Beliefs About Roles in Life

In my last blog, I wrote about the importance of what are the foundations of our Belief System.  In this blog, I want to go into some examples of how it works as it relates to our beliefs about gender roles.  This subject has been underscored by the current report of the young girl in the Middle East who was shot because of her efforts to be allowed get an education. 

Beliefs about gender roles in life are among our most deeply ingrained beliefs.  Beginning in the 60s, we learned, probably for the first time for pretty much everyone, how greatly such rules for role behavior could differ.  We learned about this from Anthropological studies of isolated groups done by Anthropologist Margaret Mead.  In her stays with various groups, she learned that even two small groups of people who lived independently from each other, but nearby,  had cultures/societies in which they had set up totally different beliefs as to gender roles.  For example in one group she studied, she learned that in that group one of the main duties of the males was to climb coconut trees to harvest the coconuts.  When the coconuts were down on the ground, it was one of the primary duties of the females of the group to take care of the preparation of the coconuts as food and whatever other uses they had.

This, of course, fit in with the Western norm of the men doing the difficult, dangerous things, and the women taking care of the preparation of what the men provided.  Moving on to the other group, she was amazed to learn that, in that culture, it was the women whose job it was to scale the tall coconut trees to harvest the coconuts, and it was the men's responsibility to process the coconuts thereafter. 

This was an amazing revelation to her, as well as to her many readers, such as myself.  According to The Institute for Intercultural Studies, "When Margaret Mead died in 1978, she was the most famous anthropologist in the world.  Indeed, it was through her work that many people leaned about anthropology and its holistic vision of the human species."  Margaret Mead's version of Anthropology differed greatly, however, from the established norm. 

Prior to Margaret Mead, the field of Anthropology was dominated by men, specifically men brought up in the Western World, who, in their field work, brought with them their own Western male social and cultural beliefs about roles and human behavior.  These beliefs, of course, included the, then dominant, Western beliefs about male dominant gender roles.  And, not surprisingly, the focus of their studies were the male members of their host cultures.

It wasn't until Margaret Mead began her work, that the focus of Anthropology shifted somewhat; as a woman, she focused, not only on the whole society, but women's roles, as well as children's roles, in the group.  This expansion of research, and her writing about other cultures, I believe, was a major influence on the shift in regard to the roles of women in the West, and the, then developing, revolutionary renewal of the feminist movement in the form of Women's Liberation.  The resultant culture-shaking has not stopped, it is still going on in various forms more than a half-century later.

Another belief shattering discovery in Anthropology was the evidence that many of the worlds cultures had, in past times been matriarchal, as well as the fact that there were a number of cultures that were still matriarchal in their set up, including at least some of the American Indian cultures.  (A matriarchal society is one in which a female is the head of the family as well as the social group.)

Archaeologists then discovered a major site named Catal Huyuk.  The web site ancienthistory.com states, " In about 7200 B.C. a settlement, Catal Huyuk, developed in Anatolia, south central Turkey. About 6000 Neolithic people lived there, in fortifications of linked rectangular mud-brick buildings. Food was mostly hunted or gathered, but the inhabitants also raised animals and stored surplus grains. So far, Catal Huyuk is considered the oldest civilization."   This description, by omission, reflects the still current male refusal to recognize the evidence that these peoples were living in a matriarchal culture.  A longer description of this find can be found here.  Interestingly the dwellings in this site resemble those of the Pueblo Indians, at  least some of which are matriarchal.

Further evidence of a strong matriarchal influence in ancient times is the ubiquitous female goddess, or Venus, figures which have been found.

I remember one story I read, it was about a group in which the men had reported to the anthropologist studying their culture, that in their society, that in the past it had been the women who were in charge, but that the men had conspired to set about getting the women pregnant, and, when they were most vulnerable, took over.

Males do not want women to know that, in the past, women were in charge, nor that in certain cultures they still are.  The evidence is indisputable that women's roles and importance has systematically been downgraded in the world, however it was achieved.

Understanding one's own personal beliefs about just what you believe your role is, as a male or female, in life as well as in the family is very important.  Due to the chaos which exists currently as to those roles, and other personal behaviors which are an outgrowth of them, can be read about in the newspapers wherever you live.

An example of how the male Anthropologist's personal beliefs about roles have influenced what we were taught as fact, is the name given to early peoples and some modern isolated nomadic people of, "Hunter-Gatherers."  In such groups, as it was the males who did the hunting for meat as food, while the women foraged for roots, nuts, greens, etc., it was believed that those peoples were more dependent on the protein brought in by the males.  After much further research, and the new, broader, perspective, it was discovered that, in such groups presently, in actuality the hunting by the men, and the meat it provided, was primarily used for group rituals and festivals celebrating various social and historical events.  In actuality, it was the foodstuff gathered by the women which made up the bulk of the food consumed by the group, and, therefore, they should be called, "Gatherer-Hunter Societies."

By having absorbed the cultural and social beliefs about what male and female roles are from the adult members of the group, when grown a societies next generation then continues to act in ways thus learned. 

A major role shift in this country was brought about by the second World War.  So many men went into the "war effort,"  in order for the factories building the machinery for war, as well as other industries, in their desperation for workers set about recruiting women.  Some may remember the, Rosie the Riveter posters which encouraged women to, "pick up the slack," so to speak.  After the end of WWII, those same companies told the women to, "go back home," as they were no longer needed.

Many men in the West have managed to expand their role definitions, such as becoming househusbands, but not without public experiencing public disapproval.  Most, instead of adjusting their own role options, males in the West, as well as the Middle East and elsewhere have responded with more and more repression of females in an attempt to keep them in the old roles. As noted at the beginning of this blog, the most blatant current example of this role-definition situation is the young girl in the Middle East, who wanted to read, when she was sitting in a car, was shot in the head, this action is being justified as supported by the cultures religious beliefs and history.

On that sad note, I end this blog.

Shirley Gallup