It is easy to see that the amount of work allotted to women is considerably greater and that their labour is much harder than the men's work. This is directly affirmed by a series of statements (Curr, Dawson, Stanbridge, Tom Petrie, Mathew, Lumholtz, Forrest, Salvado, Scott Nind, Moore). This is also undoubtedly a reason why so many authors designate the wife's position as that of a slave and drudge. But it also results directly from a comparison of the occupations allotted to women with those allotted to men. A woman had to carry all the heavy things, all the objects of domestic use, her own as well as her husband's; for the man carried only his weapons (Dawson, Curr, Stanbridge, Angas, Br. Smyth, Thomas, Phillips, Fraser, Lumholtz, Salvado). The woman had to construct huts and look after camping arrangements (Howitt on the Kurnai, Dawson, Stanbridge, Meyer, Schürmann, Angas, Howitt on the Wiradjuri, Gribble, Henderson, Fraser, Field, Mathew, Lumholtz, Forrest, Salvado, Browne). All this was rather hard work, especially when compared with the man's share of work, which was mainly hunting and fashioning weapons. It must not be forgotten that women were often encumbered in their work by suckling, carrying their children, and by the various cares demanded by the latter. The digging for roots is also exceedingly hard work (Moore, Earl).
More regular and systematic kind of labour is also called for by the nature of the woman's tasks. These are intimately connected with the wandering mode of life of the aborigines. Obviously in a people which was forced by natural conditions to lead a roaming life, such tasks must necessarily have required regular labour. The other chief female occupation—collecting roots and small animals—required also a regular kind of labour. All these occupations—being, as just said, harder and more systematic than men's work, clearly appear also to be much more wearing and tiresome; compared with the men's occupations they appear much less in the light of sport and amusement. The man makes his weapons and hunts, and this is a natural and pleasant sport for him. There are no elements of excitement or variety in the women's work; it is just this element of system and of regularity which makes work repulsive and hard to man, and especially to primitive man. Work of this kind is usually done only under a strong compulsion; and woman's work in Australia appears also to be compulsory. This is directly stated in several places (Dawson, Curr, Mitchell, Forrest, Moore, Oldfield). This compulsory character is undoubtedly another reason why the women's position is described in other statements as that of a slave and drudge.
A very important point is that the woman's share in labour was of much more vital importance to the maintenance of the household than man's work. This is quite obvious, seeing that the general occupations of camp life were of essential necessity for a roving people. But even the food supply, contributed by the women, was far more important than the man's share. We read that the chief resource of the natives, especially in bad seasons, is vegetable food (Oldfield). And the interesting statement of Earl confirms this in a still stronger manner. So that it appears fairly probable that, on the whole, food collected by women was the staple food of the natives. But not only does the kind of food supplied by the man appear on the whole to be less important than that contributed by the woman, but it seems as if the man's contribution, which in the main was reduced to his hunting products, was devoted much less exclusively to his family's benefit. In order to understand this, let us adduce some statements relating to communism of food, and giving besides some interesting details about aboriginal economics.
Statements.—Among the Kurnai[918] the hunter who killed a big piece of game gave some of it to the men who assisted him in killing, cooking or carving. The chief parts were divided among his wives' parents and his own parents. These in return supplied their son and son-in-law respectively with meat the next day. Similar rules, varying according to the game and tribe, obtained also among the Murring tribes of New South Wales.[919] Important for us is the general feature of communism; the preponderancy given to the parents of a man and his wife. If the man be unmarried he provides chiefly his parents and his brother and sister.[920] The grandparents cared especially for their grandchildren.[921]
In the Wurrunjeri tribe a kangaroo was distributed among those present in camp and the hunter's family. The man had (even in case of a limited food supply) to provide for his own and his wife's parents. They cared in turn for him.[922] Communism obtained among the Kulin tribes.[923]
A communism, similar to that of the Kurnai, prevailed among the Narran-ga.[924] The same is related about the tribes of the Karamundi[925]; the Wolgal tribe,[926] amongst whom the woman was provided for with food by her parents; the Wiradjuri; Wotjobaluk; Mukjarawaint.[927] Among the Gournditch-Mara game was divided amongst all present in camp.[928]
J. Dawson states that food brought by a hunter to the camp was distributed so that he and even his brother gets the worst part of it. "The best pieces of birds and quadrupeds and the finest eels" were given away. An anecdote is told in support of this statement which appears trustworthy.[929] It may be pointed out that this apparently refers only to food brought by men; and that this statement only says that the shares of the individual and his brother were neglected; but it does not make clear how the shares of the other relations (family, wife, parents) were regulated, if they were favoured or the reverse.
In the Chepara tribe, the men, women and children went out every morning to hunt and search for food. It was a man's duty to provide food. This food was divided equally amongst all those present by the old men. A man had special duties towards his wife's parents if they were sick and unable to hunt.[930] Here we see a communism which gives no preference to any relation, and apparently treats equally all the members of the local group.
Curious customs obtained among the Narrinyeri, when an emu was killed. It was first divided by an old man with some ceremonies, apart from the camp, and then carried to the camp and eaten by men, women and children alike.[931] This shows, by the way, that big game like emu, or kangaroo, must be rather an exceptional feast; and as all the communistic customs in this connection refer to bigger game, they do not affect, perhaps, so much the everyday food supply, which is due chiefly to females.
Among the Port Lincoln tribes "the custom of dividing their food amongst each other is so common that he who fails to observe this rule is branded as a sort of miser."[932]
Among the Yerkla-Mining tribe, all present in camp shared equally the animal killed. The slayer had to distribute it. Women and children had also their equal share.[933]
In his book about the New South Wales aborigines, the Rev. J. B. Gribble writes: "Food is distributed on the principle of community of goods."[934]
Amongst the Port Stephens blacks each family provided for its own subsistence, "except in a general kangaroo hunt, where the game is impounded and taken in large quantities, when it is fairly distributed."[935]
Game was divided according to customary rules among the Euahlayi.[936] We are informed also of some other interesting details in this tribe: stones, used to grind seed, are kept in family possession.[937] There seems also to be a kind of harvest, and the storing up of some kinds of food is known.[938]
A series of interesting regulations as to how game is distributed among several New South Wales tribes is given by Mr. R. H. Mathews.[939]
We read in Spencer and Gillen[940] that a man shares his food with his father-in-law and other relatives. It is there explicitly stated that he shares it not only with his actual but also with his tribal relations; in another place, however, the same subject is treated as if the father-in-law in question were the actual one, not a group of them. So we read[941] that if the man or boy neglected his father-in-law the latter would take revenge at the initiation ceremony; and that the giving of food may be considered as a form of payment for his wife.[942]
Among the Bunya people (Turrubul tribe, near Brisbane), the trees belonged to the people of the place. Visitors might be invited to the feast; but they "purchased bags of the seeds when they returned home."[943]
Exact rules of division of game are followed among some Queensland blacks (North-West Central), "the best part going to the father's camp, the next to the father's brother."[944] The man himself goes often very short, being with his gin quite neglected.
Among some of the West Australian tribes (Murchison District, Watchandee tribe) a very high degree of communism in food is reached among the men. If a man was unlucky at the chase he was sure to receive food in the evening at camp from all the other hunters. Was a man pre-eminently successful, he divided his booty with all his friends.[945] We find also another testimonial to the high liberality of the natives and their sense of communism, in a passage of the same writer,[946] where we are informed that a native supplied a party of white settlers with game for many days, being told that they were short of food.
Let us apply these statements in the first place to the question of the division of labour. We see that in all this evidence, the question is merely one of communism in game. With the exception, perhaps, of the summary statements of Mrs. Parker, J. B. Gribble and Wilhelmi, all the others speak clearly of communism in game only. And, on the other hand, we can conclude, as so many statements report the customary division of any large hunting products, that game was practically always divided more or less equally among those present in camp, the relatives of the hunter receiving the major part, but he himself and his wife being probably neglected.[947] The valuable statement of R. Dawson expresses this directly: in other respects each family provided for its own subsistence, but if big game were killed it became the property of the whole group. We see that in all probability the results of the man's labour—the big game—did not go to the exclusive use of his family. This is stated emphatically by some authors, who say that the woman did not get even her share of the results of the man's work (Moore, Curr, Lumholtz, Oldfield). But some say, on the other hand, that both husband and wife shared equally in providing food. From several statements of the authors (Roth, Spencer and Gillen, Howitt) it must probably be assumed that the husband also gave in his share to the common household. But on summing up all the data here brought forward, it may be considered positively certain that the woman's part is of vital importance for the maintenance of the family, while the husband's share is quite secondary.
To sum up, it may be said that the sexual division of labour consists not only in different occupations being laid upon the man and the woman by custom. This division of labour is much deeper rooted, viz. in the fact that man's and woman's work is of quite different kind. The woman's work is on the whole much heavier than that done by the man; her work is much more regular; it is compulsory, and it forms the chief support of the household. These features of the division of labour are of great sociological importance.
1. It appears that the sexual division of labour is based only partly on differences in the natural capacities of the sexes. Heavier work ought naturally to be performed by men; here the contrary obtains. Only so far as the hunting is allotted to men and collecting to women, do natural gifts appear to be taken into account. But even here the woman's work appears to be much more exacting, inasmuch as it requires a steady strain, patience and regularity. Such work is the most repulsive; it differs most essentially from sport, and it is carried on only under strong compulsion. Compulsion is therefore, as we saw, the chief basis of this division of labour, and it may be said that in the Australian aboriginal society the economic fact of division of labour is rooted in a sociological status—viz. the compulsion of the weaker sex by the "brutal" half of society. This fact gains a deeper and more general aspect if brought into connection with the "terrorism produced upon women"[948] by the members of the tribal secret society, i. e. by all the initiated men.
2. From its compulsory character it follows that the distribution of economic functions does not correspond to true co-operation, but that the relation of a husband to his wife is, in its economic aspect, that of a master to his slave.[949] And this throws also some light on the value of a wife to a man. (Compare the statements of Mitchell, Br. Smyth, Lumholtz.)
3. The woman's work appears as the chief basis of the economy of the Australian household. Her work goes exclusively towards the benefit of the individual family, and this latter economically is entirely dependent upon woman's work. It is her work which, taking to itself the most considerable share in the sexual division of labour, plays the main part in giving to the individual family its economic unity.
There is still to be noted the statement of Roth, who reports the existence of class taboos which establish what we would call a division of consumption between the father, mother and children; each of these three parties belonging to a different class. That this statement is a result of careful and frequent and not merely casual observation, further, that this division of consumption plays an important part in the native family life, may be accepted as very probable. For the author, who is undoubtedly among our best, most exact and conscientious ethnographers, builds upon the rule in question a theory of the origin of classes. The whole class system has been devised by a process of natural selection, to regulate the proper distribution of the total quantity of food available.[950] And although we cannot enter here into the discussion whether this view be right or not, it may serve us as a guarantee that Roth had ascertained the great importance of the class taboo he describes and its prevalence over a wide area. For otherwise he would not have based such an important theory about one of the most crucial problems of ethnology on a single fact. Besides Roth's statement there is further the information of Wilhelmi about division of consumption within the family.