parallel, resulting in different migration and population histories, and contributed to the genetic makeup of extant Aboriginal populations of North America. We should emphasize that we are referring to the populations themselves and not the languages that they speak. We can only say that speakers of these two language families have comparatively recent paternal histories. This analysis has allowed us to develop a more detailed picture of the paternal genetic history of Aboriginal and Native Americans, and it shows that the diversity of the founding indigenous American populations was greater than previously acknowledged.” ref

 Mt-DNA (Mitochondrial/from the mother) and Tlingit

Genetic Diversity and Relationships of Tlingit Moieties

“Abstract: The Tlingit from Southeast Alaska belong to the Northwest Coast cultural tradition, which is defined by regionally shared sociocultural practices. A distinctive feature of Tlingit social organization is the matrilineal exogamous marriage system among clans from two opposite moieties: the Raven/Crow and Eagle/Wolf. Clan and moiety membership are determined by matrilineal descent, and previous genetic studies of Northwest Coast populations have shown that there is a relationship between clan membership and genetic variation of matrilines and patrilines. To further understand this association, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences from the Tlingit (n=154) are examined. By comparing mtDNA with moiety membership information, we explore the impact of marriage traditions among the Tlingit with their observable genetic variation. At the genetic level, the results support cultural persistence of Tlingit maternal moiety identity despite the negative impacts of European colonization. Our study additionally illustrates the relevance of data derived from Tlingit oral traditions to test hypotheses about population history on the Northwest Coast.” ref

“For the Tlingit, oral traditions are intangible properties, a fundamental part of their ideological system whose narrative contains information about clan origins, interrelationships, migrations, and first settlements. Here, we seek to explore Tlingit clan and moiety systems by integrating genetic data with oral history and the ethnographic record. We examined Tlingit mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences in terms of clan membership information to elucidate marriage traditions from a biocultural perspective. The Tlingit share a number of features with other Norwest Coast Cultures which includes a subsistence system heavily reliant on marine resources, distinctive woodworking technology used for the production of ceremonial and utilitarian items, formline art, hierarchical social organization, and spiritual beliefs based on animism. However, most anthropological research on the Tlingit has focused on investigating their origins and social-political evolution using ethnohistorical, anthropological, and archaeological information.” ref

“Early archaeological sites in this region include On Your Knees Cave (OYKC) in Prince of Wales Island, Ground Hog Bay 2 in the Chilkat Peninsula, and Hidden Falls in Baranof Island, with dates ranging from 10,500 to 7,500 years ago, and are defined by microblade assemblages. The form and function of these tools, suggest an increasing reliance on marine resources through time. By the Late Holocene, complex sociopolitical groups, similar to those reported from ethnohistorical sources, inhabited the northern Northwest Coast. In southeast Alaska, house-depression villages and fortified sites from the Late Holocene resemble Tlingit settlements observed at the time of European contact. Artifact types associated with the ethnographic Tlingit date to as early as 1600 years ago.” ref

Moiety and Clan System

“The Tlingit people follow an exogamous matrilineal system in which clan membership and social status are directly transmitted from mother to children through the concept of haa tláa yinaanáx (our mother’s side). Clans belong to either of two moieties or “opposite side” (guneit kanaayi) descent groups: Raven/Crow (Yeil naa or Tléix’ Laayaneidí) or Eagle/Wolf (Cha’aak’/Gooch naa or Tléix’ Shangukeidí). Moiety members had reciprocal ceremonial duties during important events in the life cycle, but the most important function was marriage regulation. Each moiety is further subdivided into clans, the number of which ranges from 60 to over 70, which, in turn, are divided into lineages or houses (hit).” ref

“Members of a clan only married individuals from an opposing moiety. Political organization centered on clan membership, and clan identity was integral to Tlingit society. The clans possessed territories, rights to resources, and trade routes (de Laguna 1990). Oral accounts and ethnographic literature indicate that communities were initially inhabited by a single clan, expanded and diversified to occupy multiple settlements. Thus, clans were not geographically restricted. Contemporary clans are products of complex fission and fusions of more ancient clans, making clan histories deeply connected. Oral histories indicate that new clans existed independently, both ceremonially and politically from a parent clan. Russian Orthodox and Protestant missionization, along with the imposition of Russian and American legal practices regarding marriage in the second half of the 19th century, affected not only the role marriage played in society but also altered traditional gender/status roles of women as well rules of inheritance and wealth in Tlingit society.” ref

“The Tlingit were also distributed in seventeen tribally distinct groups or kwáans The kwáan is interpreted as a geographic unit rather than a meaningful social or political category. Each kwáan consisted of one or more matrilineal clans that shared one or multiple winter villages. A kwáan remained an independent body which did not recognize tribal authority or a central governing figure (Emmons and de Laguna). Most Tlingit clans trace their origins to the Tsimshian coast, around the mouth of the Skeena River, and migrated from present-day Tsimshian territory along a northward route. Migration histories depict movements from the interior to the coast through the Nass, Stikine, and Taku Rivers (de Laguna 1990:205-206). Swanton (1908) and Emmons and de Laguna (1991) hypothesize that the two Tlingit moieties originated from the interaction and intermarriage of two separate Tlingit populations, with oral histories supporting a model where
the Raven and Eagle/Wolf moiety clans reached southeast Alaska following different routes, and at different times.” ref

“The oral accounts also reveal that when later groups arrived in Southeast Alaska, they found an existing population belonging to the Raven moiety. In this scenario, the first clans that belong to the Raven moiety moved from the Tsimshian Peninsula northwards to the Skeena, Nass, Stikine, and Taku rivers, and later Eagle moiety clans originated from the interior. Likewise, Worl (1998, 2005) supports the idea that an ancestral population of the Raven moiety initially moved into the Tlingit territory. Worl’s (2005) analysis of the oral traditions also reveals that Eagle/Wolf moiety clans track their migrations from the interior to the coast, and then north, while the Ravens trace theirs from the Nass and Skeena Rivers area. The ethnographic information supports the above scenario. These arguments, derived from anthropological studies and oral history, can be used to explore biocultural information in order to illuminate the migration history of the Tlingit.” ref

“The integration of genetic analyses in anthropology is useful for testing hypotheses about population histories. When combined with evidence from culture history and language, genetic tools are useful for reconstructing the past. The Northwest Coast populations were among the first cultural groups to attract the attention of researchers who sought to use genetic evidence to evaluate population histories and relationships. Regionally, the Northwest Coast cultures share similarities in their mtDNA haplogroup distributions. Coastal populations such as the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian tend to exhibit high frequencies of haplogroup A, and moderate to low frequencies of haplogroups B, C, and D. This genetic pattern seems to have been already well established around the time the Northwest Coast tradition emerged (e.g. before 3000 years ago), and haplotypes observed in the region have shown continuity throughout time.” ref

“Schurr and colleagues (2012) studied the genetic diversity of modern Tlingit and Haida populations, performing statistical and phylogenetic analyses on mtDNA and Y-chromosomal data in order to investigate the influence of migration and cultural practices (marriage) as well as the relationship between linguistic groups. A majority of Tlingit and Haida individuals belonged to subhaplogroup A2 with a lower frequency belonging to either haplogroup C or D. Both populations exhibited less haplotype variation compared to Artic and central Northwest Coast populations. Genetic distances (FST) of Northwest Coast populations were high, indicating considerable population differentiation in the region. Finally, Schurr and colleagues (2012) found a high correspondence between mitochondrial haplotypes and maternal moiety affiliation. The researchers found a strong association between geographic range, clan identity, and genetic composition among Tlingit individuals, and were able to differentiate haplotypes that were exclusive of each moiety.” ref

“Mitochondrial DNA collected from Tlingit volunteers was used to address the relationships between maternal genetic composition and marriage traditions in Tlingit cultural history. The general objective is to expand the knowledge about the genetic patterns of the northern Northwest Coast groups by integrating genetic data of modern Tlingit populations in the context of oral history, ethnographic accounts, and marriage traditions. Thus, this study aims to test the hypothesis that clan social customs have had a profound impact on the modern genetic composition of the two moieties: Eagle/Wolf and Raven/Crow. A main assumption is that sociocultural signatures of marriage customs are traceable through mtDNA haplotype patterning and moiety membership.” ref

“If this holds true, the clans found in the Eagle/Wolf moiety should have distinctive matrilineal lineages from those observed in Raven moiety clans. According to the reviewed ethnographic studies and oral histories, both groups represent two different populations that could, in turn, reflect two separate population movements into the historical Tlingit territory of Southeast Alaska. Swanton (1908), Emmons and de Laguna (1991) and Worl (1998, 2005) support the idea that clans found in the Raven moiety are descendants of the first Tlingit group that reached southeast Alaska. In this scenario, the two Tlingit moieties are descendants of two distinct ancestral populations. Mitochondrial DNA variation was analyzed by screening the samples obtained in this study for markers that define mtDNA haplogroups A, B, C, and D.” ref

“In order to assess moiety genetic variation, a median-joining network of HVSI haplotypes belonging to haplogroup A2. For this network, a subset of Tlingit individuals that reported clan maternal ancestry to at least one generation was used (Raven n=47; Eagle n=35). To minimize the problem of reticulation within the network, data on rate heterogeneity on the HVSI of the human mitochondrial genome obtained by Meyer et al. (1999) were used to modify the weights of mutational positions that showed higher relative mutation rates than average. The weight values for these positions were assigned as described by Kemp and colleagues (2010). In this way, reticulation due to mutational “hotspots” was reduced. A hierarchical analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) was conducted in order to explore the genetic structure among the Tlingit. Sequences were sorted by moiety, excluding those composed of a single individual. The analysis used data from 76 Tlingit (Raven=42; Eagle/Wolf=34) individuals for whom both moiety and clan information were available. A second AMOVA was conducted removing two individuals of Tagish descent that belonged to haplogroup B in order to assess the impact of this variation in the final results.” ref

“The majority of Tlingit individuals from this study exhibit haplogroup A2 haplotypes, two of the most common A2 lineages are types 1 (n=44), and 2 (n=41). The former lineage is widespread in the Americas, while the latter is more restricted to populations of the Northwest Coast, such as Nuu-Chah-Nulth, Bella Coola (Lorenz and Smith 1997; Malhi et al. 2004), Haida, Tlingit, as well as populations from California, the American Southwest, Mexico (Kemp et al. 2010), and South America. Type 3 with a transition at nucleotide position (np) 16519 relative to type 2, was shared among 6 Tlingit individuals. Type 7 was present in about 10% of Tlingit sequences (n=17). This haplotype has been previously reported in 19 Tlingit individuals.” ref

“Twelve percent of Tlingit individuals (n=19) belonged to type 4, a common A2 lineage in the Americas. This mtDNA HVSI haplotype is the same exhibited by the 550-year-old remains of the individual found in Canada known as Kwäday Dän Ts’ìnchi (Long-ago dead person). This A2 variant has been reported in Haida, Maya, Quiche, and Brazilian populations. Three Tlingit individuals, including one belonging to the Raven moiety, exhibit type 5. This is an A2 subhaplogroup known as A2a5. It is estimated that this A2a sublineage originated in Alaska between 4000–7000 years ago, followed by western and southern expansions of Athapaskan speakers between 3000-600 years ago. In addition, four percent of the Tlingit (n=6) exhibit type 10. One Tlingit individual belongs to haplogroup A2b1 (type 11). The transition at np 16265 defines this A2b subhaplotype. A2b1 is frequently found in Artic populations such as the Inuit and has also been previously reported before in one Tlingit individual.” ref

“Two Tlingit individuals belong to type 12, which is haplogroup B2a. This B2 branch has been reported in one Tsimshian individual, is predominantly found in populations of the American Southwest, and may represent a founding haplotype in the Americas. Only two Tlingit individuals belong to haplogroup C, with one participant from the Wolf clan belonging to the basal C lineage, while an individual belonging to the Eagle moiety exhibited the C1 variant. At a regional level, Tlingit mtDNA diversity is similar to other Northwest Coast populations. Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Tsimshian, Alaskan Athapaskan, and Inuit populations are characterized by high frequencies of haplogroup A (ranging from about 70 percent in Haida to 100 percent in Athapaskan populations). Haplogroup B is also present in moderate frequencies among the Tsimshian. Tlingit, Haida, and Alaskan Athapaskans. The A2 haplotype network illustrates the distribution of haplotypes among the Tlingit and their neighbors. Tlingit and Haida populations are characterized by sharing five A2 haplotypes.” ref

Moiety Diversity

Table 5 displays the haplotypes found among Tlingit individuals (this study) relative to their clan membership. There are seven haplotypes specific to the Raven moiety, two that are specific to the Eagle, and one haplotype that is shared between them. The majority of clans found in the Eagle moiety belong to the A2 lineage with transitions at nps 16111-16223-16290-16319-16362 and the lineage with the additional transition at np 16189. While most individuals belonging to the Raven moiety are part of the lineage with the transition at np 16129, it is also the only other shared matriline across moieties. All three individuals of the Eagle moiety that belong to this haplotype are members of the Teikweidí clan. The Raven moiety is the most diverse, with eight different A2 lineages. Among the Eagle, members of the Dakl’aweidí clan are the most diverse, with three mtDNA haplotypes. There are three haplotypes (8, 9, 10) found only in Raven individuals that are most closely related to a haplotype (1) found in the Eagle moiety. Most of the haplotypes are specific to a moiety as illustrated by the A2 haplotype network of Tlingit individuals organized by moiety.” ref

“The AMOVA analyses reveal additional information in regards to mtDNA variation and clan structure. When grouped by moiety, the first AMOVA revealed that withinpopulation variation was high (49.41%), while variation between clans (20.91%), and among moiety is low (29.68%). This is likely due to the two mtDNA sequences from two members of the Dakl’aweidí Eagle clan who belong to the B2a lineage. These Tlingit individuals reported having a distant Tagish ancestry, a northern Northwest Coast group of the Yukon. Thus, the presence of this lineage in the Tlingit dataset might be a product of gene flow between Tagish and Tlingit populations. In order to assess the impact of this lineage, a second AMOVA was performed, excluding these individuals. The variation among groups component rose, although the within populations variation remained moderate. These results suggest that Eagle and Raven clans are genetically distinct, although there is also considerable variation within each clan.” ref

“The analysis of mtDNA variation in Tlingit individuals provide biological data that, in conjunction with oral traditions, ethnographic, and archaeological data, can be integrated into the reconstruction of population histories of the Northwest Coast peoples. The material derived from this study contributes to an increasing mtDNA dataset in the Americas and provides new information about the population history of the Northwest Coast peoples. Overall, the data indicates that the Tlingit individuals analyzed in this study exhibit a strong correspondence between moiety membership and mtDNA lineages, which is a product of the dual marriage system. On a regional level, Tlingit populations are marked by a high frequency of haplogroup A2, which is one of the most common founding lineages in the Americas.” ref

“A closer examination of the A2 lineages present among the Tlingit offers significant details about the genetic composition of this group. The distribution of mtDNA lineages among clans from the Raven and Eagle moieties supports the idea that both groups are distinguishable on a genetic level, even after the detrimental effects European contact and the United States government had on Tlingit cultural practices. Overall, it is possible to separate members from the Eagle and Raven moieties based on their haplotypes. Moieties only share the type 2 haplotype. Moreover, all three individuals of the Eagle moiety that belong to this haplotype are members of the Teikweidí clan. However, each moiety also has exclusive lineages. Members of clans found in the Eagle moiety belong to three A2 and one B2 lineages. On the other hand, members of the
Raven moiety belong to eight different A2 lineages. Most of the clans in the Eagle moiety are part of the basal A2 haplogroup and the Kwäday Dän Ts’ìnchi lineage, while the majority of clans in the Raven moiety exhibit the transition at np 16129.” ref

“However, intramoiety variation for each moiety is high. The Raven moiety is considerably more diverse than the Eagle. Members of the L’uknax.ádi Raven clan belong to four different haplotypes, which make this clan the most diverse. This diversity could support the argument that clans in the Raven moiety represent the ancestral Tlingit population, although the current evidence cannot exclude the possibility that Eagle lineages were also part of the ancestral maternal gene pool. Assuming that the basal A2 lineage represents the genetic composition of Tlingit ancestors, then clans in the Eagle moiety can trace back directly to the same ancestral population as the clans found in the Raven moiety. The fact that there are individuals belonging to the Raven moiety that are more related to the basal A2 (e.g. types 9 and 11) which is characteristic of the Eagle moiety could alternatively be explained as a product of events where some clans belonging to the Raven moiety decided to integrate into the Eagle moiety.” ref

“Schurr and colleagues (2012) reported Raven moiety clans that belonged to the basal A2 haplotype. This would suggest that the founder A2 lineage was present in both moieties, and then particular haplotypes within each moiety arose over time. However, the type 2 A2 lineage is shared with clans from both Eagle and Raven moieties, marking it as possible early ancestral lineage. If this is the case, individuals belonging to clans found in the Raven moiety are most likely direct descendants of the original Tlingit inhabitants, which is consistent with oral histories and ethnographic evidence. This study supports the idea that Tlingit moieties are distinguishable biocultural units. AMOVA results indicate higher variation among the Tlingit population but with lower subgroups diversity, meaning that moieties are genetically structured. Finally, the only individual from this study that belonged to the Neix.ádi clan exhibited the basal A2 haplogroup. Consequently, the sample size is not significant to offer a definite answer about the hypothetical separate origins of this clan. However, the fact that the individual belongs to the basal A2 haplogroup, common among both Eagle and Raven clans, does not suggest that Neix.ádi is external to the moiety system.” ref

“Future studies focusing on sampling members of this clan could offer some insights into this particular issue. An interesting finding was the presence of haplogroup B2a. Achilli and colleagues (2013) reported a Tsimshian individual belonging to one of these lineages. The presence of this subhaplogroup in Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian and its estimated age of 8,000 – 10,000 years ago supports the idea that B2a is a founding lineage in the Americas, or an earlier haplotype originating along the Northwest Coast. With regards to temporal continuity, it was not possible to detect a direct matrilineal link between Shuká Kaa, the male individual found in On Your Knees Cave, and modern Northwest Coast populations, since no individuals in this study exhibited haplotypes belonging to subhaplogroup D4h3a. One possibility for the absence of this lineage in contemporary Tlingit populations is that D4h3a decreased in frequency over time due to genetic drift, despite continuity of nuclear DNA in the region. This would make the lineage rare in certain areas, where certain founding lineages might have been replaced others.” ref

“In contrast, direct maternal ancestry can be traced between Kwäday Dän Ts’ìnchi from Canada, and the Tlingit, and Haida. The A2 lineage with the transition at np 16189 is common in other Northwest Coast populations. The presence of this variant indicates regional continuity of this lineage for at least 550 years. Finally, an issue that was not possible to address due to the lack of geographic information was the comparison of different Tlingit tribes or kwaan (geographic units). Future research should focus on integrating this variable and compare this with previously reported  Tlingit sequences in order to gain a full understanding of moiety history in terms of genetic composition.” ref

The results obtained in this study are consistent with Tlingit clan history derived from oral histories and the ethnographic and archaeological record. On a regional scale, the Tlingit mtDNA sequences look similar to other Northwest Coast populations, sharing a significant number of lineages with their surrounding neighbors. At the same time, their internal structure has been culturally shaped in terms of marriage traditions. The effects of these practices have produced long-lasting genetic signatures that are recognizable even after the impact of the European and United States colonization and the change of marriage practices associated to missionization, boarding schools, and the outlaw of cultural practices. Members of the different Tlingit clans are distinguishable from each other on the dual moiety level.” ref

“The unity within Eagle and Raven moieties is not only sociocultural, but also biological. The antiquity of Raven and Eagle moieties cannot be addressed by the current genetic information. Archaeological and historical data remains inconclusive in terms of the Tlingit first populations, as we have a rough estimation for the origins of the moiety system within the past 3000 years. Thus, defining specific chronologies for the origins of clans that belong to the Raven and Eagle moieties was beyond the scope of this paper. However, it has been shown the importance of oral histories to establish relative time boundaries, and more importantly, to develop models about sociocultural change. It can be argued that the biological elements of clan membership correspond to what is known in the ethnohistorical and oral record. The observed haplotype patterns are strong indicators of the genetic integrity of the matrilineal clan system. In sum, this study supports the idea that Tlingit moieties are distinguishable biocultural units.” ref 

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

Totemism, Tribalism, Clan, and Power: (band, tribe, chiefdom, and state)

Chiefdom Structure of Influence

“The chiefdom structure of influence is modeled using status characteristics theory as supplemented by network formulations. Influence relations organized by that status structure solves problems of social organization, including collective action problems such as inter-polity conflict, while maintaining the system of privilege.” ref

“All chiefdoms that have been anthropologically identified were based on horticulture or intensive agriculture with one notable exception. In the Pacific Northwest of North America, chiefdoms emerged based on foraging.” ref

“GENDER DIFFERENCES IN COMPETITION: EVIDENCE FROM A MATRILINEAL AND A PATRIARCHAL SOCIETY Women are less competitive than men in patriarchal societies, but this result reverses in matrilineal societies, where women are more competitive than men.” ref

Woman Chief

“Bíawacheeitchish, in English Woman Chief (c. 1806 – 1858), was a bacheeítche (chief) and warrior of the Crow people. Interested in traditionally male pursuits from an early age, she became one of the Crows’ most significant leaders, joining the Council of Chiefs as the third ranking member. However, unlike other Two-Spirits, she wore typical female clothing rather than adopting men’s garments.” ref

“Tlingit clans: Each clan has its own history, songs, and totems, and each forms a social network of extended families which functions as a political unit in Tlingit society. Clan allegiance is governed through a matrilineal system; children are born to the mother’s clan and gain their status within her family, including what was traditionally hereditary leadership positions.” ref

Tlingit tribes, clans and clan houses

http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/ancr/southeast/tlingitmap/tlingitmap.pdf

Tlingit & Haida

“The Haida Nation and the Tlingit Nation have existed as two separate and distinct people since time immemorial. This great land (Aani) known as Southeast Alaska is the ancestral home of the Tlingit and Haida people. Tlingit people and Haida people are born into their identity through a matrilineal clan system: One’s identity is established through the mother’s clan. All Haida and Tlingit clans are organized into two major moieties: Eagle and Raven. In Tlingit, Yeil is Raven and Ch’aak is Eagle (Wolf is sometimes used interchangeably with Eagle). Each clan is made up of clan houses.” ref

Differences between male and female height in Early Neolithic Europe are likely to have been driven by culture.

Clan Systems

“The Iroquois clans were developed at a time in our history when there were a lot less people than there are today. It was a time when the people were not sure who they were related to. The elders were worried that the young people were getting together with their closely related family members. There was much apprehension about how to relate with each other. The elders began to meet about how this was going to be addressed.” ref

“After a few meetings had failed to bring any ideas to address this, a young man stood up and asked if it would be ok to address them. He was the kind of man that was usually very quiet and reserved. He told the Council about his idea to alleviate the problems that people were having. He said the animal world all have their own ways of doing things. The birds all have their own ways, each species. The trees have their own ways also, each family. He suggested that each family have their eldest woman intently pay attention to what she sees in the next morning. Each woman seen a different animal in the morning. This animal is to represent the clan for each of the women’s families.” ref

TURTLE CLAN

“In the Iroquois Creation Story, the earth was created on the back of a turtle. It was there that life began to grow. The Turtle Clan represents the shifting of the earth and the cycles of the moon. The people of the Turtle Clan are considered the well of information and the keepers of the land. The responsibility of the Turtle Clan is everything that has to do with the environment.” ref

BEAR CLAN

“The Bear Clan people are known as Medicine People, the healers. There are stories passed down about how the Bear Clan people were given the gift of medicine from an elder woman who had the knowledge of all the medicine plants here on earth. The Great Law speaks of how all members of each clan have a relationship to each other. The laws of clanship are quite rigid. For instance, since you have a family relationship with everyone in your clan it is forbidden to marry a person of the same clan, even if one is Mohawk and their partner is Oneida. Additionally, the clans have a relationship to each other. The Wolf Clan is considered a cousin to the Turtle Clan and an uncle to the Bear Clan. The Turtle Clan is the older brother to the Bear Clan.” ref

“Symbols of the clans can be seen everywhere throughout the Oneida Nation Reservation; on the tribal logo, the Human Resources Department orientation folder, and throughout the Oneida Tribal School. Each wing of the Elder Complex on Overland Drive is named for one of the clans. The Oneida Nation Elementary School was designed in the shape of a turtle and is recognized as a point of interest to incoming and outgoing airline passengers who travel through Austin Straubel Airport. Even the Oneida tribal license plates bear symbols of the clans.” ref

WOLF CLAN

“The Wolf Clan represents the path finders. Their responsibility is to guide the people in living their lives in the way the Creator intended.” ref

FAMILY STRUCTURE & GENDER ROLES

“The Iroquois people are a matrilineal society, which means they follow the mother’s side of the family when it comes to identity and family. If a man would marry a woman, then he would move in with her family. The woman’s family would include her mother, father, brothers and sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandmothers, and grandfathers. The women in the household took care of everyone’s children. Any and all children in the house were considered a son or daughter. All aunties were looked at as mother. Uncles were looked at as father figures, and grandparents were of highest graces to all. The grandmothers and grandfathers had small duties but major roles in helping to raise the children. As the children grew older, the young men would go with the men and learn how to hunt, fish, gather wood, and they would learn how to fight if it were ever necessary. The young women would stay home with the women and grandparents and learn household chores like cooking, cleaning, sewing, and gathering foods to be prepared later.” ref

“All the children would listen to the elders’ stories of the old times and they would learn from them. Their stories would explain a life lesson and they would be able to apply it to their everyday life. As the young men became men, they would start to travel to find a wife. They would find a good woman and court her in the proper way. He would go home and tell his mother who she was and who her family is. Then they would prepare a basket for that family and the parents would negotiate a deal as to weather he is good enough for their daughter to marry their son. Sometimes there were arranged marriages. One thing that occurred during these negotiations was the man’s brother would also come and live in the same village as the son, so he doesn’t get to lonely for his family. Sometimes even if the man finds a woman it is still up to the mothers to make an agreement. When a girl is ready to become a mother, the grandmothers let her know when it is her time. She then waits for the right man and finds out what her life is going to be. She could find a man and bring him to her mother and then her mother and his mother go through the process of getting married.” ref

CLAN MOTHERS

“The clan mothers are responsible for appointing the chiefs on the peoples’ behalf. The clan mothers watch young boys and see how they act and how they mature over time. They look at the progress the child into young adulthood and determine which young man could be a potential chief. The clan mothers are the leaders when it came to voicing opinions of the people. They have the first and last say as to what the Chiefs do to help the people. They meet and tell the chief what the people want to be done. The clan mothers are also responsible for informing and listening to the men, women and children in their respective clan families. They are counselors for the people. If the people have a problem they can always go to the clan mothers for advice or knowledge. The clan mothers are the backbone of the Iroquois people.” ref

“Clan Mothers in the Onondaga Nation, The Clan Mother is very important in the role of Haudenosaunee culture. When the Peacemaker came to the warring people, it was a woman who first accepted Peacemaker’s vision of peace. The Clan Mother holds much weight in the Haudenosaunee.  The Clan Mother is a leader not only of her clan, but of the nation as well.  The Clan Mother selects their spokesman (Hoyane or Chief) to represent them in council.  If their Hoyane doesn’t represent their clan, the Clan Mother has the authority to remove their leader as well after warnings.  The Hoyane and the Clan Mother work together to best represent the people of her clan. Not only is the Clan Mother working with the chiefs in making decisions for the people, they also have the duty to ensure that our way of life continues. The Clan Mothers gather and sit to decide when the ceremonies will begin.” ref

“Then the Clan Mothers supervise the procedures of the ceremony, the food, and soups that are needed. The Clan Mothers are so integral, that the ceremonies cannot begin without the Clan Mothers present. Children are the future of any community and the Clan Mothers are important in raising the children. When a new baby is born, it is the Clan Mother who provides the name of the baby of her clan. It is said that the Clan Mother has a bag of names at the ready. When a person passes away from her clan, she takes back that name to be used again for future member of the clan. The Clan Mothers also make sure that the children are raised in the ways and customs of the Longhouse. They are often teaching the young and old of the ways of the Haudenosaunee. Often when people have questions or there is a dispute among families, often it is the Clan Mother who is sought after for guidance. Their words hold great weight in the community. The Clan Mother holds an important role in both the political and social world of the Onondaga.” ref

CHIEFS

“The chiefs are responsible for making the right decision in the community’s best interests. The chiefs listen to what the clan mothers say and they then become the voice of the people. The chiefs are the advisors for the people. They are there as support for the community. They also act as counselors for the people. If the people have problems or needed advice they can go to the chief and ask him. The chief also helps conduct the ceremonies a long side of the faithkeepers. Most times he will be the one to conduct the traditional ceremonies. The chiefs are there for the people and the advisors at chiefs meetings. They bring back what they talked about in Grand Council and tell the clan mothers what went on. They then let the people know, and if there were a problem or a decision that had to be made by the community they all would have a chance to speak. Then the chiefs would take it back to the clan mothers and figure out the best decisions for the people are. The chief would then go back and let the rest of the chiefs know what his community wants to do. The chief is the voice, ears, and advocate for his people.” ref

FAITHKEEPERS

“The faithkeepers are the operatives of the actions that the clan mothers, chiefs, and community’s decide. They get the longhouse ready for anything that may be happening on the grounds, whether it be a ceremony, a social gathering or anything like that. They make sure the ceremonies are ran as they are supposed at the right times of the year. They are also responsible for bringing the people together. The faithkeepers let the people know when there is something going on. They organize the longhouse and keep everything running smoothly. They are also the ones who find helpers around the community. They are responsible for the wellbeing of the people. The faithkeepers act as spiritual advisors for the people. The faithkeepers are the ones who carryout what the chiefs and clan mothers say. Their primary responsibility is to insure that the four sacred ceremonies are being conducted. The four sacred ceremonies are The Great Feather Dance, Mens Chant, Water Drum Dance, and the Peachstone Game. They see to it that these four ceremonies stay active within the longhouse.” ref

A man’s world? Not according to biology or history.

“For proof, we can look to the many matrilineal societies dotted all over the world. In some regions, these traditions may date back thousands of years.” ref

Matrilineality and Matrilineal society 

“Matrilineality is the tracing of kinship through the female line. It may also correlate with a social system in which each person is identified with their matriline, their mother’s lineage, and which can involve the inheritance of property and titles. A matriline is a line of descent from a female ancestor to a descendant of either gender in which the individuals in all intervening generations are mothers. In a matrilineal descent system, an individual is considered to belong to the same descent group as their mother. This ancient matrilineal descent pattern is in contrast to the currently more popular pattern of patrilineal descent from which a family name is usually derived. The matriline of historical nobility was also called their enatic or uterine ancestry, corresponding to the patrilineal or “agnatic” ancestry.” ref

“Matrilineal surnames are names transmitted from mother to daughter, in contrast to the more familiar patrilineal surnames transmitted from father to son, the pattern most common among family names today. For clarity and for brevity, the scientific terms patrilineal surname and matrilineal surname are usually abbreviated as patriname and matriname. There appears to be some evidence for the presence of matrilineality in Pre-Islamic Arabia, in a very limited number of the Arabian peoples (first of all among the Amorites of Yemen, and among some strata of Nabateans in Northern Arabia); A modern example from South Africa is the order of succession to the position of the Rain Queen in a culture of matrilineal primogeniture: not only is dynastic descent reckoned through the female line, but only females are eligible to inherit.” ref

“In some traditional societies and cultures, membership in their groups was – and, in the following list, still is if shown in italics – inherited matrilineally. Examples include the Cherokee, Choctaw, Gitksan, Haida, Hopi, Iroquois, Lenape, Navajo and Tlingit of North America; the Cabécar and Bribri of Costa Rica; the Naso and Kuna people of Panama; the Kogi, Wayuu and Carib of South America; the Minangkabau people of West Sumatra, Indonesia and Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia; the Trobrianders, Dobu and Nagovisi of Melanesia; the Nairs, some Thiyyas & Muslims of Kerala and the Mogaveeras, Billavas & the Bunts of Karnataka in south India; the Khasi, Jaintia and Garo of Meghalaya in northeast India and Bangladesh; the Ngalops and Sharchops of Bhutan; the Mosuo of China; the Kayah of Southeast Asia, the Picti of Scotland, the Basques of Spain and France; the Ainu of Japan, the Akan including the Ashanti, Bono, Akwamu, Fante of Ghana; most groups across the so-called “matrilineal belt” of south-central Africa; the Nubians of Southern Egypt & Sudan and the Tuareg of west and north Africa; the Serer of Senegal, The Gambia and Mauritania.” ref

Clan names vs. surnames

“Most of the example cultures in this article are based on (matrilineal) clans. Any clan might possibly contain from one to several or many descent groups or family groups – i.e., any matrilineal clan might be descended from one or several or many unrelated female ancestors. Also, each such descent group might have its own family name or surname, as one possible cultural pattern. Note well that if a culture did include one’s clan name in one’s name and routinely handed it down to all children in the descent group then it would automatically be the family name or surname for one’s descent group (as well as for all other descent groups in one’s clan).” ref

“The following two example cultures each follow a different pattern, however:

Example 1. Members of the (matrilineal) clan culture Minangkabau do not even have a surname or family name, see this culture’s own section below. In contrast, members do have a clan name, which is important in their lives although not included in the member’s name. Instead, one’s name is just one’s given name.

Example 2. Members of the (matrilineal) clan culture Akan, see its own section below, also do not have matrilineal surnames and likewise their important clan name is not included in their name. However, members’ names do commonly include second names which are called surnames but which are not routinely passed down from either father or mother to all their children as a family name.” ref

Care of children

“While a mother normally takes care of her own children in all cultures, in some matrilineal cultures an “uncle-father” will take care of his nieces and nephews instead: in other words social fathers here are uncles. There is not a necessary connection between the role of father and genitor. In many such matrilineal cultures, especially where residence is also matrilocal, a man will exercise guardianship rights not over the children he fathers but over his sisters’ children, who are viewed as ‘his own flesh’. These children’s biological father – unlike an uncle who is their mother’s brother and thus their caregiver – is in some sense a ‘stranger’ to them, even when affectionate and emotionally close. According to Steven Pinker, attributing to Kristen Hawkes, among foraging groups matrilocal societies are less likely to commit female infanticide than are patrilocal societies.” ref

“In the Americas, the Bororo people of Brazil and Bolivia live in matrilineal clans, with husbands moving to live with their wives’ extended families. The clan system of the Bribri people of Costa Rica and Panama is matrilineal; that is, a child’s clan is determined by the clan his or her mother belongs to. Only women can inherit land. The social organization of the Cabécar people of Costa Rica is predicated on matrilineal clans in which the mother is the head of household. Each matrilineal clan controls marriage possibilities, regulates land tenure, and determines property inheritance for its members. In the traditional culture of the Guna people of Panama and Colombia, families are matrilinear and matrilocal, with the groom moving to become part of the bride’s family. The groom also takes the last name of the bride.” ref

“The Hopi (in what is now the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona), according to Alice Schlegel, had as its “gender ideology … one of female superiority, and it operated within a social actuality of sexual equality.” According to LeBow (based on Schlegel’s work), in the Hopi, “gender roles … are egalitarian …. [and] [n]either sex is inferior.” LeBow concluded that Hopi women “participate fully in … political decision-making.” According to Schlegel, “the Hopi no longer live as they are described here” and “the attitude of female superiority is fading”. Schlegel said the Hopi “were and still are matrilinial” and “the household … was matrilocal.” ref

“Schlegel explains why there was female superiority as that the Hopi believed in “life as the highest good … [with] the female principle … activated in women and in Mother Earth … as its source” and that the Hopi “were not in a state of continual war with equally matched neighbors” and “had no standing army” so that “the Hopi lacked the spur to masculine superiority” and, within that, as that women were central to institutions of clan and household and predominated “within the economic and social systems (in contrast to male predominance within the political and ceremonial systems)”, the Clan Mother, for example, being empowered to overturn land distribution by men if she felt it was unfair, since there was no “countervailing … strongly centralized, male-centered political structure.” ref

“The Iroquois Confederacy or League, combining five to six Native American Haudenosaunee nations or tribes before the U.S. became a nation, operated by The Great Binding Law of Peace, a constitution by which women retained matrilineal-rights and participated in the League’s political decision-making, including deciding whether to proceed to war, through what may have been a matriarchy or “gyneocracy.” The dates of this constitution’s operation are unknown: the League was formed in approximately 1000–1450, but the constitution was oral until written in about 1880. The League still exists. Other Iroquoian-speaking peoples such as the Wyandot and the Meherrin, that were never part of the Iroquois League, nevertheless have traditionally possessed a matrilineal family structure.” ref

“The Kogi people of northern Colombia practice bilateral inheritance, with certain rights, names or associations descending matrilineally. Occupied for 10,000 years by Native Americans, the land that is present-day New Jersey was overseen by clans of the Lenape, who farmed, fished, and hunted upon it. The pattern of their culture was that of a matrilineal agricultural and mobile hunting society that was sustained with fixed, but not permanent, settlements in their matrilineal clan territories. Leadership by men was inherited through the maternal line, and the women elders held the power to remove leaders of whom they disapproved.” ref

“Villages were established and relocated as the clans farmed new sections of the land when soil fertility lessened and when they moved among their fishing and hunting grounds by seasons. The area was claimed as a part of the Dutch New Netherland province dating from 1614, where active trading in furs took advantage of the natural pass west, but the Lenape prevented permanent settlement beyond what is now Jersey City. “Early Europeans who first wrote about these Indians found matrilineal social organization to be unfamiliar and perplexing. As a result, the early records are full of ‘clues’ about early Lenape society, but were usually written by observers who did not fully understand what they were seeing.” ref

“The Mandan people of the northern Great Plains of the United States historically lived in matrilineal extended family lodges. The Naso (Teribe or Térraba) people of Panama and Costa Rica describe themselves as a matriarchal community, although their monarchy has traditionally been inherited in the male line. The Navajo people of the American southwest are a matrilineal society in which kinship, children, livestock and family histories are passed down through the female. In marriage the groom moved to live with the brides family. Children also came from their mother’s clan living in hogans of the females family. The Tanana Athabaskan people, the original inhabitants of the Tanana River basin in Alaska and Canada, traditionally lived in matrilineal semi-nomadic bands.” ref

“The Powhatan and other tribes of the Tsenacommacah, also known as the Powhatan Confederacy, practiced a version of male-preference matrilineal seniority, favoring brothers over sisters in the current generation (but allowing sisters to inherit if no brothers remained), but passing to the next generation through the eldest female line. In A Map of Virginia John Smith of Jamestown explains: His [Chief Powhatan‘s] kingdome descendeth not to his sonnes nor children: but first to his brethren, whereof he hath 3 namely Opitchapan, Opechancanough, and Catataugh; and after their decease to his sisters. First to the eldest sister, then to the rest: and after them to the heires male and female of the eldest sister; but never to the heires of the males.” ref

“The Upper Kuskokwim people are the original inhabitants of the Upper Kuskokwim River basin. They speak an Athabaskan language more closely related to Tanana than to the language of the Lower Kuskokkwim River basin. They were traditionally hunter-gatherers who lived in matrilineal semi-nomadic bands. The Wayuu people of Colombia and Venezuela live in matrilineal clans, with paternal relationships in the background.” ref

“Originally, Chinese surnames were derived matrilineally, although by the time of the Shang dynasty (1600 to 1046 BCE) they had become patrilineal. Archaeological data supports the theory that during the Neolithic period (7000 to 2000 BCE) in China, Chinese matrilineal clans evolved into the usual patrilineal families by passing through a transitional patrilineal clan phase. Evidence includes some “richly furnished” tombs for young women in the early Neolithic Yangshao culture, whose multiple other collective burials imply a matrilineal clan culture. Toward the late Neolithic period, when burials were apparently of couples, “a reflection of patriarchy,” an increasing elaboration of presumed chiefs’ burials is reported. Relatively isolated ethnic minorities such as the Mosuo (Na) in southwestern China are highly matrilineal.” ref

“While men held positions of religious and political power, the Spartan constitution mandated that inheritance and proprietorship pass from mother to daughter. In Pictish society, succession in leadership (later kingship) was matrilineal (through the mother’s side), with the reigning chief succeeded by either his brother or perhaps a nephew but not through patrilineal succession of father to son.” ref

“Matrilineality in Judaism or matrilineal descent in Judaism is the tracing of Jewish descent through the maternal line. Close to all Jewish communities have followed matrilineal descent from at least early Tannaitic (c. 10–70 CE) times through modern times. The origins and date-of-origin of matrilineal descent in Judaism are uncertain. Orthodox Judaism maintains that matrilineal descent is an Oral Law from at least the time of the Receiving of the Torah on Mount Sinai (c. 1310 BCE). According to some modern academic opinions, it was likely instituted in either the early Tannaitic period (c. 10–70 CE) or the time of Ezra (c. 460 BCE).” ref

“In practice, Jewish denominations define “Who is a Jew?” via descent in different ways. All denominations of Judaism have protocols for conversion for those who are not Jewish by descent. Orthodox Judaism and Conservative Judaism still practice matrilineal descent. Karaite Judaism, which rejects the Oral Law, generally practices patrilineal descent. Reconstructionist Judaism has recognized Jews of patrilineal descent since 1968.” ref

“In 1983, the Central Conference of American Rabbis of Reform Judaism passed a resolution waiving the need for formal conversion for anyone with at least one Jewish parent, provided that either (a) one is raised as a Jew, by Reform standards, or (b) one engages in an appropriate act of public identification, formalizing a practice that had been common in Reform synagogues for at least a generation. This 1983 resolution departed from the Reform Movement’s previous position requiring formal conversion to Judaism for children without a Jewish mother. However, the closely associated Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism has rejected this resolution and requires formal conversion for anyone without a Jewish mother.” ref

Family ties: Examining ideas of kinship in the early Bronze Age

“New analysis of two Bronze Age burials discovered more than a century – and over 300 miles – apart has raised intriguing questions about prehistoric ideas of family relationships, highlighting cross-Channel cultural links stretching back 5,000 years. Carly Hilts reports. Excavations on Bedfordshire’s Dunstable Downs revealed a poignant prehistoric scene. Within the remains of a Bronze Age bowl barrow, the skeletons of a young woman and a child lay face to face, their arms entwined as if in a protective embrace. Such a carefully curated grave must have been full of symbolic or emotional significance for the people who had laid this pair to rest. Now new light has been shed on the possible motivations behind this arrangement, following the discovery of a strikingly similar grave hundreds of miles away in Luxembourg.” ref

“The Bedfordshire burial formed part of a dispersed cemetery, and while most of its neighbors had been heavily disturbed by looters as well as by agricultural activity, ‘Barrow 8’ still had secrets to reveal. Within the mound, a large central grave had been cut into the underlying chalk, with seven less substantial graves scattered around it. Although most had been rifled and their contents lost to scrutiny, one was more intact: that of the woman and child. They were accompanied by grave goods including pots, animal bones, a white pebble, and a handful of stone tools, also reportedly an arrowhead.” ref

“Rather more unexpected, however, was the presence of dozens of small stone spheres, each marked with a five-pointed star: fossilized sea urchins. Twelve were found arranged around the paired skeletons, but more than 200 in total were claimed to have been recovered from the wider area of the grave and the disturbed barrow material. It is not known why these items had been selected for inclusion alongside the more conventional grave goods, but fossils appear to have attracted attention throughout prehistory (and into more recent centuries; see box opposite).” ref

“The double-burial dates to the early Bronze Age, a transformative time when the Beaker ‘cultural package’ crossed the Channel to bring dramatic technological changes and significant genetic turnover to Britain c.2500 BCE. This movement also brought distinctive new burial traditions to these shores – and we can now understand the Bedfordshire grave in the context of this cultural shift and Continental connections, thanks to research that was recently published in Scientific Reports. Key to these new insights was the discovery of another Beaker-period burial in Luxembourg, which was uncovered in 2000 during highway construction works at Altwies near the French border. Like the Bedfordshire burial, it contained the skeletons of a woman and a child, and these individuals had also been laid on their sides, facing each other, with the adult’s hand tucked beneath the child’s head.” ref

“Strikingly, they were surrounded by a ring of stones, too, possibly fossilized shells. This aspect invites intriguing comparisons with the Bedfordshire pair, as a drawing showed, with them nestled within an oval of urchins. Given that only 12 were said to have been found around the skeletons themselves, however, the suspiciously even, thick line of fossils might reflect the artist’s desire for a decorative border to frame his drawing more than any archaeological reality. Other Bronze Age burials where nodules of flint and chalk have been carefully placed around bodies are known from sites in Yorkshire and Wessex, however.” ref

Different Graves in Different areas, yet have Striking Similarities

“The striking similarities between both burials were noted during a recent wider project investigating Luxembourg’s prehistory, and a team was quickly put together to analyze the skeletal remains and associated objects from each in order to investigate whether there were any other links between them. Although over a century has passed since the Bedfordshire remains were excavated, the two skeletons were still well-preserved in the collections of The Culture Trust Luton, enabling the team (led by researchers from the universities of Mainz and Ferrara) to carry out genetic analysis of both individuals, as well as the adult and child from Altwies. This revealed that, while the pairs were buried far apart, they all drew most of their ancestry from Steppe pastoralists who migrated from Eastern and Central Europe in the 3rd millennium BCE. It was also possible to establish the biological relationships between each pairing, providing the first genetic evidence that Bell Beaker communities in north-western Europe buried children with their close relatives.” ref

“The Altwies pair, it was revealed, were mother and son (the child being around 3 years old), while the young woman (aged 18-25) and girl (c.6 years old) from Bedfordshire were paternal aunt and niece. Now that we know the individuals’ biological sex, interesting insights are provided by the way that they were arranged in their respective graves. In Beaker-period Continental Europe, the researchers note, women and girls were strictly laid to rest on their right side with their head pointing to the south, while men and boys were placed on their left side, with their head to the north (this rule seems to have been loosened by the time Beaker people reached Britain). In the mixed-sex burial from Altwies, however, alignment has defaulted to reflect the male child, not the adult woman, with both individuals lying with their head to the north. Might this reflect the existence of a patrilineal society at this time, the researchers wonder – something that might have also influenced the choice of a paternal aunt to accompany the Bedfordshire child?” ref

“In neither case was there any sign of what had caused the pair’s death. Although Smith darkly speculates on themes of human sacrifice, suggesting that the Bedfordshire child may have been buried alive with its deceased mother, the pair’s peaceful posture belies such a traumatic death – and the fact that Smith’s report forms part of a book that he titled Man, the Primeval Savage rather hints at prejudices about ‘primitive’ prehistoric practices. With no indication of violence on any of the skeletons, disease may be a more likely explanation. The turn of the 3rd millennium BCE marks a watershed in later prehistoric European burial practices, moving away from communal burials to individual graves. Exceptions continued to be made for adult–child pairings, however, and the team went on to study 131 more burials of this kind, from 88 sites, all dating to the 3rd and 2nd millennium BCE, scattered across Eurasia.” ref

“It is thought that these graves might reflect the spread of burial practices linked to Steppe pastoralists and their descendants, perhaps hinting at evolving ideas of family identity or kinship. It could be that child burials became more archaeologically prominent at this time because children were becoming more culturally or socially important, the researchers suggest, with their pairing with an adult perhaps representing an individual or their community’s fertility or status, or links between or within social groups, perhaps even between the past and the present. Where children are buried with people who are not their biological parents, could the exchange of foster children have helped to create or strengthen social/political networks?” ref

“The aunt-niece pairing could represent the child’s primary caregiver in life, or the woman might have been chosen as a ‘substitute parent’ to ensure the girl’s safe passage into death. Whatever their precise meaning, though, these rites seem to have been sufficiently formalized and sufficiently important to have been transmitted across the Channel with the Beaker migration. As the research paper concludes: ‘the body of a woman, lying as though sleeping, clasping a child in her arms, obviously had a specific meaning to early Bronze Age peoples, a meaning retained across thousands of miles and amongst many diverse and fluid contemporary funerary practices. Whatever it was, it represented something powerful and emotive.” ref

The Evolution of Avunculocal Chiefdoms: A Reconstruction of Taino Kinship and Politics

“The present study examines the interrelationship of social organization, specifically matrilocal/avunculocal residence and matrilineal descent, and the Lucayan Taino settlement of the Bahama archipelago (ca. A.D. 800–1500). The study involves an archeo-ethnological collaboration in which archeological questions of Taino kinship and politics and ethnological questions concerning the evolution of avunculocal chiefdoms are addressed. The results include a remarkably complete reconstruction of Taino social organization and a diachronic test of the evolutionary sequence proposed for the development of avunculocal institutions.” ref 

“North America’s Indigenous peoples shared some broad traits. Spiritual practices, understandings of property, and kinship networks differed markedly from European arrangements. Most Native Americans did not neatly distinguish between the natural and the supernatural. Spiritual power permeated their world and was both tangible and accessible. It could be appealed to and harnessed. Kinship bound most Native North American people together. Many Native cultures understood ancestry as matrilineal: family and clan identity proceeded along the female line, through mothers and daughters, rather than fathers and sons. Fathers, for instance, would often join mothers’ extended families and sometimes even a mother’s brothers would take a more direct role in child-raising than biological fathers. Mothers could therefore often wield enormous influence at local levels and men’s identities and influence often depended on their relationships to women. Native American culture meanwhile generally afforded greater sexual and marital freedom than European cultures did. Women often chose their husbands, and divorce often was a relatively simple and straightforward process. Moreover, most Native peoples’ notions of property rights differed markedly from Europeans’ notions of property. Native Americans generally felt a personal ownership of tools, weapons, or other items that were actively used, and this same rule applied to land and crops. Groups and individuals exploited particular pieces of land, and used violence or negotiation to exclude others. But the right to the use of land did not imply the right to its permanent possession.” ref

“Kinship can be used to form discrete, stable groups that persist over time. However, how societies do this organizing of stable groups varies considerably. Knowing a society’s kinship system, who was related to whom and what relationship this entailed, opened up the worldview of the group. Kinship relations entail the idea of rights and obligations, as well as ideas about how humans are created.  In certain societies, kinship connections form the basis of their social, economic, and political structure. Kinship was so important to anthropology. Families, and kinship in general, are about relationships. Relationships are defined by status and roles. Status is any culturally-designated position a person occupies in a particular setting.​ Role is the set of behaviors expected of an individual who occupies a particular status. For example, a person may have the status of “mother.” The role associated with the status, the behaviors expected of a “mother,” would include caring for children. Cross-culturally, the basic unit of the family is mother and child.” ref

“Cultures vary in how many spouses are allowed. Monogamy, the norm in our only culture, only allows one partner/spouse. Polygamous marriages allow more than one spouse/partner. Polygamous marriages vary in whether they allow more women or men. Polygynous marriage is the marriage of one man to multiple women, while polyandrous marriage is the marriage of one women to multiple men. Polyandrous marriage is very rare and often includes the marriage of brothers to one woman. This is called fraternal polyandry and is common in some areas of Tibet where arable land is rare. This marriage arrangement allows large parcels of arable land to be kept in the family, which would not the case in monogamy, as successive generations would receive smaller and smaller plots of land. Cultures also vary in where married people should live. There are several different types of postmartial residence patterns.” ref

“Types of Postmarital Residence Patterns: 

•  Matrilocal (uxorilocal) – couple lives with or near bride’s kin​
• Patrilocal (virilocal) – couple lives with or near groom’s kin
•  Ambilocal – couple can choose to live with or near kin of either side​
•  Neolocal – couple moves to a new household or location, living with neither side’s kin​
•  Natolocal – wife and husband remain with their own natal kin​
•  Avunculocal – couple moves to or near the residence of the groom’s mother’s brother(s)​” ref

“Patrilocal residence is most common in patrilineal societies, while matrilocal, natolocal, and avunculocal residence patterns are most common in matrilineal societies. Natolocal residence patterns are the rarest form of postmartial residence patterns. The Mosuo, an ethnic Chinese community that lives in Yunnan province, practice natolocal residence patterns as part of their “walking marriages.” In this arrangement, spouses do not live together, but only visit each other in the evenings. Husbands live with their female kin, and wives with their female kin. Any children conceived in the marriage live with the mother. Learn more about this group and their “walking marriages” in the clip below. Note, though the clip claims the Mouso are a matriarchy, this is not the case. The oldest male relative and the oldest female relative have the same status and power.” ref

“Matrilineal society, group adhering to a kinship system in which ancestral descent is traced through maternal instead of paternal lines (the latter being termed patrilineage or patriliny). Every society incorporates some basic components in its system of reckoning kinship: family, marriage, postmarital residence, rules that prohibit sexual relations (and therefore marriage) between certain categories of kin, descent, and the terms used to label kin. A lineage is a group of individuals who trace descent from a common ancestor; thus, in a matrilineage, individuals are related as kin through the female line of descent.” ref

“Matrilineage is sometimes associated with group marriage or polyandry (marriage of one woman to two or more men at the same time). Anthropologists have provided different perspectives and interpretations about kinship and its role in society. With a perspective based in Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, some 19th-century scholars, such as Johann Jakob Bachofen and Lewis Henry Morgan, believed that matrilineal societies predated patrilineal ones and represented an earlier evolutionary stage. Accordingly, patrilineal systems were also considered more “civilized” and advanced than matrilineal systems. Writing within the framework of the evolutionary thinking developing at the time, Morgan also argued that matrilineal systems would progressively evolve into patrilineal systems. Over time, that view gained popularity far beyond anthropological and ethnological circles.” ref

“Scholars have often analyzed matrilineal norms and practices within the framework of the “matrilineal puzzle,” a term that was introduced to kinship theory by the British anthropologist Audrey Richards. It arose from structural functionalism—which was most strongly associated with the work of social anthropologist A.R. Radcliffe-Brown—and, by the mid-20th century, replaced Bachofen and Morgan’s kinship theories as the dominant analysis model in social anthropology. Working within a structural-functionalist framework—which viewed social structures such as institutions, relationships, and norms in terms of their roles in the functioning and continuance of a society—Richards was puzzled by the position of men in matrilineal societies. The issue at question was whether, in practice, a matrilineal system in which men have ambiguous roles and dual loyalties could work. The debate that followed also focused on what it was that made matrilineal societies different from what was seen as “normal” patrilineal systems.” ref

“In the study of kinship and matrilineal versus patrilineal systems, a basic normative assumption is that the essential family unit consists of father, mother, and children. A closely linked assumption has been that one sex is dominant and the other “weaker.” According to scholar David M. Schneider, in classic kinship theory, it was assumed that men had authority over their wives and offspring; thus, that authority was considered a constant. As a consequence, anthropological debate and analysis also assumed that constant. Schneider also noted that in patrilineal societies authority and kinship were passed on through patrilineal descent, but in matrilineal societies males did not pass their status to their sons. Men’s authority would be based only on their position in the matriliny. The salient roles of the male, therefore, would be that of brother and uncle instead of husband and father. The fundamental assumption was that the demotion of the “normal” patriarchal role was unnatural.” ref

“Under that interpretation of the structures and norms of all societies, male dominance, assumed as a given in patrilineal societies, did not translate into a corresponding female dominance in matrilineal societies. Under the assumed normative “principle of male authority,” in a matrilineage, descent passed from a woman’s brother to her son and from him to her sister’s son. That meant, to some scholars, that the core structures of matrilineal groups were the positions of uncle and brother. In the practice of virilocal residence (in which a woman moves into her husband’s home), the in-marrying wife will presumably adapt to a dependent role (as in a patrilineal society) but also occupy a significant role as the mother of children, particularly of sons who will perpetuate the patriliny. In matrilineal societies, although in-marrying men may be deemed necessary and useful as husbands, fathers, and human resources for labour, their function becomes part of the puzzle; in the context of assumptions about male authority, their roles may seem to be effete or ambiguous.” ref

“Matrilineal societies are found in various places around the world, such as in parts of Africa, Southeast Asia, and India. Specific cultural practices differ significantly among such groups. Though there are similarities, matrilineal practices in Africa differ from those in Asia, and there are even differences in such practices within specific regions. The Asante, or Ashanti, of Ghana are one of the few matrilineal societies in West Africa in which women inherit status and property directly from their mothers. The Minangkabau of Sumatra, Indonesia, are the world’s largest matrilineal society, in which properties such as land and houses are inherited through female lineage. In Minangkabau society, the man traditionally marries into his wife’s household, and the woman inherits the ancestral home. Matrilineal societies in India are typified by the Khasi in Meghalaya state and by the traditional Nayar in Kerala.” ref

“Among those groups, the main difference is observed in matrilocal, duolocal, and neolocal residence patterns. The pattern of duolocal residence (the husband and wife occupy different homes) exists among the Asante, the Minangkabau, and the Nayar. The Khasi generally follow the matrilocal residence pattern (the husband moves in with his wife’s matrilineal kin) or neolocal residence pattern (the couple sets up home in a new residence in or around the wife’s maternal residence). According to some scholars, matriliny has historically existed in different parts of the world, although it was mostly restricted to isolated communities within the non-Western world. In the late 19th century, under the growing influence of social Darwinism, early European and American anthropologists began to explore different kinship systems on a global scale. One aspect of that study focused on delving into the nature of human social evolution.” ref

“A substantial proportion of historical research on European societies in the late 20th and early 21st centuries focused on the family unit. Whereas earlier research in that area was limited to the search for the Western family structure, later analyses highlighted the error of presuming historical continuity in that structure and argued that the term family was fundamentally ambiguous. Notions of family and kinship are based on the existence of marriage, and in that context most later studies examined gender differences only as an expression of a particular cultural system. Consequently, they failed to include ideological nuances behind the concepts of “marriage” or “family” within those social groups.” ref

“Non-Western scholars have also argued that the distinction between household and family is grounded in Western conceptions. The household is regarded merely as a coresident group, whereas the family is made up of those household members who also share kinship. That normative distinction assumes that the family, including a heterosexual couple as parents, is the natural unit, a generalization that ignores differences of class and race. It also fails to account for the fact that household could refer to members outside the family, such as landlords, tenants, and family retainers. Hence, only large property-owning households that include all these external family members can provide sufficient data to study the complex relationships between class, caste, gender, and kinship.” ref

“The current definitions and paradigms of matrifocal domestic systems (where a female is the central stable figure of the family unit) are also based on the classic kinship theory’s focus on marriage and the heterosexual couple. That encourages the assumption of heteronormativity in households—i.e., that sexual and marital relations are “normal” only when between people of different sexes. It also assumes that as married heterosexual couples, men and women have certain natural functions in life, with men as “heads.” Matrifocal domestic systems are seen as troublesome departures from this norm because they are not structured around a heterosexual couple or are viewed as temporary solutions to the absence of male household heads instead of functional households headed and managed by women.” ref

“According to scholar Evelyn Blackwood, Western norms about marriage and where the husband/father stood in the family encouraged anthropologists to question the validity of matrilineal kin groups that embodied the function of the husband and the married couple even when there was no such relationship (or one that did not meet the norm). Within Minangkabau matrilineal groups, for example, it was the matrilineal line, including members of the external family descended through that line, that represented kinship; conjugal and marital ties were considered secondary.” ref

“Blackwood also pointed out the anthropological attention devoted to the “plight” of husbands in matrilineal societies, again based on normative assumptions about men’s place as husbands. In such scholarly work the marital tie was assumed to be weak, owing to, for example, power struggles between husbands and interfering mothers-in-law, pressures from the husband’s own lineage, and the overly prominent position of the mother-in-law’s brother. Women’s economic independence, particularly control of the land, was attributed to unreliable husbands or those who had chosen to leave the household. Thus, in that view, matrilineal systems are only the result of “weak husbands” or “missing men.” Blackwood’s research on the Minangkabau extended households, however, indicates that matrilineal practices come first and marital relationships and the husbands’ roles are of secondary importance.” ref

“In the study of matrilineal societies, classic kinship theory develops normative structures to contextualize heterosexuality and male domination, failing to include the wider social nuances and connotations. Those normative structures form the rhetoric of what Blackwood calls “the specter of the Patriarchal Man,” which persistently dominates concepts of kinship, marriage, and family. Classic kinship theory has been challenged by feminist scholars, who have succeeded in shifting the focus from gender and kinship to social constructs in kinship relationships.” ref

Warfare and Peacemaking among Matricultural Societies

“The view that ‘War is a game for men’ has been declaimed with loud voices – yet the Kanienʼkehá꞉ka (Mohawk) people, who have been described as the most fierce warriors of eastern North America, have a strong matriculture where the Clan Mothers nominate, install, and remove male Chiefs. The Haida, once known as the sea wolves of the Pacific Coast, are a matrilineal society, where personal identity is defined through one’s mother. Up to six thousand Fon women, known as Mino or ‘our mothers, fought in the army of Dahomey until the early twentieth century. The matriarchal Minangkabau of Indonesia militarily resisted Dutch colonization for almost fifteen years and, over a century later, launched a guerilla-based civil war against the Sukarno government. Scythian warriors of the Ancient period were women as well as men, since horse-riding largely negates the advantages of upper body strength. Clearly, these matricultural societies have not been strangers to war and violence, whether defensive or offensive, and many more examples could be provided. At the same time, many scholars claim that matricultural societies are, by definition, cultures of peace.” ref

“Taking matriculture as a cultural system in the classical Geertzian sense of the term, this issue of Matrix (Journal for Matricultural Studies, which is open access, and peer-reviewed) will explore the institutions and customs around warfare and peacemaking among matricultural societies, including cultures where women go to war themselves (whether as warriors, soldiers, spies, or in another way), where women are central to peace-building traditions, where women exercise military authority over men (formally or informally), or exercise the political authority to declare war (and end it). We take it as a given that some cultures have a weakly defined matricultural system, while others, who have strong matricultural systems, express this strength in several ways – one of which is through designating women as authorities over or active participants in violent conflict or as builders of peace.” ref

Matrilineality in Mythology?

“Certain ancient myths have been argued to expose ancient traces of matrilineal customs that existed before historical records. The ancient historian Herodotus is cited by Robert Graves in his translations of Greek myths as attesting that the Lycians of their times “still reckoned” by matrilineal descent, or were matrilineal, as were the Carians. In Greek mythology, while the royal function was a male privilege, power devolution often came through women, and the future king inherited power through marrying the queen heiress. This is illustrated in the Homeric myths where all the noblest men in Greece vie for the hand of Helen (and the throne of Sparta), as well as the Oedipian cycle where Oedipus weds the recently widowed queen at the same time he assumes the Theban kingship.” ref

“This trend also is evident in many Celtic myths, such as the (Welsh) mabinogi stories of Culhwch and Olwen, or the (Irish) Ulster Cycle, most notably the key facts to the Cúchulainn cycle that Cúchulainn gets his final secret training with a warrior woman, Scáthach, and becomes the lover of her daughter; and the root of the Táin Bó Cuailnge, that while Ailill may wear the crown of Connacht, it is his wife Medb who is the real power, and she needs to affirm her equality to her husband by owning chattels as great as he does. The Picts are widely cited as being matrilineal. A number of other Breton stories also illustrate the motif. Even the King Arthur legends have been interpreted in this light by some. For example, the Round Table, both as a piece of furniture and as concerns the majority of knights belonging to it, was a gift to Arthur from Guinevere‘s father Leodegrance. Arguments also have been made that matrilineality lay behind various fairy tale plots which may contain the vestiges of folk traditions not recorded.” ref

“For instance, the widespread motif of a father who wishes to marry his own daughter—appearing in such tales as Allerleirauh, Donkeyskin, The King who Wished to Marry His Daughter, and The She-Bear—has been explained as his wish to prolong his reign, which he would lose after his wife’s death to his son-in-law. More mildly, the hostility of kings to their daughter’s suitors is explained by hostility to their successors. In such tales as The Three May Peaches, Jesper Who Herded the Hares, or The Griffin, kings set dangerous tasks in an attempt to prevent the marriage. Fairy tales with hostility between the mother-in-law and the heroine—such as Mary’s Child, The Six Swans, and Perrault’s Sleeping Beauty—have been held to reflect a transition between a matrilineal society, where a man’s loyalty was to his mother, and a patrilineal one, where his wife could claim it, although this interpretation is predicated on such a transition being a normal development in societies.” ref

The Evolution of Matrilineal Kinship Organization

Matrilineal vs. Patrilineal Descents

“Matrilineal and patrilineal descent are two different ways of tracing kinship, lineage, or membership in a clan or family group. In matrilineal descent, kinship is determined based on a line of female relatives traced back to a particular female ancestor. In patrilineal descent, kinship is determined based on a line of male relatives traced back to a particular male ancestor. The patrilineal definition is a system that determines kinship based on a male lines of relatives. A patrilineal society is a society that bases lineage or ancestry off a male line, rather than a female line.” ref

Strong Mothers, Weak Wives?

“Some of the most widely studied cases of societies in which females enjoy relatively high prestige and power are matrilineal-matrilocal horticultural societies. These societies count descent mainly through the mothers line, and husbands live on lands owned by the matrilineage.” ref

Implicit Bias

“Research on “implicit bias” suggests that people can act on the basis of prejudice and stereotypes without intending to do so.” ref 

Implicit Stereotype

“An Implicit stereotype is the pre-reflective attribution of particular qualities by an individual to a member of some social out group. Recent studies have determined that “implicit bias” towards those of the opposite gender may be even more influential than racial implicit bias. Implicit stereotypes are thought to be shaped by experience and based on learned associations between particular qualities and social categories, including race and/or gender. Explicit stereotypes, by contrast, are consciously endorsed, intentional, and sometimes controllable thoughts and beliefs.” ref  

Race, Perception, and Implicit Bias

Your content goes here. Edit or remove this text inline or in the module Content settings. You can also style every aspect of this content in the module Design settings and even apply custom CSS to this text in the module Advanced settings.

Pre-historic Woman Chief/Rulers?

“Spain’s entombed ‘Ivory Lady’, dating back nearly 5,000 years, reveals leadership role of women in antiquity, a finding that indicates the leadership role women played in this ancient society that predated the pyramids of Egypt – and perhaps elsewhere.” ref

“Kubaba (Sumerian: 𒆬𒀭𒁀𒌑, kug-^Dba-u₂) was a legendary Mesopotamian queen who according to the Sumerian King List ruled over Kish for a hundred years before the rise of the dynasty of Akshak. It is typically assumed that she was not a historical figure. Due to spatial and temporal differences, a connection between the names of Kubaba and the similarly named goddess Kubaba cannot be established. Gonzalo Rubio stresses that the name of the latter has no clear etymology and cannot be interpreted as originating in either Sumerian or any of the Semitic languages. It was written in cuneiform as ^dku-ba-ba or ^dku-pa-pa.” ref

“Arguments have been made that Kubaba might have been a historical ruler, though this view is not regarded as plausible today. Earliest sources mentioning her were only composed centuries after she supposedly lived. Assyriologists consider her a “legendary” or “mythical” ruler. As noted by Gianni Marchesi, names starting with the element ku- are not attested before the Ur III period, and placing a ruler bearing one of them in the Early Dynastic period constitutes an anachronism. Claus Wilcke points out that in the Sumerian King List Kubaba’s reign is supernaturally long, lasting 100 years. It has been pointed out that the SKL does not accurately reflect Early Dynastic history, as indicated by the complete omission of Lagash, which was a major political power, especially during the reign of Eannatum. Kubaba is also not mentioned in any of the discovered inscriptions of historical Early Dynastic rulers. Martel Stol concludes that texts mentioning Kubaba should only be interpreted as speculation about traditional folk stories.” ref

“Kubaba is mentioned in the Sumerian King List, though due to her gender her inclusion is considered unusual. While some modern authors refer to her as a queen, the Sumerian title applied to her is lugal (“king”), which had no feminine counterpart. A recension from Ur instead states that there was no king while Kubaba reigned. She is the only ruler from the third dynasty of Kish listed. The list describes her as an innkeeper (^míLÚ.KAŠ.TIN-na), credits her with “strengthening the foundation of Kish” and attributes a 100 years long reign culminating in a temporary transfer of power from Kish to Akshak before it was regained by Puzur-Suen. The latter ruler is said to be Kubaba’s son, which makes her the grandmother of Ur-Zababa, a legendary opponent of historical Sargon of Akkad; Piotr Steinkeller points out that the historicity of these rulers of Kish and the related Sargon tradition is contradicted by an inscription which mentions the city was sacked by Enshakushanna of Uruk, who might have been a contemporary of Sargon, and its king at the time, who was taken as a captive, was named Enbi-Eštar.” ref 

“The oldest known copies of the SKL date back to the Ur III period. While names of some rulers, for example Mesannepada, were likely sourced from votive inscriptions, others, like Bazi and Zizi, might have been ordinary given names copied from lexical lists, such as the Early Dynastic so-called Names and Professions List, or outright inventions. Early versions of the SKL do not contain anecdotes about individual rulers, including Kubaba, which indicates they most likely were a later invention. The compilers used few, if any, historical accounts. Accordingly, Kubaba’s background is treated as fantastical, and has been compared to other unusual stories or members of various professions becoming kings in the same composition, including the fuller Susuda, the sailor Mamagal, and the stone worker Nanniya.” ref

“In the so-called Weidner Chronicle, which is considered a derivative of the Sumerian King List, the order of Kubaba’s dynasty and the dynasty of Akshak is switched around, with Puzur-Niraḫ [pl] reigning before her rather than later on. The section dedicated to her is poorly preserved. It relays how Kubaba was granted kingship by Marduk after he delivered an offering of fish to his temple Esagil. The composition is focused on conveying the message that kings who neglected to worship Marduk were rendered powerless, and to that end employs a number of anachronisms, this account being one of them. It is known from Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian copies, and was originally composed no earlier than around 1100 BCE.” ref

“References to Kubaba are also known from texts focused on omens linked to liver divination. As noted by Beate Pongratz-Leisten, references to legendary rulers such as her, Gušur, Etana or Gilgamesh in works belonging to this category were meant to establish them as paradigmatic models of kingship. In one of the omen compendiums, the “omen of Kubaba” is the birth of an androgynous being with both a penis and a vagina. It is possible the birth of a sheep rather than a human is meant. Such an event is said to foretell that “the country of the king shall be ruined.” Marten Stol argues that its negative character reflected a negative perception of a woman fulfilling a typically masculine role, that of a ruler. Other omens preserve a tradition according to which Kubaba was a warrior.” ref

“The Sumerian King List is unsurprisingly filled with the names of men: Alulim, Hadanish and Zizi. But alongside its male monarchs, the world’s first known civilization also produced the first known female ruler: Kubaba (also Kug-Bau or Ku-Baba) who brewed and sold beer in the ancient city of Kish in Mesopotamia. The story of powerful ancient women often centers on Egypt, where Sobekneferu,  Hatshepsut and Cleopatra reigned as pharaohs. But Kubaba ascended to the throne of Sumer long before them all, likely around 2400 BCE. To be clear, she was a true monarch — a queen regnant who ruled in her own right, rather than a queen consort, who is simply the wife of the monarch. The King List refers to her as lugal (king), not as eresh (queen consort). She is the only woman to bear this title.” ref

“The little we know about her comes from this list, a chronicle of rulers that frequently blurs the line between history and legend. Enmen-lu-ana, for example, allegedly ruled for 43,200 years. Kubaba’s reign is more plausible, but she’s still credited with an unlikely 100 years at Sumer’s helm. Her epithet is longer than most, which suggests that ancient scribes found her especially noteworthy. Alongside her name it reads, “the woman tavern-keeper, who made firm the foundations of Kish.” ref

“In the Sumerian tradition, kingship isn’t tied to a permanent capital. It shifts from place to place, bestowed by the gods upon one city and then, at their pleasure, transferred elsewhere after a few generations. Before Kubaba, the lone member of the Third Dynasty of Kish, the kingship rested in Mari for more than a century. After Kubaba it moved to Akshak. But Kish returned to prominence once more with Kubaba’s son, Puzer-Suen, and grandson, Ur-Zababa, who served as the first two rulers in the city’s fourth and final dynasty. (However, some versions of the King List do not show an intervening Akshak Dynasty between Kubaba and her descendants.)” ref

“One source claims, vaguely, that Kubaba “seized” the throne. A more detailed account of her rise to power comes from the Weidner Chronicle, which isn’t a proper history so much as “a blatant piece of propaganda,” in the words of Canadian Assyriologist Albert Kirk Grayson. Grayson has written that “the whole point of the narrative is to illustrate that those rulers who neglected or insulted [the god] Marduk or failed to provide fish offerings for the temple Esagil had an unhappy end.” ref

“According to the text, Kubaba feeds a fisherman and persuades him to offer his catch to Esagila. Marduk’s favor in response comes as no surprise: “Let it be so,” the god said, and with that, he “entrusted to Kubaba, the tavern-keeper, sovereignty over the whole world.” That’s right — her campaign expenses for world domination amounted to a loaf of bread and some water.” ref

“Coincidentally, bread and water (the ingredients of Sumerian beer) were the foundation of her pre-monarch life as well. It’s tempting to imagine Kubaba’s path from lowly brewer to lofty queen as a rags-to-riches tale, but female tavern-keepers were common and well-respected. Sometimes they were members of the nobility. Considering the people of Sumer cherished beer as a gift from the gods, it may be more accurate to think of her as “a successful business woman with divine associations herself,” writes theologist Carole R. Fontaine.” ref

“Whatever made her fit to rule, it clearly made her unique among the women of Sumer. In an empire that endured well over 1,000 years, she was the only queen to reign without a man. But it seems later generations rejected this transgression of gender roles, associating it with other supposedly abnormal blends of masculine and feminine. The birth of an intersex child became the foreboding “omen of Ku-Bau who ruled the land,” with the consequence that “the land of the king will become waste.” As Assryiologist Rivkah Harris writes, “sitting on the throne was behavior unbecoming for a woman, just as a bearded woman was an unnatural phenomenon.” ref

“Over time, it seems the human Kubaba faded from memory and the divine associations took precedence. She was apparently deified in the next millennium, during the Hittite period, as the protector of the Syrian city of Carchemish. However, the relationship between the deity and the historical person is unclear, especially because Baba was the name of a Sumerian god, and the prefix “ku” meant “holy,” according to the American archaeologist William F. Albright. If the goddess does stem from the real-life queen, though, her legacy outlasted the fall of Sumer, and even of the Hittites. After evolving into the Greco-Roman Cybele, or Cybebe, this “great mother of the gods” still boasted a cult of worshippers as late as 3,000 years after her death — not bad for a barmaid.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

12 Powerful Women that Held the Position of Rulers/Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt

Here are the names and possible dates for these women who may have been rulers. 1. Queen Meryt-Neith ruled 5,020 years ago. 2. Queen Nimaathap (Third Dynasty, 4,706–4,633 years ago). 3. Queen Khentkaus (Fourth Dynasty, 4,633–4,514 years ago). 4. Queen Ankhesenpepi II (Sixth Dynasty, 4,385–4,201 years ago). 5. Princess Neithhikret (Died 4,201 years ago). 6. Princess-Queen Sobeknefru (Died 3,822 years ago). 7. Queen Ashotep (3,580–3,550 years ago). 8. Princess-Queen Ahmose-Nefertari (3,582–3,515 years ago). 9. Queen Hatshepsut (3,527–3,478 years ago). 10. Queen Nefertiti (3,390–3,350 years ago). 11. Queen Tausret (Died 3,209 years ago). 12. Queen Cleopatra I (2,224–2,196 years ago).

Queen Regnant

“This is a list of current and former female monarchs regardless of title, including queens regnant, empresses regnant, pharaohs and monarchs by other titles (grand duchess, princess, etc.). Consorts, such queens consort (i.e. spouses of male monarchs) are not included, see list of current consorts of sovereigns. Female regents are not included, see list of regents. Various female rulers who were referred to with the title “Chieftainess.”

“A queen regnant (pl.: queens regnant) is a female monarch, equivalent in rank, title and position to a king. She reigns suo jure (in her own right) over a realm known as a kingdom; as opposed to a queen consort, who is married to a reigning king; or a queen regent, who is the guardian of a child monarch and rules pro tempore in the child’s stead or instead of her husband who is absent from the realm, be it de jure in sharing power or de facto in ruling alone. A queen regnant is sometimes called a woman king. A princess regnant is a female monarch who reigns suo jure over a principality; an empress regnant is a female monarch who reigns suo jure over an empire.” ref

“A queen regnant possesses and exercises sovereign powers, whereas a queen consort or queen regent shares her spouse’s or child’s rank and titles but does not share the sovereignty of her spouse or child. The husband of a queen regnant traditionally does not share the queen regnant’s rank, title, or sovereignty. However, the concept of a king consort or prince consort is not unheard of in both contemporary and historical periods. The oldest attested queen regnant was the Pharaoh Sobekneferu from the 18th/17th century BCE.” ref

“In Ancient Africa, Ancient Persia, Asian and Pacific cultures, and in some European countries, female monarchs have been given the title king or its equivalent, such as pharaoh, when gender is irrelevant to the office, or else have used the masculine form of the word in languages that have grammatical gender as a way to classify nouns. The Roman Empress Irene of Athens sometimes titled herself basileus (βασιλεύς), ’emperor’, rather than basilissa (βασίλισσα), ’empress’, and Mary of Hungary was crowned as Rex Hungariae, King of Hungary in 1382. Among the Davidic Monarchs of the Kingdom of Judah, there is mentioned a single queen regnant, Athaliah, though the Hebrew Bible regards her negatively as a usurper. The much later Hasmonean Queen Salome Alexandra (Shlom Tzion) was highly popular.” ref

“Accession of a queen regnant occurs as a nation’s order of succession permits. Methods of succession to kingdoms, tribal chiefships, and such include nomination (the reigning monarch or a council names an heir), primogeniture (in which the children of a monarch or chief have preference in order of birth from eldest to youngest), and ultimogeniture (in which the children have preference in the reverse order of birth from youngest to eldest). The scope of succession may be matrilineal, patrilineal, or both; or, rarely, open to general election when necessary. The right of succession may be open to men and women, or limited to men only or to women only.” ref

“The most typical succession in European monarchies from the Late Middle Ages until the late 20th century was male-preference primogeniture: the order of succession ranked the sons of the monarch in order of their birth, followed by the daughters. Historically, many realms, like France, Holy Roman Empire forbade succession by women or through a female line in accordance with the Salic law, and nine countries still do, such countries being Japan, Morocco, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Brunei, Liechtenstein, Bhutan. No queen regnant ever ruled France, for example. Only one woman, Maria Theresa, ruled Austria. As noted in the list below of widely-known ruling queens, many reigned in European monarchies.” ref

“In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Luxembourg and the United Kingdom amended their laws of succession to absolute primogeniture (in which the children of a monarch or chief have preference in order of birth from eldest to youngest regardless of gender). In some cases, the change does not take effect during the lifetimes of people already in the line of succession at the time the law was passed. In 2011, the United Kingdom and the 15 other Commonwealth realms agreed to remove the rule of male-preference primogeniture. Once the necessary legislation was passed, this means that had Prince William had a daughter first, a younger son would not have become heir apparent.” ref

“In 2015, Elizabeth II became the longest-reigning queen regnant and female head of state in world history. She was the longest currently serving head of state and longest currently reigning monarch from 2016 until her death on 8 September 2022. Since the abdication of Margrethe II of Denmark on 14 January 2024, there are currently no female sovereigns in the world, for the first time in over 200 years. Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden, Princess Elisabeth, Duchess of Brabant (monarchy of Belgium), and Catharina-Amalia, Princess of Orange (monarchy of the Netherlands) are currently heiresses apparent to the thrones of their respective monarchies, along with Leonor, Princess of Asturias, who is the heiress presumptive of the throne of Spain. All four are therefore liable to become queens regnant following the end of the current reigns.” ref

“Because there is no feminine equivalent to king and emperor in East Asian languages, different titles are used for female monarchs and female consorts. The titles of female monarchs in East Asia are translated directly as “female king” or “female emperor” and the titles of female consorts in East Asia are translated directly as “king’s consort” or “emperor’s consort”. So, the titles of female monarchs in East Asia are the same as those of male monarchs, just indicating that they are women.” ref

“In China, the term nǚhuángdì (女皇帝, “female emperor”), abbreviated as nǚhuáng (女皇), has been used for three empresses regnant to assume the title of huángdì: Daughter of Xiaoming, Chen Shuozhen and Wu Zetian, because the title huánghòu (皇后, “emperor’s consort”) means only an empress consort. The term nǚwáng (女王, “female king”) was also used for queens regnant of Eastern Kingdom of Women [zh] of the tribe Sumpa and it is different from the title wánghòu (王后, “king’s consort”) which means a queen consort.” ref

“In Korea, the term yeowang (Hangul: 여왕, Hanja: 女王, “female king”) was developed to refer to three queens regnant of Silla: Seondeok, Jindeok and Jinseong, because the title wangbi (Hangul: 왕비, Hanja: 王妃, “king’s consort”) means only a queen consort. The term yeoje (Hangul: 여제, Hanja: 女帝, “female emperor”) was also used for Yi Hae-won, the titular empress regnant of Korean Empire because the title hwanghu (Hangul: 황후, Hanja: 皇后, “emperor’s consort”) means only an empress consort.” ref

“Although Vietnam is a country in Southeast Asia, it used the royal titles of East Asia. The title as a queen regnant of Trưng Trắc was Nữ vương (chữ Hán: 女王, “female king”) and the title as an empress regnant of Lý Chiêu Hoàng was Nữ hoàng (chữ Hán: 女皇, “female emperor”), and they are different from the titles of female consorts. In Japan, the title used for two queens regnant of Yamatai: Himiko and Toyo was joō (女王, “female king”) and it is different from the title ōhi (王妃, “king’s consort”) which means only a queen consort. The term jotei (女帝, “female emperor”) or josei tennō (女性天皇, “female heavenly emperor”) has been used for empresses regnant of Japan because the title kōgō (皇后, “emperor’s consort”) means only an empress consort.” ref

“Although the Chrysanthemum Throne of Japan is currently barred to women following the Imperial Household Law (Emperor Naruhito has a daughter, Princess Aiko. She cannot accede to the Chrysanthemum Throne), this has not always been the case; throughout Japanese history, there have been eight empresses regnant. The Japanese imperial succession debate became a significant political issue during the early 2000s, as no male children had been born to the Imperial House of Japan since 1965. Prime Minister Junichirō Koizumi pledged to present parliament with a bill to allow women to ascend the Imperial Throne, but he withdrew this after the birth of Prince Hisahito (Naruhito’s nephew) in 2006.” ref 

Female Monarchs

“The first verified female monarch of Egypt is Sobekneferu of the Twelfth dynasty. However, queens from earlier periods such as Neithhotep, Merneith and Khentkaus I held powerful positions and may have ruled Egypt in their own right, but the archaeological evidence is ambiguous. Ptolemy II instituted a new practice of brother-sister marriage when he married his full sister, Arsinoe II. They became, in effect, co-rulers, and both took the epithet Philadelphus (“Brother-Loving” and “Sister-Loving”). Because of this custom many of the kings ruled jointly with their spouses, who were also of the royal house. The only Ptolemaic Queens who ruled alone were Cleopatra II, Berenice III and Berenice IV. Cleopatra VI did co-rule, but it was with another female, Berenice IV. Cleopatra VII officially co-ruled with Ptolemy XIII Theos Philopator, Ptolemy XIV, and Ptolemy XV, but effectively, she ruled Egypt alone. Zenobia took Roman Egypt by Palmyrene invasion and was declared Queen of Egypt.” ref

“Sobekneferu Mid-18th century BCE Ruled: 3 years, Hatshepsut 1479–1458 BCE Ruled: 21 years, Neferneferuaten 1334–1332 BCE Ruled: 3 years, and Twosret 1191–1189 BCE Ruled: 2 years.” ref

“Kandake was a title for queens, queen mothers, and queens consort in Nubia, but ruling kandakes included:

Nahirqo Mid-2nd century BCE, Amanirenas End of 1st century BCE–Beginning of 1st century CE, Amanishakheto Early 1st century CE, Nawidemak First half of the 1st century CE, Amanitore Mid-1st century CE, Amanikhatashan Mid-2nd century CE, Amanikhalika Second half of the 2nd century CE, Patrapeamani First half of the 4th century CE, and Amanipilade Mid-4th century CE.” ref

Algeria Tin Hinan 4th century CE

Algeria Dihya 668–703 CE Ruled: 35 years

Canary Islands (off North Africa) Inés Peraza 1452–1477 CE Ruled: 25 years

Spain Isabella I of Castile 1479–1504 CE Ruled: 25 years

Spain Joanna of Castile 1504–1555  Ruled: 51 years

Spain Isabella II of Spain 1833–1868 Ruled: 35 years” ref

Female Monarchs of the Americas

“Cobá

• Che’enal [sv] (reigned c. 565 – c. 574 CE)
• Lady Yopaat [sv] (reigned c. 600 – c. 640 CE)
• Lady K’awiil Ajaw (reigned 640–682 CE)

Ecatepec

• Tlapalizquixochtzin (reigned in the late 15th–early 16th century CE)

Palenque

• Ix Yohl Ik’nal (reigned 583–604 CE)
• Sak K’uk’, also known as Muwaan Mat (reigned 612–615 CE)

Tepetlaoztoc

• Azcasuch (reigned in the late 15th–early 16th century CE)

Toltec Empire

• Xiuhtlaltzin (reigned 979–983 CE)

Toniná

• Lady K’awiil Yopaat (reigned 762–774 CE)

Tzacoalco

• Malinxalchitl (reigned ?–1524 CE)

Pusilha

• Lady Ich’aak K’inich

Guatemala

El Perú

• Lady K’abel (reigned 672–692 CE)

La Florida

• Lady Chaak (reigned c. 731 CE)

Naranjo

• Wac Chanil Ahau, also known as Lady Six Sky

Tikal

• Unen Bahlam (reigned c. 317 CE)
• Lady of Tikal (reigned 511–527? CE)

Ecuador

• Quilago, queen of Cochasquí

Peru

• Lady of Cao, Moche ruler ref

Female Monarchs of Asia

“Wu Zetian (Chinese: 武則天) – Empress regnant of China, ruling from 690 to 705 CE. She was the only orthodox reigning empress in the history of China. Although Wu Zetian is the only undisputed empress regnant recognized in orthodox Chinese historiography, there are two other documented cases of a woman holding the title of “Empress regnant” in Chinese history:

• Daughter of Emperor Xiaoming of Northern Wei (Chinese: 元氏 (北魏孝明帝女); reigned 1–2 April 528 CE) – during Northern Wei Dynasty, Empress Dowager Hu, after her son Emperor Xiaoming of Northern Wei‘s death, falsely declared Emperor Xiaoming’s daughter to be a son and declared the daughter to be the new ruler, but almost immediately revealed that the child was in fact female, and thereafter declared Yuan Zhao, the young son of Emperor Xiaoming’s cousin Yuan Baohui (元寶暉) emperor. Emperor Xiaoming’s daughter is also therefore not usually considered a true monarch.” ref

Eastern Kingdom of Women [zh]

“In Tibet, there was Nüguo (Chinese: 女國, lit. “Kingdom of Women”), also known as Dong nüguo (Chinese: 東女國, lit. “Eastern Kingdom of Women”), related to the tribe Sumpa. Several queens regnant of there were recorded in Chinese history books.” ref

• Supi Mojie (Chinese: 蘇毗末羯)
• Dajiawa (Chinese: 达甲瓦)
• Qibangsun (Chinese: 弃邦孙)
• Tangpangshi (Chinese: 湯滂氏)
• Lianbi (Chinese: 斂臂)
• Eyaner (Chinese: 俄琰兒)
• Zhaoyefu (Chinese: 趙曳夫) ref

Wuman

• Acha (Cuanman) [zh] – her son Cuan Shouyu [zh] submitted to Geluofeng [zh] of Nanzhao, and instead she declared herself the King/Queen of the Wuman tribe (烏蠻部落王) ref

Japan

Queen Himiko of Yamatai 180–247/248 CE 68 years

Queen Toyo of Yamatai 248–unknown 

Empress Suiko 593–628 CE Ruled: 35 years

Empress Kōgyoku 642–645 CE Ruled: 3 years

Empress Saimei 655–661 CE Ruled: 6 years

Empress Jitō 686–697 CE Ruled: 9 years

Empress Genmei 707–715 CE Ruled: 8 years

Empress Genshō 715–724 CE Ruled: 9 years

Empress Kōken 749–758 CE Ruled: 9 years

Empress Shōtoku 764–770 CE Ruled: 6 years

Empress Meishō 1629–1643 CE Ruled: 14 years

Empress Go-Sakuramachi 1762–1771 CE Ruled: 9 years ref

Korea

Silla

• Seondeok (reigned 632–647 CE)
• Jindeok (reigned 647–652 CE)
• Jinseong (reigned 887–897 CE) ref

Timor-Leste

“There were many chiefdoms on Timor, but according to the hierarchy among the Timorese domains, the ruler of Sonbai of West Timor, the ruler of Wehali of Central Timor, and the ruler of Likusaen (today: Liquiçá) of East Timor were three paramount rulers of Timor.” ref

Dominican Republic

• Higuanamá, also spelled Hiquanama, Cacica of Higüey, one of the Chiefdoms of Hispaniola (reigned ?–1502 CE) – she was described by Las Casas in his A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies; Juan de Esquivel hanged Higuanamá in 1502 CE. ref

Haiti

• Anacaona, Cacica of Jaragua, one of the Chiefdoms of Hispaniola ref

Rarotonga

• Makea Takau Ariki, Queen/Supreme High Chiefess of the Cook Islands (reigned 1871–1911 CE) – was the last monarch and only queen regnant of the Kingdom of Rarotonga established in 1858 CE, she ceased to be sovereign after 1888 CE. ref

Ancient Hawaii

• Kalanikauleleiaiwi (reigned 1695–1725 CE) — co-ruler of Hawaiʻi Island along with her brother Keaweʻīkekahialiʻiokamoku
• Ululani, Chiefess of Hilo
• Kapau-a-Nuʻakea, 3rd Chiefess of Molokai
• Kamauliwahine, 4th Chiefess of Molokai
• Hualani, 5th Chiefess of Molokai
• Kanealai, Chiefess of Molokai
• Kūkaniloko, 11th Moʻi of Oʻahu
• Kalaimanuia, 12th Moʻi of Oʻahu (reigned 1600–1665 CE)
• Kaikilani, 17th Moʻi of Hawaiʻi Island (reigned 1575–1605 CE)
• Keakamahana, 19th Moʻi of Hawaiʻi Island (reigned 1635–1665 CE)
• Keakealaniwahine, 20th Moʻi of Hawaiʻi Island (reigned 1665–1695 CE)
• Kamakahelei, 22nd Moʻi of Kauaʻi (reigned 1770–1794 CE) ref

Kingdom of Hawaii

• Liliʻuokalani (reigned 1891–1893 and claimed status as queen until her death in 1917) – the only queen regnant of the Kingdom of Hawaii established by Kamehameha I  ref

Tonga

• Tupoumahe’ofo (reigned 1777–1781, as Tu’i Kanokupolu)
• Salote Tupou III (reigned 1918–1965) ref

Nigeria

• Agbani Darego, honorary chieftaincy of Lagos  ref

South Africa

Xhosa

• Nosizwe Tyali, Chief of Imingcangathelo
• Nosiseko Gaika, Chief of Amambombo (Ngqika)
• Nomasilakhe Komani, Chief of Imingqalasi ref

“Very few women ever rose to power in the kingdoms and empires of the ancient world. The handful who did, in the Near East, Asia, and Europe, fought their way through significant barriers in often violent times. These women first accessed their power through men—fathers, husbands, brothers, and sons. But they stayed in power, sometimes for decades, through a mix of ambition, intelligence, political savvy, generosity, guile, and, in some cases, a ruthless and bloody drive for power.” ref

“In every single case, it’s a crisis that brings them to the throne. It’s a lack of men, they are there as placeholders or stopgaps, and they usually have a bad end,” says Egyptologist and archaeologist Kara Cooney, who teaches about female rulers in antiquity at the University of California, Los Angeles.  When their reigns ended, they sometimes died violently. Their lives and achievements were often scrubbed from collective memory by subsequent male rulers eager to take credit and reinforce prevailing patriarchal norms.” ref

“In each case, the woman is swept aside. In each, case the woman has no genetic legacy. And in each case, her ambition is judged as self-serving and dangerous,” says Cooney, author of The Woman Who Would Be King: Hatshepsut’s Rise to Power in Ancient Egypt. And for millennia thereafter, their stories were chronicled largely by male historians. Those narratives, sometimes framed around the women’s violent or promiscuous ways (think Egypt’s Cleopatra or Phoenician royal Jezebel), became “cautionary tales” that “have invaded our cultural psyche,” says Cooney, preventing many from seeing a more complete picture of their real lives and accomplishments.” ref

“Here is an ancient female ruler who overcame obstacles to help shape the history of her time. Boudica of Ancient Britain, Queen Boudica of the ancient British Iceni tribe became a leader for her people and a legendary figure and cultural symbol through revolt, violence, and war.  When her husband Prasutagus died in the year CE 60, the Roman Empire moved in to annex the Iceni Kingdom. During the takeover, Romans publicly flogged the queen and raped her two daughters.  Author David Furlow said the Romans mistakenly believed the violence would make her submit. “It had the opposite effect. It made her strong beyond belief. It gave her power to wage a crusade of fire and steel.” ref

“Boudica, who had been trained as a warrior, rallied the Iceni and other British tribe. Together, they attacked the three main Roman population centers, including Londonium (roughly present-day London) and defeated a detachment of the Roman legion. Her followers killed between 70,000 and 80,000 Romans and pro-Roman Britons and came close to success in the uprising until a regrouped Roman army defeated the tribes decisively in a third and final battle. Boudica died by suicide or illness soon after. The short-lived revolt in CE 61 would make her a national heroine and a cultural symbol 15 centuries later during the English Renaissance.” ref

“Queen Cartimandua of the Brigante: This ancient woman used her shrewd negotiating skills to remain in power and rule her people. The Brigantes from the northern part of Britain was a community ruled by Queen Cartimandua. Her leadership was most significant from circa 43 CE after she had bargained with the emperor of Rome at the time, Claudius,  in order to remain in power. Her clever and strategic negotiating skills enabled her to enlist the assistance of the Romans in 48 CE. They helped her to hold her position as queen when several anti-Roman factions attempted to rebel against her leadership.” ref

“Queen Cartimandua again reinforced her reign ca 51 CE when she had her army arrest the British resistance leader Caratacus. She handed him over to the Romans, thereby reaffirming her treaty with Rome and strengthening support from the Roman troops. By continuously strengthening her alliance with the Romans the queen solidified her rule over the region and its population. Even her husband Venutius, who was supposed to be a joint ruler with her, attempted to depose her as queen between 52 CE to 57 CE. His attempts failed because the Romans defeated him in order to guarantee that Cartimandua remain in power. It is remarkable for a woman in antiquity to have garnered such support from the great Roman empire, even being favored above a man in such a prominent political role.” ref

“The queen was eventually overthrown by Venutius after they divorced. He plotted against her for a third time, and this time he succeeded. Her loss was largely due to the political turmoil and lack of leadership back in Rome, which had transitioned through four emperors in a brief period. The Romans eventually dethroned Venutius in 71 CE. Queen Cartimandua is a true example of a woman in antiquity who rose above the male gender to rule by masterfully gaining the support of the Romans who kept her in the position of queen. Silver coins which were minted during the time of Cartimandua are prominent among artifacts from this time.” ref

“When was the veneration of women, symbolized by ancient mother goddesses, replaced by patriarchal societies? We will never know. But throughout history, some ancient women have nonetheless broken their boundaries. Throughout history women have played subservient roles to their male counterparts in most societies. When did the male role of protector change to total male dominance one wonders? Whatever the case, several ancient women were crucial protagonists in various critical and dominant spheres in their communities and nations. Their achievements were accomplished despite the disparity in gender roles, and it is noteworthy to mention that their accomplishments were made due to their unique abilities to think and act outside their boundaries. They ingeniously proved themselves more capable than the men of their times, who were automatically regarded as superior simply based on their gender.” ref

“On the back of their elephants, two Vietnamese warrior-sisters led a momentous rebellion at a time when it was unheard of for ancient women to do so. Vietnam had been under Chinese rule for centuries and several small, somewhat insignificant insurrection attempts by Vietnamese men had so far been unsuccessful. In 39 CE however, after the murder of her husband who was plotting against the Chinese, Trung Trac and her younger sister Trung Nhi successfully led an army against them. They were so determined that within a year they controlled sixty-five northern strongholds in the country. In the years to follow, between 39 CE to 43 CE, the sisters were so successful that they managed to create an independent state.” ref

“The sisters were at the forefront of the movement toward Vietnam’s independence and they led the way for other women to follow their heroic and triumphant efforts. Without supplies and the support of more troops, the sisters took their own lives rather than concede to the far mightier Chinese forces in 43 CE. The sisters have been honored for their heroism, and they have a road named after them in former Saigon (Known as Ho Chi Minh City), as well as a pagoda in Hanoi and one at Hat Mon. Their accomplishments are often praised by teachers and scholars across Asia, especially in places where culture remains very much male-dominated to this day.” ref

“Following the defeat of the Trung sisters and the resumption of Chinese assimilation of the Vietnamese population, another ancient woman rose to make a name for herself in the fight for independence. Ba Trieu, also known as the Vietnamese Joan of Arc, lived with her brother Trieu Quoc Dat, a powerful leader in the Cuu Chan District. She lost both her parents when she was only a young girl. Writings about this ancient woman portray her as having been physically resilient with a fighting spirit. She was a forward thinker in the third century.” ref 

“At nineteen she was advised by her brother to marry, to which she defiantly retorted that she would be better off serving her people as a warrior for independence against the tight controls of the Chinese who had oppressed the Vietnamese for centuries. “I only want to ride the wind and walk the waves, slay the big whales of the eastern sea, clean up frontiers and save the people from drowning. Why should I imitate others, bend my back to men, stoop over and be a slave.”
(Warriors, Poets, and Radio Hosts, Glenn Macdonald). She added: “Why resign myself to menial housework?” These words are ascribed to Ba Trieu when her family tried to talk her out of battle.” ref

“At some point during the third century, Ba Trieu’s brother was planning to lead an insurrection against the Chinese occupiers in the region. Ba Trieu, only 19 years of age at the time, gathered an army of around one thousand fighters whom she trained and subsequently led into battle to assist her brother’s army. The rebellion was successful, and the army was so impressed with the courage and conviction Ba Trieu had displayed as well as her astute leadership skills, that they declared her their leader. At the age of 23 Ba Trieu took her own life rather than be captured when she was defeated in battle. Today, she is a renowned national hero of Vietnam and a revered example to the country’s women of a fighter against oppression.” ref

A Few Great Warrior Women of the Ancient World 

Fu Hao (d. c. 1200 BCE)

“Lady Fu Hao was one of the 60 wives of Emperor Wu Ding of ancient China’s Shang Dynasty. She broke with tradition by serving as both a high priestess and military general. According to inscriptions on oracle bones from the time, Fu Hao led many military campaigns, commanded 13,000 soldiers and was considered the most powerful military leaders of her time. The many weapons found in her tomb support Fu Hao’s status as a great female warrior. She also controlled her own fiefdom on the outskirts of her husband’s empire. Her tomb was unearthed in 1976 and can be visited by the public.” ref

Tomyris (fl. 530 BCE)

“Tomyris was the Queen of the Massaegetae, a confederation of nomadic tribes that lived east of the Caspian Sea. She ruled during the 6th century BCE and is most famous for the vengeful war she waged against the Persian king, Cyrus the Great. Initially, the war did not go well for Tomyris and the Massaegetae. Cyrus destroyed their army, and Tomyris’ son, Spargapises, committed suicide out of shame. The grief-stricken Tomyris raised another army and challenged Cyrus to battle a second time. Cyrus believed another victory was certain and accepted the challenge, but in the ensuing engagement Tomyris emerged victorious. Cyrus himself fell in the melee. During his reign he had won many battles and defeated many of the most powerful men of his time, yet Tomyris proved a Queen too far. Tomyris’ vengeance was not sated by Cyrus’ death. Following the battle, the Queen demanded her men find Cyrus’ body; when they located it, the 5th century BCE historian Herodotus reveals Tomyris’ gruesome next move: …she took a skin, and, filling it full of human blood, she dipped the head of Cyrus in the gore, saying, as she thus insulted the corpse, “I live and have conquered you in fight, and yet by you am I ruined, for you took my son with guile; but thus I make good my threat, and give you your fill of blood.” ref 

Artemisia I of Caria (fl. 480 BCE)

“The Ancient Greek Queen of Halicarnassus, Artemisia ruled during the late 5^th century BCE. She was an ally to the King of Persia, Xerxes I, and fought for him during the second Persian invasion of Greece, personally commanding 5 ships at the Battle of Salamis. Herodotus writes that she was a decisive and intelligent, albeit ruthless strategist. According to Polyaenus, Xerxes praised Artemisia above all other officers in his fleet and rewarded her for her performance in battle.” ref

Cynane (c. 358 – 323 BCE)

“Cynane was the daughter of King Philip II of Macedon and his first wife, the Illyrian Princess Audata. She was also the half-sister of Alexander the Great. Audata raised Cynane in the Illyrian tradition, training her in the arts of war and turning her into an exceptional fighter – so much so that her skill on the battlefield became famed throughout the land. Cynane accompanied the Macedonian army on campaign alongside Alexander the Great, and according to the historian Polyaenus, she once slew an Illyrian queen and masterminded the slaughter of her army. Such was her military prowess. Following Alexander the Great’s death in 323 BCE, Cynane attempted an audacious power play. In the ensuing chaos, she championed her daughter, Adea, to marry Philip Arrhidaeus, Alexander’s simple-minded half-brother who the Macedonian generals had installed as a puppet king.” ref 

“Yet Alexander’s former generals – and especially the new regent, Perdiccas – had no intention of accepting this, seeing Cynane as a threat to their own power. Undeterred, Cynane gathered a powerful army and marched into Asia to place her daughter on the throne by force. As she and her army were marching through Asia towards Babylon, Cynane was confronted by another army commanded by Alcetas, the brother of Perdiccas and a former companion of Cynane. However, desiring to keep his brother in power Alcetas slew Cynane when they met – a sad end to one of history’s most remarkable female warriors. Although Cynane never reached Babylon, her power play proved successful. The Macedonian soldiers were angered at Alcetas’ killing of Cynane, especially as she was directly related to their beloved Alexander. Thus they demanded Cynane’s wish be fulfilled. Perdiccas relented, Adea and Philip Arrhidaeus were married, and Adea adopted the title Queen Adea Eurydice.” ref

Olympias and Eurydice

“The mother of Alexander the Great, Olympias was one of the most remarkable women in antiquity. She was a princess of the most powerful tribe in Epirus (a region now divided between northwest Greece and southern Albania) and her family claimed descent from Achilles. Despite this impressive claim, many Greeks considered her home kingdom to be semi-barbarous  – a realm tainted with vice because of its proximity to raiding Illyrians in the north. Thus the surviving texts often perceive her as a somewhat exotic character. In 358 BCE Olympias’ uncle, the Molossian King Arrybas, married Olympias to King Philip II of Macedonia to secure the strongest possible alliance. She gave birth to Alexander the Great two years later in 356 BCE.” ref

“Further conflict was added to an already tempestuous relationship when Philip married again, this time a Macedonian noblewoman called Cleopatra Eurydice. Olympias began to fear this new marriage might threaten the possibility of Alexander inheriting Philip’s throne. Her Molossian heritage was starting to make some Macedonian nobles question Alexander’s legitimacy. Thus there is a strong possibility that Olympias was involved in the subsequent murders of Philip II, Cleopatra Eurydice and her infant children. She is often portrayed as a woman who stopped at nothing to ensure Alexander ascended the throne. Following Alexander the Great’s death in 323 BCE, she became a major player in the early Wars of the Successors in Macedonia. In 317 BCE, she led an army into Macedonia and was confronted by an army led by another queen: none other than Cynane’s daughter, Adea Eurydice. This clash was the first time in Greek history that two armies faced each other commanded by women. However, the battle ended before a sword blow was exchanged. As soon as they saw the mother of their beloved Alexander the Great facing them, Eurydice’s army deserted to Olympias.” ref

Upon capturing Eurydice and Philip Arrhidaeus, Eurydice’s husband, Olympias had them imprisoned in squalid conditions. Soon after she had Philip stabbed to death while his wife watched on. On Christmas Day 317, Olympias sent Eurydice a sword, a noose, and some hemlock, and ordered her to choose which way she wanted to die. After cursing Olympias’ name that she might suffer a similarly sad end, Eurydice chose the noose. Olympias herself did not live long to cherish this victory. The following year Olympias’ control of Macedonia was overthrown by Cassander, another of the Successors. Upon capturing Olympias, Cassander sent two hundred soldiers to her house to slay her. However, after being overawed by the sight of Alexander the Great’s mother, the hired killers did not go through with the task. Yet this only temporarily prolonged Olympias’ life as relatives of her past victims soon murdered her in revenge.” ref

Queen Teuta (fl. 229 BCE)

“Teuta was the Queen of the Ardiaei tribe in Illyria during the late third century BCE. In 230 BCE, she was acting as regent for her infant stepson when a Roman embassy arrived at her court to mediate concerns about Illyrian expansion along the Adriatic shoreline. During the meeting, however, one of the Roman delegates lost his temper and began to shout at the Illyrian queen. Outraged by the outburst, Teuta had the young diplomat murdered. The incident marked the outbreak of the First Illyrian War between Rome and Teuta’s Illyria. By 228 BC, Rome had emerged victorious, and Teuta was banished from her homeland.” ref

Zenobia (240 – c. 275 CE)

“The Queen of Syria’s Palmyrene Empire from 267 CE, Zenobia conquered Egypt from the Romans only 2 years into her reign. Her empire only lasted a short while longer, however, as the Roman Emperor Aurelian defeated her in 271 CE, taking her back to Rome where she — depending on which account you believe — either died shortly thereafter or married a Roman governor and lived out a life of luxury as a well-known philosopher, socialite, and matron. Dubbed the ‘Warrior Queen’, Zenobia was well-educated and multi-lingual. She was known to behave ‘like a man’, riding, drinking and hunting with her officers.” ref

Women in Ancient Warfare

“The role of women in ancient warfare differed from culture to culture. There have been various historical accounts of females participating in battle. Instances of women recorded as participating in ancient warfare, from the beginning of written records to approximately 500 CE. Contemporary archaeological research regularly provides better insight into the accuracy of ancient historical accounts. Women active in direct warfare, such as warriors and spies, are included in this list. Also included are women who commanded armies, but did not fight.” ref

Known Timeline of women in ancient warfare worldwide from 17th century BCE to 2nd century CE

Female Military Units Throughout History

“Women warriors appear in myths across the world. According to Greek mythology, the Amazons were a group of female soldiers famed for their ferocity and skill in battle. Meanwhile, the Vikings believed in the mythical Valkyries who carried worthy warriors to Valhalla. Although soldiering has typically been a male pursuit throughout history, there are several examples of women taking to the battlefield. Women have fought either in entirely female units or amongst their male counterparts in mixed units.” ref

Female Military used by Steppe peoples

The Eurasian Steppe has been home to many nomadic equestrian groups over the course of history. During the Bronze and Iron Ages, women from several cultures in this vast region may have fought alongside men. The majority of evidence concerning warrior women of the steppe comes from archaeological finds in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Female remains from several ancient cultures have been discovered, for example, in kurgans (burial mounds) alongside objects implying they were warriors. Some burials belonging to the Sauromatian culture, which inhabited southern Russia in the 4th and 6th centuries BCE, have also been found to contain the remains of women buried with arrowheads and quivers.” ref

“Even more finds of a similar nature have been unearthed belonging to the closely-related Scythian and Sarmatian cultures. The Scythians dominated the Pontic Steppe from the 7th century BCE until the 3rd century BCE. The Sarmatians thrived in roughly the same region between the 3rd century BCE and 4th century CE. Anthropologist David Anthony has observed that roughly twenty percent of Scythian and Sarmatian graves excavated in the lower Don and Volga regions containing artifacts associated with warriors belonged to women. Kurgans containing the remains of “warrior women” continue to be found. In 2019, two burials were discovered in Russia dating back to the 4th century BC. Archaeologists found the skeletons of two women buried alongside horse riding equipment and weapons, including iron daggers and thirty arrowheads. Female steppe warriors probably fought as horse archers. For centuries, nomads from the Steppe were feared in Europe and Asia for their ability to shoot arrows from fast moving horses. Their mobility on the battlefield gave them an advantage over more cumbersome enemies.” ref

Warrior Women of the Illyrians

“The Illyrians were a group of Paleo-Balkan peoples who inhabited the Western Balkan Peninsula across land that today forms parts of Albania, Croatia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and some parts of Serbia and Slovenia. Illyrian women had more freedom than their Greek and Roman contemporaries. Eduard Shehi, an archaeologist from Albania’s Institute of Archaeology, notes: “There are ancient writers’ accounts of Illyrian women going with their husbands to a banquet, drinking with them and even raising a toast, something unacceptable in ancient Greece or Rome.” They may also have accompanied the men to battle. References to Illyrian women on the battlefield come mostly from Greek sources. One of Philip II of Macedon’s wives, Audata, was an Illyrian. Contrary to Macedonian customs, Audata taught their daughter Cynane (Greek: Κυνάνη or Κύνα) how to fight.” ref

“Polyaenus, a 2nd CE Greek author, wrote that Cynane “was famous for her military knowledge; she commanded armies, and in the field charged at the head of them. In an engagement with the Illyrians, she herself slew their queen with a fatal blow to the throat; and she defeated the Illyrian army with great slaughter.” After her half-brother, Alexander the Great, died in 323 BCE, Cynane was embroiled in the struggles to carve up his empire. Alcetas, one of Alexander’s generals, murdered her, however, in 323 BCE. Before her death, Cynane had taught her daughter Eurydice (also called Adea) the martial arts that she had learned from her own mother. Eurydice followed in her footsteps and was active in the successor wars. Alexander’s mother, Olympias, outplayed her nevertheless and Eurydice committed suicide in captivity.” ref

“In the 3rd century BCE, another Illyrian woman became famous for her military exploits. Teuta of the Illyrian Ardiaei kingdom was pronounced queen regent when her husband Agron died. Queen Teuta continued her husband’s expansionist foreign policy and was successful in multiple conflicts against neighboring Greek states. However, Teuta’s decision to sponsor Illyrian pirates angered the Romans, whose trading vessels were attacked across the Adriatic Sea. The Romans sent ambassadors, but she murdered one and imprisoned the others. The Romans responded with an invasion which resulted in the First Illyrian War and ultimately triumphed. Yet Teuta remained in power and the Ardiaei kingdom retained its autonomy until 168 BCE, when they were defeated again by the Romans in the Third Illyrian War.” ref

“Today, Queen Teuta is regarded as a national heroine in Albania and is featured on Albanian currency. Due to the lack of concrete evidence, it is difficult to determine whether Illyrian women were a common sight on the battlefield. Several literary sources describing the military education of Illyrian royal women seems to suggest that at least some Illyrian women belonging to the nobility were trained for war with the expectation that they might see combat.” ref

Onna-musha: Japan’s Samurai women

“The onna-musha were female warriors who fought throughout pre-modern Japanese history. They took part in many of the same battles as their more famous male samurai counterparts. References to the onna-musha are quite extensive. The most famous were Tomoe Gozen and Hangaku Gozen, who fought on opposite sides of the Genpei War in the 12th century.” ref 

“Tomoe Gozen is described as an exceptionally capable soldier in the 14th century epic, The Tale of the Heike: Tomoe was especially beautiful, with white skin, long hair, and charming features. She was also a remarkably strong archer, and as a swordswoman she was a warrior worth a thousand, ready to confront a demon or a god, mounted or on foot. She handled unbroken horses with superb skill; she rode unscathed down perilous descents. Whenever a battle was imminent, Yoshinaka sent her out as his first captain, equipped with strong armor, an oversized sword, and a mighty bow; and she performed more deeds of valor than any of his other warriors.” ref

“At times, the onna-musha appear to have fought in exclusively female units. Writing in the 14th century, Tōin Kinkata mentioned the existence of a cavalry force mostly comprised of women. In the 16th century, Ikeda Sen, a female samurai, is believed to have led a unit of two hundred women musketeers. She may have fought in the battles of Yamazaki, Shizugatake, Komaki, and Nagakute.” ref

“The archaeological record supports literary evidence that women sometimes took part in feudal Japanese battles. For example, DNA analysis conducted on 105 skeletons excavated from the Battle of Senbon Matsubaru revealed that thirty-five of them were women. The naginata is the weapon most commonly associated with the onna-musha. It was a polearm with a long wooden handle and a curved blade. Its wielder would have enjoyed the reach advantages of a spear with similar cutting potential to a sword. The onna-musha almost certainly used a variety of other weapons. Bows, shot from horseback or on foot, swords like the katana, and spears were all probable weapons of choice. When firearms like the tanegashima became available, these were also used by the onna-musha.” ref

Dahomey Amazons

“The Dahomey “Amazons” were an all-female unit loyal to the king of Dahomey, a highly militaristic West African kingdom located in what is today the Republic of Benin. They were active in the 18th and 19th centuries. European explorers and traders who encountered this female force referred to them as Amazons, in reference to the Greek myth. In their own language, the Dahomey called them Ahosi (‘king’s wives’) or Mino (‘our mothers’). The Dahomey Amazons were likely institutionalized as a fighting force by King Gezo in the 19th century. However, a force of fighting women appears to have been used by the kings of Dahomey since the 18th century.” ref

“In the 18th century, several European explorers noted that King Agaja kept a force of female palatial guards. Agaja would not permit men to remain in the palace after sunset, so an exclusively female force was required to guard the king. Women warriors appear to have been largely confined to palatial guard duties until Gezo’s reign. This was not an entirely uneventful duty. Violence often accompanied the death of a Dahomey king until the succession was secured. According to a British trader who visited Dahomey in the late 18th century, 285 women were killed during fighting in the palace after the death of King Tegbesu in 1774. King Gezo is largely credited with deploying women on the battlefield. He also appears to have started recruiting female captives of war, whereas his predecessors largely depended on their many wives to fill the ranks. Estimates on the size of the Amazon force vary greatly.” ref

“Some European travelers report numbers as low as two to three hundred, whereas others reported a force of six to eight thousand. Dahomey Amazons fulfilled several roles on the battlefield. Most of them fought as riflewomen and were armed with muskets, and later, lever action Winchester rifles. Archers also existed, but bows were phased out in favor of firearms. Some Amazons functioned as gunners and operated artillery. Knives, clubs, spears, and swords were used in close combat. The Dahomey Amazons served in conflicts against rival African kingdoms and the Europeans from around the mid-19th century.” ref 

“Europeans who encountered the Amazons often held their fighting prowess in higher esteem than the Dahomey men. For example, a British diplomat noted that the women delivered more accurate fire than the men because they shouldered their muskets, unlike the men who hip-fired. Similarly, the French reckoned the men took around fifty seconds to reload, whereas the women could reload in thirty. The “Amazons” were disbanded after the Second Franco-Dahomean War (1892-1894). Most of the female corps were wiped out in the Battle of Adegon during a French bayonet charge.” ref

Warrior Women: Despite what Gamers Might Believe, the Ancient World was Full of Female Fighters

Here are some Women Warriors in Folklore

“This is a list of women who engaged in war, found throughout mythology and folklore, studied in fields such as literature, sociology, psychology, anthropology, film studies, cultural studies, and women’s studies. A mythological figure does not always mean a fictional one, but rather, someone of whom stories have been told that have entered the cultural heritage of a people. Some women warriors are documented in the written or scientific record and as such form part of history (e.g. the Ancient Briton queen Boudica, who led the Iceni into battle against the Romans). However, to be considered a warrior, the woman in question must have belonged to some sort of military, be it recognized, like an organized army, or unrecognized, like revolutionaries.” ref

Angola

• Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba fought and held off Portuguese control of present-day Angola for over thirty years during the early 17th century. ref

Berber history

• Kahina or al-Kāhina (Classical Arabic for “female seer”; modern Maghreb Arabic l-Kahna, commonly romanised as Kah(i)na, also known as Dihya or Kahya) was a 7th-century female Berber religious and military leader, who led indigenous resistance to Arab expansion in Northwest Africa, the region then known as Numidia, known as the Maghreb today. She was born in the early 7th century and died around the end of the 7th century probably in modern-day Algeria. ref

Burkina Faso

• Yennenga was a legendary warrior woman skilled in spear and bow, considered by the Mossi people as the mother of their empire. ref

Egypt

Historical Mongolia

• Khutulun was a 13th-century Mongol princess, the daughter of the Mongol leader Qaidu Khan and a great-great-granddaughter of Genghis Khan. According to legend she was a skilled warrior and wrestler who vowed that she would only marry a man who could defeat her in wrestling. Although no man was ever able to out-wrestle her, Khutuln ended up marrying a warrior named Abtakul (possibly to squelch rumors about an incestuous relationship between her and her father). Her story was made famous by foreign chroniclers Marco Polo, and Ibn Battuta, both of whom had heard of Khutuln’s legend on their travels through Asia. ref

Historical China

• Hua Mulan was a (possibly legendary) woman who went to war disguised as a man, and was able to return home after years of war without being found out.
• Ng Mui was a Shaolin monastery abbess who created a kung fu system especially suitable for women.
• Yim Wing-chun, often cited in Wing Chun legends as the first Wing Chun master outside the monastic tradition, was a pupil of Ng Mui.
• Fu Hao was one of the many wives of King Wu Ding of the Shang Dynasty and, unusually for that time, also served as a military general and high priestess.
• Mother Lü began a peasant rebellion.
• Li Xiu defeated rebels as a military commander.
• Lady of Yue was a famous swordswoman.
• Qin Liangyu fought battles with her husband.
• Liang Hongyu was a Chinese general of the Song Dynasty.
• Sun Shangxiang, who is often depicted as a tomboy, was the sister of the warlord Sun Quan. She received extensive martial arts training, and her maidservants were armed with weapons, which was odd for her time.
• Lady Zhurong It’s unknown whether she existed, but she was the only woman portrayed in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms who took part in fighting in the war during the three kingdoms period alongside her husband.
• Mu Guiying was a woman who commanded the armies against barbarian invaders
• Princess Pingyang formed a rebel army to assist her father in overthrowing the Emperor, and was declared ‘no ordinary woman’ upon her death.
• Ching Shih (1775–1844) prominent pirate in middle Qing China, early 19th century. A brilliant Cantonese pirate, she commanded over 300 junks crewed by 20,000 to 40,000 pirates – men, women, and even children. She challenged the empires of the time, such as the British, Portuguese, and the Qing dynasty. Undefeated, she would become one of China and Asia’s strongest pirates, and one of world history’s most powerful pirates. She was also one of the few pirate captains to retire from piracy.
• Ruler of Women’s Country is the ruler of a nation in Xiliang with an all-female population.
• Ani Pachen a Tibetan freedom fighter ref

Historical Japan

• Empress Jingū was a Japanese empress who led an army.
• Hangaku Gozen was an onna-bugeisha (“woman warrior”).
• Tomoe Gozen (c. 1157 – c. 1247) was an onna-bugeisha.
• Marishi-Ten the goddess of heaven, who was adopted by warriors in the 8th century as a protector and patron goddess. While devotions to Marishi-ten predate Zen, they appear to be geared towards a similar meditative mode to enable the warrior to achieve a more heightened spiritual level. They lost interest in the issues of victory or defeat (or life and death), thus transcending to a level where they became so empowered that they were freed from their own grasp on mortality. The result was that they became better warriors.
• Kaihime (presumably born 1572) was said to have fought during the Siege of Odawara and to have personally crushed a rebellion, earning her father the respect of Hideyoshi Toyotomi. However, historians aren’t entirely sure if she truly did accomplish those events. ref

Korea

• Wonhwa, women warriors of Silla, most probably only legendary ref

Historical Indonesia

• Cut Nyak Dhien, (1850–1908), leader of the Acehnese guerrilla forces during the Aceh War. Following the death of her husband Teuku Umar, she led guerrilla actions against the Dutch for 25 years. She was posthumously awarded the title of National Hero of Indonesia on 2 May 1964 by the Indonesian government.
• Cut Nyak Meutia, (1870–1910), commander of the Achenese guerrilla forces during the Aceh War. Together with her husband, Teuku Cik Tunong, they worked hand in hand with the Acehnese to fight against the Dutch invasion.
• Admiral Keumalahayati, (fl. 16th century), an admiral in the navy of the Aceh Sultanate, which ruled the area of modern Aceh Province, Sumatra, Indonesia. She was the first woman admiral in the modern world (if Artemisia I is not included). Her troops were drawn from Aceh’s widows and known as the “Inong Balee”, after the Inong Balee Fortress near the city of Banda Aceh.
• Martha Christina Tiahahu, (1800–1818), a Moluccan freedom fighter and National Heroine of Indonesia. Born to a military captain, Tiahahu was active in the military from a very young age. She joined the war led by Pattimura against the Dutch colonial government when she was 17, fighting in several battles.
• Nyi Ageng Serang, (1752–1838), born under the name Raden Ajeng Kustiyah Wulaningish Retno Edhi, was a commander during the Diponegoro War. The name Nyi Ageng Serang was given to her after her father died of disease and she took over his position. At the beginning of Diponegoro War in 1825, 73-year-old Nyi Ageng Serang commanded the force on a stretcher to help Pangeran Diponegoro fighting the Dutch. One of her best-known strategies was the use of lumbu (green taro leaves) for disguise.
• Tribhuwana Wijayatunggadewi, was a Javanese queen regnant and the third Majapahit monarch, reigning from 1328 to 1350. She appointed Gajah Mada as prime minister and pursued massive expansion of the empire. In 1331, she led the empire’s army personally to the battlefield with the help of her cousin, Adityawarman, to crush the rebellion in Sadeng and Keta. ref

Historical Malaysia

• Walinong Sari, (ca. 4th–5th century CE) was a legendary princess of Inderapura, in the Old Pahang Kingdom. She was known for her beauty and strong character. She was an expert in weaponry like Kris, spears and swords, and was also renowned for her mastery of silat, the Malay martial art.
• Tun Fatimah, (ca. 1488–1500s CE) a well-known queen of Johor–Riau Kingdom and daughter of Tun Mutahir, the Malaccan bendahara (prime minister) who lived in during the 16th century. She was one of Malacca’s Sultan Mahmud Shah spouses. She was known to help the army to lead the Malays in their fight against the invading Portuguese forces in the early 16th century.
• Siti Wan Kembang, (17th century) was legendary queen who reigned over a region on the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia. She was a warrior queen and engaged in battle on horseback with a sword accompanied by an army of female horse-riders. ref

Historical Philippines

• Queen Sima, (ca. 637 CE) The legendary Queen of lower Cotabato known for her sense of justice and respect for the law.
• Urduja, (ca. 1350–1400 CE) a legendary warrior princess who is recognized as a heroine in Pangasinan, Philippines. The name Urduja appears to be Sanskrit in origin, and a variation of the name “Udaya”, meaning “arise” or “rising sun”, or the name “Urja”, meaning “breath”. A historical reference to Urduja can be found in the travel account of Ibn Battuta (1304 – possibly 1368 or 1377 CE), a Muslim traveler from Morocco.
• Gabriela Silang, (1731–1761), led insurgents from Ilocos during the Philippine Revolution against Spain, after the death of her husband, Diego Silang. She was captured by Spanish colonial forces in September 1761 and executed in the town square of Vigan, reportedly after watching the executions of all her men.
• Bulaw is a brave and proficient swordswoman in Subanon indigenous narratives. She is the daughter of the Subanen chief Gomotan Sangira.
• There are various women warrior deities in the indigenous Philippine folk religions. In Sebwano and Hiligaynon religious narratives, Ynaguiguinid is the goddess of war. In Tagalog religious narratives, Mayari is the moon goddess of revolutions. In Bicol religious narratives, Haliya is masked moon warrior goddess. ref

Historical Thailand

• Somdet Phra Sri Suriyothai (Thai: สมเด็จพระศรีสุริโยทัย) was a royal consort during the 16th century Ayutthaya period of Siam (now Thailand). She is famous for having given up her life in the defense of her husband, King Maha Chakkraphat, in a battle during the Burmese-Siamese War of 1548. For the movie, see The Legend of Suriyothai.
• Thao Thep Kasattri (ท้าวเทพกระษัตรี) and Thao Sri Sunthon (ท้าวศรีสุนทร) were styles awarded to Than Phuying Chan (ท่านผู้หญิงจัน), wife of the then recently deceased governor, and her sister, Khun Muk (คุณมุก), who defended Phuket Province in the late 18th century. According to popular belief, they repelled a five-week invasion by Burmese in 1785, by dressing up as male soldiers and rallying Siamese troops. Chan and Muk were later honored by King Rama I with the Thai honorific Thao, as Thao Thep Kasattri and Thao Sri Sunthon, respectively. The “Heroine’s Monument” honouring them is situated on the main highway (402) between the Phuket International Airport and Phuket town. ref

Historical Vietnam

• The Trung Sisters, (c. 12 – 43 CE), known in Vietnamese as Hai Bà Trưng (“the two Trưng ladies”‘), and individually as Trưng Trắc (Traditional Chinese: 徵側; pinyin: Zhēng Cè) and Trưng Nhị (Traditional Chinese: 徵貳; pinyin: Zhēng Èr), were two first century CE women leaders who repelled Chinese invasions for three years, winning several battles against considerable odds, and are regarded as national heroines of Vietnam.
  • Phùng Thị Chính was a Vietnamese noble woman who fought alongside the Trưng sisters. Legend says she gave birth on the front lines and carried her newborn in one arm and a sword in the other as she fought to open the ranks of the enemy.
  • Lê Chân, general of Trưng Sisters.
• Triệu Thị Trinh once said “I’d like to ride storms, kill sharks in the open sea, drive out the aggressors, reconquer the country, undo the ties of serfdom, and never bend my back to be the concubine of whatever man.”
• Tây Sơn Ngũ Phụng Thư (Five Phoenix women generals of Tay Son dynasty):
  • Bùi Thị Xuân, (? – 1802), wife of general Trần Quang Diệu.
  • Bùi Thị Nhạn, (? – 1802), wife of Emperor Quang Trung.
  • Trần Thị Lan, (? – 1802), wife of general Nguyễn Văn Tuyết.
  • Huỳnh Thị Cúc, (? – 1802)
  • Nguyễn Thị Dung, (? – 1802), wife of general Trương Đăng Đồ. ref

Celtic mythology and Irish mythology

• Andraste is a Celtic war goddess invoked by Boudica while fighting against the Roman occupation of Britain in AD 61.
• Medb (also: Medhbh, Meadhbh, Meab°, Meabh, Maeve, Maev) is queen of Connacht in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology. As recounted in The Cattle Raid of Cooley, she started war with Ulster.
• Scathach is a legendary Scottish woman warrior who appears in the Ulster Cycle. She trains Cuchulainn.
• Aife is Scathach‘s rival in war; she becomes the lover of Cuchulainn and gives birth to his son Connla.
• Liath Luachra, two characters of the same name in the Fenian Cycle.
• Muirisc, legendary warrior princess, daughter of Úgaine Mór (Hugony the Great), the sixty-sixth high king of Ireland.
• Triple warrior goddess: Morrígan, Badb, and Macha (could also include Nemain and Anann)
• On St Kilda, one of the most isolated islands of Scotland, legends exist of a female warrior. A mysterious structure is known as Taigh na Banaghaisgeich, (literally, ‘House of the Female-Hero’), the ‘Amazon’s House‘. As Martin Martin, who travelled there in 1697 recorded:

This Amazon is famous in their traditions: her house or dairy of stone is yet extant; some of the inhabitants dwell in it all summer, though it be some hundred years old; the whole is built of stone, without any wood, lime, earth, or mortar to cement it, and is built in form of a circle pyramid-wise towards the top, having a vent in it, the fire being always in the centre of the floor; the stones are long and thin, which supplies the defect of wood; the body of this house contains not above nine persons sitting; there are three beds or low vaults that go off the side of the wall, a pillar betwixt each bed, which contains five men apiece; at the entry to one of these low vaults is a stone standing upon one end fix’d; upon this they say she ordinarily laid her helmet; there are two stones on the other side, upon which she is reported to have laid her sword: she is said to have been much addicted to hunting, and that in her time all the space betwixt this isle and that of Harries, was one continued tract of dry land. ref

Similar stories of a female warrior who hunted the now submerged land between the Outer Hebrides and St Kilda are reported from Harris. ref

Historical Czech Lands

• The story of Šárka and Vlasta is a legend dealing with events in the “Maidens’ War” in 7th-century Bohemia. ref

The Netherlands

• Kenau Simonsdochter Hasselaer (1526–1588) became a legendary folk hero for her fearless defense of the city against the Spanish invaders during the siege of Haarlem in 1573. ref

Albania

• Nora of Kelmendi (17th century), is also referred to as the “Helen of Albania” as her beauty also sparked a great war. She is also called the Albanian Brünhilde too, for she herself was the greatest woman warrior in the history of Albania.
• Tringe Smajl Martini, a young girl in war against the Ottoman Empire army after her father Smajl Martini, the clan leader was kidnapped. She never married, never had children, and did not have any siblings. In 1911, the New York Times described Tringe Smajli as the “Albanian Joan of Arc”.
• Shote Galica (1895–1927), remarkable warrior of the Albanian insurgent national liberation with the goal of unification of all Albanian territories. ref

Historical France

• Jeanne Hachette (1456 – ?) was a French heroine known as Jeanne Fourquet and nicknamed Jeanne Hachette (‘Jean the Hatchet’).
• Joan of Arc (Jeanne d’Arc in French) asserted that she had visions from God which told her to recover her homeland from English domination late in the Hundred Years’ War. The uncrowned King Charles VII sent her to the siege at Orléans as part of a relief mission. She gained prominence when she overcame the dismissive attitude of veteran commanders and lifted the siege in only nine days. She was tried and executed for heresy when she was only 19 years old. The judgment was rejected by the Pope and she was declared innocent 24 years later (and canonized in 1920). ref

Centralized Societies: Chiefdoms and States – Introduction to Anthropology 

“Anthropologists refer to those with formal, inherited positions of community leadership as chiefs. Over time, a chief can expand their dominion to incorporate several towns and villages into a small chiefdom. Chiefs may form political alliances with other regional chiefs in large pyramidal systems consisting of various levels of village chiefs and regional chiefs, with one very powerful chief at the top. When a chiefdom expands to encompass multiple ethnic groups in a regional empire, the leader is referred to as a king.” ref

“Chiefdoms are a very common form of political organization, found in historical and contemporary societies all over the world. Archaeologists and cultural anthropologists have discovered chiefdoms in Africa, Oceania, the Middle East, Europe, East and Southeast Asia, and North, Central, and South America. While there is considerable diversity in the way these various systems of chieftaincy operate, anthropologists have identified a set of elements common to many of them. The fusing of multiple forms of power is the defining feature of chiefdoms, common to all of them. Economic, political, religious, and military power are all concentrated in the position of the chief.” ref

“In Mesopotamia, the cities of Sumer were initially ruled by religious priests who represented local gods and oversaw work on common lands. Over time, priests began to share their power with secular governors who maintained law and order, managed the economy, and led military campaigns. Eventually, religious and civil power became fused in the office of the lugal. As lugals solidified their power, they began passing down their office to their sons, establishing dynasties.” ref

“Central to the power of a chief is control over economic resources such as land, agricultural surplus, and trade. Chiefs often hold land in public trust, determining who may farm where and also allocating farmland to newcomers. They have their own farming plots, commanding regular public labor to work on them. Farmers are obliged to channel a portion of their surplus to the chief, who holds it in storage facilities for public feasts or distribution to those in need. Chiefs regulate local trade and negotiate regional trade networks to benefit their own communities. They control the production and distribution of certain prestige goods, such as royal textiles and ornaments made of jade, gold, copper, or shell.” ref