Shrikeback@gmail.com wrote:

Prehistoric SE Europe had a string of agrarian communal cultures that
began to emerge 10,000 years ago. One clue to the diff is the graveyard
at Varna Bulgaria. At last count, 75 men, 75 women. This in STARK
contrast to graveyards later when so many men died in battle and left in
the field or buried there that the graveyards were full of widows.

Second clue. The women averaged in their early 40's, a longevity not
seen for another 5500 years, in the early 20th century. The men averaged
in their late 30's.

How did they do it? One way is the witches administering Clavaceps
Purprea, an ergot, as soon as they determine the baby is big enuf to
survive the birth. They guess wrong of course, and some babies are too
small to make it, but... they dont loose any mothers.

So, back when the women lived longer, they ruled more often. They would
have continued to, but the digs show they practiced birth control, had
stable populations, and while that worked for a long time, eventually a
horde of warriors showed up, and it was all over.

Hordes of warriors would be the rule, but they dont pay enuf attention
to what midwives have to say, have- as you suggest- high maternal
mortality rates, and then not enuf women to birth enuf warriors... The
other big problem they repeatedly had was not paying attention to
hygiene and epidemics would break out among them. So then, the only way
to survive was to split to build a log cabin in the boonies. Only then,
they suffer from cabin fever, abuse the wife and kids, and end up out of
the gene pool.

Its only the guys who can handle the boredom of farming who stay in the
gene pools then. And so it keeps cycling.

Things have changed about city life also. Villages are no longer
isolated with broadband access. Its the cities, that were originally
built behind walls for the sake of security, that are now the rich
target zones of terrorism and crime.