GENDER AND ECONOMIC RELATIONS AMONG BANDS, CHIEFDOMS AND TRIBAL SOCIETIES

Abstract

Gender and economic relations have been the crux of debate in economics anthropology relationship between men and women in economic nexus appears to have impaired women and subject them to little access to factors of production, which in turn limits women production potentials. Adopting functionalism as the theoretical framework this study was designed to compare gender and economic relation among bands, chiefdoms and tribal societies. Specifically, the study was designed to examine the subsistence strategies, gendered role patterns and genders gaps in economic relations among these societies. The study found among other things, that egalitarian gender relations exists among these societies. However, differentiation sets in as society becomes stratified and more complex as is the case of the chiefdom. The study concludes that as contact and societies become more centralized, the egalitarian structure begins to decrease.