A 🧵 for the hot topic of factors involved in #gender #egalitarianism here. Being friends and pupils of the late, great #JamesWoodburn, we feel his use of 'egalitarian' reflects the dynamic quality of #huntergatherer #gender relations (authors who discuss the issues are mentioned, off the top of my head! I will try to fill in details/sources later)

Woodburn had some brilliant stuff on gender buried in unpublished notes which we are getting some access to. In his classic 1982 article here, he's addressing egalitarianism among men

#anthropology #politics #gender

https://libcom.org/article/egalitarian-societies-james-woodburn

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Key questions, key areas:

#Grandmothering/#cooperative #childcare. Do women experience this support? Are they living with Mum? (Hawkes et al, Hrdy, Opie and Power, Knight, Migliano, Scelza)

If #matrilocal, is #brideservice more productive than if #patrilocal (Marlowe, Woodburn)? what factors influence residence patterns? Do brothers keep check on husbands (Hill et al on bro/sis relation, which is an evolutionary novelty for great apes)?

Abundance, #biggame + women's #economic #autonomy (Lewis, Woodburn, Marlowe, Blurton Jones, Lee, Thomas). In what contexts can men be lazy and live off women's work? When do women get demanding with sex contingent on produce like honey and fatty meat? Women like meat (Biesele)!

https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Women_Like_Meat.html?id=MDaBAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y

Women's ability to move, as nomadic #huntergatherers, not be trapped by #settlement, able to choose where to live (Draper, Townsend, Dyble et al, demographic effects Page et al) plus women's decision-making on movement based on resources available, general #consensus decision-making (Venkataraman)

https://aeon.co/essays/what-the-ju-hoansi-can-tell-us-about-group-decision-making

How quickly, effectively and collectively do women react to any form of #male #violence or #coercion? (Woodburn, Lewis, Marlowe, Shostak, Townsend)

Freedom of #sexual #choice and the right to say NO (Shostak, Turnbull, Scelza, Marlowe, Woodburn) must be part of any egalitarian #society.

https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Nisa.html?id=IQ5NWIQpXNkC&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Forest_People

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/heres-what-the-manosphere-gets-wrong-about-cuckoldry/

Cultural creativity as #resistance!

#Moadjo is the #Theatre of #Laughter run by older women for #solidarity and #entertainment if any man should misbehave (Lewis, Bombjakova)

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#Ritual gender solidarity in regular reverse-dominant displays associated to #initiation schools (Turnbull on Elima of BaMbuti, Woodburn on Hadza Maitoko, Lewis on BaYaka Ngoku, Finnegan, Power, Bombjakova)

#Children as #agents (Kramer, Lew-Levy, Salali, Jang, Page): How much does children's influence reflect women's #status and #power?

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#Grandmothers' #storytelling, #memory, #knowledge holders, running the camp (Biesele, Lewis, Gopnik)

Cooperative women's labour networks (Kraft et al #Batek #foragers show more extensive female networks than #Tsimane forager/horticulturlists) and gift exchange (Wiessner, Apicella)

Women's leisure time (Dyble et al, Agta women foragers have more than those who have settled as #farmers)

And last but not least is the influence of #music, #dance and #song on #women's solidarity and #collective power (Lewis, Finnegan, Kisliuk, Grauer, Bombjakova, England)

#MornaFinnegan writes beautifully here on the #danceoffs of women among Central #African #Forest peoples, and the incredibly rude words they sing to men!

https://rai.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1467-9655.12060