1. Many of the Plains Aborigines were matrilineal / matrifocal societies. 2. Where matrifocal families are common, marriage is less common. 3. J . F . del Giorgio insists on a matrifocal , matrilocal, matrilineal Paleolithic society. 4. "A family or domestic group is matrifocal when it is centred on a woman and her children. 5. They were also matrifocal : when a young couple married, they lived with the woman's family. 6. She questions whether Gimbutas's archaeological findings adequately support the claim that these societies were matriarchal or matrifocal . 7. The concept of the matrifocal family was introduced to the study of Caribbean societies by Raymond Smith in 1956. 8. Most modern anthropologists reject the idea of a prehistoric matriarchy, but recognize matrilineal and matrifocal groups throughout human history. 9. Throughout, Smith argues that matrifocal kinship should be seen as a subsystem wthin a larger stratified society and its cultural values. 10. Although status was constituted within a matrilineal, matrifocal society, some elite men could take several wives for political or social reasons.
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