Fruit of the Motherland: Gender in an Egalitarian Society

by Maria Lepowsky

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231081214
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	02/24/1994
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	383
Sales rank:	1,054,940
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

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

Table of Contents

Preface
Maps
1. Island Encounters
2. Fruit of the Motherland
3. Island Lives
4. Ancestors and Other Spirits
5. Sorcerers and Witches
6. The Living, the Dead, and Relations of Value
7. Fruit of the Dead
8. Gender and Power
Notes
Glossary
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

Lepowsky deals evenhandedly with topics of primary concern to islanders -subsistence, life passages, sorcery, relations with the dead and with spirits, exchange, and power -presenting general analyses through specific incidents. This ethnography is important as a touchstone for accounts of Melanesian societies and for theories of gender relations.

Choice