Dual Economies or Dueling Economies?

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This is a comparative study of two villages at different points along a continuum of reliance on the subsistence and cash economies. Of interest are the cultural implications and distributional effects associated with this distinction. Are cash and subsistence economies compatible or mutually exclusive? Principles identified in social sustainability literature provide a foundation to examine this question. Primary data collected provides insight regarding distributive properties associated with relative dependence on and access to the cash and subsistence economies using simple statistical analysis and content analysis methods. Gender ideologies are analyzed using attitudes related to post-marital education as a proxy. The study found that communities with a greater reliance on the cash economy exhibit a higher degree of stratification than communities where the subsistence economy is the predominant method of securing livelihoods. In contrast, political power among genders in the monetary economy appears to be equalized. In addition, gender ideologies informing the division of labor appear to be more malleable in communities with a higher reliance on the cash economy.