Gender Roles In American Culture

Gender Relations and Roles The concept of gender relations and roles in Bamana culture is a very intriguing subject that many American people may not be well aware of. The gender relations and roles are not the same as in the United States. In Bamana culture, the distinction between the genders and gender-based cultural behaviors is not an unlimited but a relative one. These differences and divisions are part of what the Bamana culture unique. Another distinction between the genders is the use of language. For example a man could possibly be referred to as "wife" in language by his older sister's husband. Language can be used to indicate gender inequalities and also indicate the relative nature of masculinity and feminity. Another good example of language gender distinction is that of the maternal uncle, bènkè. The maternal uncle is often viewed as an extension of the mother. The roots of this Bamana word are ba for mother with the suffix kè which means male.
Next we explore masculinity and feminity.
Male domination is very evident in this culture, as in many. The word for manhood is cèya. This word also refers to the requirements of specific behaviors expected of males that have been presented to males since childhood, and then reinforced at circumcision and later initiation rituals. To become a man goes beyond a physiological requirement and includes important qualities such as bravery, leadership and physical endurance. The word for manhood is also the word used for virility for males. If a man can no longer reproduce it is said that that man has left manhood and that he is incomplete. For this, it is said that this man becomes closer to a woman. Another phrase for infertility is that the man's back is dead, bearing in mind one of the seats of manhood to be his
back. Being infertile is not the only thing that can make a man be considered incomplete. If a man is overweight, he is said to be closer to women as well, due to the fact that he cannot perform certain physical tasks specified as male such as farming, hunting, and war. Fat men are thought of as effeminate and idle thinkers similar to women. Feminism on the other hand may be defined in ways parallel to and complementing masculinity. The word for womanhood is musoya. Not only is this word physiologically based but also includes many categories of women. For example muso kisè is the kernel woman or muso tafetigi, woman with a loin cloth, is a "dynamic woman, a brave one, and a hardworking one." Muso kulusitigi is the woman with pants and is the ideal manly woman with all the abilities and rights of the traditional adult male: entrepreneurial, fearless, a woman who successfully manages in the spaces culture only give to men such as heading a family, farming, and aspects of sorcery which are for men only (domaya/somaya). The Mande culture of Mali is very explicit when it comes to women participating in acts of sorcery. A proverb of the subject is: a woman may give birth to a soma, a woman does not become a soma, "Muso de be soma wolo, n'o tè, a tè kè soma ye." Another type of musoya is the worthless, coward, and lazy woman (cè fugari). There is also a cèmusonin, a man who acts as a woman. Reference of this word is often in a negative with sexual overtone manner. One of the worst insults to say to a man in Bamana is to "exchange your pants against my loin cloth," as if that specific male is not worthy of wearing his pants or of being a man. The beliefs of masculinity among the Bamana culture are based of supremacy of the male biological heritage over the female heritage in procreation. Even though the male's role is viewed as more important than that of the female, there are still times when males play culturally female roles and vice versa. So the gender relations and roles throughout the Bamana culture are not completely unlimited or definite and still allow adoptions of the other gender in certain circumstances.