Victoria Bernal

Gender, culture, and capitalism: Women and the remaking of Islamic 'tradition' in a Sudanese village

Have women in third-world societies been made second-class citizens by colonialism, incorporation into the capitalist world economy, and class formation? Or are women relegated to less prestigious and less economically rewarding roles by patriarchal ideologies and practices the origins of which lie in indigenous cultures? Much of the anthropological scholarship on women can be divided between those who emphasize the relative importance of capitalism (for example, Leacock 1981; Nash and Fernandez-Kelly 1983; Boserup 1970) and those who emphasize culture (for example, Ortner and Whitehead 1981; Schlegel 1990; Rosaldo 1974) as determinants of gender roles and relations.

Cultivating Workers: Peasants and Capitalism in a Sudanese Village

Detailed, empirical, micro-level data back up Bernals arguments as she explores labor markets, rural-to-urban migration, wage levels, patterns of work, capital accumulation, and their impact on Sudanese agriculture and the lives of peasant workers.