Social organization marked by the supremacy of the father in the clan or family, the legal dependence of wives and children, and the reckoning of descent and inheritance in the male line
a form of social organization in which a male is the family head and title is traced through the male line
{i} rule or domination by men, social organization in which the father is the highest authority
Along with Papistry, one of four major models for church government: Rule by a supreme human leader ( CONTRAST: Congregational, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Papist, SEE: Polity )