Does Patriarchy Have an Evolutionary Edge over Matriarchy?
Speculation based on the Selfish Gene concept.
[I’m not able to generate an image of oysters wearing blue jeans, so please just use your imagination!]
Caveat: I haven’t dabbled in evolutionary theory since my graduate studies at the Animal Behaviour Research Group at Oxford University decades ago. So, please forgive me if I am trespassing on well-trod ground.
The genetic make up of a father’s children come half from him. But he can only be sure that the Y chromosome of his son comes from him. Now imagine a gene on that Y chromosome that expresses favoritism toward the son (over the daughter). Does this confer an advantage? Yes and no.
No, at least no more so than a mother favoring her daughters. We need to dig deeper: on to the next generation!
Assuming no hanky panky, a father’s son’s son also cares his Y chromosome. The same cannot be said for sure of a mother’s daughter’s daughter. One of that child’s X chromosomes could come her husband, and the other from her daughter’s husband. Favoritism expressed by her X chromosome toward that child would not be as self-promoting.
A grandfather’s favoritism toward a son’s son would always be self-promoting. And this implies that — yes — favoring the son makes sense as a decent gamble that he will sire a son.
This suggests that it might be fruitful to compare a father attitudes toward his son’s sons versus his daughter’s sons. Might favoritism by detectable? Look and see!
So, what better way of favoring an offspring that conferring all the advantages you have incurred (or inherited!) upon him or her? So, if you are a “selfish gene” on the Y chromosome, you will proliferate more assuredly by favoring you sons and their sons. This is an advantage that gives an edge to patriarchy.
But only an edge. A myriad of other factors could favor matriarchy under many circumstances. Over all, modern circumstances, characterized by rapid change, diminish the salience of inherited advantages. Selfish patriarchy (or matriarchy) holds less sway these days. However, under a wide variety of circumstances, especially in socially conservative societies, this slight edge could tip the overall balance toward patriarchy and reenforce it, thus perpetuating it.
