Foragers: Gender Stratification

Foragers: Gender Stratification • Roughly equal contributions to subsistence by men and women correlates with decreased gender stratification. • As women’s contributions to subsistence becomes differentially high or low, gender stratification increases. • Gender stratification is lower when domestic and public spheres are not clearly distinguished.

Foragers: Public vs. Domestic • Strong differentiation between the home and the outside world is called the domestic-public dichotomy, or the private-public contrast. • The activities of the domestic sphere tend to be performed by women. • The activities of the public sphere tend to be restricted only to men. • Public activities tend to have greater prestige then domestic ones, which promotes gender stratification.

Foragers: Sex-Linked Activities • All cultures have a division of labor based on gender, but the particular tasks assigned to men and women vary from culture to culture. • Almost universally, the greater size, strength and mobility of men has led to their exclusive service in the roles of hunters and warriors. • Lactation and pregnancy also tend to preclude the possibility of women being the primary hunters in foraging societies. • However, these distinctions are very general, and there is always overlap (!Kung San are used as an example).

Foragers: Oldest Human Society • Before 10,000 years ago, all human groups were foragers. • In foraging societies, the public-domestic spheres are least separate, hierarchy is least marked, aggression and competition are most discouraged, and the rights, activities, and spheres of influence of men and women overlap the most. • Relative gender equality is most likely the ancestral pattern of human society.

Gender among Horticulturalists • Martin and Voorhies (1975) study of 515 horticultural societies to investigate how gender roles and stratification varied according to economy and social structure. • Women were found to be the main producers in horticultural societies. • In half of the societies, women did most of the cultivating. • In a third of the societies, men and women made equal contributions to cultivation. • In only 17% of the societies did men do most of the work. • Women dominated horticulture in 64% of the matrilineal societies and in 50% of the patrilineal societies.

Gender Among Horticulturalists South American corn farmers. Women tend to be the main producers in horticultural societies. Photo Credit: Stuart Franklin/ Magnum

Matrilineal and Matrilocal Societies • Female status tends to be relatively high in matrilineal, matrilocal societies (e.g. Minangkabau). • Reasons for high female status were that women had economic power due to inheritance, and the residence pattern lent itself to female solidarity. • A matriarchy is a society ruled by women. • Anthropologists have never discovered a matriarchy, but the Iroquois show that women's political and ritual influence can rival that of men. • Warfare was external only, as is typical of matrilineal societies. • Women controlled local economy; men hunted and fished. • Matrons determined entry in longhouses and also had power of impeachment over chiefs.

Matrilineal and Matrilocal Societies Map showing the location of the Minangkabau of Negri Sembilan.

Matrilineal and Matrilocal Societies Map showing the location of the Iroquois.

Matrifocal Societies • A survey of matrifocal (mother-centered, often with no resident husband-father) societies indicates that male travel combined with a prominent female economic role reduced gender stratification. • The example of the Igbo (Nigeria) demonstrated that gender roles might be filled by members of either sex.

Matrifocal Societies Map showing Igbo cultural areas in Nigeria, with its ecological subdivisions.

Patrilineal-Patrilocal Societies • The spread of patrilineal-patrilocal societies has been associated with pressure on resources and increased local warfare. • As resources become scarcer, warfare often increases. • The patrilineal-patrilocal complex concentrates related males in villages, which solidifies their alliances for warfare. • This combination tends to enhance male, prestige opportunities and result in relatively high gender stratification (e.g. highland Papua-New Guinea). • Women do most of the cultivation, cooking, and raising children, but are isolated from the public domain. • Males dominate the public domain (politics, feasts, warfare).

The Etoro : Homosexual Behavior • Etoro culture is used as an example of extreme male-female sexual antagonism and the degree to which gender is culturally constructed. • Etoro men believe that semen is necessary to give life force to a fetus • Men have a limited supply of semen. • Sexuality depletes this supply and saps male vitality. • Heterosexual intercourse is seen as a necessary to reproduce, but unpleasant because it will lead to a man's eventual death. • Heterosexual sex is discouraged and limited to only about 100 days a year. • Heterosexual sex is banned from community life and must take place in the woods far from the village.

The Etoro: Homosexual Behavior • Although heterosexual sex is discouraged, homosexual sex between males is viewed as essential. • In order for boys to grow into men, they must orally receive semen from older men. • Homosexual acts can take place in the village. • Etoro homosexuality is governed by a code of conduct. • Homosexual sex between older men and younger boys is seen as essential. • Homosexual sex between boys of the same age is discouraged.

The Etoro Map showing location of Etoro.

Sexual Orientation • All human activities, including sexual preferences are to some extent learned and malleable. • Sexual orientation refers to a person’s habitual sexual attractions and activities. • Heterosexuality refers to the sexual preference for members of the opposite sex. • Homosexuality refers to the sexual preference for members of the same sex. • Bisexuality refers to the sexual preference for members of both sexes. • Asexuality refers to indifference toward or lack of attraction to either sex.

Sexual Norms • Sexual norms vary considerably cross-culturally and through time. • There tends to be greater cross-cultural acceptance of homosexuality than of bestiality and masturbation. • Flexibility in human sexual expression is part of our primate heritage. • Masturbation exists among chimpanzee and other primates. • Homosexual behavior exists among chimpanzee and other primates. • Sexuality is a matter that culture and environment determine and limit.

Gender among Agriculturalists • With agriculture, women become cut off from production. • Martin and Voorhies (1975) found that women were the main workers in only 15% of the agricultural societies, down from 50% of the horticultural ones. • Martin and Voorhies (1975) found that males dominated the cultivation in 81% of the agricultural societies, up from only 17% of the horticultural ones. • This shift is due in part to the increase of heavier labor that characterizes agriculture and the increase in the number of children to raise.

Gender Among Agriculturalists • Social changes that accompany agriculture also functioned to reduce the status of women. • Belief systems started to contrast men's valuable extradomestic labor with women's domestic role, now viewed as inferior. • The decline of polygyny and the rise of the importance of the nuclear family isolated women from her kin and cowives. • Female sexuality is carefully supervised in agricultural societies which results in men having greater access to divorce and extramarital sex. • However, there are many exceptions to this, wherein women still do most of the cultivation work, and have a correspondingly high status (e.g. Betsileo).

Horticulture Agriculture Women are primary cultivators 50 15 Men are primary cultivators 17 81 Equal contributions to cultivation 33 3 Gender Among Agriculturalists Male and female contributions to production in cultivating societies. Numbers are percent of societies by type. Source: Martin and Voorhies 1975, p. 283.

Patriarchy and Violence • Patriarchal Societies • The male role in warfare is highly valued. • Violent acts against women are common and include dowry murders, female infanticide, clitoridectomies. • Domestic Violence • Family violence is a worldwide problem. • Abuse of women is more common in societies where women are separated from their supportive kin ties (e.g. patrilineal, patrifocal, and patrilocal societies).

Early American Industrialism • The public-domestic dichotomy as it is manifested in America (“a woman’s place...”) is a relatively recent development. • Initially, women and children worked in factories, but were supplanted by immigrant men who were willing to work for low wages. • This shift coincided with associated beliefs about the unfitness of women for labor. • Since World War II, the number of women in the work force has increased dramatically, driven in large part by industry’s search for cheap, educated labor, in combination with technology mitigating the effect of notions about appropriate work for women.

The Feminization of Poverty • The number of single-parent, female headed households has doubled since 1959, with the largest proportion of these being minorities. • The combination of dual responsibilities (parenting and work) and poorer employment opportunities means that these households are increasingly poverty stricken.

Median Annual Salary Ratio of Earnings Female/Male Women Men 1994 1989 Median Earnings $21,744 $30,407 71 68 For Executive $30,299 $45,944 66 61 For Professional $32,321 $46,488 70 71 For Sales $18,986 $32,850 58 54 For Service $13,518 $20,996 64 62 The Feminization of Poverty Earnings in the United States by gender and job type for year-round full-time workers in 1994. Source: The American Almanac, 1996-1997, p. 428.

What Determines Gender Variation? • In economies where both sexes contribute more or less equally (foragers, matrilineal cultivators), there is relatively little gender stratification. • Resource competition, warfare, patrilocality, patrilineality, and reduced female role in the public economy correlate with high gender stratification.

Stereotypes • Gays are sick and can be “cured.” On December 15, 1973, the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders. The American Psychological Association followed suit the next year. “Ego-dystonic homosexuality,” problems adjusting and accepting oneself, remains, so that people with such problems can be covered by health insurance. • Historically, homosexuality has frequently been accepted, especially in ancient Greece and in Western Europe till around A.D. 1200 • (c.f. John Boswell, Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century, Chicago UP, 1980) and other titles.) • Two/thirds of the cultures reported on in the Human Relations Area Files accepted some form of homosexuality.

Stereotypes • Gays become homosexual as a result of a homosexual seduction and thus try to “recruit” others, especially children. • Nobody knows the cause of homosexuality, but psychological thinking today stresses the likelihood of an inborn predisposition combined with an unknown environmental trigger; one’s orientation is determined by age six, certainly before adolescence. • (c.f. Alan P. Bell, Martin S. Weinberg and S. K. Hammersmith, Sexual Preference: Its development in Men and Women, Indiana UP, 1981.) “ • The definitive study in this country, conducted by the Children’s Division of the American Humane Society, reported that 11 of every 12 incidents of child molesting in America were committed by heterosexual males against young girls. A large proportion of these incidents involved incest.” For further statistics, see http: // www. acf.dhhs.gov/programs/cb/pubs.For decades young people were told to marry and “get over it.” Recent examples of political figures and evangelical ministers show that even with high motivation, this doesn’t work.

Stereotypes Gay men are extremely promiscuous. Some are; some aren’t, just like heterosexual men. This behavior is encouraged by the problems which society places on their forming permanent attachments. Question: what would be the fidelity rate of heterosexual couples if they had no hope of marrying; if they could not introduce their partners to their parents; if their church refused to accept them; if they could be fired from their jobs if anyone found out about their relationship?

Stereotypes Gays are easily recognizable… Some people may feel this is the only way to meet people, or (especially before prominent politicians and evangelists were “outed,”) that this is the proper way for a lesbian or gay man to act. But you probably know many such people without having a clue about their sexual orientation.

Stereotypes Gays are unhappy. Yes, many LGBT people are unhappy. The most unhappy are teenagers, who are coming to terms with their orientation in a hostile society. A GLSEN survey found over 90% of LGBT youth reported hearing homophobic comments in school regularly, 1/3 of them said no one ever intervened, and 1/3 reported hearing such comments from teachers and staff. Another study showed nearly 1/3 of GLBT students had been threatened with a weapon at school in the past month, compared with 7% of heterosexual students.http://www.aclu.org/issues/gay/Statistics.html However, those who accept themselves and live accordingly may end up fine. A 1982 study of older gay men, Gay and Gray, (Raymond M. Berger, Allyson Press) showed many of its subjects to be happier than older heterosexuals.

Stereotypes • ”I thought that people like that killed themselves.” • [The title of a 1983 study by Eric E. Rofes subtitled Lesbians,Gay Men and Suicide.] Unfortunately, this may too often be true. Fourteen studies listed at http://www.youth-suicide.com/gay-bisexual/news/studies.htm#10 in a table entitled “Gay/Bisexual Male Youth Lifetime ‘Suicide Attempt’ Data Studies with ‘Heterosexual’ Male Control Samples” varied from 2 to 14 times more likely for a gay youth to try suicide than for a heterosexual one; the median was 5.8 times more likely. This, of course, lists only obvious suicide attempts; those who die in an “accident” or who contract AIDS on purpose because they think they are worthless are not counted. Very few studies on lesbian suicides have been conducted, but articles generally agree their statistics would be similar. • Cf. an old newspaper story about two teen-age boys, best friends, who shot each other several times till both died. No one in their small town could figure out why they did it. Were they just playing with guns? Both knew how to hunt. (from an old newspaper clipping I can’t locate at the moment.)

Myths • Gays choose their orientation (“preference”) and therefore can change if they want to. • This belief is the most detrimental of any. It is sometimes based on lack of information about what professional psychologists say, sometimes on not realizing that there are degrees of orientation as described in the Kinsey Scale, sometimes on wishful thinking. Perhaps the best evidence that basic orientation cannot be changed is the sad stories of such prominent citizens as Governor James McGreevey, Senator Larry Craig, and televangelists Ted Haggard and Paul Crouch. All of these men apparently struggled against their orientation for most of their lives. They married, but were caught having same-sex affairs. We must pity them and others, such as a Denton man who died in his late forties of a stroke brought on by high blood pressure. He was married and loved his wife and child, did not act on his feelings though he confessed them to a few friends and through his research, and took his medicine irregularly till the tension of living a life that was essentially a lie killed him.

Myths Gays are against family values.It is all too often the families who discard their gay members. It is impossible to get accurate figures, but ABC’s program 20/20 for Sept. 13, 1999, estimated that 63,000 children a year are thrown out of their homes when their heterosexual, often fundamentalist, parents find out that they are gay. Older persons may be rejected when their families finally realize their orientation. If this myth were true, why is same-sex marriage so high on the list of political goals of LGBT groups? And why are there so many long-term same-sex couples, in spite of the dangers associated with being found out? Again, accurate figures are impossible to find, but the 2000 census lists 601,209 same-sex couples, about half and half gay men and lesbians. 85% of these lived together five years earlier; 30% have children under 18. Denton county statistics include 867 such couples, 378 of them male, 489 female. For more information, see http://www.gaydemographics.org /USA/PUMS/nationalintro.htm

Myths Homosexuality is illegal; if it isn’t, it should be. “Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003) was a landmark U. S. Supreme Court case. In the 6-3 ruling, the justices struck down the criminal prohibition of homosexual sodomy in Texas. The court had previously addressed the same issue in 1986 in Bowers v. Hardwick, but had upheld the challenged Georgia statute, not finding a constitutional protection of sexual privacy. Lawrence explicitly overruled Bowers . . . The majority held that intimate consensual sexual conduct was part of the liberty protected by substantive due process under the Fourteenth Amendment.Lawrence has the effect of invalidating similar laws throughout the United States that purport to criminalize homosexual activity between consenting adults acting in private.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_v._Texas Here the conflict between value systems is clear. Our country is not a theocracy, but the main arguments against homosexuality are religious. The Supreme Court has ruled that our Constitution takes precedence in law.

Myths Homosexuality is against Biblical teachings; if one is a Christian, one must condemn homosexuality, and believe in . . . Allowing employers and landlords to discriminate against same-sex couples Denying health insurance, hospital visitation, inheritance of property, and similar partnership benefits to long-term committed couples Refusing to allow gays and lesbians to serve in the military though currently those without high school diplomas and those with criminal records can, and most of our allies allow such service (For instance, badly needed translators of Arabic were discharged when they were “outed.”) Not allowing adoptions nor foster care by same-sex partners Prohibiting public schools from discussing homosexuality and from including books in their school libraries which feature positive information on the topic Amending the Constitution to define marriage as a union between one man and one woman, thus striking down state laws such as that in Massachusetts which allow same-sex partners to wed. Many states have passed such amendments to their own constitutions

Foragers: Gender Stratification