The author begins the text by attempting to dispel a few myths. Matrilineal Communities, Patriarchal Realities deals with the past, the present and concludes with suggestions for a better future. The myths are those held by development economists that Sri Lanka is a worthy country to be imitated and by feminist economists who think that women in Sri Lanka are relatively liberated owing to the matrilineal and bilateral inheritance patterns. The author progresses into divulging the paradoxes of the so called conventional wisdom theories that have given a prominent place for Sri Lanka. Primarily the female headed household becomes the focus of the delineation to tell us that Sri Lanka is not a Feminist Nirvana. The households selected are in the eastern province of Sri Lanka where an ethnic war is continuing for the last ten years. However, the study is not related exclusively to war widows. The research makes extensive claims as deviating from other researches on households and theories employed by others and exposes the inadequacies of a few other research methodologies and research theories claiming a critical standpoint.
Arguments are built up carefully and strategically. Initially Eastern Sri Lanka is placed with its geographical and historical map within Sri Lanka. Its women are then placed within gradations of patriarchy.