Lynne Brydon

Women in the Third World : gender issues in rural and urban areas

Social scientists critique womens roles and their status in developing countries. They specifically look at their roles in child care housework subsistence farming employment and health care. They address status by examining wider societys value and meaning given to womens roles which in turn reflect and influence gender relations. They highlight the ideological and practical gender inequality that is incorporated into development. The majority of women in this book are low income women since poverty is widespread in developing countries and most of the literature covers low income women. They 1st examine women in rural areas then those in urban areas. 5 major themes relevant to gender questions are used. Households present the 1st theme since they are the fundamental site for sexual division of labor. The next theme is reproduction meaning transformation of good and services for household use (nonincome generating activities) as well as welfare family planning health care and urban housing and services. Reproduction in the former meaning limits women from partaking in public life and politics. The 3rd theme is production which refers to all income generating activities. In rural areas however it is often more difficult to distinguish between production and reproduction because of the intermediate category of subsistence farming. The 4th theme incorporates both policy and planning. They look at agricultural and rural development planning; urban planning including housing programs service provision and community development projects; and government and development agencies consideration of women and womens work. The last theme is rural-urban migration. They attempt to make generalizations about each major developing country region: Latin America the Caribbean Middle East and North Africa Sub-Sahara Africa South Asia and Southeast Asia.

Women at Work: Some Changes in Family Structure in Amedzofe-Avatime, Ghana

This paper examines some recent developments in family and residential group structure in the village of Amedzofe-Avatime. The village is one of a group of seven which, with their surrounding farmlands, constitute the Avatime traditional area in the Volta Region of Ghana. The study of Amedzofe (and Avatime) family structure is singled out here as of interest for two reasons. In the first place, a study of current (1977) Avatime family structure indicates that new forms are emerging of patterns of child rearing. Esther Goodys work on both traditional and more recent patterns of fostering in Ghana is particularly relevant here (E. N. and J. R. Goody 1967; Goody 1970; 1975). Secondly such a study provides empirical evidence that Goodes (1963) pattern of change in family structure showing the increasing influence of ‘modernisation’, while it may be pertinent in the long term, is not being realised among Avatime. What is happening, rather, is a drift away from a stable conjugal pattern. Here I am concerned mainly with the first point. As it is elucidated, it will become clear that the incidence of Goodes nuclear family based units is not increasing in modern rural Avatime. A detailed examination of the structure and composition of residential groups and their significance for a modern society is forthcoming.

CONSTRUCTING AVATIME: QUESTIONS OF HISTORY AND IDENTITY IN A WEST AFRICAN POLITY, c . 1690s TO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Small-scale societies, like Avatime in eastern Ghana, established, maintained and developed themselves in a range of ways, in spaces between large, centralized states, in West Africa in the precolonial era. This essay demonstrates the inclusivity and initiative (in terms of both economic entrepreneurship and bricolage) of this small group before its effective destruction by Asante in about 1870, and looks at the ways in which Avatime was reconstructed in the last third of the nineteenth century. In addition, issues of ethnicity and identity are broadly addressed, comparing Avatimes inclusivity with tropes of difference discussed in recent studies of small-scale societies in this journal.

Domestic Violence and the Law in Colonial and Postcolonial AfricaEMILY S. BURRILL, RICHARD L. ROBERTS & ELIZABETH THORNBERRY (Eds)

area of Matsuo, and the site of Hokkesanji, founded by Abutsu’s acquaintance and supporter, famous medieval priest Keisei (1189–1268), be located in the north. This geographical confusion does not, of course, alter the book’s argument; yet, being a significant historical detail related to the protagonist’s background, it seems an unfortunate mistake to make. That being said, the book provides useful maps of Abutsu’s travel to Kamakura, which give a good sense of the distances travelled, and the possible hardships and tribulations involved and experienced by some women in medieval times. For the subject Christina Laffin wishes to tackle, this book is truly engaging in that it casts light on the life of an extraordinary woman, whose talents deserve historical and literary recognition.