What are the advantages of patrilineage?

Answer 1

It cannot really be said that generally speaking, matrilineal kinship societies have in any way an 'edge' over patrilineal societies. Matrilineal societies moreover did and do not empower women: only instead of fathers and husbands, it is now the maternal uncles, brothers and nephews who are the dominant males. The fact that in these societies power and status develop along the mother/daughter-line instead of that of father/son may have advantages for some, but disadvantages for others. The same goes for the fact that in these societies the man marries into the woman's family instead of the other way around.

But two advantages can be mentioned: firstly, the fact that in matrilineal societies the elsewhere jealously guarded legitimate fatherhood of children of a woman is of secondary importance. The main thing is that a woman's children are (easily) established to be hers. That means that limiting a woman's freedom of movement or heavily covering her body and face as for instance in some fundamentalist Muslim societies is not a feature of matrilineal societies. Secondly, another result of the secondary importance of fatherhood is - at least in some matrilineal societies - the occurrence of a form of polygamy where the woman may have several husbands.