THE MICROPOLITICS OF GENDER IN NONINDUSTRIAL SOCIETIES

Abstract

Regression analysis using coded ethnographic data from a sample of 93 nonindustrial societies showed that patterns of child rearing and property control are significantly associated with outward displays of men's dominance. In societies in which women exercise significant control over property and men have close relationships with children, men infrequently affirm their manliness through boastful demonstrations of strength, aggressiveness, and sexual potency. Under these conditions, women show less deference to men, and husbands are less likely to dominate wives. Displays of manliness are also prevalent in less complex societies with frequent warfare. An ideology of women's inferiority was found to be most common in complex societies with distant father-child relationships. Illustrative cases are presented, and theoretical explanations for observed correlations are discussed.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 27 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.