The Gender issues in Tribal Society – Essay

George Orwell, in his popular novel Animal Story, makes a conspicu­ous statement: “All animals are equal but some are more equal than others.” In all societies there are differences between persons on the basis of power and resources. No society has all its members on equal footing.

Some have privileges, others do not have. Social differentia­tion and equality are universal phenomena. Biologically, males and females are equal; they have similar vital organs (heart, lungs, and kidneys) and metabolism.

The differences between them are social and cultural, or say, non-biological-and are constructed by society. Thus, the is­sues relating to males and females are social, cultural, historical and societal. And, what we call a gender issue is the issue that concerns the social and cultural differences in the discrimination of both the sexes. When women are discriminated against by men, it is a case of gender issue.

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Thomas Hylland Eriksen has given an appropriate place to gender issues in his book, Small Places, Large Issues (1995). His argument is that if there is a women’s movement all over the world, how so­cial anthropology can close it eyes towards the male treatment given to a woman in tribal society.

If the modern societies conceptualize differ­ences between men and women in terms of equality, why should we not look at the discrimination meted out to tribal women? Eriksen ob­serves:

Malinowski, who has often been praised for his ethnographic details, is now said to have neglected important women’s institutions com­pletely and exaggerated the contribution of men to the reproduction of Trobriand society. In many other classic studies too, social actors are more or less seen as equivalent to social men.

The British social anthropologists like H.H. Risley, W.H.R. Riv­ers, R.V. Russel and others have altogether overlooked the problems of tribal women.

In India too, those who are called as the founders of social anthropology, such as D.N. Majumdar, S.C. Roy, G.S. Ghurye and K.S. Singh, have either not looked at the issue of the discrimina­tion of women by the men, or even if looked at, not in a proper perspective.

It is, therefore, certain that the gender issues in the Indian context, with reference to social anthropology, are overlooked.