Cultural Perceptions and the Productive Roles of Rural Pakistani Women

Abstract

In most societies, women have been defined largely in terms of their maternal and caretaking roles and hence been stereotyped as "domestics". Epstein (1986); Ortner (1974); Reiter (1975); Rosaldo and Lamphere (1974); Rogers (1979) and Nelson (1974) argue that the roles that females take have been viewed as relatively oflesser significance in larger cultural pictures. Male as opposed to female activities have always been recognised as being more important and cultural systems have given authority to the roles of men and have portrayed them as being of greater value. Anthropology, in the past, has also followed in the same evaluations and greater attention has been given to the documentation of male activities which constitute the "public" life of the culture and are therefore more visible to the researchers. As a result the "private/domestic" spheres where women are involved have been downgraded. All this has led to impoverished ethnographic accounts, and to a number of misconceptions regarding female values, contributions and activities. Rogers (1979) states: