Anthropological Analysis of an Egalitarian Society (The Lahu people)
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published 09/10/2007
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SummaryUntil recently, according to an innumerable amount of anthropologists and feminists, a gender egalitarian society was simply a utopian ideal (Du, 1-6). It was a concept unattainable to any individual society unless certain concessions were made, such as the view that women and men have “essential differences”, often categorized by male oppression and even then these societies were seen as improbable (Du, 3). However, regardless of the reasoning, a general lack of faith in the possibility for a fully gender egalitarian society among all experts was incredibly prevalent at the opening of Shanshan Du’s book, appropriately titled, Chopsticks Only Work in Pairs. Du then bravely introduces the Lahu people of the mountainous regions in the Yunnan province in southwestern China. These people, the subject of her book, live this utopian ideal of a life, fully embodying the equality portrayed by the two chopsticks referred to in the title. Through the various aspects of their culture, including mythology, daily activities and rites of passage, Shanshan Du proves that, at least for the Lahu people, having just one of the two chopsticks is useless. The aforementioned chopsticks are of course symbolic of the individual members of a dyadic couple, with the man and the woman standing together on one common ground, one no better or more important than the other and useless apart.
Table of Contents
- These ideals are put into practice from the very beginning of a Lahu's life and from the very beginning of their cultural history through their mythology.
- The idea of dualism in Lahu culture hardly stops at their mythological tales, in fact it continues through all of their lives, touching every sector of society.
- The classification continues, on a more positive note, to the 'adult', a status achieved only upon marriage.
- In Lahu society it is never a 'man's job' to do anything.
- One might assume that even though ideally all tasks should be equal at least some of these undertakings such as a primary source of income or town leadership would be attributed to a specific sex, but this is purely not the case.
- Such a discovery is enough to open the eyes of many skeptics and perhaps influence our own way of life.
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