4000–3800 BCE: (Preferential Parallel-Cousin Marriage and the Origins of Semitic Patriarchy — In Proto-Semitic the Word for Father-in-Law Derived from the An…

4000–3800 BCE: (Preferential Parallel-Cousin Marriage and the Origins of Semitic Patriarchy — In Proto-Semitic the Word for Father-in-Law Derived from the Ancient Proto-Afroasiatic Word for Father’s Brother, This Meaning Shift Being a Specific Identifier of Preferential Parallel-Cousin Marriage Which Reinforces Paternal Family Solidarity and Consistently Accompanies Strongly Patriarchal Social Structure, Revealing That Strong Patriarchy Among Semitic Speakers Goes Back to at Least 4000–3800 BCE, Before the Rise of Large States): In the proto-Semitic language, spoken most probably around 4000–3800 BCE in the Syria-Palestine-Israel region, the word for father-in-law derived from the ancient proto-Afroasiatic word for father’s brother. This meaning shift is a specific identifier of the presence in a society of what is known in anthropology as preferential parallel-cousin marriage. This particular custom reinforces paternal family solidarity, and its consistent and recurrent social accompaniment is a strongly patriarchal social structure. This word history reveals that strong patriarchy among Semitic speakers goes back to at least 4000–3800 BCE, to an era of emerging cities along and inland from the eastern shore of the Mediterranean, but before the rise of large states. The finding is remarkable in its precision. A single semantic shift in one kinship term — from “father’s brother” to “father-in-law” — opens a window onto the social structure of a society six thousand years gone. The people who spoke proto-Semitic were not just grain farmers and city builders. They were patriarchs, organizing their marriages to consolidate paternal lineages, and they were doing so a full millennium before the first Mesopotamian empires. Patriarchy, in other words, was not created by the state. It preceded the state among Semitic speakers, and the state, when it came, institutionalized a social order that was already in place.