Anthropology

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The Minangkabou & the Mosuo: modern matrifocality in action

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Of particular personal interest are a number of truly excellent books I have, which present anthropological research on several modern and still existing matriarchies. In each case cultural matrifocality instigates a tending and nurturant social worldview, leading to a surprisingly stable and self-regulating society. Two examples emerge in 2003 from Southeast Asia: Peggy Reeves Sanday…

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The wonderfully titled: Goddesses, Whores, Wives & Slaves

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(repeating from yesterday…) Both historically and in the modern day, patriarchy stunts and diminishes both women and men, and will continue to do so until that time when women are once again regarded as both human, and an integral part of history and civilization. This is not to say, of course, that women had no…

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So where did this patriarchy crap come from anyway?

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Woo! My prof has finally signed off on my second comps essay — I am so very relieved! Always nice to get an all-caps “EXCELLENT WORK!” too. :)  So, I’m going to start posting the various book reviews from my Women & World Religions bibliography list, interspersed with whatever other stuff I feel like posting,…

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Cooking & warping reality in the new year

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Happy New Year!! :-D Now that this irritatingly wince-inducing semester of comps is over, I’ve been very much getting into relaxing. As a consequence I’ve also had a few interesting experiences and idle thoughts which I thought I’d write down here. For example, I had two weirdly amusing things happen to me the other day….

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What, was I thinking?

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I saw the weirdest thing the other day: an ad in a bus stop for the Disney Hallowe’en extravaganza. I think this year it’s called Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, so unsurprisingly, of course, the centerpiece of the ad was a delightedly beaming Mickey Mouse in a black cloak. From a distance I could…

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The perils of ivory tower indecisiveness when studying misogyny, pt. 3

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So yes, this book is one of the most horribly self-righteous homilies on how the poor, emotionally tragically sad, snoogie-woogums-needing men are suffering SO MUCH!! by all that abuse they’re foisting on the women! It’s not that they actually want to dominate or anything, right? — though Gilmore has apparently forgotten some shockingly honest Indian…

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The perils of ivory tower indecisiveness when studying misogyny, pt. 2

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Weirdly, Gilmore also seems to be completely blind to any understanding of the concept of “patriarchy,” to the point that he repeatedly enthuses about how there’s no unifying external element in misogyny. But good modern research has shown us that every patriarchal culture we’re aware of mandates the creation of, first: strongly separated gender roles,…

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The perils of ivory tower indecisiveness when studying misogyny, pt. 1

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First, an apology for starting two separate posting threads here, and then getting distracted with midterm schoolwork. Now the paper is handed in, I’ll be getting those done soon, I promise. Second, fair warning: this blog entry is going to be a rant — a very ranty rant! — that will get it out of…

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What is humankind’s “worst discovery” ever? part 1

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A common assumption I’ve frequently read is that the “worst discovery” made by humankind was agriculture, in that it taught men (not humans) the concept of property. The rather androcentric theorizing seems to be that once men conceptualize food as property which can be hoarded away despite the needs of others, it’s invariably a short…

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Women & World Religions comps booklist, take II

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This has been a very strange semester so far, and I’m less than a week in. Amongst other things, my Women & World Religions comps essay prof did another review of my bibliography, and suggested some changes. I found this odd for two reasons: 1) I thought we’d agreed on the official booklist at the…