[pey-tree-ahr-kee] 
| 1. | a form of social organization in which the father is the supreme authority in the family, clan, or tribe and descent is reckoned in the male line, with the children belonging to the father's clan or tribe. |
| 2. | a society, community, or country based on this social organization. |
| pa·tri·ar·chy (pā'trē-är'kē) n. pl. pa·tri·ar·chies In both senses also called patriarchate.
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patriarchy
hypothetical social system in which the father or a male elder has absolute authority over the family group; by extension, one or more men (as in a council) exert absolute authority over the community as a whole. Building on the theories of biological evolution developed by Charles Darwin, many 19th-century scholars sought to form a theory of unilinear cultural evolution. This hypothesis, now discredited, suggested that human social organization "evolved" through a series of stages: animalistic sexual promiscuity was followed by matriarchy, which was in turn followed by patriarchy.
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triˌɑr