Dominique Meeùs
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A Note on the Division of Labor by Sex, American Anthropologist, New Series, vol. 72, no. 5, Oct., 1970, p. 1073-1078.
Article fondateur sur la question de la division du travail entre les sexes1. Aux considérations habituelles sur la physiologie (dimorphisme sexuel, dirais-je) et sur la psychologie (secondaire, à mon sens) elle ajoute l'importance de considérer le soin des enfants.
Comme on raconte un peu n’importe quoi sur la division du travail entre les sexes, elle va réexaminer le peu de littérature qui existe sur la question.
I would like to suggest that the degree to which women contribute to the subsistence of a particular society can be predicted with considerable accuracy from a knowledge of the major subsistence activity. It is determined by the compatibility of this pursuit with the demands of child care. (Female physiology and psychology are only peripheral to this explanation.) This fact has been noted repeatedly by ethnographers, but it has never been articulated in the theoretical literature dealing with the division of labor by sex.
Elle mentionne la possibilité qu’une partie de la garde des enfants soit assurée par des enfants plus âgés. (Tiens, c’est quelque chose que les théoriciens des grands-mères semblent avoir perdu de vue.) Cela rend les mères plus disponibles pour la fourniture des moyens d’existence, tout en restant à proximité pour contrôler et intervenir au besoin. Elle en conclut :
Although men do gather, carry on hoe cultivation, and trade, no society depends on its women for the herding of large animals, the hunting of large game, deepsea fishing, or plow agriculture. That women can be proficient at these activities [références à des exemples] is evidence that the division of labor by sex is not based entirely on immutable physiological facts of greater male strength and endurance. However, it is easy to see that all these activities are incompatible with simultaneous child watching. They require rapt concentration, cannot be interrupted and resumed, are potentially dangerous, and require that the participant range far from home.
En conclusion :
It is obvious that certain subsistence activities are extremely compatible with simultaneous child care and that societies depending on such subsistence bases invite considerable economic contribution by women. In the past, theoretical considerations of the division of labor by sex have suggested that women do only certain kinds of work for physiological and psychological reasons. On the basis of the ethnographic evidence I have presented here, I would like to suggest a further explanation: in tribal and peasant societies that do not have schools and child-care centers, only certain economic pursuits can accommodate women’s simultaneous child-care responsibilities. Repetitive, interruptible, non-dangerous tasks that do not require extensive excursions are more appropriate for women when the exigencies of child care are taken into account.