Breastfeeding And Culture Analysis

In the article “Breastfeeding and Culture”, Dettwyler discussed the three main forces that work together to move women away from the practice of breastfeeding: separation of their productive labor and reproductive labor, increasing confidence to provide chemistry with their partners and decreasing confidence to use the breasts as the reason what they are made for, increasing of the commercials which are convincing the women that breasts are shameful and it is less healthy for the baby. One cultural practice that affects rates of breastfeeding is women going back to work especially in environments that do not promote breastfeeding or support the mother in this way. Another cultural practice that affects rates of breastfeeding is the public
opinion of breastfeeding. This is a cultural opinion in the United States of discomfort because of the sexual view of women; this makes some women feel uncomfortable breastfeeding. According to “The Invention of Marriage” article, the protective theory explains why women are supposedly attracted to powerful, dominant men, while men seek younger women who will be good breeders and hearth keepers. Since 1970s researchers studied our primate ancestors, they found out that baboons who are in a relationship get the same amount of food as baboons who are not in a relationship, female chimpanzees share their foods with their offspring, and adult female chimps give food to another female. Most paleontologists reject the idea that early society was organized around male hunters because, in the early phases of human evolution of hominid, hunting was less important for survival; their foods came from gathering plants, bird eggs, edible insects, and shellfish. When humans began hunting large animals, it involved men and women. The oppressive theory of marriage explains that men coerced women into marriage, often using abduction, gang rape, of wife beating to enforce their will. Fathers gained power in the community by passing their daughters out to young men, who gave the fathers gifts and services in return. Over the year the oppressive theory is being diminished starting 1970s around the feminist movement, but there is historical evidence that shows men used their wife’s labor. In Western Society, there are only two genders: man and a woman.
According to “The Berdache Tradition” article, in many Native American cultures, there is a third gender which is called the berdache. Berdache is a morphological male who does not fill society’s standard man’s role. A berdache is a male who has a nonmasculine character. Berdache stereotyped as androgyny which means showing characteristics of both sexes: male and a female. In Native American culture, Berdache’s role is an important and clearly recognized and accepted social status. Berdaches have special ceremonial roles in many Native Americans religions and important economic roles in their families. They do some work and mix together the behavior, dress, and social roles of women and men. They serve a mediating function between women and men because their character is seen as distinct from either sex. The Berdaches have played a crucial role in many Native American creation myths. They are important to Native American culture spiritually since often they act as mediators between the physical and the spiritual. The Native American believed that biological sex is less important than the person’s spirit. The Native American culture accepted the berdache tradition because they concerned it as an approach to life in general. Berdachism was most established among tribes in four areas: first, the Prairie and western Great Lakes, the northern and central Great Plaines, and the lower Mississippi valley; second Florida and the Caribbean, Third, the Southwest, the Great Basin, and California, and fourth, the scattered areas of the Northwest, western Canada and Alaska. The man-woman spirit named Warhami. Zuni creation story involves a battle of the kachina spirits of the agricultural Zunis and the enemy hunter spirits. Every four years an elaborate ceremony commemorates this myth. In the story, a kachina spirit called Ko’lhamana was captured by the enemy spirits became a mediator between the two sides.
The mediator who is the berdache has to use his peacemaking skills to merge the differing lifestyles of hunters and farmers. Women are gatherers and farmers, who deal with plants of the earth, and men are hunters who deal with animals. In the American Indian religious explains that the mediator between the polarities of woman and man, which combines the elements of bother genders. There is sexual dimorphism between men and women, which is the anatomical difference in male and female biology. The gender roles are the task or an activity that a culture assigned to sexes, which depends on the culture. Gender stereotypes are similar to gender role; gender stereotypes are defined as oversimplified but held the ideas of the characteristics of males and females. There is a gender stratification between male and female, which reflects different positions in the status of hierarchy. Economic roles affect gender stratification; the society has taught that women do not have human rights as much as men; women started working domestic which means within the house and men work public which is outside the house. In some culture, there is patriarchy political system, which women have inferior social and political status than men. The third gender has been identified in many cultures; the third gender is not seen as man or woman, but a mixture of both. The term intersex is a condition involving a discrepancy between the external genitals and the internal genitals. Gender identity refers to whatever the person like to be identified as. Sexual orientation is person’s sexual attraction to another person, which could man to woman, man to man, and woman to woman.