So while I've done some detailed worldbuilding for Lindsen and its surrounding nations, I haven't even drawn a map for the Orenland yet, and all I know is that it's slightly more advanced and it's supposed to be matriarchal. But how might it have become so even with agriculture being developed?
I contemplated having the entire continent or at least the part where humans originated be rainforest with plentiful fruits to make gathering more viable, while dangerous animals meant men were needed for defense and therefore more expendable. However, this is immensely stupid for obvious reasons. Does anybody have better ideas I can steal?
For indigenous people their agriculture was usually far lower intensity than western agriculture. It was not as labor intensive and it was more stable. They were simply better at early agriculture than than our ancestors were. Where we saw empires like in mesomamerica with very intense agriculture we all also saw more familiar empire like behavior.