On the subject of gender, fortuitously, is a review in the New York Review
of Books by Clifford Geertz, for many years among the best thinkers in
anthropology, of _A Society without Fathers: The Na of China_, by Cai Hua.
The Na are a non-Han minority who for a millenium or more have survived
without permanent sexual unions, few inhibitions, and equality between men
and women in all spheres of life. Stands more than a few assumptions on
their heads.
After describing the society and the book Geertz, ever the card, begins his
analysis with: "As one prepares to book passage for Yunnan, however..."
NYRB's archive is free and complete, but current issues are usually posted
two weeks after paper publication. It will be fun to read the list's
reactions then.
Mark
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