Of all the relatives in ancient times, why did the uncle have the highest status?

Among all the relatives in ancient times, uncle, also known as uncle, had a high status. There are many folk sayings, such as the eagle in the sky and the thunderer in the sky. These words are saying that the status of uncle is very high, so why is the status of uncle the highest in traditional Chinese society? This has to start from the matriarchal society.

Primitive societyThere are two types of kinship systems in human beings, one is the matrilineal kinship hereditary inheritance system, and the other is the patrilineal kinship hereditary inheritance system. The former is matrilineal and the latter is predominantly patrilineal. This system continued into the ancient society, and even in the early modern society, the patrilineal system of hereditary inheritance still continued. In matrilineal clan societies, people inherited their property from their mothers.

When all the property of a society is inherited from the mother, so the status of uncle is equivalent to that of the father, who is one's closest male relative. In the ancient Chinese society, the uncle's status was so high, in fact, because of the tradition inherited from the matriarchal clan society. Although ancient society emphasized the rights of the father, it was because of this tradition left over from matrilineal clan society.

The uncle is the representative of the father's power in the mother's family, and he has his own important say in some things about the mother and the nephew. In some parts of China, when a nephew gets married and a wedding banquet is held, the uncle must sit in the upper seat. The mother also needs to ask the uncle's permission if she wants to remarry someone. In the ancient society, every small family faced the same problem, in terms of inheritance of property and the rights of the family, uncles and uncles will always have some conflicts and frictions with nephews, which is inevitable.