3000 BCE–300 CE: (Gender in Comparative History — The Rise of Highly Unequal Societies Raising the Question of Consequences for Gender Relations, Comparative…

3000 BCE–300 CE: (Gender in Comparative History — The Rise of Highly Unequal Societies Raising the Question of Consequences for Gender Relations, Comparative Ethnographic Evidence Indicating That in Earlier Ages and in Recent Times in Africa South of the Sahara Among Native Americans and in Oceania Women Were Not Necessarily Subordinated to Men, Each Sex Commonly Holding Authority over Its Own Complementary Sphere and Mature Women’s Opinions Having to Be Taken into Account in Community Decision Making): The rise of such highly unequal societies alerts us to a related issue: the consequences of these developments for gender relations. The comparative ethnographic evidence from a variety of areas around the world indicates that in earlier ages, as well as in much more recent times in many regions — particularly in Africa south of the Sahara, but also among Native Americans and in Oceania — women were not necessarily subordinated to men, despite the tendencies of Westerners to assume so. Not uncommonly in such societies each sex held authority over its own complementary sphere of social and economic activities, and the opinions of women, particularly mature women, had to be taken into account in community decision making. The question Ehret poses is fundamental: was the subordination of women a normative consequence of the emergence of social stratification in ancient societies? If one views history across the long middle belt of Eurasia, female subordination seems indeed to have arisen early in nearly every society that developed strong social stratification. But for the world more broadly, the answer seems to be no, not necessarily. The Eurasian pattern — stratification producing patriarchy — is not a universal law. It is a regional phenomenon, and the regions where it did not hold — sub-Saharan Africa, Native America, Oceania — are precisely the regions that the Western academy has most systematically excluded from its theorizing about the relationship between complexity and gender.