Origins of the patriarchy

[sven]

I've been reading a few books lately on feminism but none of them seem to give any clear history of the patriarchy. It all seems very vague and I wonder if anybody here can clarify its origins. Cheers.

This happens to be a subject that interests me.
I've seen several hypotethesies that attempt to explain this. Some claim patriarchal societies began to appear when domestication of animals and agriculture spread across the world. Apparently people weren't that certain that the father of a child had something to do with its conception before this. I find the evidence for this is a little bit sketchy, since I haven't heard of any written accounts -- it all seems to be interpretations of different archeological finds such as statues, pottery, and so on.
I have also read that it had to do with the rise of monotheistic religions that excluded women from the main worship, and the like.
The strongest evidence I've seen has to do with ancient greek society, where I feel that women were treated very poorly. They were more or less second class citizens. Roman men didn't exactly treat their women as equals either. Women were basically expected to stay at home, bear children, weave togas and shut up. They've even found inscriptions on roman grave stones where women are praised for being quiet and invisible.
I've seen a couple of theories about actual events that may have triggered the appearance of patriarchal societies in pre-historic times, but I feel that they are unreliable, because the evidence seems too open to interpretation. That is to say -- I don't think anyone can say with enough certainty exactly when it started, but there are reliable sources originating from the ancient world.

I have to correct myself. I can't remember how on earth the part I underlined and bolded came out so wrong. That is not what I meant to say at all.
What I meant was what Tartarus Sauce wrote: "When we we lived in hunter-gatherer bands, we were far more promiscuous as a species. The mothers would always know who their children were, but the fathers wouldn't."