Female Status and Role Transition in the Tswana Life Cycle

Abstract

In a review of anthropological data on climacteric, Griffen (1978) notes that there is a dearth of material pertaining to post-menopausal women in ethnographic record. She correctly attributes this partially to the anti-woman, anti-aging biases within U.S. culture, culture in which so many ethnographers have been trained (Griffin 1978:51). In line with current efforts to amend this situation (see e.g., Beyen 1986, Davis 1986, Lock 1986), this paper examines adult female status and role transition in terms of life-cycle progression among Kgatla of Botswana.1 The data derive from a year's research in Mochudi, Botswana. Structured interviews were conducted with a total of 60 women, 30 premenopausal and 30 postmenopausal. Due to budgetary constraints, sample is not necessarily representative of all Kgatla women. Those in my sample are teachers, nurses, shop owners, and entrepeneurs, and are therefore most representative of educated elite of Mochudi. Throughout discussion, results of investigation are compared with previous literature on Tswana. Isaac Schapera devoted considerable attention to women's roles, and information from his ethnographic materials (Schapera *933> x959> 1966) serves as a baseline for documentation of culture change. IzzarcTs (1982) study of women's roles in Botswana emphasizes primacy of labor migration and education as etiological factors impacting status of women. Comaroff and Roberts (1977) note importance of these factors as well, but stress salience of changes in Tswana marriage patterns as they relate to resource management. The data presented below support both of their arguments, enlarging specifically on importance of change in pattern of age-based resource control as it affects status of women throughout life-course. It is argued that primary areas of change in women's status and roles have been (1) resulting devaluation of marriage as a prerequisite for motherhood and definitional characteristic of adulthood, and (2) a concurrent increased emphasis on women's productive and managerial roles in definition of female adulthood.