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Cultural norms of gender roles
Cultural norms of gender roles
Gender roles in ancient society
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In societies past and present, there have been a variety of ways in which the genders have valued. Although the regions of our world value different icons, gods, or elements, there is one thing in which all cultures value, and that is the people of their society. Since people are high on a culture’s priority list, they value people in different way. Some cultures decide that one sex is superior over the other. Although everyone is valued, there are certain times when some sexes are favored over the other. There have been many primary documents which show us which sex the different cultures value. This will show us that around the world people are not valued the same. This will give us an insight on who these different worldly people value.
One of the very first cultures in which have evolved in our world is the Islamic culture. In this specific culture, women have been favored to be protected. From the first time they are born they are made to be protected. Their first protector is their father. They are attached to their father always so that they too can be able to make it into heaven. This can be proven by, “He who brings up two girls through their childhood will appear on the Day of Judgment attached to me like two fingers of a hand…” Sometimes there are women who are not protected by their fathers, in this case it is up to other men to watch over them. These men are also responsible for taking care of the orphans since they too cannot protect themselves from the dangers of life. If a man does not protect the welfare of a woman or an orphan they will be considered sinful which will keep them away from entering the kingdom of heaven. This can be seen by, “Allah, I declare sinful any failure to safeguard the right of two wea...
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...se ideas. In conclusion, people are valuable in all cultures. They are valued more than any animal, livestock or material object. They are all doing these things to please their higher powers. These people are strong for being able to support themselves and their faith by participating in these activities. These particular observations have been seen observed over the years and some of these traditions are still in place today. This just shows how much of an impact the past has on our current world.
Works Cited
A Sati’s Sacrifice, “Vikrama’s Adventures,” in History 120 Course Reader, ed. Yuriy Malikov (SUNY College at Oneonta, 2010), 66
Confucius, “The Analects” in History 120 Course Reader, ed. Yuriy Malikov (SUNY College at Oneonta, 2010), 26
Nawawi, Imam, “Garden of Righteousness” in History 120 Class Reader, ed. Yuriy Malikov (SUNY College at Oneonta, 2010
To begin, I think it is important to analyze the difference between “sex” and “gender”. Up until researching for this paper, I though that the two terms were interchangeable in meaning, rather, they are separate ideas that are connected. According to Mary K. Whelan, a Doctor of Anthropology focusing on gender studies, sex and gender are different. She states, “Western conflation of sex and gender can lead to the impression that biology, and not culture, is responsible for defining gender roles. This is clearly not the case.”. She continues with, “Gender, like kinship, does have a biological referent, but beyond a universal recognition of male and female "packages," different cultures have chosen to associate very different behaviors, interactions, and statuses with men and women. Gender categories are arbitrary constructions of culture, and consequently, gender-appropriate behaviors vary widely from culture to culture.” (23). Gender roles are completely defined by the culture each person lives in. While some may think that another culture is sexist, or dem...
Gender inequality has been a major issue for many centuries now. Societies insist in assigning males and females to different roles in life. The traditional stereotypes and norms for how a male and female should present themselves to the world have not changed much over time. But individuals are more than just their gender and should have the right to act and be treated the way they want. The novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
In her 2002 book, “Interpreting Gender and Sexuality: Approaches from Cultural Anthropology,” Alma Gottlieb gave insight into the roles of gender and sexuality in different cultures and how these roles have developed over time. Her book contrast gender stereotypes and how they are changing in Western nations like America, but are stationary in places like Afganistan. She dabbles on the topics of religious and cultural beliefs, and how these functions reflect societal opinions about masculinity and femininity. Her writings attempt explaining why gender power struggles occur, how these ideas were founded, and how people are either moving away from them or accepting them.
The Kaleidoscope of Gender: Prisms, Patterns, and Possibilities written by Joan Z. Spade and Catherine G. Valentine is a book about the sociology of gender and the construct thereof. The writers use a metaphor of a kaleidoscope to illustrate their interpretations of the topic. A kaleidoscope is a toy consisting of a tube containing mirrors and pieces of colored glass or paper, whose reflections produce changing patterns that are visible through an eyehole when the tube is rotated. Utilizing the similitude of the kaleidoscope, this collection presents gender as a result of always transforming patterns get under way by prisms that underlie change, both straightforward and complex, bringing about an extensive variety of possibilities. The book
Gender Matters is a collection of various essays on feminist linguistic texts analysis, by Sara Mills. Mills develops methods of analyzing literary and non-literary texts, in addition to conversational analysis based on a feminist approach. The author draws on data from her collection of essays gathered over the last two decades on feminism during the 1990s. The essays focus on gender issues, the representation of gender in reading, writing, and in public speaking. Furthermore, it highlights the importance of feminists’ analysis of sexism in literature and the relation between gender and politeness. The article is informative for my research paper, as my topic is going to cover language analysis of the text and who women reading and writing differs according to the discourse analysis within linguistic, psychology, case studies audiences and surveys. The book would be helpful, particularly the last three essays that discusses gender, public speaking, the question of politeness and impoliteness in public speaking. Mills’ analysis is not complete without including the idea of global notions of both women and men, to see whether women and men write and read in the same way globally. Therefore, an update would enrich the book’s discussion section. Although, Mills addresses the class and race theme in language and public speaking, I will only look into the role of language that plays a part in doing or reducing gender in literary, non-literary texts and in conversation.
Jamestown, Virginia, is a crucial source of legends about the United States. Pocahontas, a daughter of an Indian werowance married an Englishman named John Rolfe and changed her name to Rebecca. In her article, “Gender Frontier”, Kathleen Brown underscores gender role and responsibility in both Native American and English settlers. Gender frontier is the meeting of two or more culturally specific system of knowledge about gender and nature. She also stresses the duties that they played in their societies prior to the arrival of the English people in the early colony in Virginia. Brown describes the difference values between Europeans and Native Americans in regards to what women and men should and should not do and the complex progression of
Henrik Ibsen once said, “A woman cannot be herself in the society of the present day, which is an exclusively masculine society, with laws framed by men and with a judicial system that judges feminine conduct from a masculine point of view.”(Notable Quotes) Ibsen’s statement exemplifies what life was like for women during ancient times. In many of the organized ancient civilizations, it was very common to find a primarily patriarchal civilization in government as well as in society. The causing factors can be attributed to different reasons, the main being the Neolithic Revolution and the new found dependence on manpower it caused. As a result of this, a woman found herself to be placed into an entirely different view in the eye of society. In comparison to the early Paleolithic matriarchal societies, the kinds of changes that came about for women due to the introduction of agriculture are shocking. Since the beginnings of the Neolithic era, the role and rights of women in many ancient civilizations began to become limited and discriminatory as a result of their gender.
Across the globe, gender systems vary in ways that often exclude individuals who don’t identify within their realms. From the binary structure of the West, to the ternary system of India, there are many ways in which societies conceptualize gender. Gender systems are generally considered inherent to humanity, and are seldom questioned or altered. This has led to the marginalization and discrimination of individuals who diverge from the implemented structure.
In the society we live in, gender plays a great role, is not biological rader it’s refereed to as a social behavior pattern. It is constructed on male and female character and traditional beliefs. The society has often reflected its passion on gender roles. For instance In the media today women are given roles that suit men which makes them challenge men for their right, they are represented as entertainment for men, women are likely to be the source of leading news stories nowadays.
Gender roles have been a predominant factor in our world since the early emergence of human societies whether they are positive or negative. They are based on expectations that societies have over the people in them. The Epic of Sunjata, shows us how men and women are treated almost equally in different forms. Women are praised for their ability to birth leaders, which is similar to the early Greek Society. In most societies, women are treated less equal than men. This was prevalent in the early Indian society. No matter the gender role, it has been shown that any society cannot survive without both men and women.
This article was written to bring attention to the way men and women act because of how they were thought to think of themselves. Shaw and Lee explain how biology determines what sex a person is but a persons cultures determines how that person should act according to their gender(Shaw, Lee 124). The article brings up the point that, “a persons gender is something that a person performs daily, it is what we do rather than what we have” (Shaw, Lee 126). They ...
Apparently, these male-defined concepts and stringent regulations imposed heavier penalties for women than men because women were mandated with the heaviest burden of keeping their honor. Central to the concept of honor was a woman’s need to keep their virginity intact otherwise she would be ostracized by the society. A woman who preserved her virginity was held with honor and esteem because she proved superior to her peers (Lavrin 11). Virginity in itself was a highly esteem social quality worth keeping (Lavrin 11).
Yu, Jiyuan. History of Philosophy Quarterly , Vol. 17, No. 2 (Apr., 2000) , pp. 121-141
Class this semester was widely based on the ideas and problematic events in which revolve around the idea of globalization. This term, idea, or concept poses many negativities to the gender of women. Despite the media and the common portrayal that the idea of globalization is a positive thing for the world, in many instances it is causing great negativity for people, specifically women. Globalization can be applied to many aspects of culture but many times it is applied in terms of economics. In the patriarchal world in which exists when speaking about economics it is typically a male centered conversation due to the males typically being in lead roles of the work force despite many women in this country and well across borders in other countries being very highly educated and capable of carrying out such jobs. Many of these women who seek to be educated and successful in the workforce do not achieve their goals and fall back into their gender roles which goes against their personal goals. This was demonstrated very well by the case study of “Clashing Dreams: Highly Educated Overseas Brides and Low-Wage U.S. Husbands” written by Hung Cam Thai. Not only are these brides in which are talked about in this essay failing at their personal goals they are also failing at the goals in which Estelle B. Freedman discusses in her book No Turning Back. In this work she speaks much about transnational feminism and the objectives in which much be met to obtain equality rights for women transnational. The link between Freedman’s work and the study of Vietnamese brides marrying transnational is undeniable not for positive outcomes but for negative. By linking these two works not only will it show what needs to be done for women to obtain equal ri...
Human beings have been, and always will be, dichotomized into either male or female. When determining a person’s sex we often look for differences in facial features, body shape or mannerism’s, but another promising way to determine a persons sex and one that is most often used today, is through gender roles. Gender roles are behaviors that portray masculinity or femininity. The theory behind gender roles through multidisciplinary viewpoints is the focus of this paper. Throughout history and in every culture these roles have shifted and transformed into what society says is expectable. In this analysis, gender roles will be examined through a sociological, biological and evolutionary scope.