The Plow, Female Contribution to Agricultural Subsistence and Polygyny: A Log Linear Analysis

Abstract

Relationships among plow agriculture, female contributions to crop tending, and polygyny in the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample are examined here. Without controlling for world regions, a log-linear analysis would suggest that each of these variables is related to the other two. Introducing a control for region with a four-way contingency table, we find significant relationships between region and each of the three variables. Furthermore, the control for region eliminates the relationship between plow agriculture and the female contribution to crop tending. Theorists such as Boserup have claimed that women do less agricultural labor with intensive agriculture. This relationship is apparently not a valid one, but simply a consequence of the joint diffusion of the three variables throughout the Old World.