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“Highly recommended, both as a critically presented state-of-the-art discussion and as an account of how one’s personal/political history informs the process of scientific inquiry.”—Choice
This classic anthropological study debunks the many myths behind the idea of “natural” male superiority. Drawing on extensive historical and cross-cultural research, Eleanor Burke Leacock shows that claims of male superiority are based on carefully constructed myths with no factual historical basis. She also documents numerous historical examples of egalitarian gender relations.
Eleanor Burke Leacock (1922–1987) was well-known for her ethnographic work among primitive societies, and her research is still a formative influence among feminist anthropologists.
- Sales Rank: #2163131 in Books
- Brand: Brand: Haymarket Books
- Published on: 2008-04-01
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.00" h x 1.00" w x 5.30" l, .98 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 360 pages
- Used Book in Good Condition
About the Author
Eleanor Burke Leacock (1922-1987) was well known for her ethnographic work among primitive societies, and her research is still a formative influence among feminist anthropologists.
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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful.
Myths of male dominance and Marxism
By Ashtar Command
"Myths of Male Dominance" is a collection of articles written by anthropologist Eleanor Burke Leacock. The first edition was published in 1981 by Monthly Review Press, a Marxist publisher associated with Paul Sweezy. The present edition is published by Haymarket Books, apparently a front for a certain Trotskyist group. Leacock's ideological perspective is a curious blend of dogmatic Marxism and feminism. Normally, I wouldn't recommend a book heavily loaded with Marxist rhetoric. However, if you can look pass it, "Myths of Male Dominance" does include some interesting material.
The main section of the book deals with the Montagnais-Naskapi, an American Indian people in Canada, among which Leacock carried out her fieldwork. This particular people, also known as Innu, is very small but nevertheless played an important role in scientific and political debates during the immediate post-war period. The Montagnais-Naskapi were "primitive" hunter-gatherers, but nevertheless had private property. To many, this disproved the idea (politically associated with Marx and Engels), that humanity had originally lived in a state of primitive communism. Indeed, it was explicitly used as an anti-Marxist argument. During her fieldwork and historical research, Leacock realized two things. First, private property didn't exist among the Montagnais-Naskapi before the arrival of the French colonialists and the establishment of the fur trade. Before that, this people did indeed live in an egalitarian society without real chiefs, where all property was held in common. Second, even after colonization, it was only the right to trap animals for the fur trade which was private. For hunting and gathering in general, all land was still considered a vast commons.
Leacock also made a more startling discovery: before colonialism, Montagnais-Naskapi bands had gender equality. Their society wasn't patriarchal. Only with the advent of colonialism and the expansion of the fur trade, did the bands become patriarchal. The private property that accumulated through trapping, trade and plunder made the nuclear family the most important unit of production (rather than the band based on extended families). The nuclear families were headed by men, who in addition controlled the trapping rights. The bands involved in the fur trade were also led by men. Male band leaders used women as virtual slave labour, and often formalized the situation by marrying them! Women were in effect turned into capital. The introduction of patriarchy was eagerly supported by the Jesuit missionaries active in this part of Canada. At the same time, the journals of Jesuit father Le Jeune are an important historical source, since he encountered a communal lifestyle that must have been dominant before colonialism. Le Jeune forthrightly describes the equality among the sexes, the lax attitude towards children, and the ease with which one family adopted the children of another. Also, polygyny and polyandry were rampant. Le Jeune often had to admonish his male Christian converts not to let the women be in charge, and also instructed the parents to discipline the children. On a more bizarre note, the Montagnais-Naskapi women had the right to dispose of Iroquis prisoners of war, and often took part in torturing them!
Naturally, these research results disprove the musings of those who claim that patriarchy is a human universal, and it's not surprising that several of the later texts in this anthology are polemics against "sociobiology", that notorious pseudoscience. Leacock's dissection of Steven Goldberg's "The inevitability of patriarchy" is particularly entertaining, more so since Goldberg's reply is included. Poor Steve.
There are two themes running through this book. One is that Euro-centric anthropologists are poorly equipped to understand the authority structures of hunters and gatherers. Strictly speaking, some hunters and gatherers *don't have* authority structures. The chiefs or headmen are simply people informally chosen to represent the band when dealing with outsiders. (In the case of the Montagnais-Naskapi, the Jesuits understood this very well and insisted that these "chiefs" should be formally elected, formally recognized by the French and given real powers.) Authority within the band is fluid and based on consensus. Those who have the most knowledge of a certain situation, take the lead in that particular situation. Decisions are carried out by the same people who make them. Nor is there a sharp distinction between the "domestic" and "public" spheres, since the main unit of production is the band itself, being made up of several extended families. That women "only" do tasks associated with the "domestic" sphere in modern Europe doens't mean that they lack power. In this kind of society, characterized by egalitarianism and equality, division of labour based on sex doesn't necessarily mean the same thing as in a patriarchal class society. The fact that women are excluded from certain male rituals doesn't mean much either (besides, the men are excluded from some female rituals). Euro-centric anthropologists automatically assume that the male activities are more important, but that's simply patriarchal gender bias. Leacock also mentions several examples of peoples where women carry out tasks associated with the "public" sphere. For instance, the hunts of small game among the Mbuti "Pygmies" in Central Africa are carried out jointly by men and women. Here, not even a division of labour seems to exist.
The second theme is the idea that patriarchy is a product of colonialism. While the first theme is correct, this second notion is more problematic. There are indeed examples of patriarchy being introduced by colonialism. Or, better put, being made possible by the economic and political changes accompanying colonialism. The Montagnais-Naskapi are a case in point. But many patriarchal societies emerged before the advent of colonialism. Leacock even discusses one such culture: the Aztecs of Mexico. Other obvious examples would be the Muslim, Hindu or Chinese civilizations. It's therefore unclear why the author puts such a heavy emphasis on colonialism. The reason must be ideological, perhaps some kind of "Third World Marxist" perspective?
A more ironic problem is the tension between Leacock's dogmatic Marxism (she constantly invokes Frederick Engels) and her feminism. Leacock seems to assume that the world historic defeat of the female sex came about as a result of private property, and that this was connected with the rise of agriculture and trade. Hierarchies and the state emerged from the same processes. But is this really true? Even Leacock herself mentions female chiefs in her book, most notably among the Balonda, an African people visited by none other than Livingstone. These chiefs had real, hierarchic power and there was certainly private property: one of the events which proved (to both Livingstone and Leacock) that these women really had power, was that one of them claimed an ox Livingstone had intended for the male he mistakenly assumed was in charge! Further, at least one high culture had curiously egalitarian traits: the Indus Valley Civilization. The status of its woman population is unknown, but this culture certainly had trade, agriculture and large towns. This is usually associated with social stratification and empire building, of which the Indus culture had none. Minoan Crete might be another "anomaly": a peaceful culture with goddesses, but hierarchic. The Minoans also traded and had agriculture. Leacock's Marxist scheme doesn't seem to add up. Indeed, if women have been on an equal footing with men only in bands based on hunting and gathering, where on earth does that leave us? Should we all become Montagnais-Naskapi and hunt caribou in the woods?
The most interesting part of "Myths of Male Dominance" is the section on Montagnais-Naskapi and the discussion of decision-making processes among hunters and gatherers. The more theoretical sections feel too haunted by the spectre of...Frederick Engels.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Myths of Male Dominance
By Lorna Battista
Perfect condition, quick shipping. A very thought provoking work- a textbook for my women's studies class, it was a very interesting companion to some of the classic feminist writings.
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