ABSTRACT
A key component used by Cheikh Anta Diop to support his thesis of an African origin of ancient Egyptian civilization is its matrilineal family and social organization. Diop demonstrates that this type of family structure grows out of material conditions that favor agricultural food production, and a sedentary lifestyle. Diop explains the impact these material factors have on the status of women by stating:
In fact it is only in this framework that the wife can, in spite of her physical inferiority, contribute substantially to the economic life. She even becomes one of the stabilizing elements in her capacity as mistress of the house and keeper of the food.1
