Pitiless Bronze: A Postpatriarchal Examination of Prepatriarchal Cultures - Paperbackby Ruth J. Heflin (Author) Archeologists, historians, anthropologists, literary analysts, and others tend to assume that, if a man was leading an ancient culture, it must already have been a patriarchy. However, we now know that most cultures began as gynocentric cultures, valuing women above men in spiritual and social structures because of women's natural ties to the cosmos through menstruation and childbirth. Even at first contact with the Spanish,