Kuna Women

When looking upon many other cultures and the affects globalization and commercialization has had on their lives, in comparison to Kuna men and women, we find there to be a generally beneficial outcome. Although in contrasting of gender, we find women to be doing exceptionally well with the connection to Mola making. From the commercialization of their hand crafted products we are able to see them becoming active in marketing, retaining control over land and economic resources, learning and developing business skills, as well as controlling income in the household.
Since globalization has changed the cash economy of San Blas, women have become heavily involved through the marketing of their Molas. Before this shift from self-sufficiency to dependency on international markets, Kuna women were traditionally part of an egalitarian society where they contributed equally to men. But from an international standpoint the range of sales in Panama City for male intermediaries is larger and more profitable. Offering a way for inequality to step in. However within the household, globalization in Panama has offered the Kuna women a higher level of control. The Mola Cooperative in particular has helped to ensure this
existing egalitarian relationship between Kuna men and women stays intact. Here we can see the commercialization of hand-crafted goods to be used as a “stepping-stone” toward gaining local control over important economic resources and providing for women’s increased participation on an overall level. By this it would be benefiting the community as a whole through the wave of change, in way of international economy.

Since the major increase of tourisms to San Blas in recent years, there has been a shift in the lives of the Kuna men and women.
Among the many changes, we find the agricultural integration and general household tasks in the lives of the Kuna women, have decreased quite a bit. Before the production and commercialization of Molas, women would gather fruit, catch crabs and shrimp, prepare and preserve food, as well as plant and harvest in the field with the men. However, now the organization of women’s labor among generations has changed with this commercialization. Women no longer have much time to spend doing household tasks or even productive, past time activities such as fishing, for they are spending far more of their time in the production of
Molas.
This increase in production has now offered a greater flexibility in the dividing of labor between Kuna men and women, and even between younger and older women. Since selling directly to tourists is more profitable that selling through the Cooperative the increase in tourists visiting the area in the 60s allowed the production of Molas to be women’s primary daily activity. This has turned the younger Mola producing women in to so called “bread-winners” of the household. Although men were still primarily responsible for providing their family with food caught and gathered from the jungle and sea, much of the food now has been purchased instead. In way of this, the women have started to become money earners and purchasers of food for the household.
One of the disadvantages with shifting of roles caused by tourism, is since the sale of Molas has become the primary source of income for this area, much of their livelihood depends on the follow through of these sales. If there are no sales or very few, it then becomes rather difficult to purchase food and materials necessary for the household. It has now become a shift from self-sufficiency to dependency on international markets.