Last centuries were marked by countless theories about the transition from matriarchy to patriarchy and how this change affected the society. Most often, scientists have sought to find an explanation of this development, which is valid for any company.
In 1861, Sir Henry Maine argued, in his “Ancient Law” patriarchal authority that was original and universal way societies function, while the matriarch was an unstable and corrupt form that arose only because the number of women was higher than men. In response to this theory, anthropologist Johann Jakob Bachofen, in “Das Mutterrecht” published the same year, highlighted the idea that, instead, was the matriarch of the initial stage of primitive cultures.
Who and how the earth works?
Almost a century later, Fernand Braudel, one of the greatest modern historians, reported in one of his works found a significant transformation in the society of Mesopotamia. He says that, somewhere around the fifth century BC, the company lived on a fertile territory located between the Tigris and Euphrates passed from matriarchy and the worship of goddesses, the patriarchy. Moreover, the historian believes that this change came as a result of legislation or other political reorganization, but because technologies that Mesopotamians have taken to buy food. At that time there was a social phenomenon with no apparent consequences, but it turned out, however, full of drastic consequences: hoe was replaced by the plow.
This new technology was much harder to master than simple and easy tools they used, until then, mainly women. Because this new technique requires more force, occupation of which he became a practicing men. According to Braudel, pending plow women in Mesopotamia were those responsible for agriculture. With the widespread use of plow, men have taken this prerogative.
Recently, three researchers, Alberto Alesina, Paola Giuliano and Nathan Nunn found credible evidence to support Braudel’s theory, revealing a completely unexpected connection, but the more interesting, from the division of labor practiced in primitive societies and the current state of women in areas geographical. Their study provided empirical evidence suggests that contemporary cultural references that are found in attitudes about women’s status in society, have been shaped by historical forces.
Now that most of people have quit practice agriculture as a source of income, economists have found that there is a link between the economic status of women and agricultural activities of their ancestors. It seems that women who descended from ancestors who practiced plugăritul, is much less likely to work outside the home, to be elected in parliament or run a business, compared to women in countries as developed, But where hoe used predominantly in agriculture.
Causes and effects
Research reinforces the idea supported by Ester Boserup, economist, in 1970, supported the idea that cultural norms on which economic roles are shared between the sexes are rooted in the cultivation of cereals.
In order to develop the study, researchers gathered data to help unusual to reach a common conclusion.
The first source of information was detailed ethnographic description of over 1,200 language groups worldwide. Description of each group contains information on farming them since ancient times. If groups were not written sources, specialists were based on data reported by other people about them. They also took into account specific criteria – that agriculture was practiced strictly by one sex or attending both men and women in this work. The results showed that, historically, women are more involved in agriculture in cultures where the plow was not used.
Despite a series of changes over the centuries (such as industrialization and increasing the participation rate of women in the workforce), economists have found that variations between countries where women prefer to have a job can be explained according to the customs farming of their ancestors. These variations reach huge numbers. Only a quarter of women in the Arab world go to work, while in the African nation of Burundi, 91% of women have a job. In most industrialized countries, the rate of working women varies between 50 and 60%. However, in countries like Rwanda, Botswana, Madagascar and Kenya, where the current population is descended from users of the screed, is more likely than women to work, unlike India, Syria and Egypt, where the past still exists a preference for plug.
Of course, this evidence can not fully support Boserup’s theory. (It is possible that the plow has been adopted by companies that already had very strong convictions about the “place of women and men.”) But a link between the preferential use of screed or plow and status of women in those areas there.
Scientists say that the decision on adoption plow was taken on the soil and climate. Widely plow was used in areas where large areas of cultivated land and were to be made in a short time. Plow is suitable for plowing land parcels which are cultivated cereals such as wheat, barley and rye, but the land where the roots grow and millet, is more appropriate use of screed.
In the research, scientists have been able to use agro-climatic measurements to determine which parts of the world have adopted the plow. The data show that ethnic groups whose ancestors chose to plow under different climatic conditions maintained status for men and women, to this day.
Therefore, scientists have concluded that this technology is responsible for the great change that has imposed the world, the transition from matriarchy to patriarchy.
Long-term consequences
The evidence suggests that history agriculturiiafectează researchers have included people’s beliefs and extracts from the World Values Survey (a comprehensive plan for research that explores people’s values and beliefs). Scientists found that people who descend from ploughmen believes that when unemployment is high, men should get a job first and then women. They also tend to believe that the best political leaders are men. These beliefs have been seen with immigrants. Researchers have found that is much less likely daughters of U.S. immigrants from cultures that have adopted the technology in prehistoric plow land, to seek a job. However, researchers admit that the theory is not true in all regions. Many Western countries, which were populated predominantly by users plows became permissive for women who have a job. This is due largely, of the Second World War, when – the men being left on the front – women had to practice the skills that were hitherto performed by men. However, in countries outside the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the rate of women in employment is about 16 percent lower than the working men.
