Fruit of the Motherland: Gender in an Egalitarian Society - Softcover

Lepowsky, Maria

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0231081219 ISBN 13: 9780231081214

Publisher: Columbia University Press, 1993

Synopsis

Challenging the portrayal of sexual inequality as a universal condition, Lepowsky presents a vivid account of Vanatinai, a matrilineal society in New Guinea.

Contradticting scholars who consider sexual inequality a universal condition, Fruit of the Motherland reveals an exceptional society in which women have equivalent access to power and prestige and significant control over the means of production.

Lepowsky presents an ethnography of Vanatinai, a matrilineal, decentralized society in New Guinea where there is no ideology of male dominance and women and men are considered fundamentally equal. tracing the life cycle of islanders of both sexes, she examines the role of gender in thye Vanatinai's: social life and history, religious philosophy and worldview, practice of ceremonial exchange and ritual.

In addition, Fruit of the Motherland includes useful cross-cultural analysis of gender roles, ideologies, and power.

About this title

Book Description:

An ethnographic study of how gender is negotiated in Vanatinai, a small matrilineal island near New Guinea.

About the Author:

Maria Lepowsky is professor of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

About this edition

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0231081219
• ISBN 13: 9780231081214
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 383