Matriarchy and menopause (The 8CM plateau)

⚠️ A note on rigor: the historical "matriarchy" question is genuinely unsettled in archaeology and anthropology, I'm not presenting it as settled fact, I'm presenting the debate itself. Same with HRT: the research on vagal tone is timing-dependent, so this isn't a blanket "HRT is bad" claim, this is about asking what this threshold is actually meant to offer us. And the labor→menopause plateau parallel is my synthesis, not an existing finding, to my knowledge no one has run the 8cm study on perimenopause yet. CITATIONS: Matriarchy / historiography: Dashú, M. (2005). Knocking Down Straw Dolls: A Critique of Cynthia Eller's The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory. Feminist Theology, 13(2), 185–216. Labor plateaus, oxytocin, and brainwave states: Davis, E. (2018). Labor Plateaus and Our Sexual Nature. Midwifery Today, Autumn 2018, Issue 127. Oladapo, O.T., et al. (2018). Progression of the first stage of spontaneous labour: A prospective cohort study in two sub-Saharan African countries. PLOS Medicine. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1002492 Menopause, HRV, and autonomic regulation: Ramesh, S., James, M.T., Holroyd-Leduc, J.M., Wilton, S.B., Sola, D.Y., & Ahmed, S.B. (2022). Heart rate variability as a function of menopausal status, menstrual cycle phase, and estradiol level. Physiological Reports, 10, e15298. Martinelli, P.M., Sorpreso, I.C.E., Raimundo, R.D., et al. (2020). Heart rate variability helps to distinguish the intensity of menopausal symptoms: A prospective, observational and transversal study. PLOS ONE, 15(1), e0225866. Menopause and lifecycle framework: Santoro, N., & Randolph, J.F. (2011). Reproductive Hormones and the Menopause Transition. Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinics of North America, 38(3), 455–466. Rocca, W.A., Gazzuola Rocca, L., Smith, C.Y., et al. (2018). Loss of Ovarian Hormones and Accelerated Somatic and Mental Aging. Physiology, 33, 374–383. Horstman, A.M., Dillon, E.L., Urban, R.J., & Sheffield-Moore, M. (2012). The Role of Androgens and Estrogens on Healthy Aging and Longevity. Journal of Gerontology: Biological Sciences, 67(11), 1140–1152. Mikhael, S., Punjala-Patel, A., & Gavrilova-Jordan, L. (2019). Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Ovarian Axis Disorders Impacting Female Fertility. Biomedicines.