First published in 1983, Patriarchal Precedents is an excavation of the term patriarchy. Rosalind Coward shoes how the debates about patriarchy and matriarchy were crucial to social theories in the nineteenth century, discussing how the resolution of these debates resulted in our present ways of (mis)understanding the family, sexual relations and sexual characteristics. Rosalind Coward argues that the violent debates around patriarchy tell a salutary...