But it was in hydraulic political economies in which women were made subserviant to the master of the house. Irrigated agriculture meant that property rights over a given piece of land became of over-riding importance. Ownership and property rights for land and water are outside imagination in hunting and herding families. Always on the move, claims to use and fruits of a piece of land were seasonal and the subject of violent warfare between differing tribes and families. But permanent title to land and buildings emerged in the great hydraulic societies some 4000 or 5000 years ago or more.
Ownership of land requires rules for the transmission of ownership from generation to generation.
Other social forms emerged as well out of the hydraulic societies of Persia, Egypt, India, China and the Incan empires in the new world. Great hierarchies of status and power replaced the simple age and gender hierarchies. Great armies replaced the wandering bands of predatory warriors who murdered, looted, raped and returned in tribal times. Great cities replaced the small villages of horticultural life. Great religions displaced the local gods.