Which of the following animals has matriarchy. Which animals have the strongest family bonds? Which of the females gets the throne

When it comes to animals, people still have a lot to learn from them. We forget that some animals are also capable of creating the same behaviors that we have, we just do not notice them, because they manifest themselves differently in animals.

We often forget that animals are capable of experiencing the same emotions as we do, creating friendships and family bonds similar to ours. The result of this deliberate "forgetfulness" is reflected in the way we treat animals. We separate them from family and friends, keep them in captivity for our own amusement, or even keep them in unbearable conditions in poultry farms until the day they become one of our meals.

An important step towards ending this vicious cycle is to treat them with compassion. Animals aren't really as different from us as they are in tails, fur, or weight. So let's take a moment to look at animals that create family bonds similar to ours.

Here are six amazing views animals with unusually strong family ties:

1. Elephants

Elephant family on the march

While males live relatively solitary lives, female elephants live in highly developed herds. family ties. Matriarchy reigns in the elephant herd, where there can be several family generations, from 6 to 12 members, ranging from grandchildren to sisters and their offspring. Elephants have long been known to rush to the aid of their young when they find themselves in the strong waters of the river, or stuck in the mud, or strayed from the herd because they mourned the death of a member of the herd.

Back in 2012, two herds of South African elephants made their way to the home of Lawrence Anthony, wildlife who saved their lives. They stayed near his house for two days, apparently mourning his passing, beliefnet.com reported. They spent a total of 12 hours to get to his house.

2. Wolves

Wolf pack on vacation

They may even have stronger bonds between alpha male and alpha female than we do. Wildlife advocates say some may even donate own life to protect the rest of the pack. It was once thought that wolf packs composed of unrelated pack members who often vied with each other for dominance until David Meck explored wild wolves and did not debunk this notion. He discovered that the pack consists of an alpha pair and their cubs, in addition, there are some adult offspring from previous litters in the pack.

3. Orcas

A calf and an adult killer whale frolic

Sarah Heimlich in the 1980s provided the first evidence that killer whale communities are built on the principle of matrilineality (representatives of the maternal line). According to the report “Southern resident killer whale (orca dolphin) conservation plan”, prepared by national service marine fisheries, the members of these groups are extremely bonded and are rarely physically separated from each other for more than a few hours. Even offspring live with their parents throughout their lives.

4. Dolphins

Dolphins on a walk

Dolphins have strong social bonds and they are the kind of animals that show caring behavior not only towards their own species but towards other species as well as saving people from drowning shark attacks and also helping seals. and whales. The first time dolphins were recorded trying to save another dying dolphin was in 2013, when five dolphins formed a kind of carpet with their bodies so that the injured dolphin would float on the water and not drown, ten other dolphins later swam up and took turns changing about it was reported on the BBC.

5. Lions

Caring female and curious lion cub

Lions are the most social animals of all species. wild cats, they live in prides. Males lead tougher lives until they get older, and it has also been reported in the media that even old females with missing teeth are waiting for the entire pride to share their food with them. Experts report nose-touching is common among lions, lionesses lick each other, and males rub each other's heads to strengthen social bonds. During attacks (hunting), they try to get their prey by acting together.

6. Chimpanzee

Interested look of chimpanzee family

In families dominated by a female, order most often reigns. True, it is worth noting that this is also a dictatorship. I've always been amazed by men who literally obeyed their wives, but such behavior in animals is not at all surprising ...

In the wild, matriarchy is quite common: from insects, such as bees, to the largest land mammals - elephants. I am familiar with insects only from the experience of the bitten one, and macro photography is not at all mine, so I don’t know anything about them. And since I'm a wildlife photographer, my observations are mostly related to large mammals, mainly African predators. I have been photographing wild cats and their distant relatives- hyenas. I want to tell you that the longer I watch the life of these felines, the more I am amazed and surprised.

1. Yes, of course, purely aesthetically pleasing to look at LION'pride, but believe me, the arrangement of the family life of hyenas is much more interesting.

2. The dominant female hyena controls absolutely all processes in the clan. In addition to bearing and raising children, she determines the target for hunting and is the coordinator during the attack. She determines the food queue, keeps order and can literally punish someone who violates it, although this happens extremely rarely.

3. A very developed and diverse language of communication helps hyenas to maintain such a stable social system. Hyenas communicate with each other not only with sounds that are extremely unpleasant for the human ear and resemble a mixture of howling, roaring and laughter, but also with smells. The smell of a hyena is very pungent and each individual is unique. Depending on the reproductive cycle, the smell changes and serves as an important regulator of intra-clan relations. The smell of the dominant female causes humility not only among males, but also among other females who are at the lowest level in the hierarchy.

When photographing hyenas, I have repeatedly noticed that males often show their aroused genitals to the female. And often he literally shakes his dignity in front of the female's muzzle.

4. I thought that he was trying to flirt, showing her his desire to mate. Males are known to get excited by the smell of a flowing female, but I once noticed a similar behavior of a male in the presence of a female who had just given birth. There could be no talk of any estrus at that moment, therefore, the male should not have shown interest in it. I was surprised by this, and I began to study the issue.

As it turned out, by such behavior the male shows his humility and complete submission! The female at this moment begins to growl and bare her teeth. We must pay tribute to the courage of the male, because to shake his dignity in front of such strong jaws- it's a no-brainer! For reference, the jaws of a hyena create a pressure of 70 kg / cm2.

5. In the clans of hyenas, males are so lowly ranked that even cubs are one step higher. There are many males in the flock, but some are expelled over time. The decision to exile is also made by the dominant female. Despite being tough on males in general, female hyenas are often lenient with their fathers.

6. Who decides which female is superior? Most often, the daughters of the dominant female fight for the “throne”. The struggle for power begins in childhood - young females often engage in deadly battles.

7. In this photo, the dominant female, the raised tail is a demonstration of her high position in the pack.

8. And in general, they are not as vile as many people think. Often funny and even cute:

12. In general, hyenas have a real pronounced matriarchy. Well, what do you want from a lady who is not only bigger and stronger than her companion, but also has her own pseudo-penis?! Yes Yes exactly! First scientific descriptions hyenas were noted to be prone to homosexual contact. However, scientists later found that in females, the clitoris can greatly increase, reaching 15 centimeters, and at such moments the female can be mistaken for a male.

13. Here they are, hyenas.

Construction of Göbekli Tepe. Reconstruction.

Matriarchy and patriarchy, two forms of social organization. Matriarchy is ancient. Today, it has been preserved among individual archaic tribes. The patriarchal society, as experts say, has replaced it, so that the phenomena of life of both very often oppose (oppose) each other. In the literature, speaking about the features of matriarchy or patriarchy, they cite such signs as: the role of women and men in the family, determining the relationship of children, the circle of their activities.
These descriptions are voluminous, but always leave a feeling of the secondary properties of the given properties, their subordination to others - the main ones. There is a feeling of vagueness: it is difficult to imagine a picture of life in each case, what are the most important features of each, what is their main difference. At the same time, they see the transition from antiquity to modernity in the change of these forms. I have tried to clarify this misunderstanding for myself by characterizing the most important features inherent in the societies of both forms, based on historical data and common sense.

Matriarchy and patriarchy are two forms of the organization of society, which determine different relations for each case between members of society, to the outside world, to otherworldly forces for a person.

Matriarchy is characterized by the worship of the mother and the earth with the ability to give birth that unites them. This deified ability is given by nature. Of which the person feels himself to be a part. From her elements he finds deities, the most important of which is embodied in the image of mother earth. Earth in Greek is “chthon”, respectively, the deities of this period are chthonic and are the oldest for civilization.

All his life a person connects with them, builds himself on them. Nature gives life and takes it away. She is kind and stern. These traits are merged in her. Just like in a mother: she loves, but she is strict. This is life in harmony with nature, i.е. acceptance of all manifestations without attempting to tame them. Nature is sacred, therefore it should not be transformed, but preserved. All the creativity of society and individuals is aimed at adjusting to natural conditions. The consciousness of the people of this era, as it were, is mundane.

Accordingly, a religious ritual is an expression of love for nature and aims to get closer to it, to merge. Obviously, in this case, the natural properties of a person must be fully involved, finding their extreme manifestation in orgies.

Giving nature a sacred character sets the appropriate patterns of behavior: the way of life sets the reproduction in breadth (in numbers and territory), thus repeating the burly mother, as well as the reproduction of the existing social form, with gradual filling of space.

Rice. 1. Sculpture from the HöleFels cave (35-40 thousand years)

Thus, the settlement of Chatal-guyuk, according to the reconstruction, was ~ in 6000 BC. a cluster of simple houses of the same type, each of which is able to build 1 family.

Rice. 2. The settlement of Chatal-Guyuk. Reconstruction.

In such a society, the co-organization of large collectives is not required. Accordingly, there is no need for a hierarchy. All are equal, all children of the same mother.

The situation is different under patriarchy. Its rooting is traditionally associated with the "invasion" of the Indo-European tribes on the territory of modern Europe and Asia, referring them somewhere to the 5th thousandth year BC. They brought with them new gods, who either supplanted the old ones or absorbed them in a subordinate position. How has society changed?

It seems to me that the main change occurred in the object of religious worship, which (which) became transcendental, i.e. lost touch with nature. In response, man received a creative impulse in relation to the world: to nature and society. The ability to rearrange them as you wish: to show the will to intervene and understand why.

The “invasion” itself, although it lasted for centuries, presupposes a certain purposefulness of the masses, which is opposed to the spontaneity of adjusting to natural conditions. “Settlement” in the heads of this purposefulness, in my opinion, should have been accompanied by the fact that people, as it were, turned their gaze from the earth towards the sky.

Those. distinguishing feature patriarchy willfulness over nature and society. Accordingly, the natural features of a person will not be cherished here, and a certain sublime feeling of belonging to the gods comes to the fore.

I see the personification of the patriarchal will in this image.

Rice. 3. The city of Uruk at the end of 3 thousand BC Reconstruction.

The city is very similar to the above Chatal-Guyuk, except for the palace. This cannot be built by the forces of a matriarchal community. It requires the organization of a large mass of people, divided by hierarchy, and willfully embodying the idea of ​​the "father".

Which animals have matriarchy in their lifestyle?

Matriarchy - form social structure in which family power belongs to women.
MANY EXAMPLES: a few of them
BISON
Bison live for a long time: females - up to thirty years old, males - a little less. Such longevity is facilitated by a healthy "moral climate" in a strictly balanced family. A separate herd consists of an adult, battered bull, four or five queens and a herd of young calves. The head of the family rarely participates in "women's squabbles". In the uterine group, everything is run by a highly experienced, wise and domineering bison-matriarch. According to her behavior, "facial expressions and gestures," the rest of the females correct their own actions and intentions.
http://vecherka.ru/Jivojugolok/1634
HYENA
Found throughout almost all of Africa spotted hyenas are more distant relatives of cats than dogs. Hyenas live, united in clans, and females lead the clan. Matriarchy reigning among hyenas is an extremely rare phenomenon for predators.
Hyenas live in clans led by a female (matriarchy).
Males are not allowed to approach children: fathers are not averse to eating their heirs.
http://karakg.net/hu/?per=tekebaaev&id=3...
ELEPHANT
Elephants have a life expectancy of 60 to 70 years. Some features of elephants are very similar to humans, namely, they remember previous experiences and are able to use this knowledge. Another similarity is that their stages of development correspond to the stages of human development. Over the course of a lifetime, they go from the stage of rebellious childhood, curious adolescence to adulthood when the elephant turns into a proud intellectual and majestic animal. The elephant family is matriarchy. A large, strong female worries and protects her family. Adult elephants usually travel alone or in small groups.
http://www.zambezi.ru/index.php?id=70
killer whales
A flock is a close-knit family union in which the whole life of an animal passes from birth to death. Males live for about 50 years, females are almost twice as long up to 70-80 years. Matriarchy reigns in flocks of killer whales. Of the large mammals, only elephants adhere to such a social structure. But unlike elephants, male killer whales remain close to their mother all their lives.
http://www.vokrugsveta.ru/publishing/vs/...
CHIMPANS BONOBO(there are many contradictions)
At the head of the community of bonobos, the closest relatives of man, is the female. The male who dares to disobey her is simply expelled from the herd. Interestingly, all or almost all of the aggressive spores in the bonobo herd have been replaced by... elements marital behavior- sex games for them is a way to avoid conflict. For example, before starting to eat, two female bonobos necessarily entered into genital contact with each other. If there is a misunderstanding between two male or two female bonobos, they rub their genitals or caress each other with their hands and mouth. Jealousy because of the female of one male bonobo to another ends in them with elements of mating behavior towards each other. Bonobos are generally very "sexy": between all members of the community (with the exception of close relatives) and in any combination, including homosexuals, there is a high frequency of sexual contacts - however, usually very short-term and more reminiscent of game demonstrations.
http://zapiski-rep.sitecity.ru/ltext_111...
RAT
The rat community is organized in a very unusual way. They have matriarchy. The flock is led by the female, who continues the race. After she dies, the largest rat takes her place.
http://www.myslo.ru/gazeta/681/animals/3...
There are many more examples of matriarchy in the animal world - these are deer, and chinchilla, etc.

We call matriarchy the dominant role of women in the family, or otherwise public education. At the same time, representatives of the male sex are limited in their rights and must obey the woman in everything. As a result, it turns out that matriarchy is a kind of female dictatorship. In human society, matriarchy is found quite often, especially in families with completely weak-willed men who have fallen under the heel of their wives. Sometimes their behavior is completely incomprehensible and causes a lot of criticism from the stronger sex.

Quite differently, one should treat the phenomenon of matriarchy in animals. Here it is natural, and quite justified phenomenon. Matriarchy takes place in the bee family, in some insects, in the same hyenas, and even in elephants.

How, for example, is the life of hyenas arranged?

The main ones here are females who keep order in the family, raise children, organize hunting, distribute the order in eating, punish the naughty. Punishment among hyenas is not such a rare thing. Sometimes, violating the rules of the hostel, may even be expelled from the pack.

Hyenas have a very peculiar language of communication. It is composed of both sounds (growling, barking and howling) and smells. At the same time, it is unique for each individual, and may vary depending on the situation. AT mating season he is alone, but in danger he is completely different. The main female has her own smell, which is familiar to every member of the pack. He instills in them humility and respect. Males, for example, as a sign of humility and submission, can demonstrate their excited genitals to the female. The method, of course, is not original, but it takes place. The female can react to this action in different ways, including with an angry grin. The male, in this case, immediately retreats, because in the hierarchy of hyenas he occupies the lowest level. He even starts eating last, only after the females are satisfied.

Very often, the offending male is expelled from the pack. The decision on punishment is made by the main female. Exile, however, is extremely rare. Most often, the case ends with a more lenient punishment.

Which female gets the throne?

The fight is between the daughters of the main female, moreover, from birth. Sometimes all this ends in a serious bloody fight. The winner emerges from it with his tail held high and proud.

So it turns out that matriarchy in hyenas is a way of their existence. In addition, the female is much larger and stronger than the male, and rarely needs his courtship. The thing is that females have an analogue of the male organ, with the help of which they are quite capable of contacting each other. Such is the enlarged clitoris, which sometimes reaches 15 centimeters in length.

In elephants, the oldest female also rules the ball. It is she who is responsible for order in the family and chooses a defense strategy in case of danger. Family consists of old female and juveniles with baby elephants. Males live a separate life and do not take any part in the life of the family. The composition of the family almost never changes. Unlike hyenas, the dominant female elephant does not need any special privileges here. She does not march ahead of the pack during long transitions, but simply punishes the disobedient with blows from her trunk. All family members carefully monitor her reaction to a particular action, and if it is negative, they immediately correct it.

Birds also have matriarchy. As an example, we can cite a tundra inhabitant - a phalarope wader. The dominant role in these birds is occupied by females. Having chosen a cavalier, they lay their eggs and disappear without a trace, entrusting the duties of hatching and raising chicks to the male.