Re: Cultures Where Male Reigns

Robert Snower (rs222@worldnet.att.net)
Tue, 13 Aug 1996 20:56:21 GMT

an466713@anon.penet.fi wrote:

>>an466713@anon.penet.fi wrote:
>>
>>>In which culture(s) does is the male sex most highly valued?
>>
>>>How is this reflected in the roles each gender assumes, the economics
>>>of gender relationships and courtship behaviors?
>>
>>>Thanks for your information
>>>A curious bystander

>Robert Snower replies:

>>>From: rs222@worldnet.att.net (Robert Snower)
>>>Newsgroups: sci.anthropology
>>>Subject: Re: Cultures Where Male Reigns
>>>Date: Sun Aug 11 19:09:06 1996
>>
>>Robert Snower wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>India:
>>
>>The following quote is from the Wall Street Journal.
>>
>>But here in rural India, where about 70% of India's 920 million people
>>still live, people remain, by and large, what their ancestors were -
>>and that usually means fixed in illiteracy and poverty.
>>
>>The lowliest of the low . . . are the bhangis . . . . Ghettoized in
>>slum colonies, India's 700,000 scavengers, earning pennies a day, move
>>the flow of human waste for a country in which 650 million people
>>still lack access to basic sanitation. As with most Indian work, the
>>dirtiest jobs are done by women and young girls, who still clean pit
>>toilets by hand and carry the refuse in buckets on their heads.
>>
>>"You never get used to it," young Nisha says.
>>
>>Best wishes. R. Snower rs222@worldnet.att.net

>A more scholarly reply would have been appreciated. I doubt the
>Wall St. Jrnl. is an authority on cultural anthropology.

>Perhaps some more knowledgable readers would contribute?

You misspelled knowlegeable. Best wishes. RS rs222@worldnet.att.net

>In answer to this rather 'off-the-point' reply, one might offer
>the argument advanced by some scholars of muslim and hindu societies,
>which is that women are often happier in them than in Western cultures.
>Snower's remarks are more indicative of class difference than gender
>difference.

But the distinction made in the quote's last sentence is unequivocally
gender. RS

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