Abstract
The origin of male political power has been sought in the dominance behavior of the nonhuman primates. Data from the living hunting and gathering peoples offer a corrective to this viewpoint. Several theorists have developed models of early human groups that placed males at the center and females drawn in from outside through exchange networks. These models contradict the known facts about hunting and gathering peoples, among whom we find a social grouping consisting of both males and females at the center. The burden of the hunter-gatherer evidence (along with that from primate field studies) favors a model of early human society in which females wielded considerable political power as a result of their economic independence and their ability to exercise discretion in their choice of spouse.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ardrey, R. (1961).African Genesis Atheneum, London.
Ardrey, R. (1967).The Territorial Imperative Blond, London.
Fox, J. R. (1967).Kinship and Marriage Penguin, Baltimore.
Helm, J. (1965). Bilaterality in the socio-territorial organization of the Arctic drainage dene.Ethnology 4: 361–385.
Hiatt, L. R. (1962). Local organization among the Australian aborigines.Oceania 32: 267–286.
Howell, N., and Draper, P. The status of women among the zu/wasi. (To appear in a volume on the status of women in simpler societies.)
Jolly, A. (1972).The Evolution of Primate Behavior Macmillan, New York.
Koford, K. (1965). Population dynamics of rhesus monkeys on Cayo Santiago. In Devore, I. (ed.),Primate Behavior. Holt, New York, pp. 160–174.
Leacock, E. (1955). Matrilocality in a simple hunting economy (Montagnais-Naskapi).Southwest. J. Anthropol. 11: 31–47.
Leacock, E. (ed.) (1972). Introduction. In Engels, F.,The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State, International Publishers, New York.
Lee, R. B. (1968). What hunters do for a living, or, how to make out on scarce resources. In Lee, R. B., and DeVore, I. (eds.),Man the Hunter Aldine, Chicago, pp. 30–48.
Lee, R. B. (1972a). The !Kung Bushmen of Botswana. In Bicchieri, M. B. (ed.),Hunters and Gatherers Today Holt, New York, pp. 327–368.
Lee, R. B. (1972b). !Kung spatial organization: An ecological and historical perspective.Hum. Ecol. 1: 125–147.
Lee, R. B., and DeVore, I. (eds.) (1968).Man the Hunter Aldine, Chicago.
Lévi-Strauss, C. (1949, 1969).The Elementary Structures of Kinship Beacon Press, Boston.
Lindburg, D. (1967). Patterns of reproduction in wild rhesus monkeys.Am. Zoologist 7: 802 (abst.).
Radcliffe-Brown, A. R. (1930). Social organization of Australian tribes.Oceania Monogr., No. 1.
Reynolds, V. (1968). Kinship and the family in monkeys, apes, and man.Man (n.s.) 3: 209–223.
Rose, F. G. G. (1960).Classification of Kin, Age Structure, and Marriage Among the Groete Eylandt Aborigines: A Study in Method and a Theory of Australian Kinship Praeger, New York.
Rowell, T. E. (1966). Forest-living baboons in Uganda.J. Zool. Soc. Lond. 149: 77–84.
Rowell, T. E. (1969). Long-term changes in a population of Uganda baboons.Folia Primatol. 11: 241–254.
Service, E. R. (1962).Primitive Social Organization: An Evolutionary Perspective Random House, New York.
Shapiro, W. (1971). Wawilak: ontogeny, phylogeny and sexuality in Miwyt (“Murngin”) thought. Paper presented at 70th Annual Meetings of the American Anthropological Association, New York.
Stanner, W. E. H. (1965). Aboriginal territorial organization: Estate, range domain and regime.Oceania 36: 1–26.
Tiger, L. (1969).Men in Groups Macmillan, New York.
Van Lawick-Goodall, J. (1967). Mother-offspring relations in wild chimpanzees. In Morris, D. (ed.),Primate Ethology Weidenfield and Nicolson, London.
Warner, W. L. (1937).A Black Civilization: A Study of an Australian Tribe Harper, New York.
Woodburn, J. (1968). Stability and flexibility in Hadza residential groupings. In Lee, R. B., and DeVore, I. (eds.),Man the Hunter Aldine, Chicago, pp. 103–110.
Yamada, M. (1963). A study of blood relationship in the natural society of the Japanese macaque.Primates 4: 43–66.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Field research on Bushman hunter-gatherers was financed by the National Institute of Mental Health, National Science Foundation, and the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lee, R.B. Male-female residence arrangements and political power in human hunter-gatherers. Arch Sex Behav 3, 167–173 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01541000
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01541000