Published in 2008 (first published 1981)
344 pages
Eleanor Burke Leacock (1922–1987) was well-known for her ethnographic work among primitive societies, and her research is still a formative influence among feminist anthropologists. She was a unique individual whose political life spanned both academics and the world of struggle. She was an anthropologist who was also a Communist Party sympathizer, blacklisted from tenured faculty positions for a number of years until she was finally hired full-time in the City University of New York system in 1972. Leacock always saw her extensive theoretical writing as work in the service of social justice.
What is this book about?
“Highly recommended, both as a critically presented state-of-the-art discussion and as an account of how one’s personal/political history informs the process of scientific inquiry.”—Choice
This classic anthropological study debunks the many myths behind the idea of “natural” male superiority. Drawing on extensive historical and cross-cultural research, Eleanor Burke Leacock shows that claims of male superiority are based on carefully constructed myths with no factual historical basis. She also documents numerous historical examples of egalitarian gender relations.
