ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews more than 25 years of research in anthropology to assess the effects of premodern subsistence modes on variation in levels of sex inequality. It is a mistake to overlook the role of biology in gender stratification, for at least one sex difference matters. The fact that no man can bear a child makes women central to population maintenance in a way that men cannot be, and population maintenance is crucial to species survival. Male dominance is greatest when hunting is the sole source of food; equality is greatest where men and women together perform the major subsistence tasks. Both in hunting and gathering and simple hoe cultures, women contribute heavily to subsistence. Generalizing about sex inequality in herding societies is risky because many of them also depend on hoe or plow and also for lack of data.
