Gender Roles In The Neolithic Revolution

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Individuals or groups of people have always had one thing in mind and that is surviving. Surviving means able to expand themselves without losing their traditional social structure and trying to fit in a larger network. Keeping track of who you are and come from holds the cultural meaningful by holding the group together. The Neolithic Revolution has been able to evolve and become a crucial part of being human by lineage exogamy, patrilineal, and matrilineal descent, and kinship and new reproductive technologies. Lineage exogamy means that lineage members must look for their marriages partners in other lineages. This kind of lineage helps both couples have a new alliance and expand into something larger. Ever since the Neolithic Revolution the human population has increased due to the growth of food production and the number of kids a family of farming culture wants. Evolution has made this become a crucial part of being human by protecting the people of this generation better. For Havilland states, "To protect their settlement against floods and associated mudflows, as well as invadors, …show more content…

In the matrilineal descent, women are the heads of their house and usually make decisions that have to do with business. In this system the brothers and sisters of the wife inherit the property rather than the husband’s son. In a patrilineal system the responsibility falls in the male members and authority over the children is up to the father or his elder brother. Since the Neolithic Revolution there has been evidence of new and specialized social roles. For Havilland states, "...egalitarian societies everyone has about the same rank and shares equally in the basic resources"(pg.242). We don't live in a world in which women depend on men and men depend on women. Evolution has changed hunting-gathering by making it a crucial part of being human by making individuals for their