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Old 11-26-2014, 03:37 PM   #2
DanaC
We have to go back, Kate!
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Yorkshire
Posts: 25,964
The culture of the Aka is a fascinating one. In particular the way labour is organised around gender. In some ways, they're quite similar to traditional conceptions of gender - so, women do the bulk of the caring/home making and positions of leadership are exclusively male. But in many ways they are much less gendered in their approach than we might have expected. Most task types, whether hunting or caring for children are done by both men and women. They are virtually interchangeable. So, though women do more of the childcare, men are happy to drop onto that job as and when needed and it is not uncommon with young babies for the men to let them suckle at their nipples whilst they are tending them. Similarly, women often hunt - both large and small game - and though men tend to hunt more than women, women are considered to be particularly adept at hunting. The noton of childcare as exclusively woman's work would seem ridiculous to the Aka, just as the idea of hunting as exclusively male work would seem bizarre.
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