It is a cultural thing, and changes over time. Agricultural people are usually matriarchal, and iron age cultuture (with its potential for mass killing) brings patriarchies, but with lots of exceptions. Basically I suppose it is pretty random.
Mitochondrial DNA is passed on to offspring by the female parent. Jews have chosen the matriarchal lineage for a practical reason. You ALWAYS know who the mother is.
Well, unless you find the kid in a reed basket, floating down the river.
Matriarchal lineage, but at the same time Patriarchal inheritance and sovereignty. Those Jews are crazy.
This post was edited by JakobA the unAmerican. at April 3, 2018 4:51 PM MDT
A man that worked for us once said that he was a Jew. His father was Hispanic from Mexico but his mother was Jewish. He told me that since the destruction of the Temple in 70 that Jews trace their lineage through their mother instead of through their father was was done in the Bible.
My father's side is full of regular folk. My mother's side is where the action was or is. One Hollywood film star, at least 2 inventors, one of those the CEO of a large manufacturing company, One Irish revolutionary and associate of Napoleon Bonaparte, An investment banker. A steam ship engine builder, some British royalty, etc.
Well, as long as we're bragging, I am descended from Old King Cole, the guy in the nursery rhyme. He saved a lot of lives by entertaining Roman soldiers instead of trying to fight them.
Of course, European royal family members have always been so randy that anybody with white skin could probably trace ancestry to one or all of them. When they call each other 'cousin' they really mean it!
Randy D 