Paper Summary:

The writer of this paper analyzes the great differences between the hunter/gatherer societies and that of the acquisitive societies and questions whether or not they are comparable to today's modern society. This paper details the gender roles in hunter/gatherer societies which are distinguished by the fact that each unit of that society performs essentially the same function as any other unit. Men were supposed to be physically stronger than the women and the more rational of the two. This fitted them for work outside the home in the positions of manual laborer or creative thinker while women were envisioned as being physically more delicate and also decidedly more emotional. Society, therefore, placed women within the confines of the home and family. This paper also examines the culture and traditions that were essential to the acquisitive societies, which are very similar today's modern society, in that wealth, prestige and success were the prime determining factor in the relative egalitarianism, or hierarchical qualities found among these cultures.

From the Paper:

"Women were best suited to raising children, being good and attentive wives, and on the whole - when they chanced to work outside that environment - to provide functions that were still regarded as "feminine": nurse, teacher, domestic, etc. In general, however, it has always been the belief of serious students of humanity that these gender roles are even more strictly defined among those human societies that have not yet reached the level most would term "civilized." Primitive man, so called, was represented as being even more completely bound by prehistoric tradition. Within these societies, men and women fulfilled the roles handed down to them by ancient archetypes; life being in great measure an endless reenactment of prior conditions."

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