Woman's Evolution: From Matriarchal Clan to Patriarchal Family [Paperback]

Reed traces the development of human societies, with particular attention to the role of women, from the early matriarchal clans of hunters and gatherers, to the growth of agriculture, to the rise of the first states and beyond. Her defense of the matriarchal nature of the early clans devastates the many defenders of the idea that society was always patriarchal and women are doomed to being the second sex. It also lays waste the idea that men are "by nature" oppressors of women. It is a welcome antidote to the many "spiritual" works on women as well as the psuedo scientific defenders of women's oppression.

The book is important for any student of human history. Among it's particular contributions:The explanation of the incest taboos as originating in taboos on cannibalism; the role of women in the development of agriculture; the significance of human sacrifice and why it ended (this section is particularly useful for students of Meso-American history); the evolution of lineage and kinship groupings prior to and after the formation of the first city states; the role of the state and private property in cementing the dominance of men and the patriarchy, etc. Her defense of both the evolutionary and comparative methods of anthropology, and her consistant materialism make the book a part of an important ongoing debate in scientific circles. A debate which is interesting to any reader looking for an explanation of why society is organized the way it is.

The book is a serious scientific work and takes work to read, though it is fascinating work. Her other books, "Problems of Women's Liberation" and "Sexism and Science" are useful introductions to some of the concepts explored here.

Women's Evolution is necessary reading for any student of anthropology. It is ignored by most anthropologists who have made their careers as defenders of the status quo and for the same reasons have ignored Engels, Lewis Henry Morgan, Bachofen and others. Though they often polemicize against them and their ideas. Reed wrote the book as a fighter for women's rights and an anti-capitalist, the work is dedicated to young feminists.

In this book we learn that things weren't always this way. In fact, for most of human history women were the heads of the extended family. Oppression and exploitation are recent inventions.

So, the moral of this story is one of hope. The knowledge that female inferiority today is not biologically determined, that women were once the organizers and leaders of social life, should heighten the self-confidence of all who aspire for equality and justice. If humankind was capable of remaking itself once, and based on that has advanced dramatically in a limited sense of creating material culture, then we can remake ourselves again and found a culture that enriches all aspects of everyone's lives. But this time the redesign will have to be conscious and conscientious, the beginning of a humane human history in which all participate on an equal basis. Such is the future that socialism and communism promise for us.

Anthropologists will have serious reservations on the second chapter of this book, which deals with cannibalism. Anthropologists and students of gender studies of all orientations now doubt the assertion that humanity had a cannibalistic stage in our past. Whether or not one accepts Reed's evidence on this score, the rest of the argument remains solid: the overwhelming part of human history is herstory.

As a companion to this volume, be sure to read Origin of Family, State and Private Property, by Engels. Written a century earlier, it put forward the theory of our matriarchal heritage. Women's Evolution compiled anthropology's evidence that many still do not care to publish even some thirty years later.