Obviously we had a poor idea regarding some of the specific details and mechanisms involved until this past century.
But I imagine there were a few hunches in medical and biology fields where they might've noticed certain traits being more (or less) likely to be inherited through the mother vs the father.
For thousands of years, the only observable fact 100 percent proving someone is someone's child is watching the kid getting born from the mother's vagina, hence the surety of matrilineage
Which I think may have something to do with mitochondrial DNA iirc. Which at least in mammals (like us) is inherited exclusively from the mother.
nobody knew anything about it until 60? years ago
Obviously we had a poor idea regarding some of the specific details and mechanisms involved until this past century.
But I imagine there were a few hunches in medical and biology fields where they might've noticed certain traits being more (or less) likely to be inherited through the mother vs the father.
For thousands of years, the only observable fact 100 percent proving someone is someone's child is watching the kid getting born from the mother's vagina, hence the surety of matrilineage