The Michigan Daily-Wednesday, September 16, 1987- Page 5


Primitive women share
modern dilemmas

By ELIZABETH ATKINS
A study of some of the world's
most primitive societies reveals
striking similarities between modern
women and primitive women,
according to Bobbi Low, an associate
professor in the University's School
of Natural Resources.
In her study called "Sex, Power,
and Resources: Male and Female
Strategies," Low studied 93 non-
technological societies ranging from
central Australia to the Amazon
Basin, including tribes of forest-
dwellers, hunter-gatherers, nomadic
and stable peoples and farmers.
Low found that men generally ex-
ert themselves in the work force to
obtain resources. The more resources
a man gets, the more wives he gets,
and therefore, the more offspring he
creates. Many of the societies in the
study are polygamous and men often
marry sisters or barter cows for
women.
"The more polygamous (more
wives than husbands) the society, the
more boys are taught to hustle," Low
said.
"Men historically get resources to
get greater reproductive success.
Typically, men with more wealth get
more wives," she said. Women in
those societies must gather resources
to nourish and care for their babies,
Low said.
SHE SAID women could hold
political office in only nine of the

societies she studied. Otherwise, the
only power they can exert is within
the household sphere. Similarities
exist between these primitive soci-
eties and marriages in the United
States.
Low found that primitive women
exert control over food supplies in
their communities, but rarely enjoy
wider influence. Similarly, women in
modern societies spend most of the
money and have professional jobs,
but still hold few top-level positions.
"There's a pattern in most soci-
eties for women to use resources for
children," Low said. However, she
added that when both individuals in a
marriage work, women still do more
than half the housework.
Low said women in primitive
societies perpetuate this pattern by
training their sons to hustle and
achieve power while the mothers
teach their daughters obedience and
hard work.
Also, these power differences
between men and women persist into
advanced, modemn societies - not so
much because of the inherent differ-
ences between the sexes in the ways
boys and girls are brought up, Low

SHE SAID finding correlations
between primitive and modern
societies is useful in understanding
the basis of our society and initiating
change.
Low added though these patterns
are not wrong for those cultures, they
show from what our society has-
developed. "It makes sense to change
and do everything we can (to achieve
equality). Finding out what has been
is not at all what has to be," she said-
Also, Low said men have many
more choices in the primitive sopi-
eties. If they feel uncomfortable with
their lives and wives, they can leave
and create a new life elsewhere.
Although women can divorce, they
have few choices and rarely remai~ry
and therefore lack financial support.
At the onset of her study, Low
said she hoped to find ecological
parallels between the societies which
would explain the roles of women,
but found none.
Low studiedsocieties ranging in
size from less than one person per
five square miles to over 500 people
per square mile.

Daily Photo by SCOTT LITUCHY
Lines, queues, ...
Whatever you want to call them, long lines are a familiar sight everywhere on campus. This is especially
true at places like Kinko's where University students, like first-year LSA student Loveleen Jawanda wait
patiently to buy their coursepacks.
Bork defends views as hearings open

(Continued from Page1).

couples.

Bork said he disagreed with the
court's reasoning in that case creating
a "free-floating right of privacy" and
was not defending a state's right to
ban contraceptives.
Earlier yesterday, Bork was
extolled by former President Ford and
others as brilliant and compassionate
but denounced by opponents as
biased and closed-minded as the
Judiciary Committee began hearings
on his nomination to the Supreme
Court.

Questions about Bork's
qualifications were raised by three
uncommitted members of the-
committee, which appears to be
about evenly divided on whether or
not to recommend confirmation.
However, Senate Majority Leader
Robert Byrd (D-W. Va) repeated his
intention to have the full Senate vote
on the nomination. "I can assure that
the nomination won't be killed by
the Judiciary Committee, no matter
how many senators vote against the
nomination," he said.
Some 350 sign-carrying, anti-

Bork demonstrators rallied in a park
across the street from the Senate
office building where the hearings
were being held. In the hearing room,
in an extraordinary appearance for a
former President, Ford said Bork's
"record has been exemplary" since he
took his seat on the U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals here five years ago.

The University of Michigan
CENTER FOR CHINESE STUDIES
presents the seventh annual
ALEXANDER ECKSTEIN MEMORIAL LECTURE
LIU GUOGUANG
Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
Former Director of the Cass Institute of Economics
"CHANGES IN OWNERSHIP FORM IN CHINA"
SEPTEMBER 17,1987
8:00 p.m.
RACKHAM AMPHITHEATRE
Reception following the lecture,
COMMONS ROOM, LANE HALL
IT'S HP DAY
AGAIN AT
ULRICH'S!
Stop by the Electronic's Showroom
on Wednesday, September 16, 1987
*A Hewlett-Packard Representative*
will be available for questions.
*Free Painters Caps*
(while quantities last)
* Trade in your old calculator*
It's worth $10 when you buy an HP
calculator on September 16, 1987
(only one trade per customer)

SiTHE
Ann Arbor Transportation Authortty
It's Required Riding!
Give yourself a new view of the world. Let
AATA take you wherever you're going
throughout the Ann Arbor-Ypsilanti area.
Whether its shopping, a movie or restaurant,
or a part-time job, AATA service is convenient
and dependable.
For route and schedule information,
call 996-0400.

T EC H.NO::LO..G.Y F 4 R A N E W A G E

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Who Do You Call
When You Want To
Identify A Soccer
Ball From 22,300 Miles
In Space?
If your answer is Ghost Busters, we want to wish you all
the best and have a nice day: If you answered "TRW"
here's the rest of the story.
The U.S. Air Force asked us to build a ground-based
electro-optical surveillance system that could identify
an object the size of a soccer ball from 22,300 miles in
space. We did it, utilizing 3 telescopes and a large com-
puter system. Then they asked us to build four more.
Quite an achievement, but it's just one example of
TRW's impact on the future.
TRW offers you the freedom to move among a wide
variety of opportunities in microelectronics, high
energy lasers, large software systems, communica-
tions, and scientific spacecraft. If you're majoring in
engineering, computer science, math, or physics, and
want to be with a company that's driving technology
into the next century, it's not too soon to talk. Tomor-
row is taking shape at a company called TRW.
If you are unable to see us on campus, please send
your resume to: TRW, College Relations, E2/4000,
One Space Park, Redondo Beach, CA 90278.
Because Anywhere Else Is Yesterday.
Equal Opportunity Employer
U.S. Citizenship Required

t,,I

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Business Consultant
*Uses Algebraic Arithmetic
'Four-line Display
'Four Markup and Percentage
Formulas
'Statistics Functions
ePrompts and Answers in
Words and Numbers

HEWLETT
PACKARD
HP-28C

'Symbolic Algebra/Calculus
'Function and Data Plotting
-Matrix, Vector and Complex
Number Artihmetic
'Advanced Statistics
'Powerful Programming
'Unit Conversions

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