Is Patriarchy Inevitable?

Is Patriarchy Inevitable?

The Inevitability of Patriarchy, by Stephen Goldberg. New York: Morrow. 318 pp.

This is a book about men as leaders, authority figures, and high-status persons in society. Reflecting the current vogue for the human zoo—which celebrates human capacities from love to murder as naturally dictated—it is a sexist book. It assumes that biological, sexual characteristics necessarily, or “inevitably,” determine people’s lives to such an extent that one can speak of male dominance and patriarchy as anthropological universals, chiefly reflecting hormonal distributions. Goldberg acknowledges that “no one is born knowing how to fire a rifle or change a diaper.” He adds, however, that people in fact learn these tasks,

first because they must and second in order to function most efficiently. . . . Every society accepts the existence of these feelings [of male dominance] and conforms to their existence by socializing children acc...

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