Women and subordination

This chapter explores the relationship between the status of women in any society and the prevailing form of order. Throughout this chapter, the author has concerned with the types of order existing in different societies and with the ways in which social order is created and maintained. It is through the kinship system that order is created and maintained. In theory, a social group could revolve around a woman and her children with brothers and sisters engaging in sexual intercourse with each other and thus producing a further generation. In practice, the incest taboo is an almost universal characteristic of human societies. The incest taboo means that sexual intercourse with various designated relations is forbidden, or at least that marriage between various relatives is forbidden, and also that marriage with other designated relatives is preferred. Heterosexual marriage is the institution through which women are controlled, but marriage in itself does not imply subordination.