Ancient cultures were matriarchal—matri (mother) arche (beginning), beginning with the mother (see fig. 57). Mother-centered or matristic cultures were those societies that formed around the mother-child bond and rippled out from there.

The classical writers tell us that Iron Age society was arranged in a hierarchy that bears a striking resemblance to the ideal in Greek and Roman society: peasants at the bottom; artisans, bards and druids in the middle; then nobles; and a single chieftain at the lofty apex of a triangular or pyramidal structure. Women could only gain access to the