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Columbia Classics in Anthropology
Women of the Forest
When it originally appeared, this groundbreaking ethnography was one of the first works to focus on gender in anthropology. The thirtieth anniversary edition of Women of the Forest reconfirms the book's importance for contemporary studies on gender and life in the Amazon. The book covers Yolanda and Robert Murphy's year of fieldwork among the Mundurucú people of Brazil in 1952. The Murphy's ethnographic analysis takes into account the historical, ecological, and cultural setting of the Mundurucú, including the mythology surrounding women, women's work and household life, marriage and child rearing, the effects of social change on the female role, sexual antagonism, and the means by which women compensate for their low social position.
The new foreword―written collectively by renowned anthropologists who were all students of the Murphys―is both a tribute to the Murphys and a critical reflection on the continued relevance of their work today.
The new foreword―written collectively by renowned anthropologists who were all students of the Murphys―is both a tribute to the Murphys and a critical reflection on the continued relevance of their work today.
262 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1974
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 5, 2019
Home and Away
Since this book was written in 1974, a huge number of trees have been turned into pages written on the relations between men and women and the position of women vis-à-vis men. Women and their differing roles in society have been the subject of innumerable theses, books, articles, and newspaper reports. Every writer has her or his own slant on things. I am not well-versed in this topic, nor do I have my well-thought-out, but unpublished opinion. I chose to read this book more because it is about a small tribe of Indians in the Amazon forests than because it’s a study in which the general problem of inter-gender relations is addressed. As an ethnography, it ranks as a well-written one in which you definitely can get some of the flavor of life back then and in that remote place.
Every ethnography has its particular angle. In this one, Yolanda Murphy, who lived among the Mundurucú Indians with her husband way back in the early 1950s, writes about the lives of the women among them and contrasts them consistently with those of Euro-American women. She happened to be there in the midst of a time of change. The Mundurucú of southern Pará state in Brazil had lived in savanna villages where they could hunt in nearby forests, but also grow manioc along the rivers. But desire for money and new material goods pushed many of them to shift to riverside quarters where they tapped rubber trees so as to sell their product to Brazilian traders. This change produced the ideal chance for the anthropologists. The more traditional savanna villages still preserved the old relationships between men and women. The men hunted and did some of the heavy work, like building houses and clearing forest for new fields. Otherwise, they hung out in a separate men’s house which harbored sacred flutes. Women were not allowed to see such flutes on pain of gang rape. The men slept in a special men’s house and led almost separate lives. The women grew manioc, cleaning and processing it to make farinha, the Mundurucú staff of life. Several generations of women lived, took care of children, cooked, and bonded in a large house to which the men came on many occasions---for instance, for sex and cooked food. Murphy felt that though the ideology of the tribe was that men were superior and rightly had power, it was more in theory than in fact. No man would try to organize the activities of women. The women wielded considerable daily authority, acting quite independently. Mutual aloofness and separation seemed to be the tone between the sexes. It spoke of separation of the sexes and a loose interdependency as contrasted to “the hothouse quality of American marriage” (p.159)
All this changed once they moved to the riverbank settlements. There, tradition collapsed. The men’s house disappeared. Men lived with their wives, in smaller family groups, and worked at tasks which they never touched back in the savanna environment. Women enjoyed more support from their husbands. Fishing replaced hunting. Fishing is a more solitary task, plus it did not occupy so much time. So men’s solidarity also broke down. Selling rubber to the Brazilian traders brought in cash that they formerly did not have. The women were able to buy material goods that they had lacked. For women, the new environment was positive, while the men looked back at a better age in the past. The book concludes with a general overview of male-female relationships in Western and Mundurucú cultures.
The Mundurucú are still there, fighting large dams and environmental degradation. It is unlikely that they will survive. We might learn a lot from their traditional society, but I am quite sure that we won’t.
Since this book was written in 1974, a huge number of trees have been turned into pages written on the relations between men and women and the position of women vis-à-vis men. Women and their differing roles in society have been the subject of innumerable theses, books, articles, and newspaper reports. Every writer has her or his own slant on things. I am not well-versed in this topic, nor do I have my well-thought-out, but unpublished opinion. I chose to read this book more because it is about a small tribe of Indians in the Amazon forests than because it’s a study in which the general problem of inter-gender relations is addressed. As an ethnography, it ranks as a well-written one in which you definitely can get some of the flavor of life back then and in that remote place.
Every ethnography has its particular angle. In this one, Yolanda Murphy, who lived among the Mundurucú Indians with her husband way back in the early 1950s, writes about the lives of the women among them and contrasts them consistently with those of Euro-American women. She happened to be there in the midst of a time of change. The Mundurucú of southern Pará state in Brazil had lived in savanna villages where they could hunt in nearby forests, but also grow manioc along the rivers. But desire for money and new material goods pushed many of them to shift to riverside quarters where they tapped rubber trees so as to sell their product to Brazilian traders. This change produced the ideal chance for the anthropologists. The more traditional savanna villages still preserved the old relationships between men and women. The men hunted and did some of the heavy work, like building houses and clearing forest for new fields. Otherwise, they hung out in a separate men’s house which harbored sacred flutes. Women were not allowed to see such flutes on pain of gang rape. The men slept in a special men’s house and led almost separate lives. The women grew manioc, cleaning and processing it to make farinha, the Mundurucú staff of life. Several generations of women lived, took care of children, cooked, and bonded in a large house to which the men came on many occasions---for instance, for sex and cooked food. Murphy felt that though the ideology of the tribe was that men were superior and rightly had power, it was more in theory than in fact. No man would try to organize the activities of women. The women wielded considerable daily authority, acting quite independently. Mutual aloofness and separation seemed to be the tone between the sexes. It spoke of separation of the sexes and a loose interdependency as contrasted to “the hothouse quality of American marriage” (p.159)
All this changed once they moved to the riverbank settlements. There, tradition collapsed. The men’s house disappeared. Men lived with their wives, in smaller family groups, and worked at tasks which they never touched back in the savanna environment. Women enjoyed more support from their husbands. Fishing replaced hunting. Fishing is a more solitary task, plus it did not occupy so much time. So men’s solidarity also broke down. Selling rubber to the Brazilian traders brought in cash that they formerly did not have. The women were able to buy material goods that they had lacked. For women, the new environment was positive, while the men looked back at a better age in the past. The book concludes with a general overview of male-female relationships in Western and Mundurucú cultures.
The Mundurucú are still there, fighting large dams and environmental degradation. It is unlikely that they will survive. We might learn a lot from their traditional society, but I am quite sure that we won’t.
February 19, 2010
A good ethnographic account of a native tribe and the role women played in it. It's funny to see how women everyone have such similarities in diverse situations.
Margaret Mead's work is definitely noteworthy and the information in this book is sound... however it is an almost painfully slow read.
Margaret Mead's work is definitely noteworthy and the information in this book is sound... however it is an almost painfully slow read.
March 4, 2009
An anthropological study of women of a tribe in the Amazon/Brazil area. Research done in the lat 50's and 60's. showed differences between savanna and river dwellers of the same tribe as a result of the encroachment of the modern world.
September 30, 2009
This book is an ethnography, and it is actually a really good enthnography. It is written to be enjoyed by more than just anthropologists.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews