What Orcas Teach Us

The last time I checked, anthropologists had been unable to find a human culture they considered matriarchal. They had found a tribal community or two where women had equal status with men, and they'd found many matrilineal cultures, where your descent is traced through your mother and not your father.  That makes sense because the mother of a child is sometimes easier to identify than the father. But people still hope to find at least one culture  run by the ladies. 

Whales, it seems, might be a kind of answer, particularly orcas (killer whales), who are among the three species in which females experience menopause. In other species the females remain fertile unto death.

Why would Mother Nature invent menopause and keep females around who cannot reproduce? They take up space.  

Well, orcas operate in family groups like wolves or humans. Female orcas who live past menopause can outlive male orcas by 40 years. Some live to be 100.  These babushkas have learned where the food is. When the time comes to look for meat or fish, males follow grandma even if it isn't their biological grandma. Abuelas lead by example. Among orcas, grandmothers help grandchildren--even adopted grandchildren--to survive.