ABSTRACT
so far we have confined our generalizations to the role of women in the economy of Bamenda. There remain, however, a number of issues which are relevant for a comparative survey of the position of women in society. One is the degree to which the importance of their work is overtly recognized by the community and embodied in its value system, more especially in the fields of ritual, kinship and political organization. There is also the problem whether economic indispensability is, in fact, associated with economic independence, and whether the women individually or corporately resort to economic sanctions for the preservation of their rights, the ensuring of good treatment, and the redressing of wrongs. Again, it is necessary to examine the nature of the control exercised by women over forms or property, more particularly the products of their labour and any income which may accrue therefrom. And lastly there is the relation between efficient performance of agricultural role and the assessment of reputation by male and female members of the community, as well as the extent to which differential skill is made the basis of a prestige system among the women and given institutionalized expression in membership and authoritative status in societies, work teams, age-sets and so forth. These questions have been framed in the light of conditions in Bamenda but, with some reformulation, they are relevant for an analysis of the economic and other social concomitants of the division of labour in other societies. They are not exhaustive, but they enable us to survey a wide range of institutions from an economic base-line. They do not start from the assumption that the responsibility shouldered by women for the maintenance of subsistence is invariably an index of low status. Rather the problem is phrased in more positive terms: granted economic indispensability, how far is this reflected in the value system, and how far is it associated with economic and other social advantages.
