Sex, Status, and Authority in Egalitarian Society

Abstract

Disagreement exists concerning the nature of relations between the sexes in foraging societies. The crucial issue concerns the quality of interactions across rather than within sexual boundaries. Approaching the problem in terms of a political analysis allows cross‐cultural comparisons utilizing behavioral data. While all foraging societies are egalitarian within sexual boundaries, not all are egalitarian across sexual boundaries. The analytic usefulness of two subtypes of egalitarian society, the “pure‐egalitarian” and the “semi‐egalitarian,” is suggested . [sexual politics, egalitarian societies, status of women, hunters and gatherers]