Wife, Slave and Subject of the King: The Oppression of Women in the Shambala Kingdom

The concrete analysis of one specific social formation, the Shambala Kingdom, illustrates conceptual issues concerning changing class and gender relations in precolonial society. Precapitalist patriarchal relations persisted and contributed to the reproduction of emergent feudal relations. Today, elements of precapitalist patriarchal relations continue to oppress peasant women at the level of the household and contribute to the reproduction of the dominant capitalist relations ideologically and economically. The article is mainly based on a critical rereading of the work of Steven Feierman (1972, 1974). Ref.