Gender, Folklore and Inequality - Assignment Example

Relationship between menstruation and pollution In cross cultural studies of many existing ethnic cultures all overthe world, menstruation has been portrayed as a negative act. During their menstrual cycles, women are seen as dangerous, poisonous and as a source of pollution. During the olden days, women who were menstruating were believed to contaminate everything they came into contact with. These include: food, horses, hunting weapons and gear, canoes, water and most especially the wealth and spiritual items belonging to men. It was believed that they would spoil men’s good fortune in hunting and gambling. This seems to suggest that pollution associated with menstruation is an ethnographic truism (Buckley et al 110). This truism today has constantly been used in the advertisements as a foundation for the idea that practices linked to menstruation were brought forth as a means of political control over women in patriarchal societies. Many feminists posit that as a result of fear of women by men and the weak ties among men, they have imposed such taboos upon women to retain political dominance in the society. They conclude that such taboos are ludicrous and are elements of oppression among women in male dominated ethnic groups. Some practices such as isolating women who are undergoing menstruation in some cultures is viewed as a mechanism used to reduce the status of women to that of the male folk. This is because men are seen to be of a pure state and women as not worth participating in societal events. However, as seen in the works of Buckley, an anthropologist; Yurok women associate this isolation with freedom from mundane tasks, freedom from sexual distractions, and as an opportunity to meditate and discover their purpose in life as well as attaining spiritual energy. Menstrual pollution may serve more to separate the two worlds of men and women more than they do to oppress women. This is because; women viewed themselves powerful and pure at the time to attract wealth and healing rather than feeling oppressed while the men saw them as a threat to their wealth and not as a way of oppressing them. As such, it was a good way of women to find their energy and be useful to the society (Buckley et al 112). 2. Davis Floyd and the technocratic model of birth in the United States. Davis Floyd describes birth in the United States as a paradigm she labelled “the technocratic model” since it is practiced under a set of beliefs. The process of birth in the contemporary American society includes an initiatory rite of passage for mothers. This rite of passage can be defined as a ritual which is a symbolic, repetitive pattern of cultural enactment of beliefs and values. Birth processes in American hospitals are standardized and there is elaborate use of modern technology. The birth attendants and doctors view this as a medical necessity (Fahy 32). Birth procedures in American hospitals have their roots in the conceptual foundations of the American society. The American beliefs are centred on science, technology and such institutions that that control and disseminate them. As such, there is no better medium to pass on the core values and beliefs than the procedures involving American birth processes in the hospitals. Birth in this model is ritualised in that the birth process is divided in to three main phases seen as rites of passage for the mother and the child. The first phase is the separation which begins with the woman’s awareness of pregnancy, secondly, the transition phase which lasts after several days after birth and finally the integration phase which lasts until after the child is a few months old. This process is pivotal in ritualization since in doing so, the society ensures that its basic values and beliefs are transmitted to the new three members produced in the process. These are the new born baby, the new mother and the man who becomes a father. This is especially important to the new mother as she is the number one teacher to the child who is a new member of the society and a guarantor of its continuity. Women who have embraced childbirth at home may come to reject the core values and principles associated with technocratic birth practices all together. They instead will be more inclined towards perspectives of child bearing and rearing. The holistic model is different from technocratic model in that women who prefer the holistic model view their bodies as sufficient to meet the demands that come with labour and delivery and often will base their parenting abilities on such construct. As such, they are likely to embrace long term exclusive breast feeding practices, sharing their beds with the baby, use of cloth diapers, attachment parenting and are likely to oppose bottle feeding, scheduled feedings, cribs, swings and strollers (Cheyney 56). They are likely to reject anything that might be considered as a modern way of bringing up a baby. This is different from the technocratic method which is the opposite of holistic model. Home births are ritualised in that the model emphasises on the nature of childbirth as a physical, social and spiritual transformation. The holistic model capitalises on the transmission of transgressive values such as rejecting the mind body split and doctors as the overall authority. Home birth as a subculture, the woman, the child and other participants are first socialized into embracing the powerful and life giving elements of the body as a union between the mother and a child. The film business of being born showcases several methods of giving birth, following a midwife Cara who performs home births including water births (Cheyney 66). Methods such as epidural may common in America due to high quality technology. This method is not practiced in many developing countries due to lack of expertise and the necessary equipments to do so. Use of doulas and midwives is a common practice even in other parts of the world. This could be as a result of choice or lack of enough medical hospitals and facilities for pregnant women to deliver in. 3. Female initiation ceremonies According to Bruce Lincoln, there are four common elements of initiation among the female folk. These are the rite of birth, adulthood, marriage and death in almost all societies regardless of ethnicity. The initiation process entails going through a fundamental set of rites to begin a new phase in life (Gallagher 27). Rites are performed according to prescribed social rules and customs. In the African setting, the rite of birth is the first major initiation which involves welcoming the child in to the world though a naming ceremony. Nearly all cultures in Africa believe that a child is sent from the spiritual world with information bringing forth talents and gifts for the community. Rite in to adulthood, for example in the western world, adulthood is achieved at the age of 18 or 21. This is when somebody is allowed to be independent and can make her own decisions. Among the Turkana in Kenya, just before marriage, the women would go through circumcision. Rite of marriage represents joining of two families. In most Middle East countries such as Saudi Arabia, most girls are married off to the man the parent or guardian chooses for her. They are not allowed to decide on whom they get married to. Rather, arranged marriage is a common practice. Death is the fourth rite of passage. In the olden days, people who died in African communities were not buried but rather, thrown deep in to the forest. This was a common practice among many African societies. The Sambia in Papua New Guinea have different initiation for women and for men. Men are groomed to become warriors and warned to steer clear of women before they transform in to warriors as women are dangerous and heterosexual sex would only harm them. As such, they practice homosexuality fellatio throughout their adolescents until the time they are married (Herdt 45). Women on the other hand are left by their husbands who are much older than them and therefore have to turn to younger men to fulfil their sexual desires. 4. Female genital cutting Several reasons can be cited to justify why female genital mutilation is performed among young women in several cultures. These reasons are to have control over a woman’s sexuality. Virginity in such communities is the embodiment of a woman’s honour and a pre-requisite in marriage. As such, FGC is a way of limiting their sexual desires so as to preserve virginity until marriage. It is also seen as a source of hygiene. Female genitalia is seen as unclean and un mutilated women are not allowed to handle food or water. The female clitoris and labia in some cultures are considered male parts. In order to transform a person to a female then, FGM is practiced as a rite of passage to womanhood. Finally, it is for cultural identity as a woman can only be considered an adult after undergoing the rigorous act of having her labia and clitoris removed (Gruenbaum 15). The Relativists assert that FGM is a crucial part of an individual due to the socio-cultural meanings a woman derives from it. Conversely, the Universalists regard this as an act of violence and abuse of human rights. FGM has been associated with several health risks such as contracting venereal diseases due to sharing of equipments used in the practice and the risk of bleeding to death. It is also seen as an infringement to the rights of women who do not have a right over their bodies. This is why many feminists have risen to protect the rights of the girl child (Gruenbaum 25). 5. Martin and PMS Emily martin did a study that allowed her to come up with to come up with the dialectic between medical metaphors’ the reproductive system of a woman and their own views of the process. In her study, she found medical text that describes the reproductive system as a machine designed to produce babies. Menstruation is a representation of a failed process that only produces waste. This shows that it is up to the writer to depict the menstruation process as negative or positive for continued reproduction. She therefore suggests a better presentation of the process in medical terms (Martin 115). She also sees PMS not as a disability that has been proven that affect most women in America as portrayed by the medical fraternity. She described women as feeling more productive and empathetic just before their menstrual cycle. She goes ahead to suggest that experiencing PMS could simply reduce the usual emotional controls women acquire so as to satisfy their socially prescribed roles. Martin awakens American women’s’ fragmentation in the medical and social realms and the ability to create self integration. She offers an opportunity to be free from the limitation imposed by the society by having alternative visions. I agree with her views since she has shaped my thinking in to adopting the view that PMS could just be a social construct. Works cited Buckley, Thomas C. T, and Alma Gottlieb. Blood Magic: The Anthropology of Menstruation.Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988. Print Cheyney, Melissa. Born at Home: Cultural and Political Dimensions of Maternity Care in the United States. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage, 2011. Print. Fahy, Kathleen, Maralyn Foureur, and Carolyn Hastie. Birth Territory and Midwifery Guardianship: Theory for Practice, Education, and Research. Edinburgh: Books for Midwives, 2008. Print. Gallagher, Eugene V, and W M. Ashcraft. Introduction to New and Alternative Religions in America. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 2006. Internet resource. Herdt, Gilbert H. Sambia Sexual Culture: Essays from the Field. Chicago [u.a.: University of Chicago Press, 1999. Print. Gruenbaum, Ellen. The Female Circumcision Controversy: An Anthropological Perspective. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001. Print. Martin, Emily. The Woman in the Body: A Cultural Analysis of Reproduction; with a New Introduction. Boston: Beacon Press, 2003. Print. Read More