The Pingpu were once a matrilineal society, but because in the Ming and Qing dynasties many Han Chinese bachelors crossed the sea to Taiwan and married Pingpu girls, they brought the patrilineal social system with them.
平埔原屬於母系社會，由於明、清兩代有許多漢人的「羅漢腳」（單身漢）渡海來台，他們娶平埔女子為妻，也帶入父系社會的制度。