Abstract Patterns of social organization and gender differentiation in past societies are difficult to reconstruct from material culture data alone, are prone to modern interpretation biases, and often remain subjects of controversy. An important aspect of social organization is patterns of post-marital residence, for example, matrilocality and patrilocality. To date, archaeological studies have recognised mostly patrilocal societies, with rare contested exceptions that were considered “outliers” to the established rule of patrilocality. The advent of ancient DNA analysis has made it possible to evaluate past social structures from a genetic perspective as well, with the majority of ancient DNA studies identifying patrilocal societies and highlighting genetic patriline connections. Recently, three studies reported genetic evidence for matrilocality and genetic matriline connections across broad geographical and temporal scales. Here, we draw on these three studies to explore past social organisation forms in light of new evidence, and reconsider preconceptions that continue to endure over time.
Seferidou et al. (Thu,) studied this question.