sex roles, power, and illness in an Egyptian village

Some recent studies have reintroduced women into the arena of anthropology as social actors engaged in the manipulation of their environment and the exercise of choice. The purpose of this paper is to question the utility of approaching the study of sex roles in terms of individual strategies and competition for power. This is pursued within the context of the study of health‐related behavior. The incidence of a folk illness and symptomatology derived from the Cornell Medical Index are utilized as indices of patterned power differentials associated with sex role expectations in an Egyptian village.