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Who does which work in a food system?

A division of labour describes patterns of assigned work, not a universal rule.

People in a community may divide food gathering, hunting, farming or preparation by age, skill, family role or gender. Anthropologists call a pattern organised around gender a sexual division of labour. The term describes a social arrangement; it does not prove that every individual has the same tasks or that the arrangement is biologically fixed.

To understand a food system, ask who makes the assignment, whether tasks change with circumstances and whose labour is visible when food is shared. A simple label can otherwise erase cooperation and flexibility.

A small example

If one group often gathers plants and another often hunts, processing and distributing the food may still involve many other people.

Keep in mind

Avoid treating a description of one society or one historical moment as a rule about all cultures.

Source & attribution

Introduction to Anthropology — Gathering and Hunting

Jennifer Hasty, David G. Lewis, Marjorie M. Snipes · OpenStax, Rice University

CC BY 4.0. Rewritten as a self-contained explanation; the example and activity are Vakataka additions. No source images reproduced.

Source edition: 2024-10-04T17:26:38Z

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