“If colonialists found it necessary to divide the world into two – their own the 'civilized' and others the 'primitive' – anthropology concretized that view. For this reason social anthropology has been called the child or handmaiden of colonialism."
Ifi Amadiume published Male Daughters, Female Husbands in 1987 as an extension of her doctoral dissertation. The work is at once historical survey, theoretical treatise, and a corrective to the discipline of anthropology itself. Male Daughters, Female Husbands argues that Igbo gender norms were much more fluid and flexible during precolonial times than is generally believed, Yet the book does more than simply chronicle the colonial imposition of rigid gender norms onto Igbo society, It also brings to light the ways in which the Western anthropological study of Third World peoples has been limited by cultural assumptions and ethnocentric blind spots. Discussing her reasons for embarking on a detailed historical ethnography of the small rural township of her birth, Amadiume repeatedly highlights how the field of social anthropology has not yet outgrown its colonial (and at times overtly racist) roots. She wonders, for example, at Western academics' ease at covering the entire "Third World" in a single book. This form of scholarship collapses the diverse and varied experiences of all non-Western peoples into a "primitive" counterpoint to Western "civilization." Amadiume concurs with esteemed Ugandan poet Okot p'Bitek, who, in 19860, lamented that anthropology was nothing more than "dirty gossip:" the academic face of colonialism, and a cover for racist, pseudo-scientific claims. In Male Daughters, Female Husbands, she seeks to model a more resonsible and nuanced treatment of non-Western peoples across the globe.
“Since women were basically seen as producers, the principals of control and protection applied to them throughout their productive period, whether as daughters, wives, or mothers. It is said when a woman outgrows the question, 'whose daughter is she?' people then ask, 'whose wife is she?' Only as matrons were women no longer valued in their sexual or reproductive capacity; matrons were, therefore, beyond control.”
Male Daughters, Female Husbands argues that gender was a flexible, fluid construct in precolonial Igboland, and that people's social roles were not bound by their biological sex. Amadiume explores the ways in which Igbo religion, language, and economics set up and accommodated such flexibility. Yet Amadiume is also very clear in her treatise that, for women, gender did operate in Igbo society as a defining and often quite limiting system of social classification and control. Even during precolonial times, Igbo culture held clearly defined gendered norms that delineated a person's role, status, and position in inter-personal relationships. Gender also heavily influenced one's access to wealth, security, and formal political power. Amadiume does not argue that in precolonial Nnobi, Igbo women experienced a kind of feminist utopia, or a world lacking in gender norms. She argues instead that certain classes of women could gain access to formal structures of power typically dominated by men. The matron, for example, is one class of women that was able to gain typically male power. However, a matron could only gain this type of power after having fulfilled a lifetime of traditionally female duties (such as child rearing, female domestic labor, and household management).
“A woman at this stage of her life no longer sought to be sexually attractive to men, and was no longer in sexual competition with other women. Matrons, in order to succeed economically and wield power, had to free themselves of 'messy' and 'demeaning' female domestic services, which included sexual services. Woman-to-woman marriage was one of the ways of achieving this. The younger wife would then take over the domestic duties.”
Here Amadiume begins to discuss the specific social institutions that permitted certain classes of women to gain access to typically male power. One such institution was woman-to-woman marriage. In this form of marriage, an older woman would marry a younger woman, and together they would manage their household and raise their children. The older, higher-status women could be referred to as the "female husband;" the younger, lower-status woman, "the wife." In such a marriage, the female husband was afforded all rights and responsibilities as a male husband would be. In this way, the female husband (or matron) gained access to wealth, status, and security, while the younger wife took on the submissive role and performed traditionally female domestic duties.
“In the traditional society, a flexible gender system meant that male roles were open to certain categories of women through such practices as nhaye, 'male daughters,' igba ohu, 'female husbands. These institutions placed women in a more favourable position for the acquisition of wealth and formal political power and authority. Under colonialism, these indigenous institutions – condemned by the Church as 'pagan' and anti-Christian – were abandoned or reinterpreted to the detriment of women.”
During colonial times, European settlers forcefully imposed more rigid gender norms. They stripped wealthy and powerful women of their titles and property, criminalized institutions such as women-to-women marriage, and sought to destabilize traditional forms of female solidarity and power, such as local women's councils and associations. As colonial influences dismantled the social institutions through which women had gained access to male power, women's role in Igbo society became more rigidly defined, and their spheres of power and autonomy began to shrink. The wealth gap between men and women increased dramatically, a disparity that still cripples economic growth for the Igbo today. The Western imposition of rigid gender norms onto Igbo society has had far-reaching implications that continue to shape Nigeria's political, economic, and cultural landscape.
“The fact that biological sex did not always correspond to ideological gender meant that women could play roles usually monopolized by men, or be classified as 'males' in terms of power and authority over others. As such roles were not rigidly masculinized or feminized, no stigma was attached to breaking gender rules. Furthermore, the presence of an all-embracing goddess-focused religion favoured the acceptance of women in statuses and roles of authority and power.”
Amadiume ends her work by turning a critical eye toward Western gender norms and asking what the West might be able to learn from the Igbo construction of gender. She notes that in the West, women in positions of power are often pressured (either implicitly or explicitly) to "masculinize" themselves. This is done by taking on "masculine" traits, or by dis-identifying with femininity. Thus, women in power often use masculine adjectives to describe themselves. Margret Thatcher, for example, was known as the "Iron Lady," a title that both distinguished her from other women, and identified her in terms of masculine traits of hardness, toughness, etc. Statements such as: "I'm not like other girls," or "I'm not like other women," are also attempts to legitimize female power and autonomy by dis-identifying with femininity. Amadiume offers that in a society in which gender operates more fluidly, such dis-identification becomes unnecessary. It is possible for women to gain status equal to that of men, while not having to “give up” their gender identity. Amadiume ends by expressing her hope for the future of social anthropology. Instead of viewing Third Wold peoples like the Igbo as “primitive,” or as somehow behind, Western academia can engage in scholarship based on respect, cross-cultural dialogue, and more nuanced, responsible academic investigation.
