Notes on Society and Sex Roles (Ernestine Friedl)

Context and Thesis

• 1970s feminist critique framed to test claims of matriarchy vs patriarchy in early human societies; Friedl argues the truth lies on a continuum between egalitarianism and male dominance.
• Early hunting-and-gathering (forager) societies were generally egalitarian; greater male dominance appears where hunting for meat is emphasize and/or where men control trade/exchange of scarce resources.
• Important takeaway: nothing is inherently “natural” about a fixed sex-role order; social and ecological conditions shape outcomes.
• About the author: Ernestine Friedl (b. 1920) is an anthropologist who shifted focus to sex/gender roles after observing discrimination in academia; key work includes Women and Men: An Anthropologist's View.

Key Concepts

• Patriarchy vs. egalitarianism: dominance patterns vary by society, not a universal baseline.
• Power tied to control of valued resources and their distribution beyond the family; economic control translates into political influence.
• Foragers (hunter-gatherers) historically provide a useful lens for examining sex roles due to their relatively simple social structures.
• Four basic hunter-gatherer types (see below) show how the degree of male dominance tracks the male share of meat production.
• Notion of reciprocity: meat from hunting is a public gift that obligates others to return favors, reinforcing male prestige and social bonds.

Hunter-Gatherer Foundations of Gender Roles

• For two million years, most foraging bands were organized around a division of labor: men hunted, women gathered; this pattern helps explain why men often held greater access to maize/meat-based prestige economies when meat distribution is centralized.
• The meat supply is variable and often scarce; gathering provides reliable plant foods that sustain the group when hunting fails.
• Physical and reproductive factors keep women from joining hunts: burden carrying, pregnancy, child care, and the need to balance lactation and nourishment with mobility.
• The human line of descent and social life in foragers rests on cooperation and exchange, rather than coercive hierarchy.
• If male dominance depends on meat control, then reducing men’s exclusive share of meat tends toward greater egalitarianism.

Four Basic Types of Hunter-Gatherer Societies

• Type 1: Men and women work together in communal hunts and team-based gathering (e.g., Washo). Community sharing reduces individual dominance; leadership is possible for both sexes.
• Type 2: Men and women each gather their own plant foods; men provide some meat to the group (e.g., Hadza). Moderate male influence through meat sharing; distributed resources among households.
• Type 3: Male hunters and female gatherers work apart but return to camp to share acquisitions (e.g., Tiwi of North Australia). Meat distribution by the hunter confers status; women’s gathering remains important but secondary.
• Type 4: Men provide all food by hunting large game (e.g., Eskimo). Strong male dominance tied to centralized meat control; women’s economic role is limited to processing and domestic distribution.
• Rule of thumb: degree of male dominance increases with the proportion of meat supplied by men and hunting parties: $ext{Male Dominance} <br /> asympsto<br /> ext{Proportion of meat from men}$
• In all types, foragers are relatively non-political leaders; shamans can be male or female; menstruation rites and first-kill ceremonies mark gendered milestones.

Case Studies: Notable Forager Societies

• Washo (California/Nevada): high gender equality; communal food sharing; joint leadership; both sexes may lead; two major rituals celebrate hunting and gathering; status tied to cooperation, not domination.
• Hadza (Tanzania): near equality; men and women gather own food; little food exchange; leadership is informal; status tied to independence and sharing rather than coercive power.
• Tiwi (North Australia): male hunters dominate; women gather; betrothal/alliances through arranged marriages; men value quantity of food and number of wives; women influence marriages though less overtly; power rests with meat control.
• Eskimo (Inland and Maritime groups): clear male dominance; men provide most meat and control trade in animal products; women process skins and care for children; girls become targets of male attention after puberty; wives often used strategically in alliances.
• Yanomamo: described as telling on the consequences of gendered demand; women are expected to respond quickly to husbands; failure to do so can lead to violence by husbands (illustrates extreme male authority in some groups).
• Semai (West Africa): punan (emotional/personal injury) when a suit is refused; highlights how social tensions can arise around sexual relationships and how emotional sanctions can influence behavior.
• Iroquois and Lovedu: women exercised important influence in food distribution and political arena, but men owned land and held ultimate political power; these were not matriarchies, but women played pivotal roles.
• Dobe San: women carry heavy loads and work hard; their labor is essential to survival, yet their status remains tied to reproduction and caregiving within the community.

Mechanisms of Male Dominance Across Foragers

• Core mechanism: control over the distribution of scarce resources (especially meat) beyond the household creates social obligations and political influence.
• If meat is widely shared, equality tends to rise; if meat is monopolized by men, their social power rises.
• Even in egalitarian bands, certain men with hunting success gain prestige and influence; women’s status improves when they participate in production and distribution, especially when female work is recognized outside domestic settings.

Reproduction, Childcare, and Labor Division

• Childbearing and childcare are organized around work patterns; spacing and fertility are adjusted to support women’s productive roles.
• Foraging groups: birth spacing $3-4$ years; average family size $4-6$ children; extended lactation (nursing up to around $4$ years) suppresses ovulation.
• Societies with intensive female labor in gardens or long-distance farming adjust childcare by relying on older siblings, extended family, or community care.
• When industrialization increases women’s participation in paid work, childcare arrangements expand (family, friends, centers); birth rates decline with modernization.
• The adaptive logic: wherever a society requires female labor in production, childcare is accommodated; vice versa, when production is male-dominated or less communal, women’s power is constrained.
• Modern implication: as women gain access to resources and exchange networks (jobs with monetary value), they can leverage prestige and power; otherwise, domestic labor without external resource control yields limited social influence.

Implications for Modern Industrial Society

• In contemporary industry, money must be invested to create obligations; positions that allow resource control (managers, executives, professionals) enable women to translate earnings into social power and influence.
• Domestic-service-only roles (unpaid or underpaid) offer limited power relative to outside-the-house resources.
• The ongoing fertility and family-care demands influence women's labor force participation and social standing; childcare arrangements become crucial to enabling continued work outside the home.
• Friedl predicts: as women gain access to valued resources and exchange networks, patriarchies may weaken; industrial societies could become more egalitarian, approaching some forager models of equality like the Washo.

Takeaways for Quick Review

• The question of gender equality is not fixed; it is linked to technology, environment, and economic organization.
• Core driver of male dominance: control of the distribution and exchange of meat and other valued resources.
• Forager societies show a spectrum of arrangements; the more equal the distribution of food and resources, the more equal the sexes.
• Reproduction, childcare, and labor division are adaptable; modernization is reshaping these patterns by expanding women’s access to resources and decision-making.
• Understanding past patterns helps explain modern shifts toward gender equality in various sectors of society.

References (selected)

• Friedl, Ernestine, Women and Men: An Anthropologist's View, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1975
• Martin, M. Kay, and Barbara Voorhies, eds., Female of the Species, Columbia University Press, 1977
• Murphy, Yolanda, and Robert Murphy, Women of the Forest, Columbia University Press, 1974
• Reiter, Rayna, ed., Toward an Anthropology of Women, Monthly Review Press, 1975
• Rosaldo, M. Z., and Louise Lamphere, eds., Women, Culture, and Society, Stanford University Press, 1974
• Schlegel, Alice, ed., Sexual Stratification; A Cross-Cultural View, Columbia University Press, 1977
• Strathern, Marilyn, Women in Between: Female Roles in a Male World, Academic Press, 1972