ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes gender differences in access to critical resources and illustrates ways they vary culturally across ethnic groups in Guinea-Bissau. It argues that cultural ideology about men’s and women’s roles is a critical factor in determining the way gender relations of production are ordered in a given society and must be seriously considered in development planning. The chapter presents the local political economies of two ethnic groups, the Balanta Brassa and the Bejaa based on research carried out largely in the Oio region between 1981 and 1985. The two groups differ significantly in their ecological location, agricultural production systems, and social relations of production. The choice of the two societies permits us to see the diversity of land tenure practices, the organization of production, the sexual division of labour, control and distribution of surplus, and women’s economic power. The Bejaa settled in the northern part of Oio and Cacheu in the area between Bissora and the Senegalese border.
