Where We Come From The question, “Where were the women?” in recent times has acquired some answers (Conkey 2007). The women of the past did not hide in caves or cater all their time to men, nor did they exist as faceless blobs with children in the background, as the men did “important” work (Nelson 2004). Instead, they did as much if not more for the support of human existence. Statistics on where we come from can be pointpoint to how we study and who is studying what. If men are the only archaeologists, feminist ethnography would be ignored. Women have always be leaders in communities and new archaeological data is confirming what we knew to be true but refused to credit because women are seen as the “second sex” (Visweswaran 1997). In recent …show more content…
Archeologists credits advancements of women’s rights to western ideologies, but the western concept is not the status quo, there are better examples. When discussing these recent advancements with more liberated Native American women, what we thought as progressive to “civilized” western women amused the women in “need” of western liberation (McClure 2007). In feminist ethnography going out to do research with the state of mind that America’s reality is better than the rest of the world when it comes to treatment of women is not true. America is a mere representation of liberated women. Archaeologists should step back and listen to what the people they are studying have to say. The subjects of feminist ethnography should be allowed to speak for themselves. Women in primitive societies have more privileges than white women in the states. Status of the oppressed group is a representation of the civilization’s conscious meter. What does this say about American and the recent allegations of powerful men taking advantage and sextual abusing silenced women? If American women are amongst the most liberated why must the men be taught constantly how to respect women? Here women’s job occupations are not taken seriously but a man’s work is of the utmost importance. Other if not most societies, for example Native Americans, celebrate women’s contributions to their civilizations. Feminist ethnography is beneficiary to those being studies as their history gets recorded and those doing the studying because they in turn analyze their reality. Studying the other women might help feminist ethnography women archaeologists make sense of their current state or reality. Only recently has the concern shifted from women “like us” to “women unlike us” (Visweswaran
Whitney Battle-Baptiste, the author of Black Feminist Archaeology creates the framework of this book because as a Black woman who is interested in race, gender, and cultural views, believes that too often in mainstream archaeological theory, Black culture and the experiences of Black women and our families are overlooked and dismissed. Dr. Baptiste states her explanation on how joining Black Feminist Theory and archaeology in her projects provides a way to open a discussion between archaeologists, which is her intent. It also shows that “when archaeologists critically engage with a dialogue about the intersectionality of race and gender, we begin to see the deeper forms of oppression and how they affect the lives of marginalized populations.”.
Significantly, Welch deconstructs the myth that Plains Indian women were just slaves and beasts of burden and presents them as fully rounded women, women who were crucial to the survival of the tribal community. In fact, it is the women who perform the day-to-day duties and rituals that enable cultural survival for the tribes of...
Lincoln: University of Nebraska, 2009. Print. Whelan, Mary K. "Gender and Historical Archaeology: Eastern Dakota Patterns in the 19th Century." Society for Historical Archaeology 25.4 (1991): 17-32.
Aztec women embarked on several defining moments of labor, gender, class, symbolism, and political power in the Aztec Mexico history and culture. The roles of the Aztec women were unjustly marginalized. Their contributions to the work activities, economy, government and the influence of growth and development were grossly deceptive in the Ethnohistoric documents. Moreover, the variations of Aztec women cooking and weaving revolutionized gender. They say a picture is worth a thousand words.
Feminism and Indigenous women activism is two separate topics although they sound very similar. In indigenous women’s eyes feminism is bashing men, although Indigenous women respect their men and do not want to be a part of a women’s culture who bring their men down. Feminism is defined as “The advocacy of women 's rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes.” In theory feminism sounds delightful despite the approaches most feminists use such as wrong-full speaking of the opposite gender. Supposedly, feminism is not needed as a result of Indigenous women being treated with respect prior to colonization. Thus, any Native woman who calls herself a feminist is often condemned as being “white”. This essay argues that Indigenous women may
Robbins Burling, David F. Armstrong, Ben G. Blount, Catherine A. Callaghan, Mary Lecron Foster, Barbara J. King, Sue Taylor Parker, Osamu Sakura, William C. Stokoe, Ron Wallace, Joel Wallman, A. Whiten, Sherman Wilcox and Thomas Wynn. Current Anthropology, Vol. 34, No. 1 (Feb., 1993), pp. 25-53
Throughout most of recorded history, women generally have endured significantly fewer career opportunities and choices, and even less legal rights, than that of men. The “weaker sex,” women were long considered naturally, both physically and mentally, inferior to men. Delicate and feeble minded, women were unable to perform any task that required muscular or intellectual development. This idea of women being inherently weaker, coupled with their natural biological role of the child bearer, resulted in the stereotype that “a woman’s place is in the home.” Therefore, wife and mother were the major social roles and significant professions assigned to women, and were the ways in which women identified and expressed themselves. However, women’s history has also seen many instances in which these ideas were challenged-where women (and some men) fought for, and to a large degree accomplished, a re-evaluation of traditional views of their role in society.
For example, in India many girls are being deprived from equal rights. In these societies, women are treated unequally and are blamed for any sexual advances thrown at them. In Rachel William’s article, “ Why girls in India are still missing out on the education they need”, the author states that women attempt to keep anyone from knowing that they are being harassed from the opposite sex so that they cannot be blamed for the men’s action. And, it is appalling to see that the ones that are penalized are not the men that are harassing the young girls, but the victims themselves. If we are really marginalizing men the way Rosin claims, then why does inequality, harassment and rape still
Prior to the use of agriculture, life was extremely different for women. The information that historians have obtained is limited, but there are certain aspects of Paleolithic society that have been discovered and point towards a more liberal lifestyle for women. Generally, a woman’s job was to gather food and tend to her children while her male counterpart hunted. These simple divisions allowed both men and women to play significant roles in hunter-gatherer society, which further allowed women to be held in equal if not greater esteem then men. According to Elisabeth Gaynor Ellis and Anthony Elser, authors of World History: Connections to Today, women also held...
Women “were expected to bear children, stay home, cook and clean, and take care of the children” (Cobb 29). They were expected to be weak, timid, domestic, emotional, dependent, and pure. Women were taught to be physically and emotionally inferior in addition morally superior to men. During this time, women were ostracized for expressing characteristics and wants that contradicted those ideals. For women, the areas of influence are home and children, whereas men’s sphere includes work and the outside world” (Brannon 161).
Society has seen the male dynamic of superiority, designation as the “bread winner”, or head of household for centuries. Women were specifically assigned to the roles of wife, mother, and nurturer through the process of the sexual or gendered division of labor. However, that has not always been the case. Over centuries of change and shifts in economic development, the roles of women have changed to adapt to their specific roles in society. The status of the individuals in society was defined by sex, age, physical trai...
Ecofeminism deals with ecological and feminist analyses and movements. It shows the relationship between women and nature in the view of historically, human-earth, patriarchal social structures and world views interconnected with oppression of women and nature. Feminist analysis mainly focused on Liberal, Marxist or Socialist, Cultural, Radical, Post-colonialist and Post-modernist approaches. Political ideology of feminism makes an effort to make women a self-conscious category, and it gives a power to generate a rational sensible attitude towards women, an approach to view the women in their own positions as well as own perspectives. Eco-feminist movements look for non-violent solutions to world problems. They always consider that feminine
Women’s oppression is not just unique to our history alone. Different civilizations around the world have portrayed women despicably. In Japan during world war two, teenage girls were rounded up into sex camps. “An estimated one hundred thousand to four hundred thousand girls were forced to do sexual favors for Japanese soldiers, some of the girls were as young as 11 years old. They serviced up to 50 Japanese soldiers a day, while enduring beatings, starvation, sterilization and abortions. Even today, over half the 27 million people enslaved are woman in underground sex brothels.” [Robinson]
Feminist epistemology involves the study the theory of knowledge i.e. epistemology from q feminist standpoint; the disadvantage faced by women through knowledge and justification. It is usually said to be concerned with how our knowledge is influenced by gender through justification and inquiry. Feminist’s epistemology is ideally based on the fact that by the perspective of a certain theory is affected upon by the knowledge pertaining the theory. The themes which characterize feminist epistemology are not unique it on only, since the themes are also found in the filed science studies and social epistemology. However, feminist epistemology is distinct from both science studies and social epistemology in that, for reconstructing and analysis, gender is characterize used. However, feminists have always argued gender rather than being determined
Women have always been essential to society. Fifty to seventy years ago, a woman was no more than a house wife, caregiver, and at their husbands beck and call. Women had no personal opinion, no voice, and no freedom. They were suppressed by the sociable beliefs of man. A woman’s respectable place was always behind the masculine frame of a man. In the past a woman’s inferiority was not voluntary but instilled by elder women, and/or force. Many, would like to know why? Why was a woman such a threat to a man? Was it just about man’s ability to control, and overpower a woman, or was there a serious threat? Well, everyone has there own opinion about the cause of the past oppression of woman, it is currently still a popular argument today.