ABSTRACT
This chapter under five aspects: the first researches anthropological evidence (past and present) that speculates about the nature of matrilineal/communal societies before land became fixed property under primogeniture. The second discusses evidence of the changeover from the matrilineal line (female gens) to patrilineal inheritance. The third analyses concrete evidence that shows that the onset of primogeniture paved the way to monotheism, the acquisition of church property and monarchic absolutism. The fourth takes Britain as a case study to show how the onset of primogeniture introduced after 1066 influenced the development of human rights for both sexes. Finally, the author stress the role primogeniture has played historically in allocating British women the disenfranchised aspects of the second-born, contra-sexual twin ‘other.’ Mainstream anthropological debate tends to sidetrack earlier speculation of the existence of an earlier matrilineal system of communal exchange when lineage and inheritance passed through the female line.
