The sexual division of labor provides one of the most promising mediums through which to explore gender in past societies (see also Stahl and Cruz, Chapter 11). Anthropology has shown us that there is commonly a clear distinction between those technologies and activities that are regarded as “male” and those that are regarded as “female” (e.g., D’Andrade 1974; Murdock and Provost 1973), and there exists the possibility of identifying similar distinctions in the archaeological record. The sexual division of labor has been described as “the original and most basic form of economic specialization” (Murdock and Provost 1973:203), and there has been a general tendency to see an inherent distinction between female “domestic” tasks and male “industry.” Studies of chimpanzee populations in the Tai forest, Ivory Coast, have shown a clear difference in tool use between the sexes and the beginnings of sexual specialization of activities amongst primates (Boesch-Achermann and Boesch 1994). Recently, however, feminist scholars have begun to question the long-held belief in a simple, direct relationship between gender and gendered activities, as well as challenge the idea that biological and social differences between men and women lead naturally to a sexual division of labor (Moore 1991:408–409). Instead, they suggest that there is a more complex, fluid relationship between gender and technology and, importantly, that gender must be understood as a set of historical relations.
Technological phenomena, though often divorced by archaeologists from their social framework, are nevertheless full social phenomena (Lemonnier 1989:156), and past activities can thus only be fully understood when all aspects, including the question of gender, are considered. In this paper, the technologies and activities that first appear in the archaeological record of the Interlacustrine Region (the area of the east-central African Great Lakes, comprising Uganda, western Kenya, the eastern border of Zaire, Rwanda, Burundi, and northwestern Tanzania) in Early Iron Age Urewe communities will be examined as social phenomena. It is probable that these technologies and activities were gendered, and the changing relationship between male and female sections of the community that may have resulted from, or be reflected by, these technological innovations will be explored. In the discussion of this particular case study, the wider issues of the sexual division of labor will be reexamined; to what extent were activities divided “naturally” into domestic female tasks and industrial male tasks and to what degree is it possible to see more complex cultural constructions of gender?
Technological distinctions have commonly been used as convenient chronological labels by archaeologists. In the prehistory of the Interlacustrine Region (see Figure 9.1), the terms Late Stone Age and Early Iron Age have been applied to two distinct and, to a certain degree, successive communities that were active in the region during the 1st millennium BC. The inadequacy of these basic terms has been increasingly recognized, echoing the continent-wide debate for a reappraisal of chronological terminology, yet the fundamental impact that we perceive technologies to have on our lives is indicated by the continued use of these terms. In the Interlacustrine Region, however, the adoption of metals was only one of a series of technological and economic changes that can be recognized from the archaeological record at this date, the beginning of ceramic manufacture and use and the adoption of farming practices being the most prominent.
While these changes have been the subject of some debate (e.g., Robertshaw 1994; Van Neer 1995), the Early Iron Age communities of the Interlacustrine Region have remained largely anonymous. Viewed as packages of subsistence strategies and technical achievements, the question of social identity has only very recently become a subject of archaeological discussion (MacLean 1996b).
The relative paucity of archaeological evidence from this period may have encouraged much of this past neglect. While concentrations of smelting activity have resulted in excavation and detailed discussion of early iron technology (e.g., Schmidt 1980; Van Grunderbeek et al. 1983), no Early Iron Age settlement has yet been examined. Indeed, only three possible Early Iron Age house structures have been recorded: in Zaire (Van Noten 1979:69), Tanzania (Schmidt and Childs 1985), and Uganda (MacLean 1996d). At present, therefore, we only have evidence for some technologies and activities, yet, as has been stated, technological phenomena must be recognized as full social phenomena. In this paper I will attempt, through an examination of these archaeological data and of ethnographic data from the region, to build a picture of social change in the 1st millennium BC from a discussion of the social aspects of these new technologies and activities.
Figure 9.1. The Interlacustrine Region.
In 1993 and 1994 an archaeological survey was conducted in the district of Rakai, which lies in southwestern Uganda between the shores of Lake Victoria and the Tanzanian border (see Figure 9.1). The aim of this fieldwork was to establish comparative activity and settlement patterns for Late Stone Age and Early Iron Age communities (see MacLean 1996a,c,d), and thus to provide a more controlled picture of activity in the region than was available from various previous excavations. The evidence obtained from the Rakai surveys supplemented the available archaeological data, and enabled a basic understanding of 1st millennium BC activity in the region to be reached (MacLean 1996a).
At the beginning of this period bands of foragers using a microlithic technology inhabited much of this area. These foragers did not use ceramics and are represented today by scatters of quartz implements and debris. Evidence from Rakai supported the claim that these aceramic Late Stone Age communities were, to some degree, nomadic, and they appear to have moved throughout much of the region, settling temporarily in both rockshelters and open sites (frequently located on hilltops). Work in Karagwe, northwestern Tanzania, has suggested that, in this area at least, movement may have been seasonal as groups followed the migrations of animal herds (Reid and Njau 1994).
At a handful of sites located along the shores of Lake Victoria and its larger rivers, evidence of contemporary, culturally distinct groups, termed Kansyore, has been found. These groups were also using a microlithic toolkit but in addition were manufacturing and using poor-quality pottery. The tendency for Kansyore sites to be located at more turbulent stretches of water, faunal evidence from some sites, and the decoration of pottery using fish bones and shells suggests that these were specialized fishing communities. While they may also have been seasonally mobile, it is possible that they were more permanently settled than the inland forager groups.
In the middle of the 1st millennium BC we see the appearance of very different communities throughout the region. These groups were manufacturing and using a good quality ceramic, Urewe ware, and had replaced the lithic toolkit with iron. Extensive smelting debris has been recorded in certain locations, most notably in northwestern Tanzania, southern Rwanda, and central Burundi (Schmidt and Childs 1985; Van Noten and Raymaekers 1988; Van Grunderbeek et al. 1983; Schmidt, Chapter 8), but appears to be absent in other areas, such as Rakai. Analysis of the available regional pattern of Urewe material (ceramic scatters and ironworking debris) suggests that centers of population existed that may have been controlling the production and distribution of iron (MacLean 1996a). The Urewe communities were, to some degree, food producing. They cleared and settled the more fertile hillsides and gentle lower slopes, and, though no convincing archaeobotanical or palynological evidence yet exists, it appears likely that they were experimenting with a range of crops, including sorghum, finger millet, and possibly bananas (MacLean 1996a; P. de Maret 1996: personal communication). By the 1st millennium AD, there is evidence for domestic cattle and goats or sheep in the west of the region (Van Neer 1995), and it is possible that the first farming communities also had some livestock.
The Early Iron Age Urewe communities thus represent a period of considerable technological and economic change in the region, a period in which new activities were adopted and incorporated into the social framework. Those activities for which we have direct archaeological evidence, and those that we can convincingly assume from more indirect data, are detailed below.
Ceramic production Fragments of Urewe pottery are, at present, the prime indicator of past Early Iron Age communities. Although ceramics were manufactured by the Late Stone Age Kansyore communities before the appearance of Early Iron Age Urewe ware, Kansyore settlement appears to have been limited, both geographically and in numbers of communities, and across most of the region Late Stone Age communities did not manufacture ceramics. Thus, away from the few Kansyore communities settled around Lake Victoria and its rivers, ceramic manufacture first appears in the Early Iron Age communities. Urewe ware is clearly unrelated to the Kansyore pottery in form, decorative style, or technology. Urewe ceramics generally take the shape of necked vessels or shallow bowls, being characterized by a thickened, everted, beveled rim and the occasional presence of a dimple in the pot base. Decoration is commonly confined to a band on the rim or shoulder, and consists of incised patterns, including bands of cross-hatching, zigzag, parallel lines, and pendant loops or triangles. The fabric is of good quality, being well made and well fired, and tends to be rather thin—occasionally no more than 3 mm (Soper 1969:150). Both the interior and exterior surface can be highly burnished with either a black graphite or a red ochre finish.
Iron production There is substantial evidence for Early Iron Age iron production, primarily, at present, from northwestern Tanzania, southern Rwanda and central Burundi. This evidence consists of furnace bases, fragments of furnace superstructure, tuyeres (blow pipes), and slag. Attempts have been made to reconstruct these early furnace structures (Schmidt and Avery 1978; Van Grunderbeek et al. 1983), and it appears, from excavated evidence, that they were of a non-slag-tapping low shaft type. A particularly interesting feature of these early furnaces is the use of molded “bricks” in the construction of the walls (Van Noten 1979), and these have been recorded at sites in Rwanda (Raymaekers and Van Noten 1986) and Tanzania (Schmidt and Childs 1985). Some bricks were decorated, most commonly with parallel grooving, but also with more curvilinear motifs and circular impressions.
Land clearance The Rakai surveys identified distinct settlement patterns for the Late Stone Age and Early Iron Age communities. The aceramic Late Stone Age sites were found to be generally restricted to locations such as the tops of steep hills, upper slopes, and ridgetops—areas with skeletal, shallow soils. The Urewe sites, in contrast, were located on the most fertile local soils, along gentle slopes and the tops of gentle, flat-topped ridges. This suggested a shift in settlement and a corresponding shift in environmental exploitation, a movement that may be expected to have resulted in some degree of environmental change.
Fortunately, palynological and paleolimnological evidence gives some indication of the environment of Rakai at this period (see Schoenbrun 1990 for a discussion), and we are able to look for evidence of this change. Rakai appears to have been more forested than at present, with semideciduous and swamp forest covering much of the area, and papyrus swamps following valley bottoms and the lakeshore. Throughout the region, soil complexes, or catenas, are found, and in Rakai these tend to result in vegetation catenas (Langdale-Brown et al. 1964:35). In the 1st millennium BC it is probable that, while the swampy valley bottoms were filled with papyrus, hill slopes were forested, and the skeletal, shallow soils of the summits supported a sparser form of vegetation. Movement from these summits down to the hill slopes, as indicated by the Rakai survey, would suggest a movement into the more forested areas and thus some degree of land clearance. This is supported by the palynological evidence, which Schoenbrun (1990) has interpreted as indicating human-related deforestation beginning in the middle of the millennium. Therefore, using the archaeological evidence from Rakai for changing settlement patterns and the paleoecological evidence for environmental charge, it is possible to see the beginnings of significant land clearance by Early Iron Age communities.
Agricultural production The settlement patterns identified in Rakai also suggest a change in subsistence base. The location of aceramic Late Stone Age sites in relatively inaccessible locations and on the poorer soils does not seem to suggest agricultural production. Rather, the hilltops and ridgetops they preferred would have provided greater visibility and defense, and would have been covered with thinner vegetation, factors that would have been more desirable for foraging groups. In contrast, the Early Iron Age communities, as we have seen, were clearing the wooded slopes and settling on the most fertile soils, that is, on the best agricultural land. Therefore, the archaeological evidence from Rakai suggests that the Early Iron Age communities were the first to begin agricultural production in this area. Unfortunately, supporting botanical or palynological evidence is lacking at present. Finger millet and sorghum were tentatively identified in the pollen record of Kabuye, Rwanda (Van Grunderbeek et al. 1983:42), yet the amounts recorded were very small and there was a lack of conviction in their identification. Nevertheless, it would appear that we can describe the Early Iron Age communities as agricultural producers.
Ceramic use—pot cooking? With the beginning of ceramic manufacture we must also consider the question of ceramic use. Pots could have been used for a variety of general tasks: water collection, water storage, food storage, food preparation, and so on. Ethnography indicates that pots have also been used in more specialized ways, in salt production, for burials, and during magical rituals, for example. However, I feel that there is one area—cooking—in which the introduction of ceramic vessels would have had a particular impact. Pot cooking enables a dramatically different method of heating and cooking foodstuffs. Without ceramic vessels that, containing mixtures of liquids and foodstuffs, can withstand prolonged heating on a cooking hearth, foods must be roasted or smoked over a fire or baked on a hot, flat “griddle”—“dry” methods of cooking. The development of ceramic vessels enables the heating of liquids and thus allows the development of “wet” methods of cooking: boiling, steaming, frying, and the like. It has been suggested that animal stomachs could have been used for heating liquids prior to the discovery of ceramics (Tannahill 1988:15–16), yet their availability and function would have been comparatively limited. It is with ceramics that true versatility begins.
The uses to which Urewe pottery was put are not yet known, as concerns have largely been with Urewe ware as a diagnostic artifact and its relation to other ware types. There has been no examination of pot form, of evidence for heat treatment or residues. However, I will suggest that it is probable that Early Iron Age communities began using ceramics for the heat treatment of foods, and thus we can see the beginnings of pot cooking technology in these communities.
From the archaeological evidence, supplemented by paleoecological data, we have been able to identify four new activities/technologies that were adopted and developed by the Early Iron Age communities of the Interlacustrine Region: ceramic production, iron production, land clearance, and agricultural production. It has also been suggested that a fifth technology, pot cooking, was developed at this time, though this is as yet unsupported by ceramic analysis. These activities have all been recorded as being practiced by groups within the Interlacustrine Region, either today or within the recent past, and within these communities each of the activities has been gendered. Having recognized patterns of labor division by sex in the present, can we begin to extend these patterns back over two thousand years—that is, do certain technologies automatically become “male” or “female”? Can we identify them as “domestic” or “industrial,” as has been done traditionally, or are we able to suggest more complex and fluid relationships between activities and gender? The potential gendering of the Early Iron Age interlacustrine technologies/activities cannot be explained simply through an examination of recent ethnographic data, but rather it needs to be examined as an earlier stage in an historical process. Thus, each technology or activity must be examined using a combination of ethnographic and archaeological data if some degree of understanding is to be gained.
Of the five technologies/activities identified, two—iron production and pot cooking—are associated with a single sex, not only in all groups within the area today, but throughout sub-Saharan Africa. The remaining three activities, though gendered, may be determined as either male or female. Thus the more strictly gendered technologies, iron production and pot cooking, are considered first.
Iron production Iron production technology is strictly gendered, not only in the Interlacustrine Region, but throughout Africa; smelters and smiths, without exception, are and, in the recorded past, have been male. Indeed, in a great many societies around the world the working of iron has been a solely male occupation (Murdock and Provost 1973:207). How do we explain this? It is not a condition inherent in the technology, because women are capable of both smelting and smithing, despite the strenuous nature of the work, and African women have been recorded as significantly contributing to the labor of preparation for a smelt (Herbert 1993:27–28). The few exceptional references to women assisting during a smelt or with forging (e.g., Wright 1985:162) indicate that women are capable of this work, and there is nothing in iron production technology that excludes them, yet in societies throughout Africa they have been excluded. This strict genderization of iron production is not a result of the technical requirements of the technology; rather, it is a cultural reaction to that technology, and a remarkably consistent one.
In many cultures the correspondence of iron smelting to the processes of gestation and parturition has been integrated into conceptions of the iron production process. Eliade (1962) has demonstrated that the understanding of ores as embryonic metals is a common one, found in a surprising number and variety of societies. Hidden in the “womb” of the earth, ores are believed to develop naturally into pure metals over many centuries; extracted by the miner, they are matured and birthed with unnatural haste through the medium of the furnace/womb. The perception of the smelting process as a symbolic form of intercourse and procreation is found throughout Africa, and has been documented for the great majority of societies in eastern and southern Africa. It is suggested here that this may be a common conceptualization of the smelting process, resulting from the very nature of iron production technology and its perceived inherent resemblance to the human reproductive process. Within such conceptualizations iron technology itself can be seen to be essentially gendered, for through the function of both the earth and the furnace as womb it closely reflects the role of the mother. It is not, therefore, so surprising that the role of the father may be played by the ironworker, and that the ironworker is culturally male.
It is thus suggested that the genderization of iron technology should be seen as an expected cultural response to a common conceptualization of the process. However, no matter how common a practice in the ethnographic record, it would not be convincing simply to project these beliefs back over two thousand years to the early iron-using communities of the Interlacustrine Region. We need to examine both the ethnographic and archaeological record for clues to past perceptions of the iron production process. As we have seen, the conception of iron technology as a form of procreation has been documented for most eastern and southern African groups. This is interesting, as archaeological evidence suggests that iron technology originally spread from the Interlacustrine Region throughout eastern Africa and down to southern Africa (Miller and van der Merwe 1994). If elements of early interlacustrine conceptualizations are to be discerned, it is in common themes from these areas in which they may appear. We can indeed discern common themes, and yet the great diversity of ritual behaviors that has been recorded and the very different ways in which similar beliefs are manifest may, perhaps, be interpreted as a potential indication of the time depth of these beliefs. It is not improbable to suggest that origins of this common conceptualization may lie in the developments of the Early Iron Age.
Figure 9.2. Decorative furnace bricks.
There is, in addition, some archaeological evidence for the antiquity of these beliefs. Two decorated prehistoric furnaces have been recorded at the multiperiod site of Ziwa, in eastern Zimbabwe. The later furnace, now approximately dated to the 17th century AD, was decorated with a clay figure of a woman “in the act of giving birth” (Bernhard 1962:236). The earlier furnace unfortunately remains undated, though Early Iron Age smelting debris was recorded at the site and also bore the remains of a clay figure in a similar posture. The connection of these explicit images with the perception of iron production as procreation would appear to be straightforward.
Returning to the Interlacustrine Region, while there are no explicit images such as those of Ziwa, we do have some evidence for certain aspects of early smelting ritual. Small pots and holes have been found hidden at the base of furnaces in Rwanda and Tanzania (Van Noten 1979:65–67; Schmidt and Childs 1985:74–75, 81), and these have been interpreted as symbolic features, possibly containers for smelting “medicine,” a practice common in recent times (Schmidt, Chapter 8). In addition, we have the decorated furnace “bricks” (Figure 9.2).
A functional purpose has been suggested for the designs impressed into these bricks; it has been proposed that they resulted naturally from the construction technique, coil building, and were useful in creating a better surface on which to apply a plaster lining (Raymaekers and Van Noten 1986:81–82). However, the considerable number of undecorated bricks indicates that these impressions were not considered functionally necessary. In addition, decoration was applied to Rwandan bricks manufactured before the construction of the furnace, and to both Rwandan and Tanzanian bricks after the construction of the furnace (MacLean 1996a:252–253), which would suggest that they did not result from the construction technique. Ethnographic evidence has shown that symbolic decoration is frequently an important ritual element of furnace structure, and it is suggested that the motifs used on the Early Iron Age bricks had a symbolic purpose.
Figure 9.3. Decorative motifs used on Urewe ceramics.
Collett (1985:130) has proposed a connection between the motifs found on furnace bricks and those used to decorate Urewe pottery (Figure 9.3), and a detailed analysis of the stylistic attributes of these two forms of decoration has supported his claim (MacLean 1996a:253–255). Similarities can be seen in the area to which decoration was confined (horizontal bands), in the use of repeated parallel impressed/incised lines and punctates, and in the location of decoration (such as around the rim). The archaeological evidence thus indicates some conceptual connection between iron smelting furnaces and Urewe pots in these Early Iron Age communities. Returning to the ethnographic data, a way of understanding that connection can be suggested.
In many eastern and southern African groups the linked processes of iron smelting and procreation are only two elements in a wider cosmological system of heat-mediated transformation; the third element is that of pot cooking (Collett 1985:119–22; 1993:504–507). These three processes represent the transformation of natural products, stone/ore, blood and semen, plants and animals, into cultural products, iron, a child, cooked food, and are linked through their fundamental nature of irreversibility and by the use of heat as a primary force in the effecting of the transformation. The cooking pot is seen as analogous to both the furnace and the womb or body of a fertile woman. It can, therefore, be suggested that the symbolic association between furnaces and pots in the Early Iron Age communities of the Interlacustrine Region could indicate that this cosmological system may have had its roots in this period, and that the conceptual triad of transformations is represented in the archaeological evidence.
It is possible, therefore, to support the claim for a gendered iron technology at this early date. The perception of smelting as an act of symbolic procreation can be seen to be not only a common general reaction to the nature of the technology, but also a specific cultural reaction of certain African groups that may be traced back to the Urewe communities of the Interlacustrine Region. We can indeed suggest that the earliest iron technology was gendered and that the first ironworkers were male.
Pot cooking The cooking of food in interlacustrine societies is generally a female activity and, though there are exceptions—men may roast meat at local bars for example—the cooking of daily family meals is a strictly female task. Traditional pot cooking is a strictly female technology. When considering iron technology it was suggested that women were excluded, so why should we not continue this approach with pot cooking? Cooking technology is often largely ignored by archaeologists (Brumfiel 1992), being relegated to the realms of the simple, domestic, and female. Yet to produce a successful range of cooked food requires a similar degree of knowledge and skill to any technology, be it iron production or ceramic manufacture. The control of a family or community’s food supply is a very important control, and one that has been manipulated in very many societies. This manipulation may be blunt (the withholding of meals), or it may be more subtle (the cooking of food that results in mild ill health) (e.g., diarrhea or constipation, Kureishi 1990:208) or the pollution of meals (Thomas Ellis 1982:104–105), and is a very important source of female power. As with iron technology, men are certainly capable of pot cooking, and there is nothing inherent in the technology that excludes them—yet they too are excluded.
Can it be assumed that cooking technology is inherently female and that pot cooking was a female technology in the Early Iron Age interlacustrine communities? Woman’s role as domestic cook would appear to be so widespread and so universally accepted that, without any evidence to the contrary, it will be suggested that this was indeed the case. This is one area in which biology may be allowed a fundamental role, as the breast-feeding of a child may extend into the feeding of the family and as women’s initial control of food supply may be maintained and extended.
As we have seen, the innovation of pot cooking was a radical one, allowing significant culinary developments. Indeed, it can be argued that, for certain foodstuffs, boiling rather than roasting or baking is nutritionally advantageous, resulting in an improved diet (Gifford-Gonzalez, Chapter 7). I suggest that these innovations were female. The archaeological evidence for the cosmological connection of pot cooking and iron production in the Urewe communities was discussed above. Iron production was seen as a new male technology, and I propose that pot cooking was its female equivalent, equally complex, equally powerful, and linked conceptually in a developing belief system. These two new and corresponding technologies have important implications, which will be discussed below.
Ceramic production Ceramic production has also been a gendered technology in recent interlacustrine groups, yet there is no clear restriction to a single sex. While potters have often been seen as the female equivalent of the male smith (in many groups pots are made by the wives of ironworkers), in the Interlacustrine Region we also find groups in which ceramic production is a male technology (e.g., see Grace 1996). The situation is more complex, and the ethnographic data cannot thus be used to suggest a simple gendering of this technology in the past.
It has often been assumed that in most, if not all, societies the first potters were women (see Wright 1991 for a criticism), early ceramic production being perceived as a “domestic,” and therefore female, technology. Yet there is no clear evidence to suggest that this was always, or often, the case. Certainly, in the Interlacustrine Region we have very few archaeological clues as to the identity of the manufacturers of Urewe ware. Studies of the clays used for Urewe ceramics indicate that, in Rwanda and Burundi, pots were made on a local scale for primarily local use (Van Grunder-beek 1988), and in Tanzania clay selection was being practiced, with the best clays being reserved for furnace rather than ceramic manufacture (Childs 1988). Ceramic production was, therefore, a small-scale, “domestic” activity, but we cannot, on this evidence alone, also claim it was a female technology. The only remaining social evidence that can be gained from these recovered pot sherds are the motifs used in their decoration. However, these motifs have been interpreted as relating to the function of the ceramics—as vessels associated with cooked food—not to the production process. They provide information about the user, not the manufacturer, of the pot.
The ethnographic data from the region indicates that, though ceramic production will be gendered, it may be perceived as either a male or a female technology. Unfortunately, there are no obvious archaeological clues to the identity of the manufacturers of Urewe ware and we cannot, therefore, begin to determine the manner in which Early Iron Age ceramic technology may have been gendered.
Land clearance and agricultural production Land clearance and agricultural production are, to a certain degree, related activities, and so will be considered together. In Rakai today, the initial clearance of land is a male responsibility, while the planting and maintenance of most food crops is generally a female one; plants intended for other purposes, such as beer making or barkcloth, are largely grown by men. The first clearance of land would appear to establish a male interest in the food produced, which would otherwise be wholly controlled by the women of the community. This pattern is a common one throughout the region.
Both these activities were identified indirectly, using a combination of archaeological and paleoecological evidence, and this lack of archaeological data does not allow much discussion of the possible division of labor in the past. There is, however, the evidence of historical linguistics. Schoenbrun (1990, 1996) has considered in detail the history of agriculture in the Interlacustrine Region using linguistic, ecological, and archaeological data, and he has suggested that Early Iron Age gender roles can be identified. A very similar situation to that which exists today has been proposed, with women possessing both agroecological knowledge and seed stocks and thus controlling agricultural production. Schoenbrun associates deforestation and clearance with new territorial conceptions of land, seeing men as both fortifying and diversifying their positions as power brokers in land use. Schoenbrun’s arguments do, therefore, provide some support for the proposition that this basic sexual division of control and production began in the interlacustrine Early Iron Age communities. While it cannot be definitely concluded that initial land clearance was considered a male activity and agricultural production a female one, this is, nevertheless, suggested.
In the Interlacustrine Region today most activities and technologies are gendered to some degree. The patterns of sexual division are both basic and complex, allowing the establishment of distinct male and female identities at the individual level and the cohesive functioning of the community as a whole. In this paper we have identified the functioning of five new technologies/activities in the archaeological record of the Early Iron Age communities that inhabited the region, and we have examined this archaeological information, using both ethnographic and paleoecological data, for evidence of past gendering. In conclusion, it has been suggested that, during this period, iron technology and land clearance were considered “male” activities, while agricultural production and pot cooking were considered “female” activities, though no conclusions can yet be drawn concerning ceramic production.
The interlacustrine Early Iron Age was a period of great technological change, and the appropriation of certain activities by different sections of the population must have resulted in parallel social change. Iron production, often a relatively secretive process, appears to have been associated with very public displays of control: the attempted control of female fertility by the male smelter, as revealed in smelting cosmologies, and the economic control of production indicated by the restriction of smelting debris to certain areas. It was a new source of male power, perhaps offering unprecedented opportunities for restriction and authority. I would suggest that the use of ceramic vessels for cooking was, in some respects, the female equivalent of iron production. It was a technology from which men could be excluded, and it too offered new opportunities for control of important resources—cooked food and the health of the community. The cosmological linking of these two technologies by groups throughout eastern and southern Africa suggests not only their common perception as equivalent processes, but also their similar and vital impact on systems of perception.
A similar connection can be seen between the two remaining gendered activities, land clearance and agricultural production, which would again appear to form a male/female complement. Women, through their control of new agricultural resources, would have been in a relatively powerful position, not only producing important basic foodstuffs for the community, but also controlling the processing of those foodstuffs. Through initial land clearance, a male interest in this food source would have been established, and, as Schoenbrun (1990, 1996) suggested, new conceptions of territoriality may result from these developments. Again we are seeing a pattern of distinct and balanced male and female control.
What insight does this particular example of past division of labor provide into how and why different activities become associated with different sexes? It certainly cannot be concluded that all these tasks were naturally divided into those that were domestic and female and those that were male and industrial, yet there are certain areas in which we can suggest biological sex will be a primary factor—for example, the preparation of domestic meals by women. Perhaps one mistake that has been made in the past is the failure to identify strongly female technologies as technologies—to see them as simple rather than complex. It is also a mistake to assume that women may be controlled through these technologies rather than in control.
Interestingly, the relationship between sex and genderization appeared particularly explicit in the past, and present, functioning of iron technology. It is proposed here that certain technologies may have a potential to be perceived as inherently gendered, through their perceived correspondence on some level to human sexual differences, particularly to the process of reproduction. Iron technology provides a strong example of such inherent potential, with similar perceptions being recorded in many very different societies. It is, therefore, suggested that sex may actually be a very influential factor in the sexual division of labor, not only, as traditionally assumed, in the very basic division of labor resulting from the female role as childbearer, but also in the perception of technologies as being possessed of sexual characteristics.
Finally, the pattern of labor division that, it is proposed, developed in the Interlacustrine Region suggests a further important factor, that of balance. Male and female sections of the community established distinct, but complementary, areas of control. Anthropologists and archaeologists have traditionally been guilty of placing their own values on the activities of others, of concentrating on what they perceive to be important (supposedly male industrial activities), and ignoring what they consider to be commonplace (female domestic activities). In recent years scholars have sought to overturn these male biases, yet in so doing have sometimes been equally guilty, simply shifting from a male central focus to a female one. Perhaps the interlacustrine evidence indicates that we need to see societies as essentially balanced, that male and female activities and spheres of control are different yet equivalent, and that the development of a new and potentially powerful gendered technology will often produce a balancing reaction.
