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Woman, culture, and society

By: Michelle Zimbalist Rosaldo | Louise Lamphere | Joan BambergerContributor(s): edited by Michelle Zimbalist Rosaldo and Louise Lamphere ; contributors: Joan Bamberger [and others]Material type: Text

TextPublisher number: Atlantic Publishers & Distributors (P) LTD | 7/22, Ansari Road, Darya Ganj, New Delhi-110002Publication details: Stanford, Calif Stanford University Press, 1975Description: xi, 352 pages 24 cmISBN: 9780804708517Subject(s): Social scienceGenre/Form: Women -- History. | Women -- Social conditions. | Women.DDC classification: 301.412 MIC

Contents:

Women, culture, and society: a theoretical overview / Michelle Zimblast Rosaldo -- Family structure and feminine personality / Nancy Chodorow -- Is female to male as nature is to culture? / Sherry B. Ortner -- Women in politics / Jane Fishburne Collier -- Strategies, cooperation, and conflict among women in domestic groups / Louise Lamphere -- Sex roles and survival strategies in an urban black community / Carol B. Stack -- Matrifocality in Indonesia and Africa and among black Americans / Nancy Tanner -- Chinese women: old skills in a new context / Margery Wolf -- Madam Yoko: ruler of the Kpa Mende Confederacy / Carol P. Hoffer -- Female status in the public domain / Peggy R. Sanday -- Engels revisited: women, the organization of production, and private property / Karen Sacks -- Women in groups: Ijaw women's associations / Nancy B. Leis -- Sex and power in the Balkans / Bette S. Denich -- The myth of matriarchy: why men rule in primitive society / Joan Bamberger -- The mastery of work and the mystery of sex in a Guatemalan village / Lois Paul -- Mediation of contradiction: why Mbum women do not eat chicken / Bridget O'Laughlin.

Summary: Sixteen women anthropologists analyze the place of women in human societies, treating as problematic certain questions and observations that in the past have been ignored or taken for granted, and consulting the anthropological record for data and theoretical perspectives that will help us to understand and change the quality of women's lives. The first three essays address the question of human sexual asymmetry. Recognizing that men's and women's spheres are typically distinguished and that anthropologists have often slighted the powers and values associated with the woman's world, these essays examine the evidence for asymmetrical valuations of the sexes across a range of cultures and ask how these valuations can be explained. Explanations are sought not in biological "givens" of human nature, but in universal patterns of human, social, psychological, and cultural experience―patterns that, presumably, can be changed. The remaining papers explore women's roles in a wide variety of social systems. By showing that women, like men, are social actors seeking power, security, prestige, and a sense of worth and value, these papers demonstrate the inadequacies of conventionally male-oriented accounts of social structure. They illuminate the strategies by which women in different cultures achieve a surprising degree of political power and social recognition; and investigate, from case-oriented and comparative perspectives, the social-structural, legal, psychological, economic, ritual, mythological, and metaphorical factors that account for variation in women's lives.

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Holdings
Item type	Current library	Call number	Status	Date due	Barcode	Item holds
Books	SNU LIBRARY	301.412 ROS (Browse shelf(Opens below))	Available		25215

Total holds: 0

Women, culture, and society: a theoretical overview / Michelle Zimblast Rosaldo --
Family structure and feminine personality / Nancy Chodorow --
Is female to male as nature is to culture? / Sherry B. Ortner --
Women in politics / Jane Fishburne Collier --
Strategies, cooperation, and conflict among women in domestic groups / Louise Lamphere --
Sex roles and survival strategies in an urban black community / Carol B. Stack --
Matrifocality in Indonesia and Africa and among black Americans / Nancy Tanner --
Chinese women: old skills in a new context / Margery Wolf --
Madam Yoko: ruler of the Kpa Mende Confederacy / Carol P. Hoffer --
Female status in the public domain / Peggy R. Sanday --
Engels revisited: women, the organization of production, and private property / Karen Sacks --
Women in groups: Ijaw women's associations / Nancy B. Leis --
Sex and power in the Balkans / Bette S. Denich --
The myth of matriarchy: why men rule in primitive society / Joan Bamberger --
The mastery of work and the mystery of sex in a Guatemalan village / Lois Paul --
Mediation of contradiction: why Mbum women do not eat chicken / Bridget O'Laughlin.

Sixteen women anthropologists analyze the place of women in human societies, treating as problematic certain questions and observations that in the past have been ignored or taken for granted, and consulting the anthropological record for data and theoretical perspectives that will help us to understand and change the quality of women's lives. The first three essays address the question of human sexual asymmetry. Recognizing that men's and women's spheres are typically distinguished and that anthropologists have often slighted the powers and values associated with the woman's world, these essays examine the evidence for asymmetrical valuations of the sexes across a range of cultures and ask how these valuations can be explained. Explanations are sought not in biological "givens" of human nature, but in universal patterns of human, social, psychological, and cultural experience―patterns that, presumably, can be changed. The remaining papers explore women's roles in a wide variety of social systems. By showing that women, like men, are social actors seeking power, security, prestige, and a sense of worth and value, these papers demonstrate the inadequacies of conventionally male-oriented accounts of social structure. They illuminate the strategies by which women in different cultures achieve a surprising degree of political power and social recognition; and investigate, from case-oriented and comparative perspectives, the social-structural, legal, psychological, economic, ritual, mythological, and metaphorical factors that account for variation in women's lives.

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