Humankind has evolved a point of view that sees men being superior to women. In our present day, men overpower women in various settings ranging from a common household to the leaders of nations. In the everyday household men are expected to be the ones who work to provide and maintain their household, and when it comes to the leaders of the nations throughout the world the number of men leaders greatly overshadows the number of female leaders. By all means, not every society holds the same point of view. On one hand, Hindu and Islamic cultures and religions maintain a patriarchal way of life. While on the other hand, the Mosuo people of China are one of the few remaining societies that don’t consider a gender superior over the other but their women are seen as being more prestigious than their men and that may make the Mosuo a matriarch. Without a doubt, the differences between Hindu, Islamic, and Mosuo views on a superior gender are impacted by their different religions, and cultural beliefs.
According to the U.S. History in Context attained from the University of Miami Otto G. Richter Library, a patriarchy is “a social phenomenon in which males have the privilege of dominance over females, both visibly and subliminally” (U.S. History in Context). On the contrary, a matriarchy is defined as “a political system in which women are the dominant political actors” (U.S. History in Context). In addition, when both of the words matriarchy and patriarchy are broken down to their root meaning, they illustrate their literal definition. The word “-Arch” translates to rule, while “matri-” and “patri-” translate to mother and father. When the root words are put together, they translate to rule of father in patriarchy, or rule of the mother...
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... very little or vast similarities or differences in both religion and culture but the equality of rights given to men and women in the matriarch of the Mosuo culture is far superior than the suppression of women in the patriarchs of Hinduism and Islam.
Works Cited
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Gender hierarchies have been a central pillar of social orders almost since its inception. However, the balance has not been remotely even throughout history, with patriarchies far outnumbering matriarchies. Despite the large dominance held by men, it was not all black and white in East Asian societies. Even though Tang and Song China were all patriarchal, they were very different in their application and influences of gender hierarchies.
Common in premodern China was the heavy discrimination of women and a strict social role that they were obligated to follow in order to survive. Women were assigned a limiting job at birth: be a good and faithful wife. For thousands of years, women were portrayed more as employees of their husbands than lovers or partners, and this is prevalent in imperial Chinese literature.
Japanese society has many beliefs and rituals and women are always secluded from many aspects of ritual life. Women are also forbidden to enter in sacred places although these prohibitions are vanishing. The modern society has defined all social roles in terms of hierarchy such as domination of men over women it is common virtually in all setting that women be subordinated to male as household heads (Countries and their Culture 2014:14). Despite the legal changes on the principle of family structure regarding education and labor equity, there ...
Across cultures, many times similarities lay within them that go unnoticed. It is true that obvious differences set them apart; but if a closer look is taken, it is surprising what can be found. The Chinese culture is obviously different from the American culture, but underneath the surface there are similarities. One of them is how the treatment of women has evolved and changed. Anti-feminism in China has been present since ancient times, and has just recently decreased. Anti-feminism in America has never been as severe as it was in China; however, instead of the value of women gradually increasing over the years - it has reversed. The value of women in America has decreased. There are many similarities between the ancient Chinese women and the modern women of America. Women in China and women in America have both gone through evolutions of how they are treated and looked upon; it is just that women in China have evolved, where the women of America have devolved.
The existence of a patriarchal system has been one of the corner stones of gender studies since the first application of feminist methodology to historical thought. However, the definition and meaning of patriarchy have significantly altered since Max Weber sought to clarify term. Weber stated that “Patriarchalism means the authority of the father, the husband, the senior of the house, the sib elder over the members of the household and sib; the rule of the master and patron over bondsman, serfs, freed men…of the patrimonial lord and sovereign prince over the subjects.” While statement and others like it served for many years as a starting point, the definition has begun to disintegrate under a flurry of activity by historians of early America.
Our culture has created a social system that allows the driving forces of patriarchy to flourish. Although many people may not be purposefully attempting to continue this system of patriarchy, we each play a role in its survival. For many the problem is not that they are promoting patriarchy but that they are not challenging the system. In Johnson’s article “Patriarchy”, he is not examining whether a patriarchal system exists in our culture but what factors are driving this system to continue. The articles analyzed demonstrate Johnson’s theory of patriarchy by exemplifying his three facets of the patriarchal system and by recognizing the notion of the path of least resistance.
South Asian women engage in patriarchal values and normative structure established more than two thousands years ago, continue to be oppressed by a dominant group of men. These women suffer further oppression through the strict adherence to cultural garb. Still today, media and educational system portray South Asian women as self-sacrificing, faithful to the family, and submissive to men.
...oist China.” Gender & History 18, No. 3 (November 2006): 574-593. EBSCOhost. Accessed October 4, 2015.
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.
Deeb, Mary-Jane. Freedom House. Women’s Rights in the Middle East and North Africa-Oman, 2010. http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=179 (accessed August 14, 2010)
Examples of cultural constructions can be seen throughout history in several forms such as gender, relationships, and marriage. “Cultural construction of gender emphasizes that different cultures have distinctive ideas about males and females and use these ideas to define manhood/masculinity and womanhood/femininity.” (Humanity, 239) In many cultures gender roles are a great way to gain an understanding of just how different the construction of gender can be amongst individual cultures. The video The Women’s Kingdom provides an example of an uncommon gender role, which is seen in the Wujiao Village where the Mosuo women are the last matriarchy in the country and have been around for over one thousand years. Unlike other rural Chinese villages where many girls are degraded and abandoned at birth, Mosuo woman are proud and run the households where the men simply assist in what they need. The view of gender as a cultural construct ...
Since the beginning of time men have played the dominant role in nearly every culture around the world. If the men were not dominant, then the women and men in the culture were equal. Never has a culture been found where women have dominated. In “Society and Sex Roles” by Ernestine Friedl, Friedl supports the previous statement and suggests that “although the degree of masculine authority may vary from one group to the next, males always have more power” (261). Friedl discusses a variety of diverse conditions that determine different degrees of male dominance focusing mainly on the distribution of resources. In The Forest People by Colin Turnbull, Turnbull describes the culture of the BaMbuti while incorporating the evident sex roles among these “people of the forest”. I believe that the sex roles of the BaMbuti depicted by Turnbull definitely follow the pattern that is the basis of Freidl’s arguments about the conditions that determine variations of male dominance. Through examples of different accounts of sex roles of the BaMbuti and by direct quotations made by Turnbull as well as members of the BaMbuti tribe, I intend on describing exactly how the sex roles of the BaMbuti follow the patterns discussed by Freidl. I also aim to depict how although women are a vital part of the BaMbuti culture and attain equality in many areas of the culture, men still obtain a certain degree of dominance.
Before the beginning of the women's rights movements in the late 19th century patriarchy, or a society dominated by males, was the norm in America. Men used sex and marriage to objectify and suppress women in order to maintain a society controlled strictly by males. The foundation of patriarchy was rooted deeply in the marital roles of men and women, one dominant, and the other submissive. Sex and marriage served as a mechanisms to shape the images of men and women in society. The system of patriarchy fed into itself to keep it going generation after generation.
In our society in the United states, men are regarded as the dominant sex and are given differential treatment in regards to the division of labor. Though there have been various strides from the Women 's Movement, which have historically garnered women the right to vote, to work in their field of choice and leave the home, but also recently, to join the military.(p. 301) Women continue to seek total equality in our society, yet equality cannot be attained while they are constantly regarded as objects and sex symbols. This all can be traced back to the introduction of the market economy and primal warfare, when men would go out and hunt while the women would stay back as harvesters and nurturers. (p. 302) Theorists like Lionel Tiger and Robin Fox use this separation to explain why men perpetuate patrilineal aspects, since men are out “hunting”, they do not form connections with the children like the mother does, so to make up for this connection lost between generations they form it with other men in the hunting group.(p.
Patriarchy is a social system in which families and societies are dominated by males as primary authority figures. Due to patriarchy, females have been disadvantaged in many aspects of life including employment, family life, crime, health, education and media. This has led sociologists to try and find out what causes gender inequality. Feminists would agree that patriarchy is the main cause of gender inequality, however, there are different strands of feminism and these different strands have different views. There are also other theorists, such as functionalists, Weberians and postmodernists who offer different views as to the causes of gender inequality.