culture, non-conformity, and mental disease

I like this quote from my anthropology book, The Tapestry of Culture:

"Not all those who violate the rules of a society are, by definition, mentally ill. Some are criminals; some are rebels; some are innovators."

Love

In the cross-comparison of different cultures across space and time, it has become very clear that love is actually a social construction. Maybe one can argue the notion of parental "love" (maybe), but love as in falling/being in love is a constructed framework to understand a specific relationship with another person.

I am not trying to undermine the intensity or depth of people in "love"--I am just saying that I do not think love is inherent in the human experience. It's an invention (a great one), not a discovery.

ode to Dylan

I thought I would spend a moment thinking about my love--no, my obsession--with my little brother, Dylan. I don't really understand how our relationship progressed to such an extent where I find every aspect of him so spectacular that I am just beside myself with supreme delight over this kid. Maybe I am just bewildered by the brilliance, wit, and perceptions of a nine-year-old wonder child. It has come to the point where I actually prefer spending time with Dylan over most of my peers. In fact, I think Dylan has better insight than most people my age. Not to mention, this kid is fantastic--we have so much fun together. I find myself ransacking his homework just to see what he has to say, positively filled with glee at the composition of his thoughts, enchanted by his logic and complexity, and insanely in love with how fun he is to pester and play with. I can't think of many other people whose loose, bloody teeth I enjoy wiggling out.

the personal is political

Although this essay of mine fails to explicitly articulate my belief that there are no men and women (only bodies assigned particular identities by virtue of "nature"), it does explore my disbelief in the private/public split:

“Biological” differences have relegated women to the private sphere and men to the public. Fundamental to these assignments is a notion of distinction and polarity; each binary depends on validates the other. Thus, the private/public split has perpetuated a male/female split and created particular destinies for particular bodies. However, both liberal and radical feminism have since engaged the private/public split and, in doing so, reveal that the personal is political. If private life is a political luxury, then inherent differences between the private and public spheres are ambiguous, subjective and culturally relevant—likewise overturning constitutive differences between men and women that have propagated patriarchal orders throughout history.

Seemingly counter-intuitive to the aforementioned argument, liberal feminism considers the private sphere as something separate from the state. Despite variations in liberal feminist ideology, a fundamental concept throughout holds that “a just society allows individuals to exercise their autonomy and to fulfill themselves” (p 10, Tong). Although liberal feminism endorses private liberties, a virtuous society must “allow” this right, and therefore it is clear that the degree of personal freedom available depends on the political context. Liberal feminism also recognizes an intersection of private and public, and in terms of state intervention in family or domestic society, liberals agree that less is more: “the less we see of Big Brother in our bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens, recreation rooms and nurseries, the better,” (p 11, Tong). However, a closer look at the political agendas of liberal feminism reveals that Big Brother has been in the bedrooms and nurseries all along. By virtue of the fact that women were denied the right to vote and own property reflects the way in which attitudes and beliefs of women saturated the home and translated into law in the first place. Specifically in “democratic” governments, political actors are members of a home, and therefore political beliefs affect the organization of the private realm, and vice versa.

Although classical liberals favor a state which protects civil liberties and provides equal opportunity to a free market, welfare liberals idealize a state-focus on economic justice, because “individuals enter the market with differences based on initial advantage, inherent talent, and sheer luck,” (p11, Tong). While liberal feminism diverges into separate strains, welfare liberals recognize the interconnection between the private and public—and in the case of the economy, how the private realm can serve as a public advantage. Although liberal feminists do not deny a private/public split, the overlap between the two remains paramount, and boundaries are not necessarily distinguishable. The overlap can be analyzed from a theoretical perspective, and also from personal lens.

The life of Abigail Adams highlights the ambiguous boundaries of the private/public split. As wife to the second president, Adams’ personal life unfolded in an extremely political context. Touching on the public disenfranchisement of women in the private sphere, Adams comments, “Female education in the best of families went no further than writing and arithmetic; in some few instances, music and dancing,” (p 2, Schneir). While liberal feminists posit, “We all need places where we can, among family and friends, shed our public personae and become our ‘real’ selves,” (p 11, Tong), if a woman is playing piano in her free time, this seemingly recreational pastime is a political issue: who plays piano and why? Later in her life, Abigail Adams writes to her husband to be more “generous and favorable” to women in the new code of laws. It is significant to note that John Adams responded, “I cannot but laugh,” (p 4, Schneir)—demonstrating how his political stance does not waver in light of his wife’s plea, and its personal relevance. Whereas liberal feminism attacks women’s rights in the public (Abigail’s plea for new laws), radical feminism attacks male order at home (John Adam’s rejection and mockery).

Radical feminism reinforces the link between the public/private split, and in doing so, politicizes the home. Despite significant differences among branches of radical feminism, basic tenants include:

1. Women were historically the first oppressed group.

2. That women’s oppression is the most widespread, existing in virtually every known society.

3. Women’s oppression is the hardest form to eradicate and cannot be removed by other changes such as the abolition of class in society, (p 46, Tong).

Through these terms, the personal is political, in that the very organization of society is oppressive, and achieving equality involves an inordinate private and public overhaul. More so than liberal feminism, radical feminism highlights the ambiguous boundaries between men and women that mirror the ambiguous boundaries between the private and public. Radical-libertarian feminists typically advocate androgyny for women, while radical-cultural feminists reject this and instead emphasize “feminine” qualities. Both of these alternatives demonstrate the fluidity of male and female qualities, given the opposing resolutions by each branch of radical feminism. Perhaps the ambiguous boundaries between men and women are not well-supported if radical-libertarian feminists find gender malleable, and radical-cultural feminists find it a product of nature. However, “not all radical-cultural feminists believe male-female differences are rooted in nature. Some of them…think sex/gender flow not so much (if at all) from biology as from ‘socialization’ or ‘from the total history of existing as a woman in patriarchal society,” (p 48, Tong). Therefore, female behavior is can be seen as a long-term result of the private (and public) organization of women as inferior to men.

Unlike liberal feminism, radical feminism develops the idea of gender. Specifically, radical-libertarian feminists dismiss the connection between sex and gender. In other words, a woman is entitled to be masculine, and a male feminine, if one so chooses. This open approach to sex and gender rejects a rigid binary that perpetuates the passive female and the dominant male. If male and female qualities were unassigned, then power stratification would not regenerate men as the patriarchal heads throughout time. Abigail Adams, however, would not agree with this approach, as she finds men “naturally tyrannical,” (p 3, Schneir). However, liberal feminism is lacking in that it began the first wave of the women’s movement, and therefore was a primary theoretical framework. It is reasonable to assert that at this early stage of development, the affects of socialization were not yet realized and differences between men and women were considered still considered natural.

Despite Abigail Adams’ opinion on the natural state of the sexes, the work of liberal feminism still speaks to the inter-connection of the private and public sphere, and in doing so, the interconnection between men and women. As radical feminists further develop social factors of sex and the malleability of gender, absolute distinctions between male and female also become opaque. As binaries of men/women and private/public are complicated, broken, and perhaps even eradicated, it is clear that the personal is political. Although politics has allowed space for a private life, it is not clear that such a thing exists. If patriarchy is so engrained in society as to become invisible, then its affects are also unseen. Language, behavior, hobbies—a person’s entire private persona—is a socio-political product. Beyond sexism, current political ruckus such as the Patriot Act and Military Commissions Act further confuse the boundaries between private and public, and emphasizes the fact that personal space is a political luxury that can be granted, and taken away. Although the extent to which private life exists can be argued, it is certain that their delineations are not as precise as Victorians would like them, thus overthrowing the patriarchal tenant that women belong in the home by virtue of their being women.

blogs are just so hot right now...

What doesn't have a blog these days?

Even Yale has jumped on the bandwagon with Student Perspectives: Thoughts on Life and Law at Yale Law School

poop?

On the one hand, I want to ask "why the hell does ratemypoo.com exist?"

But maybe I should really be wondering why at 11:00 o'clock pm on a school night, I am rating excrement with my nine-year old brother?

The News Delirium: Bias is Not so Black and White

The News Delirium: Bias is Not so Black and White

I am not doubting that there is bias in the media, but even so, this is complicated by the fact that viewers project beliefs on the information they receive, and therefore different people perceive of the same source in different ways (this works along the lines of the study cited).

Also, even if one identifies as "liberal" or "conservative" and gathers news framed accordingly, this does not mean one can take one's thinking cap off. That is to say, if you are "liberal" and watch "liberal" news, you cannot just turn off critical thought and assume you are safe to just passively absorb.

This speaks to my belief that in perfectly subscribing to an ideology, it is assumed that an explicit set of solutions can be provided to a specific set of problems. If only life were that easily delineated...

Wherever you get your news, you have to ask questions and think for yourself...although it is still legitimate to consider certain sources more reliable than others.

Fraternal polyandry and its implications on constructions of marriage and gender

I was digging in my archives and found a piece I wrote two years ago on fraternal polyandry (a wife marrying multiple brothers) in the Tibetan society of Nyinba. Although my writing skills are lagging a bit, I think it is powerful because it captures a different culture, but also because, in doing so, challenges American customs as being natural and/or logical.

I remember I took on the topic because I wanted to study an instance of women having sexual power over men, or regulating men in the way that men have historically regulated women. Well, don't be fooled--men still run the show in fraternal polyandry, but it is interesting to see how the terms change. I also took on this topic because I wanted to explore how gender is culturally negotiated across different peoples.

More significant is this idea that place matters. That is to say, geographic and political contexts shape our ways of life to such a degree that we do not notice them. This begs the question then, what is the American context in which ideas of sex, gender and marriage emerge?

It's a long read, but worth a skim:

The cultural phenomenon of fraternal polyandry demonstrates the flexibility of male and female relationships to adapt to specific environmental and economic circumstances. As multiple brothers share a common wife in the Nyinba society of Tibet, masculine and feminine roles evolve to accommodate a unique society rather than remaining stagnant notions based solely upon reproductive components. Thus, dual binaries of male/female and child/adult reveal gender in Nyinba is indeed a social construct rather than a biological template.

Unlike certain practices of polygamy, where a man enjoys multiple brides for sexual and recreational purposes, polyandry has become a distinctive cultural practice to best suit a difficult and limited agricultural situation. Brothers serve as the primary source of labor to sustain farmlands and herds. What is more, as brothers remain a single unit through marriage, family land is kept together, allowing the wealthy to retain large sums of land and preventing the poor from generational subdivisions. The practiced marital arrangement is unique because it accommodates the economic situation of a very specific region of Tibet and is not the result of a natural, physiological process. In this union, the eldest brother is the dominant force among co-husbands and is able to delegate work to the younger brothers. Thus, not all husbands share equality in the home and the central male position is a direct result of a hierarchal birth right. In this manner, cultural significance placed on the eldest child dictates the authoritative husband, not a physical quality or biological trait that would make one male more capable than the other.

Regardless of birth order, the presence of multiple husbands in the home serves to indicate the economic importance of the male role. Aside from agriculture and herding, Tibetan economy relies heavily on long-distance trade and networking. The presence of multiple adults and limited children is more economically efficient, as children are unable to take on hard labor while grown men can contribute significantly. In fact, an ideal polyandrous household will have three brothers, with the hope that each one will engage in agriculture, herding and trade. Thus, marriage is more of a financial investment. Agriculture and herding are lucrative economic endeavors due to the regional quality of the land, not because Tibetan men are genetically best-suited for this field. Though a strong body may handle manual labor with more efficiency, there are other physically-demanding occupational alternatives available. There is no biological component that forces the Nyinba male to herd or farm, only the power of personal choice to choose the most resourceful opportunity available. It is this necessity to engage in the agricultural labor pool that frames a family structure that is equally accommodating and subsequently, both culturally and regionally unique.

Multiple husbands are ideal, not just to create a larger pool of laborers, but to also create substitute husbands, so to speak. In response to the long periods of time that traders are absent in order to work, multiple husbands are able to fill in for one another at home. This particular arrangement of marriage has evolved to cycle and regulate the absence of husbands, stressing the emphasis on a constant paternal figure. In fact, the desire for a paternal role in fraternal polyandrous households is so strong that men partition their marriages and accept co-wives if they do not produce children. (Levine and Silk 377-379)

Children, just as husbands and wives, have evolved into gendered resources for economic survival and prosperity. Occurrences of infanticide and child mortality reflect prejudice between male and female offspring. Nyinba society holds a strong value on sons, yet considers daughters to be an economic and social burden. The gendered value placed on children does not result directly from biological differences, but is drawn from regional limits of what occupations are financially rewarding and who can most effectively handle that occupation. Due to limited resources, each member of the family is appraised based on current and future contributions to the household; individual interests are compromised for family interest. Therefore, sons, who are best suited for the labor-intensive agricultural field, combine work efforts and eventually support parents. Daughters, on the other hand, cost parents a dowry, marriage expenses, leave the home, and offer no future financial or domestic contributions. What is more, females are subject to shame family with excessive and immoral sexual practices, making daughters a cause for extreme concern. On the other hand, in households where there are no sons, the daughter becomes heiress, though eventually her husbands will take over her estate, indicating that Nyinba associates masculinity with successful leadership and control. However, the fact that a female can serve as heiress, even if she does not remain so, indicates that the position does not need a male, rather the culture prefers a male (Levine, Differential Child Care 281-282). Thus, the agricultural limitations in work variety place a region-specific value on males and females, precipitating a different cultural value and role for each of the sexes.

As children, sons represent the continuity and success of the family. For this reason, it is crucial for co-husbands to produce offspring, as the sons of each husband will share a single wife when the eldest son comes of age. Sharing a wife and sexual partner succeeds in boosting household income and does not strain the brotherhood, perhaps because co-husbands integrate their brotherly dedication into a marital commitment. However, it is desire for a stronger income that keeps brothers together, not fraternal love or instinctual urges. Co-husbands generally lose the competition and jealousy involved in sexual and marital partners because this arrangement is accepted as most successful. Co-husbands are not possessive over their wives and “the household programming of sexual intercourse is said, by those participating, to be no problem; elsewhere, plural husbands also arrange these matters amicably” (Mogey via Peter 95). Though members of the family choose to be cooperative, it is essentially necessary and in the best interest of survival. This behavior is financially rewarding, not biologically determined, and therefore implemented into the household.

Though it is the responsibility of the wife to please her husbands, emotional fulfillment through life-long partners is not stressed in this culture because it does not facilitate a communal living arrangement or economic survival. Cultural practices compliment functionality, not individual desire or emotions such as love. In the typical marriage, the eldest son picks the wife for all of the brothers. The wife is younger than the oldest brother, but older than the younger brothers. This lack of personal connection indicates the female role as child-bearer above all else. What is more, younger brothers, concerned that their wife is too old and consequently infertile, can partition the marriage. These younger husbands may leave or accept co-wives because they cannot fulfill their reproductive role and therefore cannot meet the cultural quota and regional arrangement. However, there have been cases where the wife will sexually ignore a brother whom she does not like in order to encourage that husband to leave the family. This is extremely rare, because the female role is to keep her husbands together in order to sustain a functioning family. (Levine and Silk 377)

Though a wife may occasionally succumb to temptation and ignore one of her husbands, in reality, she is powerless and, ironically, isolated in an over-populated home. “Tibetan women have considerable autonomy and are highly valued in their marital homes” (Levine, Differential Child Care 287). Actually, the women only have autonomy over domestic ventures so long as no additional wives have been accepted. Moreover, the wife is only valued for her reproductive capacity and her role in the home. The cultural value placed on a biological capability ascribes a woman to her role in society, not the capability itself. Men have the final word in household matters and hold all political positions within Nyinba. By limiting women to the domestic sphere, men are able to dominate the public realm; by constructing the feminine role as passive, men protect their own leadership. This often works against women. Co-husbands are brothers and thus have a common bond with one another, while women battle for limited resources and domestic influence amongst one another. As a result, women come to rely upon men and children within the house, isolating females from one another (Levine, Belief and Explanation 261). In this way, cultural reproduction serves to alienate women and create a dependence on husbands and children for legitimacy.

Though women use their husbands as allies, Nyinba witchcraft indicates hostility between wives and husbands as well. Examining Nyinba witchcraft reveals female frustration in gender roles. Witchcraft is associated with women, who use the household support beam and a husband’s head for a flying vehicle--symbolizing the very source of the witch’s unrest: confinement to the home and helplessness under male dominion. Witches commit violent acts against those they hate or envy and, typically, the first act of violence is committed against the husband(s). Anxiety related to the female gender role reveals how cultural constructions built for economic survival do not necessarily meet the personal needs of the people within households. This has systematic repercussions for certain positions within the family (Levine, Belief and Explanation 270).

The gender roles of men and women in Nyinba from infancy to adulthood have evolved to accommodate marital arrangements that allow the Nyinba to conquer the difficult terrain of a specific region. Brothers marry a single woman to control population growth in an environment of limited resources and to keep family land from being subdivided. Daughters serve as homemakers and reproductive vessels, bearing sons and, with reluctance, daughters to carry on the Nyinba society. Women become instruments of continuity and must sexually satisfy all husbands for the sake of the family unit. These roles therefore define notions of masculinity and femininity as best suited for geographical and economic survival and are therefore determined by environment—not biology. “When Polyandry has once been established as a tradition it will carry on because of its importance as a distinctive cultural trait” (Prince 91). Though sex determines whether an individual is male or female, it is the distinctive cultural traits that assign gender roles to a given people.

Levine, Nancy. “Belief and Explanation in Nyinba Women’s Witchcraft.” Man, New Series 17.2 (1982): 259-271.

Levine, Nancy. “Differential Child Care in Three Tibetan Communities: Beyond Son Preference.” Population and Development Review 13.2 (1987): 281-287.

Levine, Nancy and Silk, Joan. “Why Polyandry Fails.” Current Anthropology 38.3 (1997): 375-386.

Peter, Prince. “A Study of Polyandry.” Current Anthropology 6.1 (1965): 88-98.

American Culture: I stand corrected

Many of my comrades have heard my usual lament: American culture consists of beer, BBQ, fireworks, and Hollywood.

Alas, my friends, I stand corrected--and now I have a little more pride in the red, white and blue.

(Note: this post does not deny the existence of really stupid aspects of American culture; it only alleviates distress by highlighting positive, pro-intellectual cultural frameworks)

Anthropologist Andrei Simic published a a great piece, Aging in the United States, Achieving New Understanding Through Foreign Eyes. In providing a cultural context for our devaluation of the elderly, Simic asserts, "...independence, self-determination, freedom of decision-making, and individuality are among some of the most widely enunciated and accepted transcendental values in contemporary American society...American children are indoctrinated at birth in the ideology of independence. A central element in this process is...that of privacy with its connotation of the right, pleasure and even necessity of being alone. Most significantly, occupational status has largely replaced kinship as the primary marker of social identity..."

Might I say, what a glorious set of beliefs. The article goes on to say that on the whole, other cultures share space, property and information within tightly-knit kinship groups, and status is based on family.

I am not trying to be a cultural elitist. But I find it problematic that one should be expected to share and create an identity in relation to an arbitrary set of people aka one's family. How is one expected to create an optimal self through forced suffocation with a random group that happens to be one's lineage?

The autonomous individual has the right to pursue the illusive feat of "self" through whatever means deemed worth trying...which can include close familial ties, but needn't necessarily.

Simic also explores the idea of marriage: "Among the most venerable and ubiquitous American images is that of a married couple joined together by intense bonds of communication, affection, and mutual sexual and spiritual love...Such a concept would appear alien, even indecent, in many other parts of the world."

(Well, I'm glad there are others who think this whole soul mate concept is bizarre)

Simic doesn't really engage the whole marriage bit and negotiate it with a idealized script of independence (do the two concepts coexist/why and how). But children are trained to leave the family, and they are also programmed to start their own. In this way, fulfillment is not actually achieved through a continuous state of independence, but through intentional entanglement with other people--known as life partner and children.

This does raise all sorts of fun questions: what is self, what is independence, what is autonomy, what is family. Don't get me wrong...I don't believe Americans are independent in the complete sense of the word (are you kidding? I don't even believe in free will). But it does make me warm and fuzzy inside that what I really want for myself, complete autonomy, is an American ideal. I am just so fucking patriotic.

animals, people, and the meaning of life

I was driving today, thinking how sad it would be if animals somehow achieved higher consciousness and realized they had no real purpose except fueling the life cycle.

And then I realized--that is exactly what happened to humans!

Would animals be like us and create all sorts of great concepts like love, religion and addiction to avoid reality?

one last thought on capitalism

I recently blogged on my changing opinions of capitalism, and my belief that certain reform can remedy the risks of worker/environmental exploitation. (I opened this discussion with the relationship of feminism and capitalism)

At this point, I would like to add one more log to the fire. I get pissed off discussing how horrible capitalism is, because such discussions posit me (and you) as a fucking idiots.

You know the whole song and dance--capitalism is based on consumerism, and so we are just buying, buying, buying. Hence the term mindless consumer. Everything is full of ads, and we just gobble it up!

If you lack the self-awareness to understand why you want a particular product, to differentiate between what is reasonable for yourself and what is not, or unknowingly use a continuous stream of purchases to buy your own confidence or to distract yourself from whatever troubling existence you may have, YOU, MY FRIEND, NEED TO SIT UNDER A TREE AND THINK ABOUT YOUR LIFE.

If capitalism is profiting off the fact that many people are out of touch, then I would suggest the concern should be to get people in touch with themselves, their lives, and their actual desires.

We haven't banned religion because people buy into it by the truckloads because they can't handle life.

If we are so stupid that we just buy, buy, buy...I wouldn't say close every store in sight. I would say start teaching something. And don't say quality education that includes critical thinking and analytical tools is too unrealistic--because it is not any more unlikely than changing our mode of production.

politics, the blogosphere, and the public forum

The implications of technology and advanced forms of communication are explosive, creating innovative opportunities for advertising and product placement, increased accessibility of news coverage, a comprehensive circulation of scholarly materials, an open forum of the public intellectual, and an unlimited potential for political networking and exchange.

It is on the crest of this technological revolution that presidential campaigning and debate must take place. We have seen this already in the youtube debates, presidential myspace accounts, facebook fundraising, the online Logo forum, and right here in the blogosphere.

I will particularly highlight the blogosphere, as it has grown into its own self-sustaining life force, filled with spectrum of viewpoints and credentials.

In fact, "the blogosphere is big and its readers spend more time and money online than Web users who don't read them. Fifty million Americans, or 30 percent of all American Internet users, visited a blog in the first quarter of 2005...Traffic increased by 45 percent from the first quarter of 2004. The average blog reader viewed 77 percent more pages than the average Internet user who doesn't read blogs (16,000 versus 9,000 for the quarter), the report found. Blog readers average 23 hours online per week, compared with the overall Web user's average of 13 hours. Blog readers are 11 percent more likely than the average Internet user to have incomes of or greater than $75,000" (ClickZ).

In politics, where (minimally) half of a career is spent trying to stay in office, the blogosphere must be front and center in campaign discussion and strategy--because it would be plain stupid otherwise. Because for better or worse, technology is shaping the political landscape.

The extent to which politicians utilize the Internet and technology as tools of change and to reach out to constituents speaks to the savvy of candidates themselves.

To demonstrate this point, I refer to johnedwards.org, which was re-purchased by a civilian after the Edwards team failed to renew the website.

I am not sure which is more powerful: the fact that a viable presidential candidate flat out over-looked something as critical as the Internet--or the fact that public intellectuals can use the Internet as another medium through which to hold candidates accountable.

The site now reads, "I will exercise my right to free speech by sharing my opinions about John Edwards."

In its latest post, johnedwards.org refutes a comment that it "stole" the site from John Edwards, explaining "Individuals get to keep their domain names forever, as long as they pay about ten dollars per year to renew the registration. John Edwards did not renew "JohnEdwards.org" so I bought it in a public auction."

The post ends, declaring that "Neglecting control of "johnedwards.org" is a major blunder that represents complete ignorance of the Internet. This will go down in history as being at least as stupid as when Senator Stevens said that the Internet "is a series of tubes.""

Only in a world where the Internet is paramount can its negligence be considered a legitimate claim to poor candidacy. I argue that we live in such a world, and accordingly, candidates need to get with it, or go home.