Gender And Division Of Labor

Malanga

Plant and Tuber
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xanthosoma

***

"Gender," Ivan Illich

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/12/gender-by-ivan-illich.html

Gender And Division Of Labor

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/12/gender-and-division-of-labor.html

Ivan Illich Compendium

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/09/ivan-illich-compendium.html

"The People's Priest," An Ivan Illich Obituary From "The American Conservative"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-peoples-priest-ivan-illich.html

Dear Fred,

Thanks for your email.

I have just discovered that the root crop which was my only sustenance while living with the Kogi Indians in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta makes a gorgeous, easy-to-grow houseplant. 

In Colombia, it's called "malanga." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xanthosoma

In Puerto Rico, it's called "yautia" (the name under which I bought my now-germinated tuber at a local Hispanic grocery store.)

Malanga is what South Pacific islanders call "taro" - something I learned at Thanksgiving from my sister Janet.

I encourage you to spend 25 cents for the germinative top of a tuber.

The plant is so beautiful, you might even launch your first career as a magnate, growing a thousand specimens and selling them to garden centers. (They would also sell well at flea markets.)

***

Getting back to our discussion of "gender," I strongly recommend you read Ivan Illich's book "Gender."

All Illich's friends recommended against its publication.

Illich, on the other hand, thought such stiff resistance (by so many smart people) meant he had uncovered something very important.

Although "Gender" is the only book Illich wrote that does not fare well with "user reviews"  at bookseller websites, I think it is a very important work.

Illich points out that in many "primitive" societies there are severe penalties -- up to and including death -- if either gender so much as touches a tool belonging to the "other gender's" "kit." http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/253079.Gender

Here's the scoop: 

"Gender" - http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/12/gender-by-ivan-illich.html

"Ivan Illich: Four Of His Keenest Insights"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/12/ivan-illich-four-of-his-keenest-insights.html

I wonder.. 

Does Laura object to men invading women's traditional domains - cooking, housecleaning, clothes washing, "ironing," house plant cultivation? 

Or does she adhere to a historically lopsided division of labor?

Pax tecum

Alan

On Wed, Dec 11, 2013 at 1:07 PM, Fred Owens <froghospital911@gmail.com> wrote:

In Laura's post, she claims the importance of houseplants, with the implication that their maintenance is more important that sparkplugs and tires, and with the archaic implication that houseplants are a woman's realm..... This is consistent with her working premise. Her language -- in this case -- is witty rather than harsh.

http://www.thinkinghousewife.com/wp/2013/12/woman-heads-general-motors/

I do agree with you that in other posts, she has gone overboard with harsh language........And I have reminded her of this unfortunate tendency