matriarchs

Matriarchs: Women, can’t live with ‘em, can’t overthrow them

Intro:

Happy Mother’s Day to all you mothers out there. You do a lot for us throughout the year… relax and let your family pamper you today. Because you know it’s all going back to normal tomorrow… Seriously though moms are great!

History and Environment:

So unfortunately there isn’t a cool taxonomy history lesson today, but looking at matriarchal societies from an evolutionary perspective is just as interesting. Some species formed their matriarchs through difference in intelligence while others it was size. Some form matriarchs simply because the males aren’t around to be in charge. Whatever the case the matriarchal society is one that clearly works in nature. 

I know this is not true about EVERY matriarchy, but from the ones I found enough about to include I think we can narrow the environments of matriarchal societies down to two types of environments… broadly speaking. Open plains like those of the African elephants and spotted hyena. I would also include lions in this. And very loosely speaking orcas… yeah I know they live in the ocean but its open much like the plains… so… if we use our imagination they’re the same… And the other one is tunnel systems. I was going to say underground for meerkats, ants, mole-rats and the like, BUT I changed it to tunnel systems to include honey bees. So maybe in a broad sense we can say that matriarchal societies live in similar environments… Huh?!

Current Status:

There aren’t a lot of Matriarchal societies in nature, in mammals only about 10% of them are matriarchal so I don’t imagine the numbers are much higher elsewhere. 

Soooo… I know I just said matriarchs are all in similar environments, but they also live in very different habitats so. Although I’m not wrong I may not be right either… These societies can be found in the ocean, in the deserts, scrublands, grasslands, jungles, forests, rivers, lakes, pretty much anywhere. Matriarchs are usually large, socially complex animal groupings. Males are found within them but males are usually separate from the larger groups or solitary. Fun fact bonobos are the only great ape the is a matriarch.

And Then Humans:

So I don’t think humans can ruin this but you never know. I mean technically a nuclear war could theoretically wipe out all of the matriarchs but that’s unlikely. Humans are going to really try if they want to ruin this. 

We as humans have influence over so many aspects of animals behavior and daily life… but in this case we do not. Animals are gonna rule their societies however they please. WE have no say. I’m sure some people would love to change how things are done, but it’s working for the animals so let’s leave it be. We can’t influence their hierarchy or hoe they pass down generational knowledge. So there!

Oops! I Can Fix That!

Since there’s nothing to fix I decided I’m going to talk about one of Mother’s favorite matriarchs… LEMURS. Specifically the ring-tailed lemur. Now lemurs have an interesting social group. They range from small clusters of 3 all the way up to groups of 25. These groups are of course female led but are mixed with both males and females. The females born into the group stay within what’s called the birthing circle while males tend to switch groups and explore different options when they hit 3 years old. The interesting thing about lemurs is the Hierarchy isn’t linear, meaning that the daughters of the ruling females aren’t necessarily next in line. The next in line is determined by social status obtained through grooming and/or fighting. The most respected of the lower females will be the one to move into the ruling class when the previous matriarch can no longer rule. Finally a week where there is nothing to fix. We can’t ruin it so we don’t need to try to fix it. Mostly because there is nothing broken. 

Sum It Up Buttercup

So matriarchs are pretty fascinating in nature especially when considering the nature of which these matriarchs evolved within each species. Some are determined by size, others by intelligence and of course those that are matriarchs due to a lack of male presence. However they came to power it’s clear that these matriarchs are doing a phenomenal job. So to all you moms out there, if you’re feeling like your struggling maybe take a look at some of these different power moms out there and get some reassurance. Happy mothers day!

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