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I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

A unique study of the role of women throughout history and their contributions to the economy and the success of the human race as a whole comes to life in author Mariano Pavanello’s novel “The Gender of Debt: The Last 50,000 Years”. Here is the synopsis. 

The Synopsis

This book demonstrates, from a historical and an economic point of view, how the female contribution has been so determinant in the success of our species, and how it is linked to male dominance. Male hunting and female gathering were the two forces of production during 99% of the life of mankind on Earth. Ethnographic evidence shows that female gathering is more productive and less time-consuming than male hunting. Therefore, the prehistoric communities of Homo sapiens could manage their social labor-time in the most productive way, only if women lent their time to men through the supply of basic energy: a debt that men incurred since the dawn of history, but never acknowledged. It is time now to give the gender economic relations the crucial place they deserve in a theory of human cooperation and sociality, without forgetting that it is necessarily a theory of social inequality.

The Review

From an analysis of the Biblical myth of Adam and Eve and the “Original Sin” which the author posits stems from the long history of women being gatherers for men while the men hunted for food, thus making women responsible for producing fruit and vegetables and the contribution of energy to men, to the specialized look at the role of hunting in general, or “meat”, played in the development of the nuclear family unit and how women’s contributions using gathering actually provided the most time and energy to the family unit, this book tackles the contributions of women to society in a large scale analysis that many people will instantly relate to.

The detail and historical context the author puts into this book blends well with the mathmatical and economic analysis used to justify the points the author makes throughout the novel. While I myself may not be adept at understanding the complex math and economics used throughout the novel, I think the overall history and research put into the novel by the author does a marvelous job of reaching multiple levels of readers out there, and anyone who enjoys novels on female empowerment, history and equality will love delving into this novel.

The Verdict

This is a unique and promising read that fans of history and equality for both men and women will enjoy reading. The sheer volume of contributions women had to the development of our society will blow the minds of any naysayers and doubters about the need for equality in our society, as without women our development in this world would have suffered greatly. A well researched, well written and fairly quick read, author Mariano Pavanello’s novel “The Gender of Debt: The Last 50,000 Years” is a must read book, so be sure to grab your copies today!

Rating: 10/10

About the Author

Mariano Pavanello taught Social Anthropology and Africanistics in the Universities of Pisa and Rome “La Sapienza”, where he was Head of the Department of History, Cultures, and Religions. His extensive experience among the Nzema of Ghana was his main ethnological fieldwork that he concluded with the creation of the “Kwame Nkrumah Museum of the Nzema Culture and History” in the premises of the eighteenth-century Fort Apollonia in Beyin, Ghana. He has published a number of books, including Sistemi umani (1992), Le società acquisitive e i fondamenti razionali dello scambio (1993), Il formicaleone e la rana (2000), Perspectives on African Witchcraft (2017), and La papaye empoisonnée. Essais sur la société Akan des Nzema (2017).

Buy the Book:

https://www.cambridgescholars.com/the-gender-of-debt

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https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mariano_Pavanello

https://uniroma1.academia.edu/MarianoPavanello

SSRN at: http://ssrn.com/author=2374528

ORCID: 0000-0003-4314-5958