Monopolization of Knowledge, Social Inequality, and Female Status: A Cross-Cultural Study

Abstract

The author argues that various types or displays of social inequality may have been shaped by quite different phenomena. Different mechanisms of structuring or institutionalization of hierarchical systems could act in parallel in the same culture (or society) or could be specific to particular cultures in particular periods and circumstances. These mechanisms could have their foundations in the sphere of material production and property relations as well as outside this sphere. In the last case, monopolization of special knowledge and occupations (often closely connected with ideology) by certain social groups is a powerful force that often shaped and still shapes social inequality. To illustrate the idea, data on some hunter-gatherer societies where such mechanisms of social differentiation existed in the most pure and uncomplicated forms are used.