A political economy system is present in any form of the social system, which includes gender relationships and kinship. The exact nature of the system may vary depending on the cultural and political factors representing different degrees of oppression. In many societies driven by the patriarchy, a woman’s role is diminished to that of a mere element of an economic system. The purpose of this paper is to examine the politics of kinship as a reflection of economic logic.
Over the history of anthropology and social sciences, kinship theory has been the focus of several studies. According to McKinnon (2001), while there are recent works that reflect on the economy of kinship, their logic can be traced back to older fundamental research. Henry Lewis Morgan begins his description of the human evolution stages with a period when people were practically indistinguishable from animals and “mated just as spontaneously as they ate the fruit from the trees” (McKinnon, 2001, p. 279). At some point, maternal and later paternal relations acquired a more significant role. However, according to Morgan’s theory, it was “the growth of property and the desire for its transmission to children” that became the prime incentive for promoting monogamy and having legitimate heirs (McKinnon, 2001, p. 287). Therefore, monogamy and marriage became an effective instrument of securing one’s legacy, which consisted of continuing the lineage and transferring the property accumulated during one’s lifetime.
The system mentioned above suggests men’s primary role in the kinship system, as they were in charge of acquiring the property for the family. Meanwhile, a woman’s role in society was gradually reduced to procreation, which is a process defined by Rubin (1975) as the domestication of women. The Marxist theory of class oppression translates well to gender relations, as it describes capitalism as a “set of social relations—forms of property, and so forth—in which production takes the form of turning money things, and people into capital” (Rubin, 1975, p. 36). As capitalism aims at fulfilling people’s needs and desires through a mutually beneficial exchange, gender relationships fit the Marxist theory as well. Rubin (1975) notes that capitalism follows an old tradition, according to which women neither inherit nor lead. This system derives from older forms of social relations, which were described by Morgan in his evolutionary trajectory, and leads to women being oppressed by the old customs. Rubin (1975) refers to this paradigm as patriarchy and states that it may take different forms. In less advanced societies, a woman is not seen as anything more than men’s property, which serves to continue the lineage and can be used or traded per men’s need. This kind of behavior correlates with earlier stages on Morgan’s scale and highlights a woman’s role in the economic system of kinship.
All in all, the world has made significant progress in eliminating the archaic approach to kinship as an enterprise. Nevertheless, even the most advanced societies exhibit some degree of outdated patriarchy, as forms of women’s oppression changed from physical violence to uneven social conditions. Nowadays, marriage and family relations remain a form of an economic system, but gradual changes implemented by progressive communities improve the situation and move the world away from ancient traditions.
References
Rubin, G. (1975). The traffic in women: Notes on the “political economy” of sex. In R. R. Reiter (Ed.), Toward an anthropology of women (pp. 157-210). Monthly Review Press.
McKinnon, S. (2001). The economies in kinship and the paternity of culture: Origin stories in kinship theory. In S. Franklin & S. McKinnon (Eds.), Relative values: Reconfiguring kinship studies (pp. 277-301). Duke University Press.