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Comment by erdevs | Hacker News Reader

> Pre-agricultural hunter-gatherer societies were primarily matriarchal and patriarchal societies only later became the norm with the rise of warlike/raiding and settled agricultural societies which co-evolved and co-depended on higher population densities.

Okay. Are hunter-gatherers or agricultural societies more likely to have left written records that survive until today?

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You claimed that "most ancient societies were blatantly misogynistic". I don't think the current evidence suggests this, unless by "ancient societies" you meant something like "ancient civilizations". I would define the term "ancient societies" as inclusive of pre-agricultural (hunter-gatherer) societies, and then one has to make a distinction. The established view is indeed that ancient hunter-gatherer societies were much more egalitarian than ancient agricultural societies. Exactly which features of agriculture led to the development of (more?) patriarchy is surely still being debated, though.

I agree it would've been even more clear if I used "civilization" instead of "society". Fair point, as more precise language is usually preferable.

Are you saying the main point / logic of my post wasn't clear? It wasn't feasible to consider replacing this one word and evaluate the likely intent? This feels like you're being a bit nitpicky and pedantic.

Still, your point stands. I hope you can concede my point here too...

Yes, I was of course nitpicking. The only reason I did so is that others in this thread already seemed to be commenting based on that interpretation of your post, and in the followup comments you all seemed to be talking past each other. I don't disagree with the content of your original post in general.

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