The analysis of women's status in egalitarian society is inseparable from the analysis of egalitarian social-economic structure as a whole, and concepts based on the hierarchical structure of our society distort both. To see relations of power and property that characterize our society as present in band societies, although extremely weak, obscures the qualitatively different relations that obtained when, in place of dyadic lines of dependency, each individual was dependent upon the group as a whole, "public" and "private" spheres were not dichotomized, and decisions were made by and large by those who would be carrying them out.Assumptions of female subservience in egalitarian society both derive from and perpetuate a view of such society as merely an incipient form of our own. This problem, along with ethnocentric reporting of data, leads to contradictory ethnographic accounts of women's status among hunter/gatherers, as illustrated by material on Australian Aborigines and on the Ojibwa. Similar problems obtain for the more elaborated but still egalitarian Iroquois.The failure to deal historically with changes in egalitarian societies as they became involved in the "capitalist world system," recently discussed by Wallerstein, further compounds problems of analyzing their structure. As a result of these various difficulties, the fundamental transformation in women's status that accompanied ranking and hierarchy is commonly obscured. However, an understanding of egalitarian society as based on production for use and control by the producers over their work lays the basis for examining the linked processes proposed by Engels, whereby specialization of labor and production for exchange led to private property, class differences, and the subservience of women in the economic family unit. The present paper, submitted in final form IO IX 77, was sent for comment to 5o scholars. The responses are printed below and are followed by a reply by the author.The analysis of women's status in egalitarian society is inseparable from the analysis of egalitarian socialeconomic structure as a whole, and concepts based on the hierarchical structure of our society distort both. I shall argue that the tendency to attribute to band societies the relations of power and property characteristic of our own obscures the qualitatively different relations that obtained when ties of economic dependency linked the individual directly with the group as a whole, when public and private spheres were not dichotomized, and when decisions were made by and large by those who would be carrying them out. I shall attempt to show that a historical approach and an avoidance of ethnocentric phraseology in the study of such societies reveals that their egalitarianism applied as fully to women as to men. Further, I shall point out that this is a fact of great importance to the understanding of social evolution.Demonstrating that women's status in egalitarian society was qualitatively different from that in our own presents problems at several levels. First,...
Understanding the role of culture, as it affects attitudes and behavior, can be extremely useful in the social service fields for enabling more effective communication across social barriers. However, in connection with the "culture of poverty," or "cultural disadvantage," the culture concept has often been distorted, and transformed into a stereotype behind which the individual is not revealed, but hidden. Specific examples of productive and unproductive uses of the concept in school guidance work are discussed. Another aspect of the cultural dimension, understanding of which is useful to the school counselor, is the nature of the counselor's role in relation to the institutionalstructure of the school.T H E CULTURE CONCEPT, central to the field of anthropology, is becoming increasingly familiar in the social service fields. When properly applied, the idea of "culture" can be extremely useful for the understanding of behavior and the breaking down of many barriers to effective communication. However, like most ideas, it can also be distorted, and defeat the very purpose it should serve. This paper will discuss the appropriate use of the culture concept, and indicate the way it can be distorted when incorrectly ap-ELEANOR LEACOCK is Professor of Anthropology, Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn,
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