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Images of denigration: structuring inequality between foragers and farmers in the Ituri forest, Zaire
Author(s) -
GRINKER ROY RICHARD
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.1990.17.1.02a00070
Subject(s) - metaphor , sociology , gender studies , inequality , anthropology , geography , linguistics , mathematical analysis , philosophy , mathematics
Research on forager/farmer interactions has focused largely on relations of material exchange, thereby excluding symbolic and social structural aspects of those interactions. Lese representations of Lese (farmer)/Efe (hunter‐gatherer) cultural differences shape the symbolic incorporation of Efe trading partners into Lese village life. Since the Lese frequently characterize the Efe as female, gender appears to be a principal idiom through which the Lese represent those differences. Gender is a metaphor for relationships of inequality between village insiders and outsiders. The metaphor creates an analogic equivalence between Lese men's wives and the Efe, as village outsiders, and refers to their structural similarities in relation to the Lese villages. [forager/farmer interactions, Africa, Efe Pygmies, Lese, inequality, gender]