INTERPRETING THE ORIGINS OF GENDER INEQUALITY: CONCEPTUAL AND HISTORICAL

PROBLEMS
Author(s): Eleanor Leacock
Source: Dialectical Anthropology, Vol. 7, No. 4 (FEBRUARY 1983), pp. 263-284
Published by: Springer
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/29790079
Accessed: 28-06-2016 15:13 UTC

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 263

INTERPRETING THE ORIGINS OF GENDER INEQUALITY: CONCEPTUAL AND

HISTORICAL PROBLEMS

Eleanor Leacock

For some time I have argued that the anal? ANTHROPOLOGY AND HISTORY
ysis of women's oppression and its origins calls The importance of paying constant attention
for clarification along two lines, historical and
to history was impressed upon me as a graduate
conceptual [ 1 ]. The historical dimension re?
student at Columbia University when I was for?
quires that the myth of the "ethnographic pres? tunate enough to take part in Wm. Duncan
ent" be totally eradicated, and that anthropol?
Strong's seminar on "Time Perspective and the
ogists deal fully with the fact that the structure
Plains." Strong drew on archaeology and eth
of gender relations among the people they study nohistory to demonstrate that "typical" Plains
does not follow from pre-capitalist produc? culture, as then conceived, was not aboriginal,
tion relations as such, but from the ways in but had developed in the 18th century when
which these have been affected by particular formerly diverse tribes, some agricultural, some
histories of colonization. The conceptual di? hunting-gathering, took advantage of the horse
mension requires a complete break with the and either moved out onto, or spent more of
tendency to interpret all cultures in terms of the year on the prairies. I would add that a
categories derived from capitalist society. Such greatly expanded market for buffalo hides plus
categories distort the structure of primitive land pressure resulting from European intru?
communist relations and thereby obscure the sion to the east and south were also important
sources of hierarchy. Equally critical, as consis? reasons for the move out onto the plains. In a
tently pointed out by feminist scholars, is the fairly short time, social, ritual, and material
need to root out the pervasive assumption that traits were borrowed, developed, and/or elabor?
women are not actors on the scene of human
ated upon by different peoples who integrated
history to the same degree as are men. There is
them into a relatively uniform culture.
still a widespread failure to recognize that cor? Strong's ethnohistorical orientation influ?
recting the anthropological distortion of wom?
enced a number of dissertations, some on
en's roles in society has profound implications
Plains peoples [2], and some on other areas
for the interpretation of social structure gener?
[3]. Subsequently, extensive studies of native
ally. In particular, the fact that the French
American social-economic organization and
Marxists have not launched a thorough-going land use were undertaken in connection with
criticism of Levi-Strauss' assumption that the the Indian Claims actions initiated in the 1950s
exchange of women by men inaugurated
[4]. This work revealed a fact of major signifi?
human society has served to weaken their anal?
cance for understanding the unstratified soci?
yses of pre-capitalist production modes. eties that existed in most of what was to be?

Eleanor Leacock is Professor of Anthropology at the City Col?

come the United States: bands, villages, and
lege, City University of New York. towns were only loosely grouped into what are

0304-4092/83/0000-0000/$03.00 ? 1983 Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company

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264

called tribes; politically, however, they func? in the sense of stable, bonded groups subject
tioned as fully autonomous units. The point to the authority of a chief and/or council. Such
was made explicit by Kroeber [5], and it has a formulation violates the reality of commun?
been elaborated upon by Fried in his critique ally organized societies, in which movement
of the concept "tribe" [6]. Kroeber wrote: among groups was easy and frequent; rights to
lands were not viewed as exclusive; decisions
The more we review aboriginal America, the less certain about individual activities were made by those
does any consistently recurring phenomenon become that who would carry them out; and decisions
matches our usual conventional concept of tribe; and the
more largely does this concept appear to be a White
about group activities, arrived at through con?
man's creation of convenience for talking about Indians, sensus, did not bind those who did not agree
negotiating with them, administering them... [7]. [10]. Such a formulation also distorts the
It was infinitely more convenient and practicable for us
working structure of relations among bands
to deal with representatives of one large group than with
these of ten, twenty, or thirty tiny and shifting ones whose and villages and the complex social and cere?
very names and precise habitat often were not known. This monial forms that affirmed cooperation and
was equally so whether treaties were being negotiated for
friendship or ritualized and contained potential
trade, traverse, settlement or resettlement, land cession,
peace, subsidy or rationing, administration on a reservation, animosity.
or abrogating and opening up a reservation. Generally we Kroeber's and Fried's discussions of chang?
treated the nationality-"tribes" as if they were sovereign
ing political forms demonstrate how unjustifi?
state-tribes, and by sheer pressure of greater strength forced
the Indians to submit to our classification of them [8].
able it is to consider the cultures that have
been reconstructed from the memories of late
Kroeber's point that tribes as commonly de? 19th and early 20th century elders as "tradi?
fined were a product of colonization requires tional" in the sense of pre-Columbian. To do so
the qualification that tribal organization and is to gloss over the active participation of na?
leadership were not only imposed from with? tive Americans in almost 500 years of post
out. They also arose among native Americans colonial history. It is to present them as card?
as necessary for resisting white invasion. Such board figures, living according to a congeries
warfare as had existed in pre-colonial times of "culture traits" within "culture areas,"
usually took the form of petty raiding by traits that did not change but were "lost"
young men (and such women as occasionally through "acculturation" [11].
chose to participate) who tested their mettle
in a coup-counting system that deemed it more
GENDER IN NATIVE NORTH AMERICA
prestigous to touch enemies than kill them.
When warfare for survival became necessary,
strong leaders emerged to unite one or more With regard to the position of women, it is
tribes and meet the need. equally unjustifiable to make generalizations
In any case, Kroeber wrote that the "larger about one or another Indian culture without
nationalities,'1 i.e. the culturally affiliated consideration of the historical dimension. Dur?
groups known as tribes, were "ethnic" but ing the colonial period, male authority was be?
"non-political" in the sense that they held no ing encouraged by Euro-Americans in their
power over their constituents. It was the "smal? political and military dealings with native Amer?
ler units, whether they be called villages, bands, icans at the same time as Indian women were
towns, tribelets, lineages, or something else... becoming dependent in individual households
that were independent, sovereign, and held and on wage-earning and trading husbands. For ex?
used a territory" [9]. However, these smaller ample, after documenting the full social equali?
units should not be considered miniature tribes ty of Cherokee women revealed by colonial ac

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 265

counts, Reid, an historian of law, wrote: Cultivation is communal; that is, all of the able-bodied
women of the gens take part in the cultivation of each
household tract in the following manner:
The decline of hunting and the adoption of American ways
during the nineteenth century, with the substitution of The head of the household sends her brother or son into
factory-made for home-made goods... freed the Cherokee the forest or to the stream to bring in game or fish for a
woman from outdoor labor, placing her in the kitchen and feast; then the able-bodied women of the gens are invited
her husband in the fields, but it also deprived her of eco? to assist in the cultivation of the land, and when this
nomic indepedence, making her politically and legally more work is done a feast is given [ 16].
like her white sisters [12].
Powell stated that women were family heads
A second example of changes in women's among the Wyandot, and that four family
position following the colonization of native heads, plus a man of their choosing, made up
North America is afforded by the contrast be? the clan council. The clan councils together
tween Lafitau and Morgan on the Iroquois. In made up the tribal council that was responsible
his 18th century account, Lafitau stated that for dividing Wyandot lands among the clans.
Iroquois and/or Huron women were "the souls The women councilors of each clan were in
of the Councils, the arbiters of peace and war," turn responsible for dividing it among the clan
in whom "all real authority is vested" [ 13]. In households, as well as for matters such as giv?
Morgan's 19th century description, despite ing personal names and discussing and consent?
reference to women's decision-making powers ing to marriages. Apparently the entire council,
in Iroquois households, he wrote that Iroquois that is, including the male member, handled
men considered women as "inferior, the depen? certain transgressions while others were
dent, and the servant of men," and that a wom? brought before the tribal council. Warfare was
an, "from nurture and habit,... actually con? the responsibility of the men; all "able-bodied
sidered herself to be so" [ 14]. Although the men" made up what Powell called a "military
flatness of the latter statement can well be council" headed by a "military chief." The fact
questioned, it was written at the time when that women were not members of these coun?
Iroquois women had lost their role as major cils has led to a serious underestimation of
producers and the control over the products their authority in societies organized, as many
of their labor that had insured them personal North American societies were, along lines
autonomy and public authority. Their situa? roughly similar to the Wyandot Huron. First,
tion was no longer that of 1791, when elder accounts of military negotiations between the
Seneca women informed Colonel Proctor, an outsiders and "military councils" and "military
envoy from George Washington, chiefs" do not recognize the formal structure
of women's power which can therefore be
you ought to hear and listen to what we, women, shall interpreted as indirect and "behind the scene"
speak, as well as to the sachems; for we are the owners
[17]. Second, the imminence of conquest
of this land - and it is ours. It is we that plant it for
our and their use. Hear us, therefore, for we speak of increased the responsibility and power of
things that concern us while our men shall say more to "military councils." Subsequent economic
you; for we have told them [15]. developments, along with policies such as the
Dawes (General Allotment) Act of 1887 (de?
The changing relationship between women's signed to divide all Indian lands into family
economic role and their decision-making pow? owned plots), undercut the collective economic
ers among the Iroquois and the Huron is fur? activities traditionally controlled by women.
ther illuminated by a little known paper on the As among the Cherokee and the Iroquois, the
Wyandot by the early anthropologist Powell. egalitarian and reciprocal structure of decision
Powell wrote:
making among the Huron was destroyed.

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266

CONCEPTUALIZING PRIMITIVE COMMUNISM compulsions that order class society [19].

AND ITS TRANSFORMATION Where institutionalized hostility between the
sexes exists, it is interpreted as a variant of a
As the above discussion suggests, the egali? universal battle between the sexes, rather than
tarian relations that obtained in most foraging as evidence of emerging status differentiations
and many horticultural societies around the among men and among women, as well as be?
world at the time of European expansion tween men and women. The critical relation?
rested on the fact that all mature individuals ship between the development of ranking and
participated directly in the full process of pro? the attempt to subvert women's public and
duction. By "full process" I refer to Marx's autonomous status (such as in the so-called big
concept of production, distribution, exchange, men societies of Melanesia) is seldom recog?
and consumption as "members of one entity, nized. In sum, gender hierarchy is all too often
different aspects of one unit" [ 18], as opposed taken for granted, and both the structure of
to formulations that limit their emphasis to primitive communism and the basis for its
either work processes or the allocation of pro? transformation are thereby mystified.
duce. The control that all individuals had over There is much talk of paradigms these days,
the conditions of their labor, over the skills and much emphasis on process. Nonetheless,
as well as the resources necessary to perform cross-cultural analyses still rely heavily on
it, and over the disposition and use of its prod? states or essences as categories, rather than
ucts, distinguishes egalitarian from hierarchical? processes or relationships. The mid-century ad?
ly ordered structures. mission that the regularities of social evolution
A Marxist conceptual baseline for analysing as broadly outlined by Engels and Morgan ap?
egalitarian society, interpreted in these terms, proximated historical reality, opened the way
sharpens the fact that the transformation from in anthropology for a dialectical analysis of
egalitarian to hierarchical relations was quali? human history in terms of basic transforma?
tative and not merely quantitative. Such a view tions in the ways people interrelated as they re?
contrasts with the common practice of describ? produced themselves and their social struc?
ing egalitarian society in terms of the same fea? tures. In particular, given the focus on relations
tures that characterize class society. In form? between individual and society that character?
ulations of this type, differentiated access to ized the personality and culture school, and
land and other resources, hereditary authority, its successors in psychological anthropology,
and social-economic hierarchies are treated as the significance of Marx's sixth thesis on Feuer
incipient ? as weakly developed tendencies bach could have been explored in terms of how
that only needed strengthening to become pre? individual behavior and societal processes inter?
dominant. Despite caveats to the contrary, his? relate.
tory is thereby implied to be unilineal and tele "The essence of man is no abstraction inher?
ological, with Western society as its ultimate ent in each separate individual," Marx wrote.
purpose and measure. Alternatives for the fu? "In its reality it is the ensemble (aggregate) of
ture are obscured by the implication that there social relations" [20]. To Marx and Engels
was no real alternative in the past. people did not have an intrinsic nature apart
The widely held assumption that female sub? from society, but neither were they mere re?
ordination is a universal of human society de? flections of their society. In a number of oft
rives from, and in turn supports, the assump? quoted passages, Marx and Engels stressed that
tion that primitive communal society was ulti? "men make their own history" [21 ], although
mately ordered by the same constraints and the circumstances under which they do so are

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 267

inherited from the past. Furthermore, the in? reduced to psycho-biologically fixed entities.
dependent unfolding of social forces means Whether these be such grotesque notions as
that people's action do not necessarily lead to Wilson's "conformer" and other behavior
the intended results. Instead the "simplest de? specific genes, or Levi-Strauss's more elegant,
terminations," the relations of production, since undefined, deep structures, or Laughlin
ways people relate to one another as they pro? and d'Aquili's more scientifically couched, if
duce, distribute, exchange, and consume the less euphonious "neuroanatomical-neurophys
necessities of life, set processes in motion that iological relationships," their inventors all re?
lie beyond the wills of the actors [22]. On the duce human history and society to mere pro?
one hand, social structures are created by the jections of individual biological propensities,
behavior of individuals; "the social structure with the environment the only independently
and the State are continually evolving out of interacting factor [ 25 ].
the life-processes of definite individuals." On The result of ruling out a level of societal
the other hand, however, these life-processes process entirely separate from individual pro?
are themselves structured by production rela? pensities is like attempting to explain the
tions, as people "are effective, produce mate? movements of the solar system as flowing from
rially, and are active under definite material the properties of the atomic particles (or pro?
limits, presuppositions and conditions inde? cesses) that make it up. To be sure, planetary
pendent of their will" [23]. movements are in a superficial sense the sum
Marxist dialectics, then, opened the way for total of all movements of subatomic particles,
examining the series of interlocking processes just as social processes are in a trivial sense the
- the different levels of integration - that con? sum total of individual behaviors. Scientifical?
stitute human history. At the individual phys? ly, however, it would be absurd not to recog?
iological level, human nature is not a given but nize that the lawful movements of planetary
a mix of potentials and propensities that are bodies have their own history of development,
expressed differently under different condi? and operate at a level of integration indepen?
tions; at the societal level, social-historical pro? dent from the internal processes that character?
cesses are of an altogether different order; in ize their constituent parts. With respect to so?
between, mediating the two, at the individual ciety, few would argue directly that social pro?
psycho-social or behavioral level, the person cesses do not also operate at a level of their
operates as a nexus of social-economic relation? own. In effect, however, this is precisely what
ships; and at the ideological level, people's per? reductionist formulations imply.
ceptions of their relations to each other and to Anthropologists have long been sensitive to
nature are patterned by traditional concepts, in biological reductionism with regard to physical
part spontaneous and in part manipulated, and variations of a racial order, and somewhat
with a certain lawfulness of their own that aware that reductionist formulations serve as
arises from the nature of language as a symbol ideological rationalizations of oppression. Un?
system [24]. fortunately, this is not the case with respect
Such a line of thinking has been followed to physical variations of a sexual order. Al?
through only minimally. Instead, anthropology though the fact that physiological sex and so?
has been plagued by ever more radically reduc? cial gender are far from isometric is well estab?
tionist and anti-historical formulations. In lished and documented in anthropology, cross
structuralist theory, and more recently in so cultural discussions of sex roles commonly fall
ciobiology, social determinants are defined in into reductionism in their formulations. Many
terms of behavioral outcomes and ultimately Marxists, as well as other scholars, translate the

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268

gender structure of the hierarchical exploitative feature of primary social significance. As a con?
society with which they are familiar into innate sequence "abstract labor," the labor time repre?
predispositions and the practice is encouraged sented in an exchangeable object, became separ?
by the recent worldwide spread of Western able from concrete work, a development that
norms, at least on a superficial level. The as? eventually made it possible for those who con?
sumption remains prevalent that phsyiological trolled exchange to regulate and exploit the pro?
differences between the sexes embody hints ductivity of others. Finally, money developed
of female subordination only slightly ex? in various forms as a medium of exchange, as a
pressed in egalitarian cultures but that come to pure commodity. Marx stressed that the money
full flower in class-based state-organized urban form allowed the fetishistic absurdity whereby
societies. Instead of being treated as an histori? relations among people appeared to them as rela?
cal development, hierarchy becomes written tions among things; thus the structure of exploi?
into human physiology. Despite much citation tation was mystified and the existence of class
from Marx and Engels on the part of those who differences rationalized.
do this, they contradict a fully Marxist view of In The Evolution of Political Society, Fried
human nature as informed by the last hundred raised the question why people accepted control
years of social science research. Their entangle? by others over the products of their work and
ment with male supremacist ideology feeds allowed the loss of their independence. What?
into and is fed by the failure to deal rigorously ever the answer, Fried stated, people did not re?
with both history and theory in the interpreta? alize the magnitude of the changes they were
tion of primitive communist society and the bringing about [26]. To be sure, they did not,
source of its transformation. since, through exchange and the division of la?
bor, people were simply enriching their lives
and cementing interpersonal and intergroup
THE ORIGINS OF HIERARCHY
bonds, innocent of the processes thereby set in
The two sets of relations defined by Marx and motion. As Engels put it, "the more a social ac?
Engels as critical to the emergence of exploita? tivity, a series of social processes... appears a
tion are: first, the loss of control over the pro? matter of pure chance, then all the more surely
duction process (i.e., production, exchange, dis? within this chance the laws peculiar to it and in?
tribution, and consumption) through the divi? herent in it assert themselves." Commodity pro?
sion of labor beyond that by sex; and second, duction and the division of labor that accompa?
the emergence of dyadic relations of dependency nied it slowly but inexorably led to class strati?
within individual families as a public/private fication; they raised up "incorporeal alien pow?
dichotomy developed in economic and political ers... too powerful for men's conscious control"
life, making families separate economic units [27].
rather than parts of encpmpassing communal Simple barter does not separate the producer
groups. The fundamental historical development from control over exchange and distribution. As
analysed at length in Marx's opening section of barter develops in importance, however, it leads
Capital and central to Engels' reworking of Mor? to a contradiction between the material benefits
gan's evolutionary hypothesis in The Origin of to be derived from specialized production for
the Family, Private Property and the State, was trade and the structure of full egalitarianism.
the transformation from production for use to Fried suggested that the elaboration of redistrib?
production for exchange. The emergence of pro? ution was important to the emergence of rank?
duction for exchange meant that value as an at? ing, the first form of stratification [28]. The
tribute of goods began to supersede use as the focus should be sharpened and emphasis placed

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 269

on the significance of redistribution for the to how different environments and histories
emergence of commodity production with all have patterned the sex division of labor, and
its consequences. Goods produced for exchange women's position in decision-making structures
rather than for use create new interest groups. varies correspondingly [30]. Yet the question re?
For a long time, egalitarian relationships prevent mains: when ranking begins to undermine the
persons in pivotal positions in networks of ex? equal prerogatives of people generally, why is it
change and redistribution from exploiting the that the autonomy and authority of women as
economic possibilities of their position. None? a sex are threatened rather than those of men?
theless, the conflict between egalitarian relations Aside from various formulations of male superi?
sharpens and, in what are called ranking soci? ority, it is usually argued that the physical
eties, people begin to accept dependent positions limitations of childbirth and suckling are critical.
in relation to "big men" and other chiefly peo? Yet these do not hinder women in egalitarian
ple in order to benefit from the hand-outs asso? societies [31]. In keeping with my reading of
ciated with them. Eventually, unequal appropri? dialectical materialist theory as outlined above,
ation among and within competitively struc? I would say that the significance of women's
tured lineages is institutionalized, and the con? childbearing ability is transformed by new
flict between egalitarian distribution and con? social relations when they become the pro?
sumption on the one hand, and the potential ducers, not only of people as individuals, but
afforded by exchange and increasing specializa? also of what is becoming "abstract" - i.e., ex?
tion of labor on the other, is partially resolved. ploitable - labor. The origins of gender hier?
New contradictions are already crystallizing, archy, then, are inextricably meshed with the
however, between the potentials created by in? origins of exploitation and class stratification
creasingly farflung economic ties and social [32].
forms attuned to autonomous kin and village Engels posed a sharp contrast between the
groupings, in turn to be resolved by full strati? status of women among the egalitarian Iroquois
fication and political organization and the and that in the patriarchal societies of the clas?
familiar conflicts of class society. sical Middle East and Mediterranean where con?
To return to the second component of ex? trol over female sexuality was important for
ploitation and stratification, it is in conjunc? the inheritance of status and property. In his
tion with the above developments that a public/ view, the family as an economic unit was of
private dichotomy emerges and dyadic relations primary importance within the upper class al?
of dependence within families as economic units though it had ramifications throughout society.
begin to take shape. Levi-Strauss to the con? It remained for mid-20th century Marxist
trary, in egalitarian societies, women are not feminist scholarship to add a further dimension
exchanged by men; instead they exchange to these ramifications. Female subordination
goods and services with men [29]. Direct ex? within the family as an economic unit also en?
change between the sexes, like single barter, abled an upper class to squeeze more surplus
does not separate either sex from control over from workers, serfs and slaves. The fact that
its own production. Instead, alienation develops domestic work could be separated from a pub?
in tandem with the development of exchange lic sphere and assigned to women as the wards
systems, as individuals use lineage and extended of men assured to an upper class the reproduc?
family units to compete for ranking positions in tion and maintenance of workers through so?
relation to control over the production and cially unremunerated - i.e., slave - labor. This
distribution of valued goods. Gender responsibil? is not to say that the arrangement was thought
ities for marketing and exchange vary according through in advance any more than other major

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270

historical developments of the past. However, between women and men [34]. She has
given the records of women's steady decline in demonstrated the usefulness of separating the
legal and social rights in classical antiquity, it status of women as wives from that as sisters
remains to trace some of the steps whereby the in order to appreciate the extent to which
household subordination of women was but? women exercise publically recognized author?
tressed by ideological and social sanctions as its ity through the manipulation of kin ties in
economic advantages were realized [33]. societies where economic stratification and
All of this, however, pertains to the final gender hierarchy are emerging. Sanday has
stages of women's subordination. The major? stressed the fact that women may protect and
ity of societies with which anthropology deals maintain their public authority well into the
involve the most preliminary stages - points at conditions of stratification, a fact attested to
which women's autonomy began to be threat? by extensive data on West African societies and
ened and a certain hostility between the sexes suggested by the case of ancient Crete [35].
began to be institutionalized, but that were All told, a focus on the above developments
very far indeed from the legal and political and the particularities of their unfolding in
reduction of women to the status of ward that different historical, cultural and environmental
accompanied full-scale stratification. I am sug? contexts, makes clear that changes in women's
gesting that the structure of gender in such so? position are neither secondary phenomena, as
cieties needs to be interpreted in relation to: some imply, nor prior to economic hierarchy,
the structure of exchange and the division of as argued by others. They are at the core of,
labor; the structure of ranking and the degree and inseparable from, profound transforma?
to which some sections of the society are gain? tions that take place in conjunction with the
ing control over the labor of others; the struc? development of exchange and the division of
ture of kinship and the extent to which line? labor.
ages have become competing sodalities rather The social and economic subordination of
than the means for organizing production and women was established in some parts of the
distribution in communal villages; the degree world millenia ago; it was unfolding in other
to which the well-being of one segment of parts of'the world at the time of European
a society is not merely relative but is actually exploration and conquest; and it has been
at the expense of other segments; and, in the developing in yet others in the context of
light of all this, the structure of marriage in Western colonialism and imperialism [36]. I
relation to control over children as exploitable am here arguing that in order to interpret this
labor or as exploiters of labor. development correctly, it is essential, first: to
In what are called ranking societies, women's have a clear concept of primitive communism,
position begins to shift from valued people divested of stereotypical assumptions that
who cement networks of reciprocal relations female subordination is a natural rather than
and who have access to various publically rec? historical phenomenon, and second: to place
ognized mechanisms for adjudicating their in? any society under study clearly in the context
terests as women, into that of service workers of its particular history, pre- and post-colonial.
in the households of husbands and their kin I now return to the second point.
groups. Bride wealth begins to take the form
of purchasing a woman's children, rather than THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF ANTHROPOLOGI?
of gift exchange. Sacks has explored the rela? CAL ANALYSIS
tion of such developments to the emergence
of status difference among women as well as The actual people contemporary anthropol

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 271

ogists study are not autonomous gatherer areas, especially along the Gulf of Mexico and
hunters or horticulturists or whatever. In one the northern Pacific, but the vast majority of
way or another the relations of capitalism have native North Americans had retained egalitar?
impinged upon them for a long time. Whatever ian socio-economic structures. The Iroquois are
the specific nature of a people's involvement the best known example of the gender equality
with capitalism, the ultimate direction of common in North America, and, contrary to
change is the same: the individualization and the opinion of Levi-Strauss [39], are not an
alienation of labor, the individualization of the anomaly. Instead, they afford a well-docu?
nuclear family, and the relegation of women mented example of the economic and political
both to unrecompensed domestic labor and to reciprocity that accompanied the matrilineal
public labor as an unstable and underpaid work matrilocal organization widespread among
force. People lose what control over the pro? North American horticulturalists [40].
cess and products of their labor they previously Among hunting-gathering peoples, the Inuit
had, and their labor itself becomes increasingly (Eskimo) are commonly cited as an example of
transformed into a commodity to be bought, if masculine brutality toward women in an other?
not outright commandeered. The responsibility wise egalitarian society, an example seemingly
for rearing the new generation is progressively paralleled by accounts of female subordination
transferred from some larger kin or band among the Chipewyan [41 ]. However, ethno?
grouping to individual families. Idealized by graphic accounts of women's indepedence and
missionary teachings as loving care for husband assertiveness among the Inuit indicate that
and children, women's labor in the household ethnohistorical analysis, long overdue, will re?
becomes for all practical purposes a gift to the veal the latter-day character of male abusive
plantation or mine owner, manufacturer or ness as following from the demoralization and
trader, who draws profits from the work of drunkenness suffered in many Inuit communi?
husbands and sons and then buys women's ad? ties [42]. As for the Chipewyan case, it is
ditional labor at a marginal price [37]. based on an account of middlemen in the fur
Untidy details like plantation labor and com? trade, the "gang" that collected around an un?
mercial transactions have too commonly been usually dedicated worker for the Hudson's Bay
ignored when data on so-called traditional so? Company, and not on independent Chipewyan
cieties are codified and punched on IBM cards hunters. The quality of relations therein de?
for cross-cultural comparison. Not surprisingly, scribed contrasts sharply with the 17th century
a recent analysis concludes that there are no Jesuit accounts of gender equality among the
consistent correlations between women's posi? Montagnais-Naskapi [43].
tion in a society and other factors [38]. Luck?
ily, however, ethnohistorical and archaeological Australia
reconstruction of pre-colonial and colonial
culture histories is proceeding apace, and it is Aboriginal Australia has furnished ample
possible to throw light on puzzling cases where grounds for arguments that male dominance is
there seems to be little relation between female a psychosocial or psychobiological universal
subordination and economic inequality. rather than an historical development. Male
I have already made reference to North control of women's marriage, male inheritance
America, which, north of Mexico, constitutes of land, virilocal residence, male brutality to?
the largest world area that was inhabited by wards women, and male exclusion of women
egalitarian peoples at the time of European from important rituals in a non-stratified soci?
expansion. Ranking was elaborated in coastal ety form an imposing package and have been

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272

documented again and again. To be sure, data of the present. One cannot talk of men hitting
modifying these generalizations are beginning women as if apart from a pattern of frontier
to assert themselves. Older women have a say violence where demoralization is compounded
in marriages along with older men, while young by alcohol [47].
men, like young women, have little say. Just as Second, it is - or should be - inexcusable to
young women are commonly married the first analyse land rights in Australia without consider?
time to elder men, so are young men often ing the impact of forced movements away from
married to elder women. Women have clubs coastal areas and the resulting land pressure in
with which they not only defend themselves, interior regions to which many Aborigines fled.
but with which they beat men for misbe? Some early meetings between Europeans and
havior; they are not cowed by men. Further? Australians were friendly, but the Europeans
more, if wrongfully hit, a woman may simply were over-ready to use their guns, and apparent?
leave, or may take up residence in the women's ly the Australians sometimes retaliated with the
section of the camp, taboo to men. Women unambiguous act of treating their foes as food.
are important in the conduct of some male For the most part, therefore, early explorers
rituals, and are indifferent to their exclusion from Europe were glad to leave the Australians
from others; their own, from which men are alone, once it was decided that there was no
excluded, hold more interest for them [44]. ready gold or other easy wealth on their lands.
Tindale has pointed out that among the Pit Then the arrival of the first merino sheep in New
jandara of western Australia, women call male South Wales in 1797 was followed in 1813 by
rituals to a close if they find themselves walking the discovery, west of the Blue Mountains, of
too far for food and wish to move camp [45]. the immense grasslands that were to make
Bell worked in a north-central Australian settle? Australia the largest producer of fine wool in the
ment where "the maintenance of law and order world [48]. The push was on. The rich south?
... is still a co-operative venture between men east, where 400 to 600 people were wont to
and women who turn to each other for assist? gather at certain seasons to socialize and live on
ance on some issues and assert their indepen? seafood and crayfish, was soon depopulated of
dent rights on others [46]. Aborigines. Some were killed, some moved west,
However, while such data qualify the picture and a few married into the white community.
of male dominance claimed for Australian The herders too pushed west, enslaving the
gatherer-hunters, the historical setting in which Aborigines, or pressing them into labor, and
20th century Aboriginal society has been func? brutally suppressing their resistance [49].
tioning must be understood if this image is to Driven westward and inland, away from expand?
be contradicted in its entirety. First and fore? ing centers of white settlement and onto each
most, not to evaluate the effects of the brutal other's traditional homelands, different peoples
genocide native Australians have suffered is as turned against each other, fighting and quarel
unscientific as it is unethical. Brutality against ling. As among native Americans, the recogni?
native Australians has been practiced from the tion of a common identity as Aborigines, with a
earliest forays by Malays; to the sporadic ex? common history and common struggle, took
plorations by Europeans and the 1788 convict time to emerge. White Australians of course
settlement at what is now Sydney; through the took advantage of and exacerbated divisiveness
steady encroachment on Australian lands and among the Aborigines, favoring "pacified"
the accompanying shooting, poisoning, beating groups and using them to enslave or control
and enslaving, along with disastrous disease; others.
into the brutal policing and racist restrictions The demoralization found among displaced

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 273

Aboriginal survivors is documented by Daisy With respect to relations between the sexes,
Bates, who over a period of some forty years when one scrapes the surface of ethnohistorical
publicized the Aboriginal condition from her materials, one finds suggestions of women's
isolated camp in South Australia [50]. Despite former importance, such as Howitt's reference
the patronization and misinterpretations of her to influential elder women in southeastern
account, many incidents she reports parallel the Australia. Only recently, however, have these
macabre bitterness of collective suicide de? begun to be followed up [55]. As long ago as a
scribed by Turnbull for the Ik [51 ]. A particu? hundred years, Spencer and Gillin note a three
larly bizarre scene ensues when Bates accompa? day women's section of an initiation ceremony
nied Radcliffe-Brown to the grim hospital island among the Arunta and comment that "there was
where sick and fearful Aborigines, separated a time when women played a more important
from their own people, are taken only to die. part in regard to such ceremonies than they do
She describes Radcliffe-Brown asking the old at the present time" [56]. Unfortunately, they
men to sing ritual songs into his phonograph and give no further information except that they
playing them Tannhauser and Egmont in return personally find the ceremony boring. In his re?
[52]. cently republished Australian Religion, Mircea
By the 20th century, disease and genocide in Eliade makes ample reference to male high gods,
its various forms had reduced an estimated but nowhere mentions the important mythologi?
300,000 or more people of aboriginal Australia cal personage who keeps reappearing in the
to less than 40,000 [53]. By mid-century, with pages of Spencer and Gillin, the female Sun.
the "stabilization" of native reserves, and the Eliade writes that initiation for Australian girls
dispensation of minimal food supplies and medi? is simpler than for boys, and flatly contradicts
cal care by government or mission stations, the ethnographic fact by stating, "as everywhere in
Aboriginal.population began to rise again. Ritual the world" [57].
life, too, began to revive and expand, although Hart and Pilling raise the need for ethno?
serving a new function as a focus for the asser? historical work in their account of the Tiwi
tion of identity and self-respect by a people [58]. They describe how missionary influences
robbed of their independence. Anthropologists as well as prostitution encouraged male control
also expanded in numbers, typically wishing to over women's sexuality in the early 20th cen?
study the lives of pristine hunter-gatherers. They tury, and then go on to consider earlier influ?
usually took care to interview people living a ences on the politics of wife-trading. Archival
distance from mission stations or cattle ranches, research is needed, they write, to determine the
rather than the service workers directly attached extent of slave raiding by the Portuguese in the
to such enterprises. Seldom, however, did they 18th century. Since it was probably the younger
inquire deeply into a people's history, nor even men who were taken off to Timor, they suggest
inquire about existing official regulations for the slaving may have encouraged the dominance
Aborigines, such as those that prohibit marriage of old Tiwi men and their monopolization of
off of a reserve [54]. wives.
The point should be clear. To ignore the
historical, economic, and political realities of The Amazon
Aboriginal life is to gloss over the effects of con?
quest and oppression, and therefore to miscon? Lowland South America is another area where
strue the social relations that obtained when male dominance is said to characterize otherwise
Aborigines were autonomous gatherers and egalitarian societies, and where the constant
hunters in control of their own social world. threat of warfare is considered intrinsic to a

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274

slash-and-burn economy. Ecologically oriented 3. The 18th and 19th century stabilization
studies of this area see male aggressiveness and of a coastal plantation economy based primar?
male dominance as "adaptive" traits. A con? ily on African slaves, when the people of the
sideration of the last half millenium of Amazon? Amazon interior were allowed a respite, and a
ian history, however, suggests that insofar as century or so of relative autonomy. The period
such behaviors exist, they are "adaptive" in? of time involved and the degree of autonomy
stead to the conditions of colonization. In brief from developing capitalism varied from place
outline, recent Amazonian history falls into to place, but, by and large, Amazonian peoples
five periods: were free to restructure their own cultures.
1. Late precolonial times, when Amazonian 4. The rubber boom of the late 19th and
waterways were spotted with often sizable early 20th centuries, when an end was brought
towns that engaged in considerable trade, some to this interlude. Until rubber plantations were
of it with the Inca. In some areas peoples were developed in Malaysia, Indians were both wil?
apparently organized into chiefdoms. Ranking lingly and unwillingly - sometimes brutally -
was probably well established in others. pressed into service collecting latex. Chicle,
2. The 16th, 17th and early 18th centuries, hardwoods, skins, sarsaparilla and other forest
when Amazonian societies were enormously products were also sought at this time [61].
disrupted by: new and devastating diseases; the 5. The modern period of genocide against
decimation or enslavement of coastal peoples, the peoples of the Amazon, which has involved
some of whom fled into the interior; the con? renewed massacre and poisoning, the spread of
quest and "pacifying" of some groups who disease, the preemption of lands, and the de?
were then employed to fight others; the buy? struction of the forests themselves. The Inter?
ing of slaves from native peoples; and mission national Work Group for Indigenous Affairs,
settlements that exploited the labor of the the Anthropological Resource Center, and
Indians and made them vulnerable to the at? Cultural Survival have all published informat
tacks of slave raiders. Forays penetrated deep tion on the seriousness of the situation as high?
into the interior; there are references to as ways penetrate deep into the interior to enable
many as 3000 "tame Indians" accompanying settlement and to assist the multinational ex?
Portuguese soldiers into the Xingu River re? ploitation of mineral and forest wealth [62].
gion [59]. Yet, as the foregoing shows, this is not the
The "adaptiveness" of warfare at this time first threat to Amazonian peoples: "pristine
is suggested by a reference to the Tacunyape of natives," who have "never seen a white man,"
the lower and middle Xingu, who were "con? may have had forebears who fought off slavers
sidered the most tractable Indians of the entire or whose parents were captured into slavery
region." or prostitution.
The popularization of the much studied
They received the Jesuits courteously; the chiefs and Yanomam? as "the fierce people" serves the
people were sent to meet them and made them sit in beauti? grim purpose of rationalizing the threathened
ful hammocks. They were industrious, honest, and intelli?
destruction of Amazonian peoples. Both the
gent. It is noteworthy that, while other tribes were con?
tinuously at war with one another, the Tacunyape were people and the vast forests - their luxurious
permanently at peace [60]. ness belying the fragility of the ecosystem that
supports them ? have been defined as expend?
Apparently the Tacunyape thrived in the pre? able by 20th century versions of "the only
colonial Amazon. Soon after "contact," how? good Indian is a dead Indian" [63]. The cover
ever; they disappeared as a people. caption on a brochure advertising one of Time

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 275

Life's lavishly illustrated The World's Far by her own children, her sons- and daughters-in-law, her
Places series reads: MEET THE CANNIBAL grand-children, and her nieces and nephews. Much concern

WARRIORS OF THE AMAZON'S GREEN is shown for such a woman's comfort and well-being [68].

HELL. This is the media image of a people Supporting evidence of the distortion in
estimated as numbering a million and a half Chagnon's ethnography is offered by a study
in the 16th century, now reduced to below of another Yanoama group studied by Ramos,
75,000. as well as by new data on egalitarian horticul?
The Yanomam? themselves perhaps first turists in Ecuador [69]. Given the ambiguities
gained their reputation for fierceness when in the Yanoama data, along with Chagnon's
they fought off a Spanish exploring party in failure to deal with the historical and political
1758. Hence they were spared the entradas ex? realities of their situation, it is both bad science
perienced by neighboring tribes such as the and reactionary politics to cite the Yanomam?
Maquiritare who were victimized in 1775 [64]. as an example of arrant male aggressiveness and
A geographer, William Smole, studied Yanoama dominance among a virtually pristine egalitar?
groups living in a highland area, where they ian people [70]. In the tropical forests of low?
"were spared the devastation inflicted on many land South America, as elsewhere, the artificial?
lowland tribes by the rubber and chicle com? ity of the "ethnographic present" must be rec?
merce of the late 19th and early 20th centu? ognized before generalizations can be made
ries," and he did not find the emphasis on a about a culture area.
fierce stance reported by Chagnon [65]. Smole
suggests that "perhaps frustration and insecur?
Melanesia
ity lead men in such places [the vulnerable low?
lands] to take drugs freely and frequently, and Nowhere is the failure to treat women's op?
also help explain-why they would want to be pression historically, as a relationship that
fierce" [66]. In Smole's view, lowland Yano? developed along with changes in production re?
ama are not representative of Yanoama culture. lations, more evident than in Melanesia. Es?
With respect to Yanoama women, Smole's pecially in highland New Guinea, "male domi?
report contrasts with the male orientation, nance" has been commonly taken for granted
male dominance, and female infanticide re? as a given of the human condition whose varia?
ported by Chagnon. Smole found that matri tions in supposedly egalitarian societies are to
locality occurred as well as patrilocality, and be analysed in functionalist or structuralist
that sibling groups of men and women and rather than historical terms. Contradicting such
their mates typically formed the core of a teri. a view, however, is the fact that intensive work
He also found a slight excess of females over on lands, extensive trade networks, and incipi?
males despite the fact that attractive girls were ent economic stratification are all old in the
often hidden from foreigners. He did not find area. Intensive work on lands, with irrigation
much woman capture, and older women, like and drainage ditches, dates back as far as 350
older men, were influential people, while BC in highland New Guinea, and agricultural
young men, like young women, had little influ? intensity shows a clear correlation with privat?
ence. Decisions were arrived at through discus? ized land tenure [71 ]. The importance of trade
sion, and "mature wives and sisters often speak in New Guinea is well documented. It has led
up, loudly, to express their views" [67]. There to specialization in many areas and money
were widowed matriarchs (Smole's term) in forms are common. However, the relationship
two of the teri Smole visited; each was an between interior trading networks and coastal
trade, including that with Malays and Chinese
old, highly respected woman, whose needs are met fully
in earlier periods, and later with Europeans, is

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276

little studied, and its effect on the privatization to them, and in the publicly recognized chan?
of access to important resources, the crystal? nels through which they make their wishes
lization of control over labor and its products, known and adjudicate disputes. In Marx's and
and the development of a semi-dependent Engels' terms, the transformation of goods into
"rubbish man" status, need exploration. Mali commodities through developing specialization
nowski's paradoxically non-functionalist posi? and trade had begun indepedently in New
tion, inaugurated in the name of functionalism, Guinea, and along with the investment of labor
needs thorough revamping. Malinowski re? in land, was ending the unity among produc?
ported many years ago that Trobianders traded tion, distribution, exchange, and consumption;
half of what they produced, but that this had and, concomitantly, creating economic distinc?
little effect on Trobriand socio-economic orga? tions among people, separating individual
nization. "Nowadays this surplus is exported households from larger collectives, and privat?
by Europeans to feed plantation hands in other izing women's labor. However, an emphasis
parts of New Guinea," he wrote, but "in older must be placed on "had begun"; the process of
days it was simply allowed to rot" [72]. stratificiation is only getting underway, and
It is not in the context of egalitarian society, interpersonal relations, including gender rela?
therefore, that the structure of gender relations tions, are far from those of hierarchical society.
in New Guinea is to be interpreted. Instead, it In addition there are considerable variations
is in the context of women's loss of control from one New Guinea culture to another, as
over their garden produce via the exchange by first stressed by Margaret Mead [ 73 ]. The im?
men of the pigs women have raised, in societies portant social and economic role Weiner dis?
where access to prime lands is not equally open covered women to hold in Trobriand society,
to everyone, where trade and related warfare where Malinowski had already noted their high
are important, and where a nascent class of status, contrasts with accounts of many high?
"garbage" men, reduced to service status, is land societies [74]. Comparative data, the
growing. Indeed, such a situation tallies with stuff of historical analysis in the Boasian tradi?
the institutionalized sex hositility reported for tion, suggest that gender relations are friendlier
the area, for men are not socialized into an and women's position better in more communal?
easy conviction of innate superiority over ly organized societies where women control the
women, but instead, with bombastic uneasi? products of their labor [75].
ness, assert a right to authority over them. Men A complete historical analysis of gender rela?
admit a fear of women, and men's ritualized tions in highland New Guinea (where cultures
assertion of a right to control women may take as studied have been considered virtually pristine
extreme forms, including the threat of murder. must take yet another dimension into account
Women in New Guinea respond to male as ? the trauma of conquest. Here, as elsewhere,
sertiveness according to the situation and the the term "pacification" masks the fact that the
specific cultural tradition with varying degrees first effect of colonization was not to enforce
of compliance, defiance, ridicule, or open anger peace but to generate more inter-tribal conflict
and counter-violence, by contrast with the [76]. Given the fact that competition among
deference behind which women operate in men is so closely related to attempts to increase
patriarchal societies where female oppression is authority over women in highland New Guinea,
firmly codified. Furthermore, research fo some attempt should be made while it is still
cussed on women's own perceptions and han? possible to collect life histories and other
dling of their situation reveals a wide range in materials that throw light on recent directions
the social and economic prerogatives available of change. The fear, hostility, and new forms

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 277

of competition generated by conquest are able influence as they grow older, it can
typically turned inward. To what extent may only be exercised in the familial, private
they have escalated a male consciousness of fe? domain. Extensive data attest to these "facts,"
male autonomy as a threat, and hence men's embodied in neatly formulated functional
emotional investment in ritual and ideological analyses of "tribal" African societies existing in
elaborations on the desirability and propriety a timeless land, outside of history.
of women's subordination? However, Boserup's important work on
women and development along with subse?
Africa quent research have demonstrated that wom?
en's position relative to that of men deterio?
The treatment of sub-Saharan African rated sharply with colonialism. Economic and
cultures as existing apart from their colonial political policies undercut women's economic
history has, of course, come in for severe roles as farmers and merchants, abrogated their
criticism, especially from Third World scholars land rights, pushed them out of the public
[77]. Although the seminal work of W.E.B. sector of the economy, and lowered their jural
DuBois [78] on African history is scarcely status [79]. Meanwhile, ethnographic and
recognized by anthropologists, the research he ethnohistorical work on women in African
inspired in a now senior generation has estab? societies is documenting the widespread gender
lished the depth and variety of myriad local reciprocity that characterized economic and
histories, pre- and post-colonial, that underlie political life [80]. Women commonly served
contemporary cultures. In West Africa, politi? on clan, village, and regional councils, some?
cal and economic centers have been growing in times paralleling male councils, sometimes
size and complexity for some 2000 years, as meeting jointly, and both women and men held
individual kingdoms have risen and fallen chiefly and royal office. Women also had their
according to shifting focal points for the own organizations to protect their interests,
production and trade of gold, salt, and other regulate their work and marketing activities,
raw materials, of slaves, and of varied manu? negotiate social concerns such as marriage,
factured goods. In East Africa, archaeological cooperate with men in the carrying out of
work is linking up with ethnohistory to recon? mutual responsibilities, and mediate disputes
struct developments associated with the coastal with men or with each other. The range of
trading ports and interior urban centers, and interests with which such organizations dealt is
with the events that followed the burning of exemplified by the famous Ibo women's
the seaports by the Portuguese and the subse? demonstrations of the 1920s. The primary
quent European invasion and settlement. issue was the threat of a British-imposed
Nonetheless it will take a long time to sort market tax, but the women also made other
out the new, the old, and the non-existent in demands; one was that their right to have
monographic materials purportedly recon? lovers be respected, a traditional right that was
structing the "ethnographic present" of the being challenged by missionary teachings [81].
late 19th and early 20th centuries. Generaliza? It is in the context of a reconstructed pre
tions about women's position based on these colonial Africa, therefore, that the process
data tend to run as follows: While women whereby women's autonomy is undermined by
usually have a higher status in matrilineal than the emergence of commodity production and the
in patrilineal (and often cattleraising) societies, exploitation of labor must be analysed. Sacks
they are still under male authority - that of has demonstrated the importance of separating
their fathers and brothers rather than their women's roles as wives from those as sisters for
husbands. Although they may gain consider the purpose of such analysis [82]. As wives,

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278

women's work threatens to be subverted from fication emerged as the contradiction sharpen?
public to private, but, as sisters, women operate ed between egalitarian organization and the
as equals with men in the kinship networks that potentialities offered by exchange and special?
resist the emergence of an upper class. (Gailey ization of labor beyond that by sex. Instead of
has also applied the distinction to Tongan historymaking a distinction between horticultural
in her analysis of relations among gender and class societies that are egalitarian and those that are
hierarchies and emergent state organization [83].) ranking or becoming stratified, most writers on
The African data show that, although initial modes of production lump both into a "lineage"
steps in commodity production and the exploita? or other such mode in which women are con?
tion of labor undermine women's autonomy, they trolled and exploited by men. When exploita?
by no means automatically destroy it. The recip? tion is taken as a given in this manner, it is im?
rocal structure of gender relations in African so? possible to define the critical steps whereby, as
cieties, with defined prerogatives and responsibili? use value is transformed into value, concrete
ties for women and men in both public and fam? work is transformed into abstract - hence
ily spheres, persisted until class relations reduced exploitable ? labor. Paradoxically, despite
kin relations to a completely secondary role as in Terray's important contribution to the project
later Moslem states. Then only royal women, in of delineating production modes in pre?
cases where class transcended gender, retained capitalist societies, his discussion of Gyaman
full public authority. economy serves to exemplify this problem.
West African material on trade and state forma? Terray has argued that there has been an
tion have played an important part in Marxist over-emphasis on trade and an under-emphasis
writings on pre-capitalist modes of production, on the exploitation of captive slave labor in
but data such as the above on African women are analyses of state formation in Africa [86], and
usually ignored in these analyses [84]. Given I would certainly agree that state forms arise
Engels' focus on the relationship between the to control subject labor and not simply to con?
development of commodity production and trol and tax trade. I disagree, however, when
urban stratified state society on the one hand, Terray separates the initial development of ex?
and the subjugation of women on the other, this ploitation itself from the development of trade
state of affairs is ironic indeed. Yet is is consistent and production for exchange. Terray does see
with the general practice in anthropology of dis? long-distance trade as leading to "the introduc?
counting Engels' work on women, especially his tion of slave-type relations of production into
discussion of gender equity in primitive commun? social formations dominated until then by the
ist society, and with the acceptance, among Marx? kin-based mode of production." However, in
ists trained in the structuralist tradition, of Levi his view, exploitation is already present in the
Strauss on universal woman exchange. Even Meil kin-based mode which is "accompanied in
lasoux, who takes issue with Levi-Strauss with re? mature cases by simple domestic slavery" [87].
spect to woman exchange among gatherer As he has described it for the Abron Kingdom
hunters, agrees with him on the near universality of Gyaman, in a "lineage" mode, women and
of woman exchange and exploitation by men youth were exploited as classes and performed
among horticulturalists [85]. Apparently ignor? an unequal share of work in agriculture, animal
ant of ethnohistorical and ethnographic data on husbandry and handicrafts, while the surplus
North American horticulturalists generally, both was appropriated by male elders. The lineage
see an Iroquois type of society as non-viable and mode, and the exploitation it subsumed, ex?
short-lived, rather than as representative of the isted prior to but was eventually dominated by
base-line from which ranking and eventual strati a slave mode, based on captive laborers who

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 279

mined gold, farmed, and transported merchan? Terray reports that captive labor was used in
dise for either the royalty and aristocracy, or the lineage as well as in the slave mode. How?
for merchants [88]. ever, in keeping with the artificiality that can
Neither in his analysis of the Abron, nor in accompany the attempt to define separate
his prior discussion of Meillassoux's work on "modes" within one "formation," he considers
the lineage-based Guro and the exploitation of the captive laborers who worked as domestic
women among them, does Terray seek an eco? slaves, and could be likened to perpetual
nomic basis for the loss of control by pro? youths, quite unrelated to the captives in the
ducers over the outcome of their work. In slave mode who worked for the aristocracy and
keeping with the French structuralist school, merchants. He observes that over the genera?
Terray apparently feels that men's exploitation tions slaves pass into the peasant communities,
of women as "producers of producers" needs but he does not raise the question whether
no explanation. He comes close to examining there is a structural connection between the
the process whereby women's control over alienated work of youths, fictive and actual,
their production and reproduction is threat? and that of slaves, "domestic" and otherwise
ened by developing commodity exchange when [92]. Nor does he deal in a systematic way
he discusses the circulation of important goods with urban-rural relations. Although his de?
by Guro elders, through the bride wealth that scription reveals the close connections between
ensures to a lineage a woman's labor and her the rural hinterlands characterized by a lineage
children. Yet, instead of examining the extent mode and urban centers based on commodity
of trade in Guro society, and its economic and production and slavery, Terray bypasses con?
social ramifications, Terray simply takes ex? sideration of the extent to which the latter
ploitation to be a characteristic of almost all must have affected the former. Or, to look at
"traditional" societies [89]. the matter in another light, it is as if the Abron
In his analysis of the Abron kingdom, how? kingdom did not have to have an initial base
ever, Terray supplies information contradicting in towns where trade and some degree of
his assumption that the exploitation of women specialization had not long been transforming
and youth in a lineage mode had no relations a prior egalitarianism.
to the exploitation of captives in a slave mode. Terray's failure to deal with rural-urban
First, he makes clear that there is no historical variations within a slave mode ? or within
material on a lineage mode independent of a what Amin has usefully categorized as tribut?
slave mode in Abron culture ? quite the con? ary [93] ? leads to ambiguities in his state?
trary. The Abron kingdom was founded in the ments concerning the purposes of production.
late 17th century, and "as far back as we can He writes that "ostentatious hoarding" is the
go in Abron history," Terray writes, "we find "ultimate goal of all production," yet he de?
traces of a political superstructure that cannot scribes the luxurious living and the power en?
be related to the lineage mode of production" joyed by the royalty, high ranking nobles and
[90]. Second, Terray indicates that "youth" chiefs who were supported by slave production
was not just an age category, but was a rank as of subsistence goods as well as luxury items for
well. Elders were not determined by age, but use and trade [94]. Perhaps ostentatious
by control over prestige goods. Not all youth hoarding pertained less to the conspicuous con?
enjoyed "progressive emancipation" as they sumption of the urban upper classes than to
grew older, but unfortunately Terray does not local chiefs. They benefitted from fines, com?
give information on the proportion of men who missions on market sales and butchered ani?
remained "perpetual youth" [91]. Third, mals, and access to gold and to labor, but prob

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280

ably had to maintain a facade of reciprocity separable from initial steps in the transforma?
and demonstrate an ability to provide for fol? tion of use to value, work to abstract labor,
lowers. Terray does not locate his analysis in and cooperative production to exploitation.
a time frame and differentiate recent from eth An effective theory of exchange is necessary
nohistorical data, so one can only guess about both for analysing pre-capitalist societies and
such matters from the information he supplies. for interpreting the effects on these societies of
Furthermore (and a serious weakness in rela? colonization and imperialism. Only when the
tion to the thrust of his analysis) he is strangely genders in primitive communist societies are
silent on the nature and extent of the changes understood as economically independent ex?
in Abron society brought about by the mas? changers of goods and services, can the full
sive demand of European slavers for captive force of capitalist relations in subverting the
labor prior to and following the founding of labor of women, and therefore transforming
the Abron kingdom. the entire structure of relationships in such so?
With respect to the exploitation of women cieties, be appreciated. Until such time, the
among the Abron, although they were apparent? myth of the ethnographic present will continue
ly becoming alienated from control over the to support the assumption, so prevalent in pop
produce of their work, the process was far science and the mass media, that the wide?
from complete. Women apparently had their spread normative ideal of men as household
areas of publicly recognized responsibilities, heads who provision dependent women and
for they had their own organizations to regu? children reflects some human need or drive.
late their affairs, and they enjoyed "a relative And until such time, the unique and valued
autonomy" with respect to their work [95]. culture history and tradition of each Third
World people will continue to be distorted,
CONCLUSION twisted to fit the interests of capitalist ex?
ploitation.
Across the disciplines, research on the eco?
nomic and social activities of women has been
NOTES
shaking up some established assumptions about
society and history. I have argued that only 1 This article is based on a paper originally given at the
when gender hierarchy is taken as an historical 1976 meetings of the American Anthropological Associ?
ation. For valuable critical suggestions I am indebted to
problematic, rather than a psycho-biological
Mona Etienne, Stanley Diamond, and Renee Llanusa
given, can the structure of primitive communist Cestero.
relations be properly understood, and the part 2 William Duncan Strong, "From History to Prehistory in
played by exchange in the transformation of the Northern Great Plains," in Essays in Historical An?
thropology in North America, Smithsonian Miscellaneous
these relations clearly formulated. The need for Collections, Vol. 100,1940. Preston Holder, The Role of
an effective theory of exchange in pre-capitalist the Caddoan Horticulturalists in Culture History on the
societies is well recognized by Marxist anthro? Great Plains (1951); Joseph Jablow, The Cheyenne in
Plains Indian Trade Relations 1795-1840 (1950); Oscar
pologists [96], but ironically it is associated,
Lewis, The Effects of White Contact Upon Blackfoot Cul?
especially for those working in the structuralist ture, with Special Reference to the Role of the Fur Trade
tradition, with the wholly anti-Marxist concept (1942); Frank Secoy,i4 Functionalist-Historical View of
Plains Indian Warfare: The Process of Change from the
of woman exchange as basic in primitive com?
17th to the Early 19th Century (1951).
munist society. Only when such a formulation 3 Helen F. Codere, Fighting with Property: A Study of
is stringently challenged can the first phases of Kwakiutl Potlatching and Warfare, 1792-1930 (1950);
the process whereby women actually became Faron, L.C., The Acculturation of the Araucanian
Picunche during the First Century of Spanish Coloniza?
exchanged be understood, for these were in tion in Chile: 1536-1635 (1954); Ernestine Friedl, An

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 281

Attempt at Directed Culture Change; Leadership among 18 Karl Marx, The Grundrisse, ed. and trans, by David Mc
the Chippewa, 1640-1948 (1950); Eleanor Leacock, Lellan (New York: Harper and Row, 1972), p. 33.
The Montagnais-Naskapi "Hunting Territory"and the Fur 19 Eleanor Leacock, "The Naskapi Band," in David Damas
Trade (1952); Elman R. Service, Spanish-Guarani Accul? ed., Proceedings of the Conference on Band Organization,
turation in Early Colonial Paraguay: The Encomienda National Museums of Canada Bulletin 228, 1969, pp.
from 1537-1620 (1950); Joyce A. Wike, The Effect of 3-4; "The Structure of Band Society," Reviews in
the Maritime Fur Trade on Northwestern Coast Indian Anthropology, Vol. 1, No. 2 (1974), p. 219.
Society (1951); William S. Willis, Colonial Conflict and 20 Karl Marx, "Theses on Feuerbach," in Frederick Engels,
the Cherokee Indians 1710-1760 (1955). Ludwig Feuerbach (New York: International Publishers,
4 David Agee Hon, ed. American Indian Ethnohistory, 118 1935), p. 75.
Vols. (New York: Garland, 1974). 21 E.g., Karl Marx in "The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis
5 A.L. Kroeber, "Nature of the Land-Holding Group," Bonaparte," in Howard Selsam, David Goldway and
Ethnohistory, Vol. 2, No. 5 (Fall, 1955), pp. 303-314. Harry Martel, eds. Dynamics of Social Change, A Reader
6 Morton H. Fried, The Notion of Tribe (Menlo Park, in Marxist Social Science (New York: International Pub?
California: Cummings, 1975). lishers, 1970), p. 67; Friedrich Engels, Letter to J. Bloch,
7 Kroeber, op. cit., 1955, p. 313. in Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Correspondence
8 Ibid., p. 304. 1846-1895 (New York: International Publishers, 1936),
9 Ibid., p. 313. p. 475.
10 Eleanor Leacock, "Ethnohistorical Investigation of 22 Karl Marx, op. cit.ti 1972, p. 34.
Egalitarian Politics in Eastern North America," Proceed? 23 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The German Ideology
ings of the 1979 Meeting of the American Ethnological (New York: International Publishers, 1939), p. 13.
Society, Forthcoming. 24 For an excellent discussion of the levels of integration
11 Eleanor Burke Leacock and Nancy Oestreich Lurie, eds., concept as an essential component of dialectical mate?
North American Indians in Historical Perspective (New rialism, see Hans Freistadt, "Dialectical Materialism: A
York: Random House, 1971). Friendly Interpretation," Philosophy of Science, Vol. 23,
12 John Phillip Reid, A Law of Blood, The Primitive Law (1956) , pp. 97-110 and "Dialectical Materialism: A
of the Cherokee Nation (New York: New York University Further Discussion," Philosophy of Science, Vol. 24
Press, 1970). (1957) , pp. 25-40. Also see Eleanor Leacock, "Behavior,
13 Joseph F. Lafitau, "Moeurs des sauvages Ameriquaines, Biology and Anthropological Theory," in Gary Greenberg
comparees aux moeurs des premiers temps," cited in and Ethel Tobach, eds., Evolution, Behavior and Levels,
Judith K. Brown, "Iroquois Women: An Ethnohistoric Proceedings of the First Biennial T.C Schneirla Confer?
Note," in Rayna R. Reiter, ed., Towards an Anthropol? ence (Lawrence Erlbaum, forthcoming).
ogy of Women (New York: Monthly Review Press, 25 Edward 0. Wilson, Sociobiology, The New Synthesis
1975), p. 238. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1975) p.
14 Lewis Henry Morgan, League of the Ho-De-No-Sau-Nee 562; Charles D. Laughlin, Jr. and Eugene G. d'Aquili,
or Iroquois (New Haven: Human Relations Area Files, Biogenetic Structuralism (New York: Columbia Univer?
1954), Vol. I, p. 315. sity Press, 1974).
15 Quoted in Lucien Carr, "On the Social and Political Posi? 26 Morton H. Fried, The Evolution of Political Society (New
tion of Women among the Huron-Iroquois Tribes," 16th York: Random House, 1967), p. 183.
Annual Report of the Peabody Museum of American 27 Frederick Engels, The Origin of the Family, Private
Archeology and Ethnology, 1883, p. 217. Property and the State (New York: International, 1972),
16 John Wesley Powell, "Wyandot Government: A Short pp. 233-234.
Study of Tribal Society," Annual Reports of the Bureau 28 Morton H. Fried, op. cit., 1967, pp. 183-184.
of American Ethnology Vol. I (Washington DC: Govern? 29 Eleanor Leacock, "Structuralism and Dialectics," in
ment Printing Office, 1880), p. 65. Eleanor Burke Leacock, Myths of Male Dominance, Col?
17 For example, Bruce G. Trigger, in The Huron, Farmers lected Articles on Women Cross-Culturally (New York:
of the North (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Monthly Review, 1981); Janet Siskind, "Kinship and
1969), p. 74, writes that women were not present at Mode of Production," American Anthropologist Vol. 80
village council meetings or general assemblies and that (1978) pp. 860-872.
the focus of a woman's interest "remained within her 30 Although women's status can remain very high well into
family and household." In his monograph, Trigger does the development of class differences as the West African
not discuss the responsibility for allotting land that data have made clear.
Powell ascribes to the women's councils. He speaks of 31 The point explicitly made by Patricia Draper for the
parents as having a say in marriage and makes no mention ! Kung San, in "! Kung Women: Contrasts in Sexual Egal
of Powell's ascription of primary responsibility to women. itarianism in Foraging and Sedentary Contexts," in Rayna
In fact, he does not include Powell's piece in his biblio? R. Reiter, Towards an Anthropology of Women, (New
graphy, although the Wyandot were a Huron group. York: Monthly Review, 1975), and by myself in Eleanor
Leacock, op. cit., 1981, is increasingly being documented.

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282

For example, Frances Dahlberg, ed., Woman the Gatherer translated edition of his The Elementary Structures of
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981); Diane Bell and Kinship (Boston: Beacon Press, 1969) (cf. p. 116 on the
Pam Ditton, Law: The Old and the New: Aboriginal rarity of matrilocality) and a lengthy new preface treating
Women in Central Australia Speak Out (Canberra: Aborig? Crow-Omaha kinship systems, he apparently failed to
inal History, 1980). consult George Peter Murdock's cross-cultural data as
32 The most systematic cross-cultural study of this point to given in Social Structure (New York: MacMillan, 1949).
date, taking off from Engels' classical work, is Karen 41 E.g., Ernestine Friedl, Women and Men, An Anthropol?
Sacks, Sisters and Wives; The Past and Future of Sexual ogist's View (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston,
Equality (Westport, Ct.: Greenwood, 1979). 1975), pp. 42-44; Henry S. Sharp, "The Null Case: The
33 Christine Ward Gailey and Mona Etienne, eds., Women Chipewyan," in Frances Dahlberg, ed., Woman the
and the State in Preindustrial Societies, Anthropological Gatherer (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981);
Perspectives (South Hadley, Mass.: Bergin, Forthcoming). Ronald Cohen, "Comments," Current Anthropology, Vol.
34 Sacks, op. cit., 1979. 19, No. 2 (1978), pp. 257-258.
35 Peggy Reeves Sanday, Female Power and Male Domi? 42 John S. Matthiasson, "Northern Baffin Island Women in
nance, On the Origins of Sexual Inequality (Cambridge, Three Cultural Periods," in Ann McElroy and Carolyn
Eng.: Cambridge University Press, 1981); Ruby Rohrlich Matthiasson,op. cit.., 1979.
Leavitt, "Women in Transition: Crete and Sumer," in 43 Eleanor Leacock, op. cit, 1981, pp. 167-180.
Renate Bridenthal and Claudia Koonz, eds., Becoming 44 Phyllis M. Kaberry, Aboriginal Woman, Sacred and Pro?
Visible, Women in European History (Boston: Houghton fane (London: Routledge, 1939; Ruby Rohrlich-Leavitt,
Mifflin, 1977). Sanday's thoughtful and useful summary Barbara Sykes, and Elizabeth Weatherford, "Aboriginal
and discussion of cross-cultural materials takes a frankly Woman: Male and Female Anthropological Perspectives,"
non-materialist view of the independent determinance of in Rayna R. Reiter, op. cit, 1975; Diane Bell, "Desert
gender ideologies. Furthermore, although she discusses Politics: Choices in the 'Marriage Market'," in Mona
the importance of colonization to the subordination of Etienne and Eleanor Leacock, op. cit, 1980.
women, she does not recognize how important it has been 45 Norman B. Tindale, "The Pitjandjara," in M.G. Bicchieri,
in the history of supposedly near pristine societies such as ed., Hunters and Gatherers Today (New York: Holt,
the Yanomam?, as discussed below. Rinehart and Winston, 1972), pp. 244-245.
36 Mona Etienne and Eleanor Leacock, eds., Women and 46 Diane Bell and Pam Ditton, Law: The Old and the New,
Colonization, Anthropological Perspectives (New York: Aboriginal Women in Central Australia Speak Out (Can?
Praeger, 1980); Ann McElroy and Carolyn Matthiasson, berra: Aboriginal History, 1980), pp. 42-43, 51.
eds., Sex-Roles in Changing Cultures, SUNY Buffalo De? 47 M.C. Hartwig, "Aborigines and Racism: An Historical
partment of Anthropology, Occasional Papers in Anthro? Perspective," and J. Horner, "Brutality and the Aboriginal
pology, No. 1 (1979). McElroy points out, however, that People," in R.S. Stevens, ed., Racism: The Australian Ex?
it is important to recognize that colonialism does not perience (New York: Taplinger, 1972), Volume 2, Black
directly and invariably lower women's status in every in? Versus White.
stance; among some groups of Inuit (Eskimo), for ex? 48 J.H. Parry, Trade and Dominion, The European Overseas
ample, women operated as culture brokers in ways that Empires in the Eighteenth Century (New York: Praeger,
enabled them to retain their previous influence and auto? 1971), p. 268.
nomy or even in some ways enhance it. 49 R.S. Stevens, op. cit, 1972; R.H.W. Reece, Aborigines
37 Helen Safa and Eleanor Leacock, eds., Development and and Colonists (Sydney: Sydney University Press, 1974).
the Sexual Division of Labor, Special Issue Signs, Journal 50 Daisy Bates, The Passing of the Aborigines: A Lifetime
of Women in Culture and Society, Vol. 7, No. 2 (1981). Spent Among the Natives of Australia (London: Murray,
38 Martin King Whyte, The Status of Women in Preindustrial 1938).
Societies (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978); 51 Colin M. Turnbull, The Mountain People (New York:
Eleanor Leacock, "Further Comment on Women's Simon and Schuster, 1972).
Status in Egalitarian Society," Reply to France Dahlberg, 52 Bates,op. cit, 1938, p. 101.
Current Anthropology, Vol. 21, no. 3 (1980). 53 300,000 may well turn out to be a considerable under?
39 Levi-Strauss characterizes the Iroquois as "a culture estimation.
where the maternal principle has been developed in... an 54 J.Horner, op. cit, 1972.
extreme way." Structural Anthropology (New York: 55 Fay Gale, ed., Women's Role in Aboriginal Society (Can?
Basic Books, 1963), p. 72. berra: Institute of Aboriginal Studies, 1974).
40 Levi-Strauss might be forgiven for his lack of know? 56 Baldwin Spencer and F.G. Gillen, The Native Tribes of
ledge of societies where the matrilocal-matrilineal Central Australia (New York: Dover, 1968), p. 443. For
principle is fully documented ethnohistorically, as with a recent treatment of women's ceremonies in Western
many native American societies, but his failure to admit Australia, see Diane Bell, "Women's Business is Hard
of the well known Hopi, for example, in discussing the Work: Central Australian Aboriginal Women's Love Ritu?
fact such systems are "extremely rare" is surprising in? als," Signs, Journal of Women in Culture and Society,
deed. In spite of some up-dates in his bibliography, in the Vol. 7, No. 2 (1981).

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57 Mircea Eliade, Australian Religions, An Introduction 74 Annette B. Weiner, Women of Value, Men of Renown:
(Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1973), p. 116; Alice New Perspectives on Trobriand Exchange (Austin: Uni?
Schlegel and Herbert Barry III, "Adolescent Initiation versity of Texas Press, 1976).
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XVIII, No. 2 (1979). Status for the New Guinea Highland Woman," paper
58 C.W.M. Hart and Arnold Pilling, The Tiwi of North given at the 72nd Annual Meeting of the American An?
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61 Yolanda Murply and Robert F. Murphy, Women of the Press, 1946).
Forest (New York: Columbia University Press, 1974) pp. 79 Ester Boserup, Woman 's Role in Economic Development
22-24; Janet Siskind, To Hunt in the Morning (New (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1970); June Nash,
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62 For information on their publications, too extensive to tion," in Roland J. Liebert and Allen W. Imershein, eds.,
list here, write Anthropology Resource Center, 59 Temple Power, Paradigms, and Community Research (Beverly
Place, Suite 444, Boston, Massachusetts 0211, United Hills, CA: Sage, 1977); Laurel Bosson, "Women in
States; Cultural Survival, Inc., 11 Divinity Ave., Cam? Modernizing Societies," American Ethnologist Vol. II,
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Workgroup for Indigenous Affairs, Fiolstraede 10 DK Lakes and Rivers: Colonization and the Land Rights of
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63 Napoleon Chagnon, Yanomam?: The Fierce People cit., 1980.
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64 William J. Smole, The Yanoama Indians: A Cultural fairs," in La Gvilisation de la Femme dans la Tradition
Geography (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1976), pp. Africaine, Presence Africaine, 1975; Annie M.D. Lebeuf,
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65 Chagnon, op. cit., 1968. African Societies," in Denise Paulme, ed., Women of
66 William Smole, op. cit., 1976, pp. 32, 34. Tropical Africa (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul,
67 Ibid., p. 70; also 40, 72, 94, 236. 1971); Leith Mullings, "Women and Economic Change in
68 Ibid., p. 75. Africa," in N.J. Hafkin and E.G. Bay, eds., Women in
69 Alcida R. Ramos, "On Women's Status in Yanoama So? Africa: Studies in Social and Economic Change (Stanford,
cieties," Current Anthropology Vol. 20, No. 1 (1979); CA: Stanford Univ. Press, 1976); Niara Sudarkasa,
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Dominance," papers given at the 78th Annual Meeting gan Center for Continuing Education of Women, 1976);
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70 Marvin Harris, in the second edition of his text, speaks doms," In Christine Gailey and Mona Etienne, eds., Wom?
of Yanomam? men as "tyrannical with Yanomam? en and State Formation in Pre-industrial Societies (South
women" like "Oriental monarchs with their slaves." Hadley, Mass.: Bergin, in press).
Culture, People, Nature, An Introduction to General An 81 C.K. Meek, Law and Authority in a Nigerian Tribe (Ox?
thropology (New York: Crowell, 1975), p. 399. ford: Oxford University Press, 1937), pp. 201-202.
71 Richard Shutler, Jr. and Mary Elizabeth Shutler, Oceanic 82 Karen Sacks, op. cit.,, 1979.
Prehistory (Menlo Park, Calif.: Cummings, 1975), pp. 51, 83 Christine Ward Gailey and Mona Etienne, op. cit., in
53, 96; Paula Brown and Aaron Podolefsky, "Population press.
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Size in the New Guinea Highlands," Ethnology Vol. XV, proaches to Economic Anthropology (Cornwall: Frank
No. 3 (1976). Cass, 1978).
72 Bronislaw Malinowski, Argonauts of the Western Pacific 85 Claude Meillassoux, Femmes, Greniers and Capitaux
(New York: Dutton, 1961), p. 58. (Paris: Maspero, 1975).
73 Margaret Mead, Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive 86 Emmanuel Terray, "Long-distance Exchange and the
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of Gyaman," Economy and Society, Vol. Ill, No. 3 90 Emmanuel Terray, op. cit., 1975, p. 113.
(1974). 91 Ibid.,pp. 107,110,129.
87 Ibid., p. 339. 92 Ibid., pp. 104,112,120.
88 Emmanuel Terray, "Classes and Class Consciousness in 93 Samir Amin, Class and Nation, Historically and in the
the Abron Kingdom of Gyaman," in Maurice Bloch, ed., Current Crisis (New York: Monthly Review, 1980).
Marxist Analyses and Social Anthropology (New York: 94 Emmanuel Terray, op. cit., 1975, pp. 120-124,131.
Wiley, 1975). 95 Ibid.,p. 106.
89 Emmanuel Terray, Marxism and Primitive Societies (New 96 George Dupre and Pierre Philippe Rey, "Reflections
York: Monthly Review, 1972), pp. 164-167. on the Relevance of a Theory of the History of Ex?
change," in Emmanuel Bloch, op. cit., 1975.

Dialectical Anthropology 7 (1983) 263-284

Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, Amsterdam

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