The Incomplete Domestication of Wauja Women
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2316-9133.v30i2pe193357Keywords:
Xingu, Arawak, Sexuality, Schooling, Globalization, Patriarchy, RankAbstract
In 1981, the Wauja women of Central Brazil, despite burdens they endured due to their gender, nevertheless enjoyed certain freedoms that men did not. Among these were greater freedom of movement around the village, and freedom to speak privately with women from any household. These freedoms were not trivial, and gave women privileged access to information of all kinds (“gossip”). In this way, women were able to shape community perception of events in ways that men could not. Women’s labor and economic contribution, in those days, was considered as essential as that of men. Four decades later, Wauja women no longer exchange news with other women as they walk to the river together to draw water. Instead, access to information is increasingly shaped by digital devices, which many young married women do not own. These women often live as their husbands’ economic dependents, because men earn salaries and control the bank accounts. How did women’s lives change so much in a single generation, and how are Wauja women responding?
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