The Longhouse: Facts and Fiction

Was Neolithic Europe actually a peaceful egalitarian matrifocal society?

The “Longhouse” and the “Neolithic Earth Mommy” have taken over the E-Right as warning signs to what our society is coming to — the alleged civilization of Neolithic Europe which had little social stratification, was ruled by obese matriarchs whose likeness adorned their idols, and most famously, whose people dwelled in cramped longhouses. This idea was largely formed by the feminist anthropologist Marija Gimbutas, as a sort of feminist re-imagining of the Aryan Invasion Theory. This time around, instead of praising the Aryans, we were going to lament their victory! Recently I was surprised to see Bronze Age Pervert, who may be credited with the popularization of this idea, attacking people who took it as a more metaphorical thing, and insisting that it was a real thing which happened in history.

This, I think, is not necessarily true. I think he’s onto something, something you see in neolithic civilizations. You see the longhouse all over primitive neolithic societies in more recent times, most famously among Native Americans and other “indigenous peoples”. These longhouse dwellers even have certain hints of matrifocality (in some areas), such as the institutionalized “clan mother” and matrilineal kinship.

I believe it is in what is allegedly his Doctoral thesis (recent bestseller on Amazon) that he suggests that many primitive peoples participated in matrifocal societies because they didn’t fully understand the male input in reproduction. This has been reported among Aboriginal peoples, although I don’t know exactly how reliable these reports are and Australian Aboriginals are probably not the standard you should base primitive societies on. But, even if some connection is understood, it is quite reasonable why primitive peoples wouldn’t understand this fully. Sex doesn’t always work, and when it does often times women can lie about it having ever happened. I believe he also brings up the reliance on grain as a sort of feminine thing as well, as you’re relying on the earth’s fertility. But yeah, you end up with a worldview where women are the primary creators of life, which is then extrapolated onto the world. The earth is a woman, and it is birthing the world solely and uniquely.

Again, I find this concept utterly fascinating, but… Just how much of Gimbutas’s theory is true in the context of prehistoric Europe?

Well, first of all, let’s get something straight. Most of those idols of fat women you see, they’re not even from the Neolithic. They’re from Paleolithic Europeans who were conquered and largely erased by Western Hunter Gatherers during the transition to the Mesolithic. And there’s no evidence they represent some sort of earth mother goddess. They could represent fertility, or more specifically the image of a pregnant woman. Pregnancy, after all, was very dangerous. They could have also been exaggerated symbols of people or deities meant to accompany men on long hunting trips. I’m not going to go the reddit route and say they were some sort of pornographic object, but it’s understandable why men would want some semblance of female companionship during long hunting expeditions. They could even be portraits of their own wives, albeit exaggerated for some reason or another. I find it very unlikely that a woman could have gotten that fat at the time, and leave no archaeological evidence.

Even if they *were* deities, a matrifocal religion doesn’t necessarily translate to a matrifocal society. For example, in Japan, the sun goddess Amaterasu is the origin of the Japanese imperial family and the queen of heaven (from what I know. Feel free to correct me), and yet Japan is a patriarchal and warlike culture.

But anyways, what about Neolithic Europe? What evidence is there for Neolithic Europe being matriarchal? Well, the first evidence is probably the Great Mother of Catalhoyuk, which certainly takes on a much more authoritative stance (in my perception) than previous statues. Previous sculptures are only a woman, often times in a position of modesty such as covering the breasts. Meanwhile here we are given one of these figures sitting on a throne with lions at her side.

People speculate that this represents some early matriarchal religion in Neolithic Anatolia, which would be survived by the the various goddess-oriented cults of Anatolia such as that of Cybele and the Ephesian Artemis. This is tenuous at best and, even if true, does not suggest matriarchal society. Certainly, this predates the “longhouse” of Neolithic Europe which is associated with the Linear Pottery Culture, but I will get to that later.

The second line of evidence is the perceived matristic tendencies of successor cultures to the pre-Indo-European cultures. Mainly the Minoans, Etruscans, and Basques. The Basques. Now, it’s worth noting that while the Etruscans and Basques did not speak an Indo-European language, they were heavily influenced by Indo-European DNA and culture. Indo-European lineages came to dominate both. Basque language might not even be EEF (Early European Farmer) related at all, but rather a Mesolithic language.

Now, I think the Minoans have the best case for these three. Minoans definitely heavily separated themselves by gender, but Minoan frescoes and Greek histories alike do not suggest a heavily patriarchal element to Minoan society, at least compared to surrounding societies and the Mycenaean ascendancy to come. There is also the famous Snake Goddess of the Minoans, which people interpret in feminist ways. Quite different from the Greek religion to say the least.

Minoans also don’t show a great deal of evidence of warfare in the way that the later Mycenaeans would, with their palaces being seemingly unfortified. Although I have heard it suggested that the convoluted layout of the palaces was a sort of defense in itself. Another thing to consider is that Minoans did not leave behind a great deal of artistic evidence of warfare, again compared to the other Bronze Age societies and later Greeks who left behind a great deal. However, it’s possible that Crete was just in a very serendipitous position which didn’t call for much land war for foreign armies entering it, and didn’t encourage any land war outside of Crete. The Minoans were not egalitarian though, and they weren’t really a pure holdout from the Neolithic. They have a lot of influence from the Bronze Age Near East, particularly Anatolia and the Caucasus.

So what of the Etruscans? Well, the Etruscans were patriarchal, warlike, and socially stratified, they were just less patriarchal than the Greeks and Romans. Some of this slander towards Etruscans not controlling their women, may have been exaggerated but some of it was true. I don’t consider this special evidence of something neolithic, because it just seems like cherry-picking. The Romans and Greeks also spoke of freedoms which Celtic and Germanic women had compared to their own. If they didn’t speak an Indo-European language would you say this was proof that they were harboring some Old European matrism? Again, the Etruscans were not pristine EEFs. They just spoke a possibly Neolithic language. Genetically they were like all the other Italics.

So what about the Basques? Well, again, I’m not so sure the Basques even are a Neolithic culture. But people say Basque culture was once matriarchal. I highly doubt this because the Romans (as far as I know) never record the Aquitani as a matriarchal people. Caesar talked on and on about Germanic culture, but wouldn’t mention the society ruled by women in southern Gaul? Also, the neolithic people who last occupied the region, they themselves were Patriarchal. The Megalithic Culture. It was patriarchal, patrilineal, and had inbred god-kings so it was definitely not some sort of hippie communist utopia. In fact, burial evidence suggests more or less that this also applies to many of the other significant cultures of the late Neolithic which would be invaded by the Indo-Europeans. For example, the Funnelbeaker Culture and the Globular Amphora Culture. Also suggested is that these cultures were not peaceful, but in fact very violent! As much as the Indo-Europeans? That’s a question beyond my paygrade. Maybe the Indo-Europeans were just… Better at it…

If you know anything about Neolithic Europe, you might realize that all of these cultures I just named were not really genetically the same as the initial wave of EEFs in Northern Europe. These cultures saw a heavy influx of WHG ancestry compared to their predecessor cultures, and also a heavy influx of WHG Y-DNA. The admixture from WHG to EEF was sex-biased such that male WHGs were breeding with female EEFs disproportionately, implying that there was some sort of WHG resurgence during the 5th Millennium BC in Central and Western Europe (likely starting with the Michelsberg Culture).

So… Several of Europe’s Neolithic cultures which were the actual ones getting invaded by the Corded Ware and Bell Beaker cultures were not matriarchal, egalitarian, peaceful societies at all… In fact, they were hardly even the same people who had invaded Europe all those years ago. This is probably precisely why Gimbutas thought these were members of the patriarchal warlike Kurgan invasion, when in fact they were not! So uhh, yeah, minus one for Gimbutas. Gimbutas thought the Baden and Globular Amphora cultures were Kurganites, when they weren’t (or at least in the case of the Baden culture, had only scant Steppe ancestry here and there).

Then where-oh-where did the Longhouse come from? Well, the Longhouse comes from the culture which came before these groups. The Linear Pottery Culture (LBK, its German initials, are used as abbreviation), was the one with the infamous longhouses.

Things are not looking good here folks. The predominant dwelling in longhouses is already a stain. Many sources on the internet also seem to claim two different things: 1) that men are disproportionately absent from LBK burials, and 2) that pottery is primarily found in women’s graves in the LBK culture. I have found these claims difficult to legitimize. But, now we know that the LBK culture was probably patrilineal and patrilocal, although some insist the evidence is not yet strong enough to call it patrilocal. However, a genetic study very recently threw further evidence that the LBK culture was patrilineal and patrilocal. These point to a society which at the very least is more patristic than matristic, but I suppose looks can be deceiving.

Oh yeah, did I mention that the LBK culture was definitely violent? Not only were they warlike, but they committed mass human sacrifice and cannibalism. All that being said, LBK culture was definitely much more egalitarian than the coming Steppe peoples, and probably more than the more roundhouse-oriented WHG Hybrids which would succeed them, but my point is that there is no evidence they were some sort of matriarchy. And even if they were, they were wiped out a long time before the Steppe invasions.

This leaves us basically down to the Balkan Neolithic and the Cardium Pottery Culture, which dominated the Mediterrenean coast. The most brought-up instance of this is the Cuceteni-Trypillia Culture, one of the most advanced cultures of the Eneolithic and on the doorstep of the Proto-Indo-Europeans (in fact, it is likely they had something of a symbiotic relationship). The CT Culture is descended from the LBK Culture. It is usually these Southeastern cultures which are brought up as evidence of “matristic Neolithic societies”, but there’s still really no evidence one way or another that these cultures were patristic/matristic aside from religious artifacts tending to be womanly. The simple lack of a patristic power, dwelling, and familial pattern may be considered evidence enough of a matristic society, especially considering the grand amounts of female idols in some houses. A major issue with determining anything about CT social structure is that their funerary practices are largely a mystery. We don’t have funeral sites for them. You only start to see a few in the late Trypillia culture, which was possibly influenced by the Steppe in this regard. Without a lot of remains, the things we used to determine things about other Neolithic societies cannot be determined in this case.

As far as more Balkanic cultures go like the Vinca and Starcevo cultures, as well as the Cardium Pottery Culture, I don’t know of any evidence one way or the other for patristic or matristic tendencies. You could argue these societies represent some sort of earliest stage of EEF society at its most egalitarian, since they are genetically the least admixed, but they certainly were not peaceful. They left very little of the local Hunter Gatherer population, and I can assume only some of that is due to disease and out-peopling. Probably a similar situation to what happened in the Americas. Material social stratification at this early a time was just not very practical. It was hard to generate enough wealth to do this when there was very little division of labor and everyone was busy farming. Even in Cuceteni-Trypillian “cities” there was not much division of labor. Most houses were self-reliant and couldn’t provide a significant surplus. Which discourages a formalized material hierarchy.

So, the Longhouse probably did not exist in its most earnest form within the actual society with longhouses. Its existence is very dubious and conjectural in the area of “Old Europe” spanning from the Aegean to the Dniester, and most of the societies actually invaded by the Indo-Europeans were not part of either, but something new which itself was partially misinterpreted as an Indo-Europeanized society.

But the longhouse does represent a real thing and an element in every society, and an element which was likely more prominent in the societies of Neolithic Europe than it was among the Indo-Europeans. This maternal principle, where freedom is suppressed in favor of safety, harm-avoidance, fairness, and equity. Where the earth is praised over the heavens, and social norm/custom is considered the primary benchmark rather than personal taste or objective reasoning. This is most strongly felt in small villages, it is choking. It is why young men would literally go die in wars to just get a glimpse of the world outside of their villages, back before you could just move cross-country easily. I think these principles explain much of why women are more liberal than men in this day and age, but that’s partially also because being progressive is now the primary socially-vetted ideology. In the past, this pattern didn’t really exist. Women often supported conservative political parties more than men. This is the result of a society not only saturated with female bureaucrats, but possibly the result of a generally low-testosterone society.

Testosterone increases honesty and willingness to embrace heterodox views. High testosterone children tend to experience more verbal bullying on average, and if any of you remember my post on Transgenderism, transgenders are significantly more likely to have been bullies during their childhood. So, in a low-testosterone society (both due to the high prominence of women, and the prominence of low-T men and old men) you end up with a society of browbeating which punishes exceptional people and those who question dogma.

Anyway, I could talk more about the Indo-Europeans and the Farmers, but I think I’ve made my point on longhouse civilizations. They’re a very important tool for looking at our own culture, but only represent an element of a culture and it’s hard to say if they ever represented any European cultures in earnest. The EEFs were “more longhoused” than the Indo-Europeans, but less longhoused than we imagine them to be, basically.