Peggy Reeves Sanday
American cultural anthropologist and professor emerita at the University of Pennsylvania, known for cross-cultural studies of sexual inequality, rape, and cannibalism, and for ethnographic work among the Minangkabau in West Sumatra; author of Female Power and Male Dominance, Divine Hunger, and Fraternity Gang Rape.
Books
This list of books are ONLY the books that have been ranked on the lists that are aggregated on this site. This is not a comprehensive list of all books by this author.
-
1. Female Power And Male Dominance
On the Origins of Sexual Inequality
An anthropological cross-cultural study arguing that male dominance is not universal but varies with ecological conditions, subsistence patterns, and childrearing practices. Using comparative ethnographic data, it links levels of violence and sexual coercion to women’s roles in economic production, kinship, and ritual, distinguishing societies that are relatively rape-free from those that are rape-prone. It shows how myths, symbols, and socialization either support cooperative gender relations and female authority or legitimize hierarchy and aggression.
Purchase from Bookshop.org -
2. Women At The Center
Life in a Modern Matriarchy
An ethnographic portrait of the Minangkabau of West Sumatra, a contemporary matrilineal society where women anchor lineage, property, and community life. Drawing on long-term fieldwork, it shows how adat (customary law), Islam, and market activity interweave to position mothers and maternal kin at the core of social organization, while men exercise complementary roles through migration, religious leadership, and village offices. Challenging Western notions of matriarchy as female dominance, it presents a model of gender complementarity and negotiated authority that adapts resiliently to modernization and global change.
Purchase from Bookshop.org