As a method of safeguarding their property, patriarchal culture heavily codified the regulation of female bodies and sexuality. As agricultural societies learned more about reproduction (combined with a decline in egalitarianism), some theorists suggest the magic and power of the mother goddess also began to wane. In this chasm of reverence where more patricentric ideologies took root both religiously and politically, the mother goddess began to lose her cultural primacy. This change is often noted in the evolving structure and language of myths, with the mother goddess transforming into the wife, lover, consort, sister, daughter, or mother of a powerful male god. With time and within various pantheons of belief, the mother goddess became viewed as secondary or subservient to a male divine.