Description:

Using information unconsciously encoded into languages, I ask "How do women + men get (or fail to get) respect within their societies?" I start with a simple prehistoric Algonquian society where women gathered plant foods while men hunted, + both got approximately equal respect. Some changes in warfare, economy, + social organization over the centuries had major impacts upon the social statuses of women vs men, while others did not. I also examine the prehistoric Quechua farmers of a thousand years earlier. They developed a sophisticated agriculture using irrigated terraces, incorporated many tribes into the largest empire the world had yet seen, + then were plunged into feudal oppression by the Spanish Conquest. They are especially interesting because -- contrary to the predictions of most theories -- they have maintained an equality of the sexes typical of simple societies that gather + hunt. I also discuss Proto Indo European society, sex gender, + the origin of matrilineal organization.