Woman, Culture, and Society

Book Overview

Sixteen women anthropologists analyze the place of women in human societies, treating as problematic certain questions and observations that in the past have been ignored or taken for granted, and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0804708517
• ISBN13: 9780804708517
• Release Date: June 1974
• Publisher: Stanford University Press
• Length: 366 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.9" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

Valuable Anthropology

I bought this 1974 book for Joan Bamberger's 'The Myth of Matriarchy' contribution but I was impressed by many of the contributions. I was pleasantly surprised to read that none of these women anthropologists believed that matriarchies have ever in fact existed. What they do look at is the lives of women across numerous cultures and how women's status in comparison to men's varies. Bamberger's 'The Myth of Matriarchy' is interesting and important in that she shows how myths of female rule are used by some cultures to support the rule of men. When women ruled, according to these myths, there was moral laxity, an abuse of power and ultimately chaos. The South American tribes she describes also use fear, coercion and ritual humiliation to keep women in their place. Bamberger ends by stating: "The myth of matriarchy is but a tool used to keep women bound to her place. To free her, we need to destroy the myth." Among the other interesting contributions is Rosaldo's where she discusses the in-marrying wife's vulnerable position in a number of cultures but also how when women are set apart from men it can sometimes lead to women grouping themselves around their separateness which can be a source of power for them. Nancy B. Leis looks at two villages in the Niger delta where the women in the village where they do not have ties with their own kin form strong bonds and have more power than in the village where the women retain ties with their own kin. She is generally countering Lionel Tiger's views on the differences between men and women in their same-sex bonding and in his view, the biological roots. Ortner's 'Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture' is a contribution that has been cited fairly often. As an evolutionary feminst myself, I was struck by a de Beauvoir quote she includes: "....the woman is adapted to the needs of the egg rather than to her own requirements". I would also say that the man is adapted to the needs of the sperm rather than to his own requirements, and an awareness that both sexes have bodies and behaviors that evolved to best serve the needs of their respective gametes is where evolutionary biology contributes to our understanding. Bette Denich contributes a fascinating piece on 'Sex and Power in the Balkans' looking at women exchange and the differences between pastoralists and agriculturalists there. The former rely on wider male kin solidarity leading to strong controls over females while the latter have more autonomous nuclear families and greater status for the women. But as she says, as people moved from rural to urban living parental aspirations for both daughters and sons became similar regarding occupational status and economic independence. Nancy Tanner's contribution on matrifocality presents information from cultures where the mother role is central and where women are relatively equal participants in economic and ritual realms. This does not appear to be connected to any particular kinship type or descent sy