The Lives of Women

This course will investigate the relative status of women cross-culturally in a range of non-Western settings, including hunter-gatherer bands, horticultural societies, peasantry, nomadic pastoralists and contemporary industrial societies. Women will be examined as they relate to economic resources, political power and authority, kin and non-kin and in religion, myth and lore. Students will analyze conceptually and through cross-cultural data what is meant by sex roles, how they vary cross-culturally and how they are negotiated and maintained. Offered either semester.