Anthropologists largely state that there are no known societies which are wholly matriarchal. While many news sites may claim otherwise, the actual proof appears to be scant. However, there are societies which lay heavy influences along the female side, notably utilizing matrilineal marriages. This is where the lineage follows the female parent rather than the male. Below are four such societies:

Sitones

There is plenty of mystery surrounding the Sitones. First written about by Tacitus in 97 AD, he noted that they were a tribe in Germania where the women were the ruling sex. Aside from their being potential ancestors to modern Swedes, the background of the Sitones and other information appears to be scarce.

Mosuo

The Mosuo located in modern China are a dwindling society with roughly 40,000 remaining members. While the Chinese Government shackles them to a larger ethnic group, they most certainly are not part of the larger Nashi group. The Mosuo, while they like to claim they are matriarchal, also are not such. Instead, they have a unique brand of marriage in which daughters carry the titles of the female and the sons carry the titles of the male. However, the family line still goes through the female and within the household, the matriarch remains as head of the home.

Garo

A historically Tibetan-Burmese ethnic group, the Garo heavily rely on matrilineal lines and remain one of the few such societies today. Their history dates back to roughly 400 BC and weren’t written about by Europeans until they’d been encountered after 1800. By 1872 they had largely been subjugated. Still, the people take their titles from their mothers and not only does a female inherit the property of the mother, but it is the youngest female which does so. The sons live in a bachelor area until they become married and move into their new wife’s home. However, men do govern the society.

Akan

A traditional matrilineal African society, the Akan are based in modern day Ghana and parts of the Ivory Coast and Togo. The members of the group claim they can trace their identities back to a common female ancestor through a matrilineal line of marriages. As with the Garo, while the lines follow the females, the village is not run directly by them.

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