I think most of us were raised with the idea that patriarchy was the way in which the world always has been. But the more we look at humanity, certainly the more I learn, the more we see that that isn't the case. Patriarchy does not seem to be the norm in hunter gatherer tribes, and there is a lot of evidence to suggest that it also wasn't a norm in many early civilizations.

Note: matrilocal does not imply matriarchy, but it does signal a likely lack of patriarchy. There is a lot of reason to believe early civilizations like Çatalhöyük, the Indus Valley civilization, the Minoan civilization, etc. were pretty egalitarian.