Issues+Related+to+Gender

=**__Issues Related to Gender__**=

Economy
The Tarascan economy is characterized by a definitive gendered division of labor. Women prepare food, wash clothes, care for infants and toddlers with the help of older children, cultivate the solar in the household compound, and, when necessary, help men prepare, plant, and harvest field crops or orchards. Carpentry, construction, net fishing, and lumber work are exclusively men's activities. Certain areas of ceramic work and straw weaving are also gender-specific activities. For instance, women typically paint designs on clay objects but, men fire the pottery. However, both men and women enter into commercial activities. It is common for women to control the commerce in products of exclusively feminine activities such as embroidery and hand weaving shawls and blankets.

Child-rearing
Women are in charge of child-rearing. Children are swaddled for the first six weeks of life and usually remain in constant bodily contact with the mother or with an elder sister, cousin, or aunt during the first year. Nursing is prolonged, often lasting until the third or fourth year. Gender-differentiated imitation of adult activities results from prolonged periods of parallel play while accompanying adults engaged in everyday tasks. This is the most common mode of socialization in Tarascan towns and hamlets. In contrast to children socialized in urban environments, Tarascan children enjoy constant physical and emotional contact with care givers.

Other Examples
There is a degree of patrilineal bias in terms of kinship. Daughters-in-law are clearly subordinate to their respective in-laws, especially the husband's mother. The order of preferred namesakes for children reflects a flexible ambilateral kin hierarchy with patrilineal bias.

Roth-Seneff, Andrew; Kemper, Robert. "Tarascans." Encyclopedia of World Cultures. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (December 5, 2011). []