Cross-Cultural

10.1177/1069397104267482
Munroe / SOCIAL
Research
STRUCTURE
/ November
AND2004
SEX-ROLE CHOICES

Social Structure and

Sex-Role Choices Among
Children in Four Cultures

Robert L. Munroe
Pitzer College

In a four-culture study, children, ages 3 to 9, were tested concerning

proclivities toward same-sex or different-sex roles. Of the four cul-
tures, two (Logoli of Kenya and Newars of Nepal) were structured
patricentrically (virilocal residence, patrilineal descent, strong sex
stereotypes). The other two cultures (Black Carib of Belize and
American Samoans) were not structured patricentrically (neolocal
or bilocal residence, etc.). It was predicted that because of salient
gender differentiation, Logoli and Newar children would more fre-
quently choose same-sex roles (father, mother, etc.) and culturally
specified gender-appropriate tasks than would Black Carib and
Samoan children. The results were opposite in direction to the pre-
dicted outcomes in 31 of 32 instances. Possible reasons for these
findings, including Vygotskian accounts of development, are of-
fered in the discussion. A positive aspect of the study is the clear
counter- instance it provides to Barber’s charge that behavioral sci-
entists tend to find what they are looking for.

Keywords: sex roles; child development; patricentricity; social

structure; constructivism

Cross-Cultural Research, Vol. 38 No. 4, November 2004 387-406

DOI: 10.1177/1069397104267482
© 2004 Sage Publications

387
388 Cross-Cultural Research / November 2004

The massive cross-cultural investigation of socialization and child

behavior by Whiting and Edwards (1988) put forth a proposition
we want to consider herein: that children tend to separate them-
selves by sex in systems favoring male privilege. Systems of this
sort are frequently found in conjunction with what is variously
called the patrilineal principle (Evans-Pritchard, 1965) or the
patrifocal family system (Seymour, 1999). These terms, coined to
indicate a patricentric orientation, were first applied to societies in
Africa and East Eurasia, where patricentric systems are most of-
ten found.1 The Six Culture Study (Whiting, 1963) included an east
African and an East Eurasian case—the Gusii and the Rajput—
about which Minturn and Lambert (1964) had this to say:

Both [the African and the Indian] mothers are training children to
adjust to a society that is highly authoritarian. . . . The political and
social structure is based on hierarchical authority in both places.
The fathers are defiant and stern. (p. 146)

Patricentric societies not only exhibit male dominance, they also

tend to practice sex segregation and to observe gender-based prin-
ciples of differentiation.2 As LeVine (1973) has noted in an essay on
personality patterns in Africa, gender distinctions are reflected in
many areas of life, including structural dimensions, the division of
labor, child rearing, and ideology. Similar commentary has been
made about the Indian subcontinent (Bennett, 1983; Mukhopad-
hyay & Seymour, 1994).
In the present study, carried out by Ruth Munroe and myself,
there were two representative patricentric societies and two non-

Author’s Note: Financial support for the study was provided by the
National Science Foundation and by a grant from the Research and
Awards Committee of Pitzer College. I acknowledge with gratitude the
cooperation of the villagers who participated in the investigation and the
contributions of the research assistants in each of the sample societies. I am
also indebted to Carolyn Edwards, Mary Gauvain, Ronald Macaulay,
Susan Seymour, Claudia Strauss, and two anonymous reviewers for help-
ful comments on this article. Laura Cocas contributed valuable technical
assistance. A version of this article was presented at a symposium honoring
the memory of Beatrice Whiting, as a part of the annual meeting of the Soci-
ety for Cross-Cultural Research in San Jose, CA, February 2004, and at the
Gender Development Conference in San Francisco, April 2004. Helpful
comments were made at those respective meetings by Richard Shweder and
Marc Bornstein.
 Munroe / SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND SEX-ROLE CHOICES 389

patricentric societies. Located in east Africa and East Eurasia,

both the Logoli of western Kenya and the Newars of the
Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, trace descent patrilineally, observe a
virilocal rule of residence, and hold to strong sex stereotypes (men
seen as strong and dominant, women as obedient and gentle; R. H.
Munroe & R. L. Munroe, 1986).3 In the other two sample societies,
the Black Carib of southern Belize and the Samoans of Manu’a,
American Samoa, distinctions by sex are not of comparable magni-
tude: The descent and residence patterns are not formed according
to a gender-based principle, and there are no strong sex stereo-
types (R. H. Munroe & R. L. Munroe, 1986).
We were interested in the question of whether individuals in
these societies would exhibit gender-inflected biases in early and
middle childhood, specifically, between the ages of 3 and 9. The
question, of course, can be approached from many angles, but in
this instance, we wanted to know if children’s preferences for
gender-specific tasks, and for same-sex versus different-sex roles,
were associated with patricentric systems. We felt that systemic
gender differentiation would enable early apprehension of sex
roles and prompt a correspondingly robust preference for the roles
and the activities associated with them. Thus, we expected Logoli
and Newar children to make more frequent same-sex choices than
Carib and Samoan children.
A second type of outcome was easy to envision, however. We
know that the male and female roles can be reliably distinguished
in any society, that, for example, there is always a division of labor
by sex, and that there are basic terms for father and mother and
other primary family roles. We capitalized on these regularities in
constructing our task- and role-preference measures, identifying
sets of activities differentially associated with one sex or the other,
and putting forth for choice some basic sex-role terms in the lan-
guages of the sample children. The ubiquity of these features
meant that children everywhere, without regard to cultural
nuances, might be exposed to a sufficiently discriminable level of
gender-typed responses. Moreover, at the motivational level, there
seemed no reason to doubt Levin and Fleischmann’s (1968) notion
that “a child behaves in sex-appropriate ways because he is
encouraged to do so by his parents and peers” and wants to do so “so
that he will be accepted” (p. 221). Thus, a counterhypothesis would
hold that, across all four societies, the sample children should
exhibit similar levels of same-sex preference.
390 Cross-Cultural Research / November 2004

Obviously, other outcomes were still theoretically feasible. For

example, the privileged position of males in the patricentric societ-
ies might induce girls as well as boys to make many male-role and
male-task choices, which would then create sex differences in the
levels of same-gender preference in such societies. We can state
here, however, that there were almost no sex differences in our
results. And despite the logical possibility of further complex
results, we felt enabled to predict successfully the actual outcomes
by invoking the factors that we have identified above—that is,
either strong same-sex preferences in the two patricentric societ-
ies, or essentially equal cross-cultural levels owing to the gendered
nature of numerous practices and attitudes in all societies (Buss,
1989; Williams & Best, 1982).
Points of clarification are necessary concerning both the typo-
logical concept of patricentric organization and the specific testing
technique that we have adopted. Although each of the four sample
societies fell neatly into either the patricentric or nonpatricentric
category, it was advisable to attempt to measure sex differentia-
tion directly. This was done by means of standard interviews with
adults in the four subsamples; results are reported below in the
Method section. These interviews, we note, are meant to establish
the validity of the putative cultural contexts of the sample children
and are not to be regarded as some sort of independent variable
scores.
As to the testing, had children consistently opted for tasks dif-
ferent from the gender-appropriate labor that they would be per-
forming in adulthood, or had they typically chosen to “be” mothers
when they were boys, and fathers when they were girls, the face
validity of the measures would have been problematic. (We refer
here not to individual variation but to the overall direction of the
children’s responses.) Our presumptions were, first, that the sam-
ple children, even at younger ages, would make own-sex choices
somewhat more frequently than they made opposite-sex choices
and, second, that older children would make own-sex choices more
often than would younger children. These expectations, which
were borne out, met the developmental assumptions of Parke and
Buriel (1998) that “an individual’s standards . . . and behaviors
change to conform to those regarded as desirable and appropriate
for his or her . . . role in any particular society” (p. 463).
We looked into potential confounding variables, including child
labor, factors in the home environment (e.g., father absence, fam-
ily’s social status), and inferred nutritional status (i.e., height).
 Munroe / SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND SEX-ROLE CHOICES 391

Another possibility was that any results might be artifacts of

cognitive-developmental status. To investigate the latter, the sam-
ple children’s developmental level of gender understanding was
assessed (data previously reported in R. H. Munroe, Shimmin, &
R. L. Munroe, 1984). This evaluation of the comprehension of gen-
der contrasted with the purpose of the role-preference and task-
preference measures, which were designed to tap motivational
elements of the children’s gender orientation. The issue is related
to Nisbett and Ross’s (1980) claim that people’s judgments are
“almost inevitable products of human information-processing
strategies” (p. 12). Nisbett and Ross (1980) assume that what they
term cold cognition—that is, reasoning and perception—can
account for “many phenomena generally regarded as motiva-
tional” (p. 12). Our own position, as outlined, is that what they term
hot cognition, or motivational forces, can indeed deflect children’s
judgments in a meaningful way.

METHOD

SOCIOCULTURAL SEX DIFFERENTIATION

Interviews were carried out with eight representative adult

members of each subsample. The sample of interviewees was com-
posed of one married adult of each sex in the age categories of 20 to
30, 31 to 45, and 46 and older, and one unmarried adult of each sex
between the ages of 20 and 30. The interview included culture-
appropriate questions concerning the ownership of property by
males and females, inheritance rules, issues of domestic authority,
and the rules and practices regarding the holding of political office
and leadership in local religious groups. Responses were scored
according to whether, for a given item, the cultural (modal) answer
was gender based (men exclusively or women exclusively) or
gender shared (both women and men).
The proportion of gender-based responses per culture was in
line with prediction: The highly sex-differentiated Newars and
Logoli were at 79% and 74% of gender-based responses (23 of
29 and 25 of 34 items, respectively), and the less strongly sex-
differentiated Carib and Samoans at 52% and 39% (16 of 31 and 11
of 28 items, respectively). Chi-square statistics (df = 1, one-tailed
tests) indicated that the results were significant in all four of the
expected cases (viz., Newars vs. Black Carib, Newars vs. Samoans,
392 Cross-Cultural Research / November 2004

Logoli vs. Black Carib, Logoli vs. Samoans) and nonsignificant in

the two cases in which that outcome was expected (viz., Newars vs.
Logoli and Black Carib vs. Samoans).

SAMPLE

Within each of the four communities, six boys and six girls from
each age group (3-, 5-, 7-, and 9-year-olds) were selected for testing.
The potential sample was reduced by the refusal of eleven 3-year-
olds and two 5-year-olds to participate in all or part of a testing ses-
sion. The total number of children tested was 181. Background
information on household arrangements and socioeconomic status
was collected during census taking and ethnographic investiga-
tion, and additional data on children’s daily activities were gath-
ered by means of systematic naturalistic observations (R. H.
Munroe, R. L. Munroe, Shwayder, & Arias, 1997; R. L. Munroe &
R. H. Munroe, 1990a, 1990b, 1991).

PROCEDURE

The measures were administered to all 5- to 9-year-old children

in a standard setting within each community. The 3-year-olds were
tested in or near their own homes under conditions that provided
as much privacy as possible. Each child was tested in the language
in which he or she customarily spoke.
The two measures involving choice behavior were identical in
structure, each giving the child an opportunity to make a same-sex
or different-sex choice on a total of nine separate items.

Role choice. Sample children were presented with the following

nine male-versus-female role combinations: father versus mother,
father versus daughter, father versus baby girl, mother versus son,
mother versus baby boy, son versus daughter, son versus baby girl,
daughter versus baby boy, and baby boy versus baby girl. Order of
presentation and of pairing was standard for all subsamples.
Scores consisted of the number of items on which the child chose
the role corresponding to his or her own sex. A child was asked, for
example, “would you rather be a daughter or a father?” In this
example, a girl choosing to be a “daughter” would receive 1 point for
a same-sex choice, and a boy choosing to be a “daughter” would
receive no points. Given nine pairings of same- versus different-sex
 Munroe / SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND SEX-ROLE CHOICES 393

role choices, sample children’s scores could range from 0 (for no

same-sex choices) to 9 (for all same-sex choices). To be clear, we
note that a girl and a boy who received scores of, say, 9 points, would
have made completely different choices, the girl always picking the
female role in any of the role combinations and the boy always
picking the male role.

Task choice. Sample children were presented, as above, with

nine paired male-versus-female tasks selected for their gender
appropriateness in each culture. For the Logoli, the male tasks
were herding cows, caring for coffee trees, and chopping firewood;
the female tasks were caring for chickens, cooking, and collecting
firewood. For the Newars, the male tasks were watering fields,
plowing with bullocks, and milking cows; the female tasks were
washing clothes, cooking, and carrying water. For the Black Carib,
the male tasks were fishing, cutting brush, and climbing for coco-
nuts; the female tasks were washing clothes, cooking, and caring
for chickens. For the Samoans, the male tasks were planting taro,
making the umu (cooking at the traditional oven), and spear fish-
ing; the female tasks were octopus fishing, weaving mats, and
washing clothes. Order of presentation and of pairing was stan-
dard for all subsamples. Scores consisted of the number of items on
which the child chose the gender-appropriate task. A Samoan child
would be asked, for example, “would you rather plant taro or fish
for octopus?” In this example, a Samoan girl choosing to plant taro
would receive no points for a gender-inappropriate task, and a
Samoan boy picking the same task, planting taro, would receive 1
point for choosing a gender-appropriate task. Given nine pairings
of gender-appropriate versus gender-inappropriate tasks, scores
could range from 0 (for no gender-appropriate task choices) to 9 (for
all gender-appropriate task choices). As with the role choices, a girl
and a boy who received scores of 9 points would have made com-
pletely different choices, the girl always picking the (culturally)
female-appropriate task in the pairings and the boy always
choosing the (culturally) male-appropriate tasks.

Control variables and possible confounds. Level of gender

understanding was assessed among the sample children and the
results reported in an earlier publication (R. H. Munroe, Shimmin,
et al., 1984). Based on a cognitive-developmental approach (Slaby
& Frey, 1975), questions were first asked concerning gender classi-
fication and then concerning hypothetical gender transformations
394 Cross-Cultural Research / November 2004

across situations and over time. A child who answered no sets of

questions correctly was identified as belonging to a base level,
Stage 1; a child who answered questions correctly in the set of clas-
sification, items but no other sets of questions correctly was identi-
fied as belonging to a Stage 2 level; a child who answered questions
correctly in both the sets of classification items and stability items
(gender unaffected over time), but not the consistency items (gen-
der unaffected by situations, e.g., cross-dressing), was identified as
belonging to Stage 3; a child who answered all sets of questions cor-
rectly was identified as belonging to Stage 4. All other combina-
tions of responses were classified as nonstage patterns. The chil-
dren attained varying levels of gender comprehension, with 90% of
all sample members achieving stage-type responses.
Of the potential confounds, the use of children’s height seems
self-explanatory. A family’s social status was assessed within each
of the subsamples; culturally relevant criteria, such as land in
Kenya and chiefly titles in Samoa, were applied. A father’s absence
was operationalized as no father in the home, or, if there was a
father who was not always resident, his relative time of residence
away from home during the field study was taken into account.
Children’s work levels were assessed through the analysis of natu-
ralistic observations: For each sample child observed 30 times with
the spot-observation technique, a calculation was made of the pro-
portion of all protocols on which the child was engaged in instru-
mental activities judged to contribute to the maintenance of the
household or to the well-being of its members (R. H. Munroe, R. L.
Munroe, & Shimmin, 1984).

Interrelations: between items, between measures, and between

items and total scores. Specific same-sex role preferences (e.g., the
role of “daughter” chosen by Logoli girls) were robustly associated
with total same-sex preference scores, as were specific gender-
appropriate task preferences (e.g., the task of weaving mats chosen
by Samoan girls) with total gender-appropriate task scores. Of the
48 Culture × Sex × Choice Pearson correlations relating combina-
tions to total scores, only 2 fell below .50, and 34 values were at .70
or higher. On the other hand, interrelations among specific items
were not strong: Role-preference items tended to be related to each
other for both sexes; task-preference items were well related to
each other for girls, but only sporadically so for boys; and role-task
item comparisons yielded mixed results, with girls and boys within
a cultural sample sometimes displaying similar patterns, some-
 Munroe / SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND SEX-ROLE CHOICES 395

times not (e.g., in Kenya, where boys’ role choices and task choices
tended to match, but girls’ choices did not match at all).

PLAN OF ANALYSIS

Although the frequency of same-sex choices might have differed

for boys and girls in some societies, especially where girls were
more heavily engaged in labor than were boys, we found, as noted
above, almost no such differences on the task and role measures.4
Accordingly, we have not distinguished children by sex in present-
ing our main findings and have done so only for subanalyses where
children’s work appeared to be a relevant consideration.

RESULTS

As noted in the introduction, sample children made same-sex

choices most of the time. In all societies and at all age levels, a
mean score higher than 4.5 was achieved, thus indicating the gen-
erality of the same-sex preference. Moreover, age was significantly
associated with increasing same-sex choices in three of four
subsamples for the task preferences and significantly or margin-
ally so in three of four subsamples for the role preferences. Both
exceptions were for the Newars, where the same-sex role prefer-
ences actually declined somewhat among older children. Overall,
however, the gravitation toward gender-appropriate choices
among older children was clear.
To turn to the issue of cultural variation in choices, we present in
Tables 1 and 2 a breakdown of the mean scores, by culture type and
age, for role and task preferences. As the scores indicate, except for
a tendency among children to make same-sex role choices at a
higher level than they have made same-sex task choices, the
results are very similar for the two measures. In general, the scores
on these measures are significantly correlated with each other, the
only exception being with the Newars.5
But the most striking feature of the tables is an absence of the
outcomes that we had deemed most likely. There is, instead, a full-
scale reversal of our favored prediction: Comparing the two
patricentric cases with the nonpatricentric societies on each mea-
sure, and within each age group, we found that in 31 of 32 compari-
sons, the children in the nonpatricentric societies have made
396 Cross-Cultural Research / November 2004

TABLE 1
Gender-Appropriate Task Choices in Four Cultures

Age
3 5 7 9
M SD M SD M SD M SD

Patricentric societies
a* b*; a**
Logoli 5.1 1.5 5.7 1.4 6.9 1.6 6.3 1.9
c* d*; c*
Newars 5.6 2.6 5.3 2.1 6.1 2.0 6.3 2.4
Nonpatricentric societies
b*; d*
Black Carib 5.6 1.5 6.2 2.1 7.5 2.4 8.1 1.7
a* c* a**; c*
Samoans 6.6 1.5 6.8 2.8 8.0 1.7 8.6 1.4

NOTE: Values shown are means on a scale of 0 to 9.Tests by t test. N = 12 per cell, ex-
cept among 3-year-olds, where n = 9 among Logoli, n = 9 among Black Carib, and n =
8 among Newars; and among 5-year-olds, n = 10 among Newars.
a. Logoli versus Samoans.
b. Logoli versus Black Carib.
c. Newars versus Samoans.
d. Newars versus Black Carib.
*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

higher levels of same-sex choices than the children in the patri-

centric groups have. (The one exception, Newar and Black Carib
3-year-olds on task preferences, showed tied scores of 5.6 on the 9-
point scale.)
The reversal reached its apex with the oldest children. Alto-
gether, there were eight comparisons in each age group—that is,
for both the task- and role-preference measures, the patri-
centric Logoli compared with the nonpatricentric Black Carib and
Samoans and the patricentric Newars with the same two non-
patricentric samples. Among the 9-year-old sample children, all
eight of the comparisons yielded significant differences. By con-
trast, the nonpatricentric societies received significantly higher
scores than the patricentric cases for three comparisons among the
7-year-olds, for no comparisons among the 5-year-olds, and for
three comparisons among the 3-year-olds. Inspection of the tables
shows that the 9-year-olds in the nonpatricentric societies tended
to achieve scores about 2 points above those of their counterparts
in the patricentric cases. This magnitude of difference is little seen
elsewhere in the tables.
We have already indicated that only one sex difference appeared
within the sample societies: Whatever level of same-sex choices
 Munroe / SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND SEX-ROLE CHOICES 397

TABLE 2
Same-Sex Role Choices in Four Cultures

Age
3 5 7 9
M SD M SD M SD M SD

Patricentric societies
a***; b** a*; b*
Logoli 5.2 1.0 5.8 2.5 7.1 2.0 6.6 3.3
c**; d** c**; d***
Newars 6.9 1.6 6.1 1.6 5.5 2.1 6.3 2.2
Nonpatricentric
societies
a*** c** a*; c**
Black Carib 7.9 1.5 7.1 1.9 7.7 1.5 8.6 0.9
b** d** b*; d***
Samoans 7.0 1.4 7.1 1.5 7.9 1.3 8.9 0.3

NOTE: Values shown are means on a scale of 0 to 9. Tests by t test. N = 12 per cell, ex-
cept among 3-year-olds, where n = 9 among Logoli; n = 10 among Black Carib; n = 7
among Newars; and among 5-year-olds, where n = 10 among Newars.
a. Logoli versus Black Carib.
b. Logoli versus Samoans.
c. Newars versus Black Carib.
d. Newars versus Samoans.
*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

typified a society, boys and girls within that society almost always
exhibited similar scores. But we can, nevertheless, ask whether the
overall pattern of higher scores for the nonpatricentric versus
patricentric subsamples, as noted above, held equally strongly for
both sexes. When this within-sex breakdown was carried out, we
found that, for boys, the pattern was unchanged—on only 1 of 32
comparisons did a patricentric subsample achieve higher scores
than did the corresponding nonpatricentric group. For girls, the
regularity was somewhat less robust, with 4 of the 32 comparisons
showing a higher score in the patricentric instead of the nonpatri-
centric subsample. Altogether, however, the data clearly support
the point that sex differences are not a central issue in our results.
In general, the role-choice measure was a better discriminator
of culture type (nonpatricentric vs. patricentric) than was the task-
choice measure. Eight of the 14 statistically significant compari-
sons appeared there, as did six of the seven probability levels
stronger than .01. A Bonferroni multiple-comparison procedure
(Norušis, 1999) indicated that, for role preferences, F(178) = 11.19,
p < .001, and for task preferences, F(179) = 6.11, p = .001.
398 Cross-Cultural Research / November 2004

GENDER UNDERSTANDING AS EXPLANATORY?

The level of gender understanding was assessed, as indi-

cated above, by asking, first, questions about gender classification
and then questions concerning hypothetical gender transforma-
tions across situations and over time. To give an example, a girl at
the highest stage—Stage 4—would have correctly answered,
among other things, that she was a girl, she was not a boy, she
would remain a female even in adulthood, and she would not affect
her sexual identity by cross-dressing or performing a sex-
inappropriate task.
The pertinent issue for the current study was whether chil-
dren’s comprehension of gender constancy might have underlain
the degree to which they made gender-appropriate choices on the
task and role measures. If so, then the gender-stage scores would
be more strongly correlated with the task and role scores than the
latter were associated with each other. The answer, though equivo-
cal, tends to be negative: Whereas age-controlled partial rs showed
the role and task measures to be significantly correlated in two cul-
tures and at a marginally significant level in a third, the compara-
ble gender-stage scores were significantly correlated with the task
measure in only one culture and with the role measure in two. A
more definitive assessment is given below in conjunction with
attempts to ferret out the relative contributions of both gender-
stage and a possible confounding factor, as well as that of the
patricentricity dimension.

POSSIBLE CONFOUNDS

Various background and experiential factors were considered as

possible contributors to the children’s task and role choices. Of the
potentially relevant variables—a father’s absence, a family’s social
status, children’s height, and children’s labor input—only the last,
the level of child work (as a percentage of total observations of a
child), proved to be related to the test measures. For the full sam-
ple, the age-controlled partial r between work level and same-sex
task choice was .25, p < .001, df = 173, and the age-controlled par-
tial between work level and same-sex role choice was .09, ns, df =
173. Within cultures, the comparable work scores were not associ-
ated with task and role preferences, except in Nepal, where for role
preference, the partial r was .40, p = .01, df = 40. Despite the weak-
ness of child labor as a within-culture predictor of task and role
 Munroe / SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND SEX-ROLE CHOICES 399

preferences, its overall association with task preferences encour-

aged us to enter it, along with gender stage, in the regression
analysis reported immediately below.

MULTIPLE REGRESSION ANALYSIS OF

THE PREDICTORS OF SAME-SEX CHOICES

As the task- and role-preference scores were fairly well corre-

lated within all but one of the cultures, we standardized both
scores and combined them additively to create a single measure of
same-sex preference. This set of scores constituted the dependent,
or criterion, variable to be entered into a multiple regression anal-
ysis. There were three independent variables, or predictors: non-
patricentricity (nonpatricentricity vs. patricentricity, entered as a
dummy variable), the child’s gender stage, and the child’s work
contribution.6 The analysis resulted in a multiple R of .58 (R2 =
.34). Of the three predictor variables, the strongest among the
standardized coefficients was the nonpatricentricity dimension,
which was correlated with the standardized same-sex preference
scores at .34, p < .0005. The other two independent variables,
although weaker in predictive value, were also significantly asso-
ciated with the standardized test scores, each correlated at .25, p <
.001.
A separate analysis by sex yielded comparable values for boys
and girls. Among boys, the multiple R was .60, and the standard-
ized coefficients were .36, .26, and .22 for nonpatricentricity, gen-
der stage, and work contribution, respectively. Among girls, the
multiple R was .55, and the standardized coefficients were .31, .24,
and .28 for the same variables. All values were significant at the
.05 level or better. The only difference of note was a small tendency
for the nonpatricentricity dimension to contribute somewhat more
strongly for the boys and for the work contribution to contribute at
a relatively high level for the girls.
When separate analyses were performed for each age category,
results revealed that it was among the 7- and 9-year-olds that
nonpatricentricity was the strongest predictor variable (standard-
ized coefficients: for nonpatricentricity, .45, p < .001; for gender
stage, .16, p < .10; for children’s work contribution, .21, p < .05).7
Among 3- and 5-year-old children, gender constancy was strongest,
with nonpatricentricity the second strongest contributor (stan-
dardized coefficients: for nonpatricentricity, .25, p < .05; for gender-
400 Cross-Cultural Research / November 2004

stage, .30, p < .02; for children’s work contribution, .04, ns). Thus, a
cognitive element, gender comprehension, appeared to be mean-
ingful for younger children’s choices, only to be superseded in
apparent influence by the factors represented by the non-
patricentricity dimension.
Overall, these analyses have confirmed the important contribu-
tion of patricentricity and nonpatricentricity to the sample chil-
dren’s preferences for same-sex roles and tasks.

DISCUSSION

We can essay an interpretation of the findings only if we have

convincingly established that the sex-preference measures are
valid. This seems to be the case, based on the following evidentiary
grounds: (a) For both measures, children in all age categories and
in all four subsamples made same-sex choices more frequently
than different-sex choices; (b) for both measures, higher age levels
were significantly or near significantly (.06 to .10 p level) associ-
ated with more frequent same-sex choices in three of the four
subsamples (exceptional case: Newars); and (c) levels of same-sex
preference for role choices and task choices were significantly
related to each other in three of the four subsamples (exceptional
case: Newars). It seems clear that the measures were, in fact, valid
indicators of children’s valence for own- and different-sex roles and
activities. The generic character of the role choices (mother, father,
etc.) may have provided the basis for the relatively high level of
same-sex preference that we saw there, as opposed to the lower lev-
els found for the content-laden task choices (herding cows, carry-
ing water, etc).
The somewhat anomalous character of Newar responses was
apparent. As noted above, there was (uniquely), among these chil-
dren, no association between age and the levels of same-sex role
and task choices, nor between the choice variables themselves. The
Newars alone displayed an effect of actual work contribution on
same-sex role preference, and Newar 3-year-olds were involved
(with Carib 3-year-olds) in the one case in which the patricentric
level of same-sex preference equaled the nonpatricentric level. We
have no secure answer as to why the Newar children responded dif-
ferently from the other subsamples, but we can point out two
potentially relevant aspects of their lives. First, Newar boys did not
increase their daily work contributions with age; the 9-year-olds,
 Munroe / SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND SEX-ROLE CHOICES 401

in fact, performed labor only as frequently as did the 3-year-old

boys.8 This pattern, which was not seen in any of the other seven
sex-by-culture categories (Newar girls, Samoan boys, etc.), may
have created unusual perceptions among Newar children about
the desirability, or lack thereof, of the male and female roles.
(Intriguingly, as pointed out in Note 4, Newar boys chose same-sex
task responses at a very low level, and this mirrored their low level
of actual labor engagement in any tasks.)9 A second factor of possi-
ble relevance was that the Newar woman has some say in domestic
matters, has partial control over money, and is possessed of the
right to dissolve the marriage and remarry (R. H. Munroe et al.,
1997). Newar women thus occupy a status somewhat higher than
is typically found in patricentric societies. In complex ways, these
elements may have worked to affect the responses of the Newar
children. Still, we must not lose sight of the fact that, like the chil-
dren of the other patricentric society (the Logoli), the Newar chil-
dren made significantly fewer same-sex choices (compared with
those of the Carib and Samoans) in 7 of 16 instances. In this crucial
respect, the two patricentric societies performed precisely alike.
Our expectation that children’s test choices would be skewed by
structural features was correct in the sense that the presence or
absence of patricentricity did matter—but the complete reversal of
the expected direction of our findings poses a puzzle for interpreta-
tion. We can offer a few ideas. The distinctive gender-based differ-
ences in the lives of Logoli and Newar children may offer them
salient alternatives, expressible at least in fantasy, and could
account for their numerous cross-sex choices.10 Conversely, for the
Black Carib and Samoan children, the fewer distinctive gender dif-
ferences may lead boys and girls into gender self-acceptance
because the advantages of the opposite sex role are not apparent.
There is also the possibility that the tests provided Carib and
Samoan children with an opportunity, in their relatively low sex-
differentiated environment, to help maintain their appropriate
self-definitions by selecting same-sex roles (Ullian, 1976). Earlier
findings for these sample children included a tendency, in all four
subsamples, for father-absent boys to overattend to the males in
their social environments. That is, those boys without fathers
gazed at males to a greater extent than did father-present boys (R.
L. Munroe & R. H. Munroe, 1992). This amounts to a compensatory
adjustment on the part of father-absent boys. In the same way, we
might interpret the higher levels of same-sex preference among
402 Cross-Cultural Research / November 2004

children in nonpatricentric societies as adjustive responses to rela-

tively undifferentiated sex-role systems.
How much influence did cognitive factors exert on the results?
Nisbett and Ross’s (1980) arguments about so-called cold cognition
would have presumably prompted a prediction that gender com-
prehension would underlie the role and task choices of the sample
children. Kohlberg (1969) asserted much the same thing when he
stated that because of culturally universal trends in modes of con-
ceptualizing, “it is possible to expect some relatively invariant
developmental trends in sex-role concepts and attitudes” (p. 431).
Certainly, at some broad level, the cultural contexts provided
ample cues for children to conceptualize sex roles along univer-
sally similar lines. In all four of the sample societies, there were
numerous instances of labeling by gender, a usual in-house (female)
versus external (male) division of daily activities and both direct
and subtle conveyance of differing expectations for the behavior of
girls and boys. And for the 3- and 5-year-olds in our sample, the cog-
nitive measure of gender stage did perform as the strongest predic-
tor of children’s levels of same-sex preference. But among older
children, the 7- and 9-year-olds, it was nonpatricentricity that
emerged as the strongest predictor. For the sample as a whole
(sample children of all ages), nonpatricentricity outperformed gen-
der stage, with the two standardized coefficients at .34 and .25,
respectively. We can fairly conclude that inferred motivational fac-
tors, as underlain by the dimension of nonpatricentricity and
patricentricity, did contribute meaningfully to the outcomes.
Yet as Strauss and Quinn (1997) have cogently argued, cogni-
tive theories can productively incorporate motivational forces as
factors in their frameworks. And the propositions outlined above
concerning the sample children’s reasons for making same- or
different-sex role choices involve motivational elements that can
be understood in constructivist terms. Vygotskian (1962) accounts
of human development (Gauvain, 2001; Rogoff, 2003) could accom-
modate the ways in which our sample children seem to have
actively negotiated the meaning of their choices. Certainly, such
accounts appear to be more convincing than a simple socialization
explanation, which would instead emphasize children’s straight-
forward reflection of cultural press.11 Our results indeed do not
show this latter outcome. Thus, to return to the proposition ten-
dered by Whiting and Edwards (1988), the separation of children
by sex seems to be a matter in which sociocultural systems and the
 Munroe / SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND SEX-ROLE CHOICES 403

apprentices within these systems are engaged in a complex inter-

play of pressures and interests, with sometimes surprising effects.
A final note is in order: Our main result may set a minor record
in the annals of poor prediction. It was a single prediction, to be
sure, but of the 32 instances in which that prediction was applied,
the outcome was directionally wrong 31 times, a failure rate of
97%. There is, nevertheless, a positive lesson to be gained from all
of this. Barber (1976) has written compellingly about the “ten pit-
falls in behavioral science research” (p. 3), namely, about the
assumptions, biases, and preconceptions that lead us to discover
what we are looking for. But in this case, at least, we can feel
assured that,whatever our biases, we have not arrived where we
expected to be. The likelihood that the outcomes were not simply a
fluke is bolstered by across-the-board reversals in two pairs of soci-
etal cases rather than just one pair. And we can agree, if ruefully,
with Schachter’s (1978) judgment that “like it or not, Science is a
capricious enterprise” (p. 5).

Notes

1. Murdock’s (1957) world ethnographic sample was composed of six

macroareas. Only two of those, Africa and East Eurasia, displayed a modal
residence pattern of virilocality in at least 90% of the subareas and a
descent system of patrilineality in 80% of the subareas. These tendencies
are obviously not present throughout the entire area of their primary dis-
tribution, and they are not constant in their magnitude nor in the details
of their manifestation. Nevertheless, they tend to possess a clear identifi-
ability based on a stable congeries of traits.
2. See Frayser (1985) for evidence on the sexual restrictiveness of
women in systems with patrilineal descent.
3. The Newars are a representative patricentric society in the ways
specified here. As we shall see below, they also deviate in certain respects
from a typical patricentric orientation.
4. The one significant sex difference within societies was found in
Nepal: Girls made many more same-sex task choices than did boys, the
respective means being 7.1 and 4.7, t(40) = 3.95, p < .001. Yet role prefer-
ences showed no analogous sex differences, with the girls scoring slightly
lower, though nonsignificantly, on same-sex role choices, the respective
means being 5.7 and 6.5, t(39) = –1.39, ns.
5. The Pearsonian rs were as follows: For the full sample, r(176) = .37,
p < .001; for the Logoli, r(42) = .46, p = .002; for the Newars, r(39) = .08, ns;
404 Cross-Cultural Research / November 2004

for the Black Carib, r(43) = .29, p = .05; and for the Samoans, r(46) = .40, p <
.005.
6. A reviewer asked about the possible contribution of father absence
in a multiple regression analysis. When entered, this variable proved to be
unrelated to the dependent variable (standardized coefficient = .07, ns).
7. A reviewer asked about the difference in predictors for the younger
and older groups of sample children. To clarify, the predictors—as the term
is used in this section of the article—are statistical in nature and refer
only to the results of the regression analysis, not to the theoretical predic-
tions that are specified in the introductory section. These results show
that work levels of children have some apparent effect on the test prefer-
ences. It is worth noting that although the effect is to increase same-sex
preferences for both boys and girls, almost all the labor performed by these
children is women’s work. As Bradley (1993) found in a holocultural study,
among children still under their mothers’ control—as in our sample—
“both boys and girls work in the women’s domain” (p. 80).
8. The low level of labor among Newar village boys at all ages has been
documented in other work (Pradhan, 1981). In our observations, the
Newar boys were found to be working 8% of the time and Newar girls 19%
of the time. Other scores were as follows: Black Carib boys, 24%; Black
Carib girls, 26%; Logoli boys, 23%; Logoli girls, 35%; Samoan boys, 20%;
and Samoan girls, 27%.
9. Susan Seymour (personal communication, February 10, 2004)
pointed out that Newar boys, like children throughout much of South Asia,
“are not encouraged to become self-reliant individuals but, rather, to fit
into the extended family where they may always live under the domestic
authority of their mother and other senior women.”
10. Based on Mukhopadhyay’s (n.d.) argument that in patricentric
Indian societies gender categories are clearly laid out but not essential-
ized, Claudia Strauss (personal communication, March 3, 2004) proposed
that gender identity may not be internalized in this type of society but,
rather, in societies where gender roles are less clearly laid out. If this were
true, we would find a lower level of gender identity among Logoli and
Newar children than among Black Carib and Samoan children. Our data,
however, show that Logoli children, but not Newar children, have signifi-
cantly lower gender identity scores than children in the other two societies
(R. H. Munroe, Shimmin, et al., 1984).
11. The ideas expressed in this paragraph were suggested by Carolyn
Edwards. I acknowledge my indebtedness.

References

Barber, T. X. (1976). Pitfalls in human research: Ten pivotal points.

Elmsford, NY: Pergamon.
 Munroe / SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND SEX-ROLE CHOICES 405

Bennett, L. (1983). Dangerous wives and sacred sisters: Social and sym-
bolic roles of high-caste women in Nepal. New York: Columbia Univer-
sity Press.
Bradley, C. (1993). Women’s power, children’s labor. Cross-Cultural Re-
search, 27, 70-96.
Buss, D. M. (1989). Sex differences in human mate preferences. Behavioral
and Brain Sciences, 12, 1-49.
Evans-Pritchard, E. E. (1965). The position of women in primitive society
and other essays. London: Faber and Faber.
Frayser, S. G. (1985). Varieties of sexual experience: An anthropological
perspective on human sexuality. New Haven, CT: HRAF.
Gauvain, M. (2001). The social context of cognitive development. New York:
Guilford.
Kohlberg, L. (1969). Stage and sequence: The cognitive-developmental ap-
proach to socialization. In D. A. Goslin (Ed.), Handbook of socialization
theory and research (pp. 347-480). Chicago: Rand McNally.
Levin, H., & Fleischmann, B. (1968). Childhood socialization. In F.
Borgatta & W. W. Lambert (Eds.), Handbook of personality theory and
research (pp. 215-238). Chicago: Rand McNally.
LeVine, R. A. (1973). Patterns of personality in Africa. Ethos, 1, 123-152.
Minturn, L., & Lambert, W. W. (1964). Mothers of six cultures: Antecedents
of childrearing. New York: John Wiley.
Mukhopadhyay, C. C., & Seymour, S. (1994). Women, education, and family
structure in India. Boulder, CO: Westview.
Munroe, R. H., & Munroe, R. L. (1986, February). Mothers who stereotype:
A four culture examination. In D. L. Best (Chair), Cross-cultural per-
ceptions of males and females: A comparison of methods and findings.
Symposium conducted at the meeting of the Society for Cross-Cultural
Research, San Diego, CA.
Munroe, R. L., & Munroe, R. H. (1990a). Black Carib time allocation. New
Haven, CT: HRAF.
Munroe, R. L., & Munroe, R. H. (1990b). Samoan time allocation. New Ha-
ven, CT: HRAF.
Munroe, R. L., & Munroe, R. H. (1991). Logoli time allocation (Rev. ed.).
New Haven, CT: HRAF.
Munroe, R. L., & Munroe, R. H. (1992). Fathers in children’s environments:
A four culture study. In B. S. Hewlett (Ed.), Father-child relations: Cul-
tural and biosocial contexts (pp. 213-229). Hawthorne, NY: Aldine.
Munroe, R. H., Munroe, R. L., & Shimmin, H. S. (1984). Children’s work in
four cultures: Determinants and consequences. American Anthropolo-
gist, 86, 369-379.
Munroe, R. H., Munroe, R. L., Shwayder, J. A., & Arias, G. (1997). Newar
time allocation. New Haven, CT: HRAF.
Munroe, R. H., Shimmin, H. S., & Munroe, R. L. (1984). Gender under-
standing and sex role preferences in four cultures. Developmental Psy-
chology, 20, 673-682.
Murdock, G. P. (1957). World ethnographic sample. American Anthropolo-
gist, 59, 664-687.
Nisbett, R., & Ross, L. (1980). Human inference: Strategies and shortcom-
ings of social judgment. Engelwood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
406 Cross-Cultural Research / November 2004

Norušis, M. J. (1999). SPSS 9.0 guide to data analysis. Upper Saddle River,
NJ: Prentice Hall.
Parke, R. D., & Buriel, R. (1998). Socialization in the family: Ethnic and
ecological perspectives. In W. Damon (Ed.), Handbook of child psychol-
ogy (Vol. 3, pp. 463-552). New York: John Wiley.
Pradhan, B. (1981). The status of women in Nepal: The Newar women of
Bulu. Kathmandu, Nepal: Centre for Economic Development and Ad-
ministration.
Rogoff, B. (2003). The cultural nature of human development. New York:
Oxford University Press.
Schachter, S. (1978). Sin and error in science. Contemporary Psychology,
23, 4-5.
Seymour, S. C. (1999). Women, family, and child care in India. UK: Cam-
bridge University Press.
Slaby, R. G., & Frey, K. S. (1975). Development of gender constancy and se-
lective attention to same-sex models. Child Development, 46, 849-856.
Strauss, C., & Quinn, N. (1997). A cognitive theory of cultural meaning. UK:
Cambridge University Press.
Ullian, D. Z. (1976). The development of conceptions of masculinity and
femininity. In B. Lloyd & J. Archer (Eds.), Exploring sex differences (pp.
25-47). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1962). Thought and language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Whiting, B. B. (Ed.). (1963). Six cultures: Studies of child rearing. New
York: John Wiley.
Whiting, B. B., & Edwards, C. P. (1988). Children of different worlds. Cam-
bridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Williams, J. E., & Best, D. L. (1982). Measuring sex stereotypes. Beverly
Hills, CA: Sage.

Robert L. Munroe is research professor of anthropology at Pitzer College (of

the Claremont Colleges). His primary interest is in cross-cultural human
development.