[37] For women taking part in battles, see Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes of the United States, i. 236 (Comanches); Powers, op. cit. pp. 246 (Shastika Indians of California), 253 (Modok Indians of California); Waitz [-Gerland], op. cit. iii. 375 (Caribs), vi. 121 (Maoris); Wilkes, op. cit. v. 93 (Kingsmill Islanders); Kotzebue, Voyage of Discovery into the South Sea, iii. 171 (natives of Radack).
[38] Grosse, Die Formen der Familie, p. 92 sqq.
[39] Ibid. p. 159. Hildebrand, Recht und Sitte auf den verschiedenen wirthschaftlichen Kulturstufen, p. 44 sqq. Dargun, ‘Ursprung und Entwicklungsgeschichte des Eigenthums,’ in Zeitschr. f. vergl. Rechtswiss. v. 39, 110. Bücher, Die Entstehung der Volkswirthschaft, p. 36 sqq. Schurtz, Das afrikanische Gewerbe, p. 7. Ling Roth, ‘Origin of Agriculture,’ in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xvi. 119 sq. Mason, Woman’s Share in Primitive Culture, pp. 15 sqq., 146 sqq., 277 sq. Havelock Ellis, Man and Woman, p. 5. von den Steinen, Unter den Naturvölkern Zentral-Brasiliens, p. 214. von Schuetz-Holzhausen, Der Amazonas, p. 67 (Peruvian Indians). Waitz, op. cit. iii. 376 (Caribs). Prescott, in Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes of the United States, i. 235 (Dacotahs). Colden, ibid. iii. 191; Seaver, Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison, p. 168 (Iroquois). ‘Die Baluga-Negritos der Provinz Pampanga (Luzon),’ in Globus, xli. 238. Zöller, Kamerun, iii. 58 (Banaka and Bapuku). Möller, Pagels, and Gleerup, Tre år i Kongo, i. 129, 137 (Kuilu Negroes), 270 (Bakongo). Valdau, in Ymer, v. 165 (Bakwileh). Burrows, ‘Natives of the Upper Welle District,’ in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xxviii. 41 (Niam-Niam). New, op. cit. pp. 114 (Wanika), 359 (Wataveta). Stuhlmann, Mit Emin Pascha ins Herz von Afrika, p. 182 (Waganda). Pogge, Im Reiche des Muata Jamwo, p. 243 (Kalunda of Mussumba). Decle, Three Years in Savage Africa, pp. 78, 79, 85 (Barotse), 160 (Matabele). von Weber, Vier Jahre in Afrika, ii. 195 (Zulus). There are, however, exceptions to the rule. Among the Creeks and Cherokee Indians not a third part as many women as men are seen at work in their plantations (Bartram, in Trans. American Ethn. Soc. iii. pt i. 31). Among the Wakamba both sexes work in the fields, all heavy work, such as clearing and breaking new ground, being done by men (Decle, op. cit. p. 493). Among various peoples, indeed, such agricultural work as requires considerable strength devolves on the male sex (Hildebrand, op. cit. p. 44 sqq. Havelock Ellis, Man and Woman, p. 5). In the Malay Archipelago the men are chiefly engaged in the field-work (Ratzel, History of Mankind, i. 441). In the Kingsmill Islands (Wilkes, op. cit. v. 91), Tonga (Cook, Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, i. 390 sqq.), and the Caroline Group (Cantova, quoted ibid. i. 392, note) the soil is cultivated by the men. Among the Gallas, “whilst the women tend the sheep and oxen in the field, and manage the hives of bees, the men plough, sow, and reap” (Harris, Highlands of Aethiopia, iii. 47).
The various occupations of life are thus divided between the sexes according to rules; and, though the formation of these rules no doubt has been more or less influenced by the egoism of the stronger sex, the essential principle from which they spring lies deeper. They are on the whole in conformity with the indications which nature herself has given. Take, for instance, the apparently cruel custom of using the women as beasts of burden. To the superficial observer, as M. Pinart remarks—with special reference to the Panama Indians,—it may indeed seem strange that the woman should be charged with a heavy load, while the man walking before her carries nothing but his weapons. But a little reflection will make it plain that the man has good reason for keeping himself free and mobile. The little caravan is surrounded with dangers: when traversing a savannah or a forest a hostile Indian may appear at any moment, or a tiger or a snake may lie in wait for the travellers. Hence the man must be on the alert, and ready in an instant to catch his arms to defend himself and his family against the aggressor.[40] Dobrizhoffer writes, “The luggage being all committed to the women, the Abipones travel armed with a spear alone, that they may be disengaged to fight or hunt, if occasion require.”[41]
[40] Pinart, quoted by Nieboer, op. cit. p. 21.
[41] Dobrizhoffer, Account of the Abipones, ii. 118. Cf. Wied-Neuwied Reise nach Brasilien, ii. 17, 37 (Botocudos); Giddings, Principles of Sociology, p. 266 sq.
Moreover, whatever may have been the original reason for allotting a certain occupation to the one sex to the exclusion of the other, any such restriction has subsequently been much emphasised by custom, and in many cases by superstition as well.[42] In Africa it is a common belief that the cattle get ill if women have anything to do with them.[43] Hence among most Negro races milking is only permitted to men.[44] In South-Eastern Africa “a woman must not enter the cattle fold.”[45] The Bechuanas never allow women to touch their cattle, hence the men have to plough themselves.[46] In North America Indian custom and superstition ordain that the wife must carefully keep away from all that belongs to her husband’s sphere of action.[47] On the other hand, among the Dacotahs “the men do not often interfere with the work of the women; neither will they help them if they can avoid it, for fear of being laughed at and called a woman.”[48] In Abyssinia “it is infamy for a man to go to market to buy anything. He cannot carry water or bake bread; but he must wash the clothes belonging to both sexes, and, in this function, the women cannot help him.”[49] Among the Beni Aḥsen tribe in Morocco the women of the village where I was staying were quite horrified when one of my native servants set out to fetch water; they would on no account allow him to do what they said was a woman’s business. The Greenlander regards it as scandalous for a man to interfere with any occupation which belongs to the women. When he has brought his booty to land, he troubles himself no further about it; “for it would be a stigma on his character, if he so much as drew a seal out of the water.”[50] Among the Bakongo a man would be much ridiculed by the women themselves, if he wanted to help them in their work in the field.[51] Sometimes agriculture is supposed to be dependent for success on a magic quality in woman, intimately connected with child-bearing.[52] Some Orinoco Indians said to Father Gumilla:—“When the women plant maize the stalk produces two or three ears; when they set the manioc the plant produces two or three baskets of root; and thus everything is multiplied. Why? Because women know how to produce children, and know how to plant the corn so as to ensure its germinating. Then, let them plant it; we do not know so much as they do.”[53]
[42] See Crawley, Mystic Rose, p. 49 sq.
[43] Schurtz, Das afrikanische Gewerbe, p. 10.
[44] Ratzel, op. cit. ii. 419.