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By contrast with these other customs, patriarchy can be seen to be distinctly about gender and the ], gender and public office, and about female-male relationships in general. By contrast with these other customs, patriarchy can be seen to be distinctly about gender and the ], gender and public office, and about female-male relationships in general.

==Sociology==
Most sociologists reject predominantly biological explanations of patriarchy and contend that social and cultural conditioning is primarily responsible for establishing male and female gender roles.<ref name="Sanderson">{{cite book|title=The Evolution of Human Sociality|first=Stephen K.|last=Sanderson|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|year=2001|page=198}}</ref><ref name="Henslin">{{cite book|title=Essentials of Sociology|first=James M.|last=Henslin|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=2001|pages=65–67, 240}}</ref> According to standard sociological theory, patriarchy is the result of sociological constructions that are passed down from generation to generation.<ref name="Sanderson"/> These constructions are most pronounced in societies with traditional cultures and less economic development.<ref>{{cite book|title=Sociology: A Global Introduction|first=John J.|last=Macionis|publisher=Prentice Hall|year=2000|page=347}}</ref> Even in modern developed societies, however, gender messages conveyed by family, mass media, and other institutions largely favor males having a dominant status.<ref name="Henslin"/>


==Benefits of patriarchy== ==Benefits of patriarchy==

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English family c. 1900
For other uses, see Patriarchy (disambiguation).

Patriarchy is the structuring of society on the basis of family units, where the father has the primary responsibility, and hence authority (decision making powers) over the rest of his family members. Patriarchy refers to not just the costs that fathers bear on behalf of their families and at home, but also in society at large: at the workplace, at home, and in human relationships at large. The concept of patriarchy is often used by extension (in anthropology and feminism) to refer to the expectation that men take primary responsibility for the welfare of the community as a whole, acting as representatives via public office, with various forms of authority.

Western civilization, like all societies in history, is patriarchal, but has recently attempted to legislate for egalitarianism due to sympathy for the Women's rights' movement.

The feminine form of patriarchy would be matriarchy, where the responsibility that men endure under patriarchy, is instead reversed and suffered by women. However, there are no known examples of matriarchal societies.

Etymology and related terms

Further information: Pater familias, Patriarch, Archon, Tribal chief, and Dominus (title)

The usage of the word patriarchy in the sense of a male-oriented social organization started in the English language in the 16th century, from the post-classical Latin patriarchia "office of a patriarch". It is a loanword from Byzantine Greek πατριαρχια "office of a patriarch", in use since the 6th or 7th century for the Christian office, but attested in the 4th century for the headship of a Jewish community, from the Hellenistic Greek term for such a community leader, πατριαρχης.

The term patriarch, from post-classical Latin patriarcha "chief or head of a family or tribe", Anglo-Norman patriarche was the title of the bishop of any chief sees of the Roman Empire. The Biblical Patriarchs are the heads of the Israelite tribe before Moses. In late medieval use, it could more generically refer to any venerable old man.

The English term is first used in the sense of the societal organization rather than the Church office in the 17th century, by Francis Bacon.

The adjective for patriarchy is patriarchal; and patriarchalism, or more commonly paternalism, refer to the practice or defence of patriarchy.

Patrimonalism describes the view of a state as the extended household of a mon-arch (sole ruler, archē as above) or deity. There are records of patrimonalism almost as far back as the earliest writing itself (about 5000 years ago). This is probably because patrimonalism directly facilitated the invention of writing — the first hereditary monarchs gained so much wealth as to need to keep accounts, and enough to pay those accountants. The earliest records of patrimonalism come from Ancient Near Eastern legal documents, the best known being the Code of Hammurabi and the Torah. Some aspects of patrimonalism can still be found in the few remaining monarchies in the world today, for example, British law concerning real estate (see Crown lands), especially in Australia. For more detail regarding patrimonalism see Traditional authority.

Some social customs reflect what is termed patrilineality or patrilocality.

Patrilineal describes the custom of tracing descent from paternal lineage. Typically, it also describes the custom of passing family responsibilities and assets from father to son. By contrast, cultures which trace their lineage maternally are called matrilineal.

Patrilocal describes the custom of brides relocating to the geographic community of the husband and his father's family. In a matrilocal society, a husband will relocate to the home community of his wife and her mother (see also marriage). Matrilocality can substantially increase the social influence of women in a culture, however, given that tribal and family leaders are still men in all known matrilocal societies, matrilocality is not equivalent to matriarchy.

By contrast with these other customs, patriarchy can be seen to be distinctly about gender and the nuclear family, gender and public office, and about female-male relationships in general.

Benefits of patriarchy

Patriarchy is advanced as being beneficial for human evolution and social organisation on many grounds, crossing several disciplines. Although biology may explain its existence (see below), arguments for its social utility have been made since ancient times. These include elements of Greek Stoic Philosophy and the Roman social structure based on the pater familias, but are also found in Akkadian records of Babylonian and Assyrian laws. George Lakoff proposes an ancient dichotomy of "Strict Father" as opposed to "Nurturing Parent" models of ethical theory (SFM and NPM). In general, the main lines of argument are either pragmatic—namely, the reproductive advantages of male-as-provider— or ethical—that any perceived male authority is contingent upon underlying perceptions of duty of care.

The constitution of Francisco Franco's Spain enshrined the principles of Patriarchy, for example in stating that in a referendum the vote should be given only to "family heads", and that their opinion in the matter under consideration should be considered as representing the entire family. This was abolished upon the restoration of Spanish democracy in 1975.

See also

Notes and references

  1. "Matriarchy". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. The view of matriarchy as constituting a stage of cultural development is now generally discredited. Furthermore, the consensus among modern anthropologists and sociologists is that a strictly matriarchal society never existed.
  2. OED s.v. "patriarchy".
  3. "The first is Paternity or Patriarchy, which was when a family growing so great as it could not containe it selfe within one habitation, some branches of the descendents were forced to plant themselves into new families." Concerning the Post-Nati of Scotland (1626), in Three Speeches (1641) (cited after OED).
  4. "Research into the nature of marriage in the Greco-Roman world ... shows ... in Stoic traditions marriage promoted the full responsibility of a husband as a householder, father, and citizen and stability in society." Anthony C. Thiselton, First Corinthians: A Shorter Exegetical and Pastoral Commentary, (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2006), p. 102.
  5. George Lakoff, Moral Politics, (Univ of Chicago Press, 1996) and Philosophy in the Flesh, (UCP, 1999).
  6. Phillip Longman, 'The Return of Patriarchy', Foreign Policy, 2006.

Bibliography

External links

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