ABSTRACT
Anthropological research on cultural variations in the development of gender definitions arose, in part, in response to such casual biological determinism. One of the ways that anthropologists have explored the cultural construction of gender is by examining specific gender rituals. Virtually every society of which we have knowledge reveals some differentiation between women and men, and virtually every society exhibits patterns of gendered inequality and male domination. One could, conceivably, imagine four such possibilities—high or low levels of gender differentiation coupled with either high or low levels of gender inequality. In almost every society, labor is divided by gender. Certain tasks are reserved for women, others for men. How do we explain this gender division of labor, if not by some biologically based imperative? One of the key determinants of women’s status has been the division of labor around child care.
