Premium
Women, Horticulture, and Society in Sub‐Saharan Africa
Author(s) -
LANCASTER C. S.
Publication year - 1976
Publication title -
american anthropologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1548-1433
pISSN - 0002-7294
DOI - 10.1525/aa.1976.78.3.02a00030
Subject(s) - prestige , scarcity , politics , subsistence agriculture , power (physics) , generative grammar , development economics , geography , political science , demography , sociology , demographic economics , socioeconomics , economic growth , economics , agriculture , archaeology , law , market economy , philosophy , linguistics , physics , quantum mechanics
Considerable power was probably available to either sex earlier in human history. Males were largely concerned with the prestige sphere based on control of special goods usually involving mobility and risk taking. Females were largely concerned with the subsistence sphere. Their access to power is not based on this economic function but on their generative powers. In small‐scale early societies both male and female spheres were probably very important in the social and political life of the group. Historically, as scarcity of material resources began to develop and as local units increased in size, male interest shifted to the now scarcer land. With their relatively greater mobility than females, males could deal with larger political units with greater ease. This shift was not in conflict with any other male roles, whereas for females such a shift was in conflict with their generative function.