Did Women Control the Bloodline in Ancient Chaco Canyon? | Science Magazine

Pueblo Bonito at Chaco Canyon. Photo: John Wiley CC BY 3.0

Deep inside the 650-room Chaco Canyon compound in New Mexico lies the richest burial in the U.S. Southwest: the body of a 40-year-old man, surrounded by rare shells; a conch trumpet; and more than 11,000 turquoise beads and pendants. Lacking written records of his people, researchers have long puzzled over how the complex 1000-year-old Chacoan society was organized. Now, using ancient DNA from the bones of the man and 13 others buried alongside him, scientists have come to a surprising conclusion—elite status passed down the maternal line, from mothers to their sons and daughters.

Most societies in the ancient world were patrilineal—that is, leadership or status passed through the father’s line. But there are some exceptions, including matrilineal societies like the Lycians of ancient Turkey, in which elite status and kinship passed from mothers to sons and daughters. That isn’t to say that such societies were ruled by women, but it does show that women were given an important role in carrying on the family line. Scholars have long debated whether the Chacoans, who lived in multistory buildings that were long the largest in North America, had an egalitarian—or equal—society or a hierarchical society with an entrenched elite.

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