Gender Gradients among the Tagoi of the Nuba Mountains—Sudan

The article gives accounts on the gender-related symbolism and on one’s social value as male or female in a Tagoi rural community in the north-eastern Nuba Mountains of Sudan. It tries to detect the values and the behavioural norms that are considered socially appropriate for males and females in such a community, and the connected socialization process as well. Here, the article concentrates on the roles and the personality traits that the Tagoi associate with men and women, and on how men and women interact according to these roles and traits. The gender- and age-based division of labour and spatial segregation are also considered in this article. The previous anthropological studies of women and gender in Sudan and the concepts of relationality, connectivity, nature-culture divide, pollution and hegemonic masculinity, which are embedded in the classic and contemporary theoretical literature on gender, are slightly used in making the main findings more intelligible.