Two Types Of Division Of Labour In Two Different Hunting-gathering Societies. Essay, Research Paper

The division of labour in these hunter-gatherer societies is

well balanced, and is organised to suit the needs of all of the

members of the society. Every member of these societies plays a

contributes in some way to the community throughout their

life. The !Kung San Bushmen, Kalahari Desert, South Africa- Although

a large group, it is divided into small bands, with each band

being made up of between twenty and sixty people and having its

own territory, within which the members of that band have rights

to gather wild vegetable foods. However, hunters of larger

animals may step into the territories of other bands quite freely

if they are in the pursuit of game. The !Kung are almost entirely

dependant upon hunting and gathering for their food supply. These

people hunt and gather daily, and return in the evening to

distribute all the food that has been collected equally among

every single member of the band. The labour division of the !Kung San is by gender and age. The

people in the 20-60 age group provide the food, while the younger

children and adolescents are not expected to provide regular food

until they are married (most commonly between the ages of fifteen

and twenty for the females, and about five years later for the

males years later), and instead have their older relatives

provide food for them. The older members of the band are well

respected and have a high position in this society, and their

role is to be the leaders of the camps, and to carry out

activities such as ritual curing and making decisions. For many

years after they stop hunting and gathering, the aged are fed and

cared for by their children and grandchildren. The women between the ages of 20-60 are responsible for the

gathering, and work for two to three days a week each, whereas

the men devote about twelve to nineteen hours a week to getting

food. The food gathered by these women provides the bulk of the

total !Kung San diet by weight. A woman gathers on one day enough

food to feed her family, i.e. her elderly and younger relatives

for three days, and spends the rest of her time resting in camp,

doing embroidery, visiting other camps, or entertaining visitors

from other camps. The men of these bands also collect plants and smaller

animals, but their main contribution is the hunting of wild

animals. The hunters work is not regular; men can often hunt

regularly for a week and then do nothing at all for even longer

than a month if times are bad. During these periods, visiting,

entertaining and especially dancing are the primary activities of

men. The Aborigines, Australia- were divided into two main groups.

Ninety per cent of these people lived on the coast, the northern

tropical forests, and the southern and eastern woodlands, while

the remaining ten per cent lived in the interior desert. Also

egalitarian, they shared equally the tasks of daily living,

especially the collecting of food. In this society, labour was

divided by gender; all men were hunters, on land or sea, and the

women"s role was to collect plant foods, shellfish, small

animals and insects. Although meat was an important part of their diet, the foods

gathered by the women provided the majority of their food supply.

These women were very well educated about the local area, and

knew how to find and use an enormous number of different plants,

both for food and for other things such as medicine or making

bags. They also had other skills; such as in the desert, they

would collect the seeds of grasses and ground them into the floor

to made a kind of bread. Their skills even extended to the making

of tools for particular purposes, such as bark dishes for

everything from seeds to babies, and grinding stones for grass

seeds The men"s role was to hunt game. They too made their

own tools and weapons; the spear was the weapon most frequently

used, but axes, clubs and various kinds of throwing sticks were

also implemented. Their methods of hunting were few but often

worked well. One was for the men to surround the animals

together, or to scare them toward other hunters who lay in

hiding. The most common way, however, was for one or two men to

stalk an animal. The Aborigine men also had good tracking skills.

Hunters used disguises to get close to their prey; for instance,

some men disguised themselves as trees by holding up branches,

and some smeared themselves with earth to stop the animal from

being able to catch his scent. The hunters were also very patient, as they often had to sit

and wait motionlessly in intense heat in order to capture their

prey. They also were familiar with the behaviour and "the

ways" of their prey. An example of this was in the way

they used to trap emus. Hunters would lie on their backs and wave

their legs in the air to catch an inquisitive emu"s

attention and lure it towards them. They also used dogs to hunt

animals such as the wallaby, or other methods, such as smoking

out wombats from their holes in the ground.