Each individual nation throughout history has had their own relationship between gender and culture. However, how do they come to this relationship? What factors cause certain societies to value sons over daughters and vice versa? In order to possibly explain this, we will take a quick look at how the economy, political organization, globalization, and development have affected the nation of the Incans and their relationship between gender and their culture. We will also take a look at how gender roles have changed in the United States over time, as well as compare patrilineal cultures to the Mosuo people of China’s matrilineal culture.

Much of the measurement of wealth within the Incan society was centered around land ownership and access to resources, and we see early on that the importance of gender is prominent. To begin with, land was usually portioned out to the male head of the household, with each additional birth of a son awarding the head of the household additional land and a female awarding him half that amount. When a son was married, he would have land relinquished to him on the father’s behalf. On the other hand, while most women had to give up the land given to their father upon their birth, there have been reports of women sometimes being able to keep their share of the land given to their father. These decisions were made and controlled by local kinship groups known as ayllus, who were responsible for the distribution of goods throughout the community.

We can also see a difference in the distribution of work depending on gender. Men were expected to maintain public work projects, serve in the military, become runners for a postal service, farming, herding, etc., while women were expected to weave cotton and wool cloth for garments and trade as well as farm, herd, prepare food, and care for children. While there are clear gender roles within the Inca household, if men or women were unable to perform their regular duties due to performing a duty for the community it was common practice to recruit others in order to fulfill household duties without any social issue.

Although regular Inca life relied on interdependence between men and women, administrative power in politics was strictly for males. with the highest position of emperor being reserved for males only. The queen, or coya, would often be the emperor’s sister and would often be responsible for special land that would be used as testing grounds for new strains of crops. Also, temporarily, she would wield political power in the absence of the emperor. Although the coya was not the only wife of the emperor, she was the “top dog” in regards to the ranks of the wives, with the children of other wives becoming political and economic leaders within the community.

Although the nation of the Incas had remained undisturbed by the outside world, the arrival of the Spaniards would wedge a gap between the cultural idea of an Inca household. While Inca women were permitted to own property prior to the arrival of the Spanish, Spanish law would prohibit these privileges. Furthermore, women were restricted from schooling as well as access to traditional weaving guilds, and were therefore forced to be hired at extremely low wages for the same amount of work. Other offences included rape, forced prostitution, and witch-hunts. While men were used mainly as manual labor tool in order to further the production of crops and trade goods for the Spaniards, the arrival of the Spanish dealt a significant blow to the roles and rights to the Inca women.

While we have examined the Incan society, we will now shortly examine how the roles of men and women have changed over time in the United States. The main way that gender roles have changed in the U.S. is the roles within the household. While men were expected to be the bread winners of the household and women were expected to take care of everything at home, we now see that there is more and more a division of labor within the households. Both men and women are now bringing in revenue, and women are no longer the only ones expected to take care of housework. This can be seen as far back as WWII, when women took over the jobs left behind by the men going off to war. Also, within the workforce, women are not excluded from certain fields as they were in the past. Women are slowly, but surely, inching their way into STEM fields, furthering the equal representation of both men and women within the community.

Most cultures throughout history have been seen as patriarchal, or basically, mainly run and controlled by men. However, there is a society in which this role is completely reversed: the Mosuo of China. The main difference is that the roles seem to be completely switched. While in traditional patrilineal cultures the men have the power, we see that in Mosuo the women are in charge. The eldest woman has the final say of what goes on in the family, women are the only ones permitted to live in the elevated areas of the household, and, possibly the most surprising, men are not deemed as important. Rather, men are not required in the household, especially during courtship. Women also perform most of the labor work, such as farming, and also have the freedom to choose to be with as many male partners as they desire (which is typically seen in reverse in patrilineal cultures.

References: file:///C:/Users/kamer/AppData/Local/Packages/Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe/TempState/Downloads/Agricultural%20states%20(1).pdf