ABSTRACT
Two general articles dealing with the reconstruction of'Indo-European’ society repeat the often made assertion that it was of a ‘patriarchal’ character. Crosland writing on ‘Indo-European Origins’ maintains that ‘they had a developed patriarchal society’, 1 while in his article on the ‘Indo-European Language’, Paul Thieme states that: ‘the family system of the Indo-Europeans was of a patriarchal character, that is that the wife married into her husband's family, while the husband did not acquire an official relationship to his wife's family as he does where a matriarchal family system exists’. 2 This statement is in line with Meillet's conclusion to his examination of ‘Indo-European’ kinship terms, where he states:
Tout ceci indique un état social où la femme entrait dans la famille du mari, mais où le mari n'avait pas avec la famille de sa femme une parenté. Il s'agit de ces ‘grandes familles’ à parenté masculine, telles qu'on les observe encore chez les Serbes (zadruga) et chez les Armeniens. 3
