From the book This Fleeting World comes the question: If your school was buried in a volcano today and dug up a thousand years from now, what clues would help archaeologists figure out who were the leaders in the school?
I have used this question before with my students when we were studying the change from hunter-gatherer societies to the early agrarian societies. For some reason there was a switch from a matrilineal (or at least somewhat egalitarian) to more of a patrilineal structure.
My students have mostly gone in the direction of needing some sort of protection making men the leaders. What other plausible theories might be out there?
Have a great weekend!