Male Daughters Femals Husbands Essay Example for Free

Male Daughters Femals Husbands Essay I chose the book Male daughters, female husbands by Ifi Amadiume. The reason I chose this book is because I have always been curious about the role of women in non western countries and why they were viewed as being subservient to men by their own as well as the western world. Ifi Amadiume, a Nigerian sociologist with a London University doctorate, conducted research in her own family area to study gender and sex in an African Society. Challenging the received orthodoxies of social anthropology, Ifi Amadiume argues that in precolonial society, sex and gender did not necessarily coincide. In the book she examines the structures that enable women to achieve power and shows that roles are neither rigidly masculine nor feminine. This study that was conducted relates to social anthropology. The study was conducted in Nnobi, a town in the only Igbo area which has not been studied in detail by any scientist or anthropologist. Fieldwork was conducted in Nnobi between 1980 and 1982 on the Igbo people. As a result of the 1976 local government reform which divided Nigeria into 19 states and 299 local governments, Nnobi became one of the towns in the Idemili local government. Most of the Igbo people were also separated between states. The 1963 population census put the total number of Igbo people at 7,209,716. The study is divided into three periods: pre-colonial, when the traditional systems operated: colonial, when the British ruled Nigeria: and post-colonial, when Nigeria became an independent nation. There were further divisions of these periods such as Gender and the economy, the ideology of gender, and the general beliefs about men and women in which we will look into further in the following paragraphs. First we will take a look at gender and the economy. This was part of the pre-colonial period. It is within this period that ideologies behind the Igbo and Nnobi , their sexual division of labor, and those governing the relations of production originated. As a result of ecological factors, agricultural production was not profit in Nnobi, hence the development of a sexual division of labor and gender ideology which gave women a central place in the subsistence economy, while men sought authority through ritual specialization and ritual control. The gender ideology governing economic production was that of female industriousness. The name of the town itself Nnobi reflects matrifocality in Nnobi culture or matricentric principle in household organization; mothers and children formed distinct, economically self-sufficient sub-compound units classified as female in relation to the male front section of the compound. There was a dual-sex organization principle behind the structure of the economy, which was supported by various gender ideologies. These principles and ideologies governed the economic activities of men and women. They also governed access to wealth, wives, achievement-based status and many other things within their community. Material wealth was converted into prestige and power through title-taking, the acquisition of more wives and more labor power, more material wealth. Wealth for men included possession of things like houses, many wives and daughters, livestock, and land. Wealth for women included things like livestock, fowls, dogs’, farm and garden crops, daughters and many wealthy and influential sons. Males and females symbols of wealth were very similar even though in principle they did not own the same things. One very important economic resource which women did not own was land. A flexible gender system mediated the dual-sex organizational principle. Nnobi society was based on strict sexual dualism, whereby women’s economic and political organizations were separate from those of men. Through manipulation of gender concepts and flexible gender construction in language, the dual-sex barrier is broken down or mediated. Ideology of gender guided the Igbo people, however it was possible for men and women to share attributes. The system of few linguistic distinctions between male and female gender also makes it possible for men and women to play some social roles in which, we ( the western world) carry rigid sex and gender association. The Igbo language in comparison with the English language, has not built up rigid associations between certain adjectives or attributes and gender subjects, nor certain objects and gender possessive pronouns. There is no usage of the word ‘man’ to represent both sexes, neither is there the option of saying ‘he or she’, ’him or her’ , or ‘his or her’. This of linguistic system of few gender distinctions makes it possible to conceptualize certain social roles as separate from sex and gender, hence the possibility for either sex to fill the role. This does not mean that there is no competition between the sexes, and situations in which a particular sex monopolize roles and positions. One example of a situation in which women played roles ideally occupied by men were ‘male daughters’ and ‘female husbands’; in either role, women acted as family head. The Igbo word for family head is genderless. In Nnobi society and culture, there was one head or master of a family at a time, and ‘male daughters’ and ‘female husbands’ were called by the same term, which translated into English would be ‘master’. The reverse applied to those in a wife relationship to others. The Igbo word for wife is a genderless expression meaning a person who belongs to the home of the master of the home. Although there were genderless words within this culture there were still general beliefs about men and women that set them apart. Men and women were talked of or judged according to the roles expected of them as full social adults. What was stressed about men was their duty to provide for and protect their families. This culture did not stereotype bad men. Unfortunately this was not the case with women. Similar to the society we live in today everyone in this culture knew the attributes of a bad woman. Bad women were those who failed in their wifely and maternal duties and sentiments. This type of woman usually did not take care of her husband, was bad tempered, and ate food without giving any to her husband. A bad woman also did not take very good care of the children. I found this to be very similar how we view ‘bad ‘women as well in our society. In contrast to a bad woman was the good woman. The good women were usually a good daughter, wife, and mother. She looked after her husband, never refused him food, and made sure things around the household were taken care of. If her husband was unable to provide for the family financially she was able to help him through her own efforts. She always protected her children from any form of danger, and if necessary she would even protect them from their father. The industriousness, which is what was meant by good character, was inculcated in a woman in her father’s house, and would pay dividends in her husband’s house. In conclusion this book really brought about some insight how the fact that biological sex did not always correspond to ideological gender. This meant that women could play roles usually monopolized by men, or be classified as ‘males’ in terms of power and authority over others. In contrast the Western culture and the Christian religion carried rigid gender ideologies. This gender system meant that roles are strictly masculine or feminine; breaking gender rules carries a sigma. In new gender realities, such women are still defined as females, however they are no longer involved in domestic female roles.