Part I looks at Kamoro society and culture
through the window of its ritual cycle, framed by gender. Part II widens the
view, offering in a comparative fashion a more detailed analysis of the
socio-political and cosmo-mythological setting of the Kamoro and the Asmat
rituals. These are closely linked with their social formations: matrilineally
oriented for the Kamoro, patrilineally for the Asmat.
Next is a systematic comparison of the
rituals. Kamoro culture revolves around cosmological connections, ritual and
play, whereas the Asmat central focus is on arfare and headhunting. Because of
this difference in cultural orientation, similar, even identical, ritual acts
and myths differ in meaning. The comparison includes a cross-cultural,
structural analysis of relevant myths.
KITLV Press NORMS IS
VITALLY IMPORTANT
The social construction of meaning applies to various values, norms and beliefs that are created by the dominant economic and most powerful groups in American society. These values, norms and beliefs are perpetuated and reinforced by social institutions like the workplace, the media, education, religion and others. These values, norms and beliefs primarily dictate access to upward mobility as well as shaping identity, personality, and gender roles. Gender roles and norms often result as the outcome of a socialization process based on the dominant values, norms and beliefs of society. From birth on, infants of both sexes are conditioned by parental and other adult responses to behave, think, act, and interact in gender-specific role manifestations. This analysis will explore the social construction of gender to show how men and women are often "assigned" certain traits and attributes that may or may not be limiting to their development.
There are many examples of the
different traits and attributes that males and females are socialized to accept
as their own in society. Female children, for the most part are encouraged to
be cooperative, compassionate, caring, and nurturing; largely in preparation
for roles as wife and mother. Male children, in contrast, are socialized toward
independence, assertiveness, competition, and achievement; they are often
expected to suppress their emotions and feelings, especially ones that are
tender or relate to vulne
of behavioral norms. Culture
tends to divide the sexes, on the basis of gender, into distinct categories
whose members are assumed to share particular abilities and personality traits.
Gender is a structural feature of society more than an inherent concept, just
like social class. Gender traits - attributed or acquired - permeate every
interaction between men and women in both formal and informal and intimate and
professional environments. Although the pattern in contemporary society is toward a greater form of egalitarianism than in the past, this
pattern is not universal. Women, in the main, are still socialized toward
undertaking the so-called "dependent" roles of wives and mothers,
while men are socialized toward regarding themselves as more independent and
less nurturing than women. These patterns of socializing gender are important
in that they effect the ways in which males and females perceive themselves and
construct their external affects. For instance, conversational style (men talk;
women listen) is one external affect of gender differences. Even so, some
patterns of behavior associated with gender roles and duties in U.S. society
are changing toward a more egalitarian fo
Rm. A report from the National
Study of
Everyone is born into a social environment which dramatically helps to shape the personalities which they develop, the status which they achieve and the cultural influences which they reflect within their daily behavior. In Abeng (1984) Michelle Cliff presents a compelling portrait of Clare Savage who is seen as a twelve-year old, light-skinned Jamaican girl. Cliff wrote Abeng after she composed No Telephone to Heaven as a kind of literary prequel to show how it was that Clare developed into the kind of woman she is revealed to be in No Telephone to Heaven. Using Abeng as a focal point of reference, the social formation of Clare Savage will be analzyed against a grid of recent social development theories inclusive of systems theory, life-span development, and Mahler's Separation-Individuation Process.
Cliff's portrait of Clare Savage
offers fertile ground for an analysis of an individual's social development.
Clare appears as a fictional character who reflects the diversity of her
complex cultural and social background. First, Cliff presents her as a child of
mixed race. Clare identifies herself as one of the Jamaican blacks. Yet she
also knows that she is exceptionally fair-skinned and that her
great-great-grand father, Judge Savage, was a white slaver owner who chose to
burn his 100 slaves rather than liberate them. This mixed background affords
Clare some confusion about her own racial identity and class status.
Empowerment refers to
increasing the political, social or economic strength of individuals or groups.
It often involves the empowered developing confidence in their own
capacities. Empowerment - Sociology. Sociological empowerment often addresses
members of groups that social discrimination processes have excluded from
decision-making processes through - for example - discrimination based on race,
ethnicity, religion, gender etc. Note in particular the empowerment-technique
often associated with feminism: c ...
For the movie, see The Others. For the Doctor Who character sees Other
(Doctor Who). The other or constitutive other is a key concept in continental
philosophy. It refers to that which a person considers to be entirely unrelated
to their own concept of their self-identity. As such, a person's definition of the
'Other' is part of what defines or even constitutes the self (see self
(psychology), self (philosophy), and self-concept) and other phenomena and
cultural units. Lawrence Cahoone explains it thusThe
formation of a gender identity is a complex process that starts with
conception, but which involves critical growth processes during gestation and
even learning experiences after birth. There are points of differentiation all
along the way, but language and tradition in most societies
insist that every individual be categorized as either a man or a woman. When
multiplicity is arbitrarily reduced to absolute dichotomy, conflicts are sure
to result. When, for instance, the gender identity of a person makes him a man,
but his genital..
SOURCE -KITLV Press
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