The physical distinctions between men and women's bodies - the generally larger weight and taller height for males, the reproductive capabilities and maternal functions of females - have formed the basis for many different social, economic, and political distinctions between men and women. These distinctions often have little to do with actual differences in physical, mental, or emotional capacities beween the sexes. Nonetheless, gender differences often form the most basic division of labor and authority within a society.
Among early humans, for example, men were usually hunters, women the gatherers of daily food. This pattern continues among many present-day tribal societies such as the Yanomami Indians in the Orinoco region of South America, where men hunt and women plant and harvest gardens in the jungle. The formalization of sexual relations between a man and a woman, as recognized by the institution of marriage, also provides one of the most basic forms of social relations and is the building block for one of the fundamental social units of human society, the family.
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