British Iron Age matrilocality

[Duncan Head]

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/jan/15/iron-age-men-left-home-join-wives-families-dna-study-reveals

[DBS]

Or alternatively, young men who had joined a chieftain's retinue married his sisters and daughters... 

My point being that the ancient sources, even allowing for Romano-Greek muddlement and stereotyping, do give an idea of both geographic and social mobility of young men - fostering, hostages, retinues, warbands.  So the fact that the girls move around less than the boys is perhaps to be expected.  Probably has nothing to do with matrilineal principles; sorry, Guardian!

[Erpingham]

The Guardian, of course, is only reporting the findings of a scientific paper in Nature, which you can read here

The full story is quite interesting in its findings, with ties to cross channel migration, and geographical clustering of DNA and what this means for regionalism.  How it thinks matrilocality may have worked and the suggestion the society must have had a complex geneological memory, and the suggested role of warfare is in there.

[Mark G]

Reporting a scientific peer reviewed paper - where will it end? 
Can't these leftie beard wearers just make shit up like a normal newspaper?

[Imperial Dave]

 

[Erpingham]

The beard wearing is easy enough - it's the organic vegan sandal-wearing I can't stand.

[Imperial Dave]

Ahhhh but are the socks organic cotton to go with the sandals....?

[Andreas Johansson]

Probably has nothing to do with matrilineal principles; sorry, Guardian!

I'm compelled to point out that the Guardian piece doesn't speak about matrilineality (descent traced through the female line) but about matrilocality (husbands moving to live with their wives' families, as opposed to patrilocality, where wives join their husbands').

[Erpingham]

Because of the environmental impact of cotton, I believe the preference these days is for bamboo socks 

[Erpingham]

I'm compelled to point out that the Guardian piece doesn't speak about matrilineality (descent traced through the female line) but about matrilocality (husbands moving to live with their wives' families, as opposed to patrilocality, where wives join their husbands').

Though, in the interests of full disclosure, the original article talks about both.

[DBS]

I'm compelled to point out that the Guardian piece doesn't speak about matrilineality (descent traced through the female line) but about matrilocality (husbands moving to live with their wives' families, as opposed to patrilocality, where wives join their husbands').

The point I am making is that it is perhaps a tad facile to imply that the husbands moved for the purpose of living with their wife and her family, as opposed to moving, perhaps, for other reasons (hostage, join a warlord's retinue, etc) and then, having moved, marrying a local girl.  If one were talking about a Roman soldier marrying a local girl up on Hadrian's Wall, no big deal would be made of the matrilocality...

[Ian61]

as opposed to moving, perhaps, for other reasons (hostage, join a warlord's retinue, etc) and then, having moved, marrying a local girl.  If one were talking about a Roman soldier marrying a local girl up on Hadrian's Wall, no big deal would be made of the matrilocality...

I think I would go even further than David and say that many young men would prefer a fresh start were all their silly misdemeanours as youngsters won't be known so can't be brought up for a joke. As most of us know parents will struggle to see their children as adults. Remember Mark 6.4
Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home."
 A wise man but I would say its not just prophets that lack respect in their own home.