Sex and Society: Studies in the Social Psychology of SexThomas, William Isaac
Science
Sex and Society: Studies in the Social Psychology of Sex
Thomas, William Isaac
Sex; Women -- Social and moral questions; Women -- Social conditions
Amongst the Dacotas custom and superstition ordain that the
wife must carefully keep away from all that belongs to her
husband's sphere of action. The Bechuanas never allow their
women to touch their cattle; accordingly the men have to plow
themselves.... In Guiana no woman may go near the hut where
_ourali_ is made. In the Marquesas Islands the use of canoes
is prohibited to the female sex by _tabu_: the breaking of
the rule is punished with death. Conversely, amongst the same
people _tapa_-making belongs exclusively to the women: when
they are making it for their own headdresses it is _tabu_ for
the men to touch it. In Nicaragua all the marketing was done
by the women. A man might not enter the market nor even see
the proceedings at the risk of a beating.... In Samoa where
the manufacture of cloth is allotted solely to the women,
it is a degradation for a man to engage in any detail of the
process.... An Eskimo thinks it an indignity to row in an
_umiak_, the large boat used by women. The different offices
of husband and wife are also clearly distinguished; for
example, when he has brought his booty to land it would be a
stigma on his character if he so much as drew a seal ashore,
and generally it is regarded as scandalous for a man to
interfere with what is the work of women. In British Guiana
cooking is the province of the women, as elsewhere; on one
occasion when the men were compelled perforce to bake some
bread they were only persuaded to do so with the utmost
difficulty, and were ever after pointed at as old women.[272]
Amongst the Barea, man and wife seldom share the same bed; the
reason they give is that the breath of the wife weakens the
husband.... The Khyoungthas have a legend of a man who reduced
a king and his men to a condition of feebleness by persuading
them to dress up as women and perform female duties. When
they had thus been rendered effeminate they were attacked and
defeated without a blow.... Contempt for female timidity has
caused a curious custom amongst the Gallas: they amputate the
mammae of the boys soon after birth, believing that no warrior
can possibly be brave who possesses them, and that they should
belong to women only.... Amongst the Lhoosais when a man is
unable to do his work, whether through laziness, cowardice or
bodily incapacity, he is dressed in women's clothes and has to
associate and work with the women. Amongst the Pomo Indians of
California, when a man becomes too infirm for a warrior he is
made a menial and assists the squaws.... When the Delawares
were denationized by the Iroquois and prohibited from going
to war they were according to the Indian notion "made women,"
and were henceforth to confine themselves to the pursuits
appropriate to women.[273]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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