Angela Saini (2025). The Patriarchs: How Men Came to Rule. Thessaloniki: Salto Publications, Callistos Series.

The present book review on Angela Saini’s book explores how patriarchy is not constituted as a single, universal system of male domination, but rather as a plural and historically situated articulation of power, shaped through kinship relations, local regimes of domination, colonial ruptures, and capitalist transformations. Drawing on anthropological, archaeological, and ethnographic examples, the review highlights the differences between patrilineal and matrilineal social formations, shedding light on the ways patrilineality and patrilocality are linked to practices of captivity, alienation, and control over female and feminised bodies. In this way, patriarchy is approached as a Machiavellian matrix of coloniality that operates through the family, care, and romantic love. At the same time, the review offers a critique of Western-centric feminist generalisations that equate patriarchy with a uniform form of male dominance, emphasising the need for decolonial and intersectional reflection that takes ethnographic evidence, local practices of resistance, and historical discontinuities seriously.