Aka and Ngandu Pygmy Tribes and Gender Role

¶ … Components of a Good Life," Hewlett (2013b) focuses on AKA and Ngandu concepts of female adolescence, including issues associated with puberty and rites of passage to adulthood. The author links the cultural components of female puberty with evidence from psychological development. Adolescence is a transitional period or life stage, generally characterized by psychic and social exploration, identity formation, and increased risk taking. Hewlett's thesis in this chapter is that gender is constructed as a process involving interactions between human biology/developmental psychology, culture, and the ecology of politics and economics.

Hewlett's (2013b) data is gathered from field studies, including in-depth open-ended interviews with Aka and Ngandu women. Secondary sources are also cited in the bibliography, especially when referring to psychological or sociological research that substantiates the primary theses of the chapter. The author attempts to draw connections between research in evolutionary biology, developmental psychology, and cultural anthropology. The anecdotes and observations gathered in the field bolster prior research, and the research is heightened and substantiated by the direct evidence from Aka and Ngandu women.

The emphasis on the field work is on shifts in gender roles, norms, and customs with regards to the transitional period of adolescence. Focusing on women in two different tribes, Hewlett (2013b) illustrates two remarkably different normative structures and worldviews. The Aka and Ngandu have completely different concepts of female sexuality and female roles in society. Ngandu are patriarchal; the Aka more egalitarian. Evidence for these differences comes from objective observations of task differentiation, divisions of labor, and customs related to marriage and other rites of passage.

For example, the Ngandu have strict gender divisions of labor with women confined to domestic chores and childrearing. The Aka do not have gender-differentiated roles, other than those most obviously given by biology such as the need for women to bear children. Aka women are not treated as commodities as they are in Ngandu culture, in which the young girl who is of marrying age is purchased for her "brideprice," which diminishes if she has lost her virginity (p. 99). Moreover, marriage "ensures [the boy's] rights to [the girl's] future reproductive abilities" (Hewlett, 2013b, p. 99). On the other hand, the Aka permit, and even openly encourage, sexual play and exploration among their adolescent males and females. Marriage does not include an elaborate ceremony, but is encouraged as a form of coupling that produces children.

Both the Aka and the Ngandu value marriage as a pathway to childrearing. Yet gender has little to do with the cultural value placed on bearing children. As Hewlett (2013b) points out, the ecology of the Aka and Ngandu determines their proclivity to early reproduction and frequent childbirths, as infant mortality rates are high. Having sex is considered a form of work, the "work of the night" as both the Aka and Ngandu put it. This type of work is not necessarily perceived of as being different from other types of labor carried out through the day. Differences in gender roles and norms are secondary to the primary motivation to have sex in order to propagate. Love, however, is important to the male-female relationships in both societies, whereas neither envisions homosexual romance or sex as being feasible.

Other ecological considerations should be able to explain the differences in gender roles and norms, but in this case, they do not. Both Aka and Ngandu use hunting and gathering, but acquiring subsistence resources is gendered only for the Ngandu. Reasons for gender role differentiation are not based on pragmatic concerns, other than those that are imaginary or customary, especially in light of the Aka. The cultural knowledge that evolves out of ecological expediency varies as if randomly. Gender roles and norms reflect deeply rooted customs as opposed to economic needs. The research parallels "the gap between traditional women and traditional men in divorce, fertility intentions, and fertility outcomes," (Kaufman, 2000, p. 128). The research is therefore generalizable as opposed to being a counterexample to global structures.

Gender roles and norms are political in nature, determining the status of women and men in the society. In Chapter 7, "Husband-Wife Reciprocity and the Father-Infant Relationship among Aka Pygmies," Hewlett (1992) hypothesize that "as the number, frequency, and cooperative nature of activities that husband and wife participate in together increases, the level of father involvement increases," (p. 159). The fieldwork in this chapter was conducted on Aka pygmies but can be extrapolated to other populations. After all, the author found that Aka fathers "provide more direct care and are near their infants more than fathers in any other human population that has been investigated," (p. 153). Gender roles and norms for the Aka are unique. Aka women participate in the hunt, with men often at camp with the children. Yet the Aka culture is not one of strict gender role differentiation and division of labor. Rather, the Aka promote individuality and autonomy of choice regarding sexuality, behavior, and labor.

The fertility rates of the Aka are high, undoubtedly because of the importance placed on the "work of the night" and producing as many children as possible. Fathers participate in the caretaking of children partly because of pygmy physiology; the ratio of newborns and toddler weights to mother weight is high because of the small stature of the people. This fact does not, however account for different concepts of role differentiation in other Pygmy groups. Hewlett (1992) refers to the Aka model as one of "reciprocal altruism," and links the concept to social organization of work theory and the "concept of many stranded relations from economic anthropology," (p. 159). In other words, both men and women in the Aka group benefit from helping each other out rather than strictly demarcating gendered zones. Furthermore, Hewlett (1992) postulates that the greater the diversity of activities performed, the greater the need for reciprocity. The research corroborates literature on reciprocal altruism theories suggesting that the phenomenon of reciprocal altruism is more common among kinship groups. For example, Curry, Roberts & Dunbar (2013) point out, "evolutionary psychology suggests that such behaviour is primarily the product of adaptations for kin- and reciprocal altruism, dependent on the degree of genetic relatedness and exchange of benefits, respectively," (p. 283). This research conforms to prior and subsequent literature on the topic, and is therefore generalizable and not a counterexample.