Race and gender econ - Essay Example

e other hand, if they have altered – then men and women began to have more flexible understanding and perceptions about their roles and family duties. Communities and Africa were based on hunting and gathering. Traditionally, the role of men and women had different dimension in comparison with the rest of the world. Early theories had focused on the social and biological development in people and referred to men as hunters and meat providers, whereas the women were taking care of the children and gathered wild fruits.

Woman gathered also roots, nuts, honey, grains and men were hunting to provide the meat and fur (Gender roles and sexuality, 2002). Women are assessed as caregivers and mothers and men are perceived as protectors and hunters. These roles correspond to the passive roles that women had and their social placement. Women were subordinated and men dominated. These culturally and socially stereotyped gender roles interpret males not only as hunters, but also as active invaders and guardians. Therefore the hunting-gathering societies were patriarchal focused and male-centered.

Females as gatherers had decentralized role within the community. What is more because of their reproductive functions women were less mobile and their economic role less viable (Dahlberg, 1981). Horticulture is the first evidence of sedentary lifestyle and anthropologists have called such groups Horticulturists. Horticultural societies depended on cultivating fruits, plants and vegetables. During horticulture period men were the ones to plow, dig or hoe the land in order to cultivate it. In general men were responsible to cleaning the land, while women plant, crop, harvest and stored the production.

Also during this period men continued to hunt, however, they were less productive in their hunting and societies started to domesticate animals. The role of men and women changed, because men had to trade the crops and because groups began to settle down. Kinship played an immense