I can haz misogynies?

So we've been chatting about misogyny, and how was it that women--so early in history--fell into this position of second class citizen. Maybe when Nanowrimo is over I'll have to google up the latest theories on this. I suspect, like most things, there is no one answer, and a lot of variety depending where you go in the world. After all, from what I remember about hunting-gathering societies, they were/are/could be pretty egalitarian. Women gathered a huge % of the calories, so their input is just as important as the men's hunting. And of course there are societies like the Iroquois where women make the decisions (outside of the white-imposed band leader structure) and traditionally you drew your clan affiliation from your mother.

I took one anthropology course in the 90s, about gender and was struck by one theory. The prof was talking about areas where resources were scarce, and therefore warfare high. Some of these societies developed very male centered societies--where sperm is sacred, and there are manly rituals and such.

And some academic theorized that women participated / helped create this culture, because it benefitted them to have men going out and fighting battles. (By "benefit" I mean = to protect their children, and the survival of the tribe.) That in this sort of harsh setting you have to find a way to convince all your young men to go out and get killed. And one way to do that is to elevate their status in the tribe.

This was a big revelation for me, at the wee age of 19. It was a paradigm shift for me--exploring the possibility of women creating a male-centered culture for their own survival.

The one other factor I know of is farming, which Matt Ridley talked about in his book on how our entire evolution has been driven by sexsesex (The Red Queen--fantastic book.) Farming and animal husbandry did away with both hunting and gathering as the basis for subsistence, and it's what allowed for the accumulation of wealth. Which also means the accumulation of power. And that might be when a lot of our inequality began.

Alright. That's all I got. Anyone else?