Passage: Anthropology has long distinguished between matriarchy-a social system where women hold primary power, and matrilineality, where ancestral descent and inheritance are traced through the female line. Many societies are matrilineal without being matriarchal; for example, in some West African cultures, land and titles pass from a man to his sister's son. In such systems, authority often remains with male kin, even though the right to that authority is derived from a female relative. This distinction is crucial for debunking the myth that matrilineal societies are inherently female-dominated in a political sense. Critics of early 19th-century theories argue that those theorists often conflated the two concepts, mistakenly identifying matrilineal descent as evidence of a lost 'golden age' of female rule. Contemporary anthropologists emphasize that matrilineality is a complex kinship strategy that balances the interests of different kin groups, rather than a simple inversion of patriarchal power. Understanding these nuances allows for a more accurate assessment of gender roles and power dynamics across diverse cultures.