ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the implications of structural attrition for the dialectics of gender with particular attention to the control of women's sexuality. Robert Murphy once remarked that exogamic patrilineal societies have a relatively easy time "abiding women." Among the Iteso, he observed, "some of the most important economic and residential ties between families are established through their women." This he attributed to the processes of social change in eastern Uganda whereby agnatic units have been undercut by Western economy. The Iteso live in what both would call a Simple Agrarian Society which, in spite of colonial conquest and the introduction of capitalist agriculture, is characterized by a high degree of communalism. Colonial rule, between 1912 and 1962, introduced several features of economic and social change that greatly affected the dialectics of gender in the exogamic patrilineal society. The sexuality of unmarried men and women is given virtually free rein in Iteso society.
