%e 得深 168 Gayle Rubin labeled"capitalist."The power of the term lies in its implica- when he located the subordination of women in a develop- tion that,in fact,there are alternatives to capitalism. ment within the mode of production.*To do this,we can Similarly,any society will have some systematic ways to imitate Engels in his method rather than in his results:Engels deal with sex gender,and babiesSuch a system may be approached the task of analyzing the:"second aspect of mater- sexuallyegalitarian,at least in theory,or it may be "gender ial life"by way of an examination of a theory of kinship stratified,as seems to be the case for most or all of the systems.Kinship systems are and do many things.But they knownexamples.But.it is important-even in the face of a are made up of,and reproduce,concrete forms of.socially depressing history-to..maintain a distinction between the organized sexuality.Kinship systems are observable and em- human capacity and necessity to create a sexual world,and pirical forms of sex/gender systems. the empincally oppressive ways in which sexual worlds have been organized Patriarchy subsumes both meanings into the Kinship same temgender system,on the other hand,is a neutral term which refers to the domain and indicates that oppres- (On the part played by sexuality sion is not inevitable in that domain,but is the product of 2 in the transition from ape to man" the specific social relations which organize it. To an anthropologist,a kinship.system is not a list of .Finally there are gender-stratified systems which are not biological relatives.It is a system of categories and statuses adequately described as patriarchal.Many New Guinea soci- which often contradict actual genetic relationships.There are eties (Enga,Maring,BenaBena,Huli,Melpa,Kuma,Gahuku- dozens of examples in which socially.defined kinship statuses Gama,Fore,Marind Anim,ad nauseum;see Berndt,1962; take precedence over biology.The Nuer custom of "woman Langness,1967 Rappaport,1975;Read,1952;Meggitt, marriage"'is a case in point.The Nuer define the status of 1970;Glasse;1971;Strathern,1972;Reay,1959;Van Baal, fatherhood as belonging to the person in whose name cattle 1966;Lindenbaum,1973)are viciously oppressive to women. bridewealth is given for the mother.Thus,a woman can be But the power of males in these groups is not founded on married to another woman,and be husband to the wife and their rolestas fathers or patriarchs,but on their collective father of her children,despite the fact that she is not the adult malenessembodied in secret cults,men's houses,war inseminator (Evans-Pritchard;1951:107-09). fare,exchange networks,ritual knowledge,and various initia- In pre-state societies,kinship is the idiom of social inter- tion procedures Patriarchy is a specific form of male domi- action,organizing economic,political,and ceremonial,as nance,and the use of the term ought to be confined to the well as sexual,activity.One's duties,responsibilities,and Old Testament-type pastoral nomads from-whom the term comes,o grops like them.Abraham wasa Patriarch-one Engels thought that men acquired wealth in the form.of herds and, wanting to pass this wealth to their own children,overthrew "mother old man whose absolute power over wives,children,herds, right"in favor of patrilineal inheritanceThe overthrow.of mother and dependerts was an.aspect of the institution of father- right was the world historical defeat of the female sex.The man took hood,as defined in the social group in which he lived. command in the home also;the woman was degraded and reduced to Whichever:term 'we use,what is important is to develop servitude;she became the slave of his lust and a mere instrument for the production.of children"(Engels1972:120-21;italics in original).As concepts toadequately describe the social organization of has been.often pointed out,women do not necessarily have significant sexuality and the reproduction of the conventions of sex and' social authority in societiespracticing matrilineal inheritance gender.We need to pursue the project Engels.abandoned (Schneider and Gough,1962). t