Do you think LBT world is a patriarchy?

[LittlefootAndAliTogether]

It seems that, kind of like our world, men seem to be more in charge, though there is the Old One, who is a matriarch leader of a herd (though perhaps she had a mate that was, in fact, the leader of the herd, but he passed on, leaving her as the leader.)  


I mean, though they all are supposed to control the leadership together in the Great Valley, it seems that Topps and Grandpa Longneck hold quite a bit of sway in the decisions.  

Also, other than the Old One, we've never seen a female lead a herd.  It's always the male Spiketail leader (Tippy's herd), Bron (Bron's herd), and possibly Grandpa Longneck and Topps as the main de facto leaders of the Combined Herd in the Great Valley.  

Also, the fact that Grandma Longneck uses the word "his" instead of his/her when mentioning about the Big Longneck Test and who takes it also seems to back the patriarchy theory.   Perhaps it was just because Littlefoot is male, but perhaps it is only available to males and hence Ali wouldn't be allowed to take it.  (Give it someday to a child of hers, yes, but not take it.)

[Malte279]

We also get Ducky's mother telling of Cera's father in front of the assembly in LBT 7 and Littlefoot's grandmother too speaks up in LBT 3. It is true that the male characters dominate in numbers but I do not really see it as sufficient evidence for patriarchy comparable to that of the human world in LBT. I think by comparison there may be more indications (no absolute evidence though) for a kind of gerontocracy (rule of the elderly) compared to indications of a patriarchy.
All in all however we get somewhat too few examples to base any empiric studies on. What we can say for certain is that LBT does have a high number of strong willed and mostly independent female characters who are often not shy to speak up to male counterparts (in case of the rainbowfaces too the female seems to be a bit more "in charge" though they may not really qualify as part of the LBT society).

[LittlefootAndAliTogether]

We also get Ducky's mother telling of Cera's father in front of the assembly in LBT 7 and Littlefoot's grandmother too speaks up in LBT 3. It is true that the male characters dominate in numbers but I do not really see it as sufficient evidence for patriarchy comparable to that of the human world in LBT. I think by comparison there may be more indications (no absolute evidence though) for a kind of gerontocracy (rule of the elderly) compared to indications of a patriarchy.
All in all however we get somewhat too few examples to base any empiric studies on. What we can say for certain is that LBT does have a high number of strong willed and mostly independent female characters who are often not shy to speak up to male counterparts (in case of the rainbowfaces too the female seems to be a bit more "in charge" though they may not really qualify as part of the LBT society).

Ali's herd seems to have a female leader, but, again, we don't know if her mate just died and she got the role or if she had it without him.  

What about the Big Longneck Test?  Do you think that the fact that Grandma Longneck used the word "he" instead of "he or she" is an indication that only males can take it or is it just because Littlefoot is male that she used "he" and that Ali could take the test too?

[Malte279]

Since neither Ali nor any other female candidate for taking the text was around in that episode I do not consider it a very strong point to support the (possible but far from proven) idea of a partriarchy in the setting of LBT.
In some cases herds may even be without an officially assigned leader. An example for this may be Littlefoot's herd in the original movie. From what we see one may interpret his mother as the leader there (since she is walking ahead), but I doubt that in such small family groups leaders would even need to be assigned at all. Come to think of it we also don't have any certainty about whether or not the farwalkers in LBT 7 got a leader at all. There is a male stegosaurus talking with Cera's father, but nothing in the movie suggests for said stegosaurus to have any particular leadership authority and what he says about the rainbowfaces "joining up with us some time ago..." to me sounds a bit like there aren't any strict rules about joining or leaving the herd if it happens to head a way someone wants to go (ways more likely determined by the location of places where food or nesting grounds are known to be rather than bey the will of a herd leader).
Male characters do dominate in numbers in LBT, but from what we see in the movies I would not deduct a patriarchy because of that.

[DarkHououmon]

Grandma using "he" instead of "he or she" is really much evidence for a supposed "patriarchy". It is pretty normal and acceptable in grammar to refer to a group of people as "he" or "his", rather than "he or she" or "his or hers". It just makes things simpler, and is in no way dishonoring females.

Personally, I do not view the world we live in as a patriarchy, especially since, if you look close enough, things shape up quite differently than what you'd expect in a supposed "patriarchy". But I will not dwell on that here.

[jansenov]

I see no indication of LBT dinosaurs consciously prefering males in positions of power, or even of such positions being well-defined. And while there is little trace of a matriarchal society in our world (none in the present, few inconclusive traces from the past), patriarchal societies have been quite diverse in the power relations between men and women, which it must be mentioned is only type of power relation out of several. Out of the societies I know something about (and those are more than few), the human society that the LBT leafeater society most closely resembles are the Semai.