Stratification By Gender Essay, Research Paper
Social stratification is a system which exists in most
societies, and distinguishes between individuals and/or groups
according to their socially-defined attributes, and gives them
different statuses according to these attributes. This system is
so widespread because humans invariably show variation, with some
being better skilled at certain things than others, and these
differences lead to people becoming more or less
"useful" to society. What this essay will look at is
the ways in which gender division is treated in two different
societies; the Kwaio of the Soloman Islands, and the Yanomamo of
South America. The reasons for this stratification will be
explored, and conclusions will try to be drawn about whether it
is biological factors or cultural values which determine the
stratification. One ethnography is that of the Kwaio of the Solomon Islands.
In this society, women are excluded from all sacred rituals, and
are generally viewed as inferior to men. Their inferiority is
based on the view that the Kwaio have of women"s bodies
being potentially polluting. The Kwaio believe that the
urination, defecation, menstruation and process of childbirth in
women are polluting agents which can cause negative effects on
the men and the extremely important sacred rituals. The
organization of this society revolves entirely around this notion
of pollution; their settlements are organised so that the
domestic dwellings are in the center, but there is a scared
men"s house in the north, from which women are banned, and
a polluted women"s area from which men are banned.? When a
woman is menstruating or giving birth, she must retire to the
polluted area, away from any male members of the society. What this division results in is the praising of the male
members of the society. Only they are considered superior enough
to communicate with the adolo (ancestral ghosts), and only they
may perform any scared rituals. The question this raises is
whether or not this stratification by gender is in truth based on
biological factors. Although processes such as menstruation are
biological, the Kwaio have no real evidence that women"s
biological processes are polluting. One could therefore argue
that it is in fact cultural values which are operating within
this society; as the Kwaio have imposed their cultural values
onto the biological factors of women. This is probably because
this gives the Kwaio men a reason for viewing women as inferior.
It is interesting that menstruation and childbirth, the two
processes which men are physically unable to perform, are viewed
as the most polluting. The anthropologist Margaret Mead once said
that "Men envy women because they can give birth and
sustain lifeî. It seems as if this statement applies to the
Kwaio; because the men in this society cannot experience these
processes, they have turned them into negative qualities which
enhance their superiority instead of making them seem
inferior. Within the Yanomamo society of South America, there exists a
clear male-female division within the social organization of the
community. This society is male dominated, with females regarded
as inferior. This is evident in the way in which the female and
male children are raised; female children begin to help with the
household chores and baby-sit their younger siblings long before
male children even begin to think about such things. Most girls
are promised to men for marriage long before they reach puberty,
and, once they are married, their status, as well as their
quality of life, does not improve significantly. The husbands of
these women frequently scold and beat their wives, and expect
their wives to be willing and able to carry out tasks such as
preparing the evening meal as soon as they return to their
homes. It could be assumed that since there seems to be no biological
reason for there being such a division in the status of women and
men, that this stratification is due to the cultural values of
the Yanomamo. As women are given tasks such as the collecting of
firewood and household chores, it is clear that they are viewed
as being physically capable of performing most tasks, so this
biological difference is ruled out. There seems to be no view of
women having negative biological factors such as in the case of
the Kwaio society, so it would seem as if it is the
Yanomamo"s culture which has developed as viewing men as
superior not for their biological differences to women, but for
another, or a combination of other, reasons. It is virtually
always the case in societies that one sex is viewed as superior
to the other, and the reasoning behind the men being superior in
Yanomamo society is probably linked to their being those who hunt
and therefore are the main providers within the society. In both the societies examined in this essay, it has been the
male gender which is the superior gender in society. The lack of
real evidence for biological factors being responsible for this
stratification has led to the conclusion being drawn that it is
in fact cultural values which govern the division, even though
these may be masked as being due to biological factors. What has
not been mentioned so far is that these cultural values include
the attitude of the women in these societies towards the social
stratification. The fact that the women in both of these
societies have not taken a stand against their inferiority
further supports the theory that cultural values are responsible-
it is certainly not the female biological make-up which prevents
these women for trying to make a difference, but instead their
culture.
? Men in Tahiti and Semai Tahiti, an Island in Polynesia, has a much less marked
differentiation between masculinity and femininity then most
societies. Furthermore, the Tahitian concept of masculinity does
not require men to act as providers and protectors. There is
little need for men to take physical risks since there is no
warfare, and there are few dangerous occupations. The lagoon
offers a plentiful supply of fish so risky deep-sea fishing is
not necessary. Families co-operate together in economic
activities and there is no social pressure to be economically
successful. It also encourages men to be timid and passive, They
are expected to ignore insults and very rarely fight one another.
Tahiti men are neither protective of their women, nor possessive
towards them. A French explorer found that Tahitian men were
extremely hospitable and even offered him their daughters. The Semai people live in central Malaysia. Both men and women
are strongly opposed to violence and aggression. Aggression is
denoted by the word "punan", which also means
"taboo". The Semai try to avoid anything that
frustrates another person and goes against their wishes. As a
consequence, both women and men are usually expected to agree to
a request for sex, even if they are married and the person
requesting sex is not their spouse. There is very little jealousy
and Semai men and women tolerate the extra-marital affairs of
their spouses as being no more than a loan.
The Semai do not engage in competitive sport, and are not
materialistic. Men do not have to compete with each other because
farming is co-operative and if one man has too little to get by.
he simply asks another man for some of his. It is punan to
refuse. Although the Semai do hunt, and hunting is reserved
exclusively for males, the hunting is not dangerous or difficult.
They hunting nothing larger or more dangerous than small pigs,
they stop hunting before noon when it gets too hot, and "if
they encounter danger, they run away and hide without any shame
or hesitation". There are some differences between men and women in both
Tahitian and Semai society (although amongst the Semai they are
not particularly pronounced), neither has a cultural image of the
"the real man". Gilmore suggests that the unusual
characteristics of masculinity in these societies may result from
the material circumstances in which the societies exist.
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