A Holistic Society Examined by Gender-Based Analysis, Focusing on a Wodaabe Family in East-Central Niger

Abstract

Abstract Distinguishing between the sexes and understanding the relations which are established between them raises questions that arise in every society, to the extent that, today, international institutions put forward gender politics as having universal relevance. In this paper, the concept of individual empowerment promoted in gender politics is set against the workings of an unusual pastoral society studied in Damergou, in East-Central Niger. The Fulani Wodaabe society in question was studied from a holistic viewpoint. This approach allows us to put forward the hypothesis that this pastoral society, seen through the lens of family life, is not organised along the lines of a gender binary with one or other sex dominant, but according to multiple hierarchies of status which complement each other to form a 'social whole'. This hypothesis is contrasted with the international institutional requirement to develop gender politics within every society, including holistic societies.