Men's Houses

in primitive societies, buildings in which unmarried men and sometimes all the men of a village lived together. Men’s meetings, ceremonies, and receptions for guests were held in these houses. Men’s houses or their vestiges may be found throughout the world. As with the less common girls’ houses, they are connected with divisions according to sex and age in primitive society. Possibly they originated in the segregation of men and women in early clan communes. Men’s houses became especially important during the transition from the matriarchal to the patriarchal clan, when they became the centers of activity of men’s societies.