Mother Nature: The Matriarchy

"The female, not the male, determines all the conditions of the animal family. Where the female can derive no benefit from association with the male, no such association takes place." —Robert Briffault

Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction: The state of nature
1:24 Briffault’s Law
3:03 Parental investment theory
4:39 Sexual selection: males compete, females choose
6:50 The cooperative breeding hypothesis
8:47 Infant-alloparent coevolution
10:26 Conclusion: Gynocracy

References:
- Robert Briffault: The Mothers: The Matriarchal Theory of Social Origins
- Robert Trivers: Parental investment and sexual selection
- Sarah Blaffer Hrdy: Mothers and Others: The Evolutionary Origins of Mutual Understanding

Image: The Course of Empire: The Savage State by Thomas Cole