Kung Women Essays

“Nisa: the life and words of a !kung woman” written by Marjorie Shostak is a book about a woman named nisa of the !kung people. It entails the stories of her struggles and the many horrific tragedies in her life and how it shapes who and how she is. The book Is basically an interview of a fifty year old nisa, it is written in her perspective of what it is like to live in such a society. She suffered quite a few devastating tragedies as aforementioned which included, the death of four of her children, two as infants and two as adults. Even shostak says that none of the !kung women suffered tragedies the way nisa did.

Woman deserve to be treated with respect, they deserve equal rights. In this paper, I will provide evidence that gender roles have not changed over the period of time between the writing of The Death of Woman Wang and the dragon’s village. The Death of Woman Wang was written by Jonathan Spence; it was published in 1978. The dragon’s village was written by Yuan-Tsung Chen, it was published in 1980.

Foraging for wild plants and hunting wild animals is the most ancient of human subsistence patterns. Prior to 10,000 years ago, all people lived in this way. Hunting and gathering continues to be the subsistence pattern of some societies around the world including the !Kung. The !Kung population is located in the Kalahari Desert, in isolated parts of Botswana, Angola, and Namibia. The !Kung live in a harsh environment with temperatures during the winter frequently below freezing, but during the summer well above 100F. The !Kung, like most hunter-gatherer societies, have a division of labor based mainly on gender and age.

By reading Nisa’s, “The Life and Words of a !Kung Women: Life in the Bush”, the understanding of the life of Paleolithic people was helpful. This was very helpful because not only does it explain what the Paleolithic era was like, but also the modern day, the different things, and the changes that occurred over time. I think that Nisa has a pretty good idea of the earlier Paleolithic era people. She starts her story off by saying, “We are people who live in the bush, and who belong in the bush. We are not village people. I have no goats. I have no cattle. I am a person who owns nothing” (Nisa, 2). This allows the reader to realize that Nisa was not much different from the Paleolithic people. Just like the societies of the past.

Each individual pertaining to the !Kung is considered relatively equal, however in this egalitarian society, age becomes one of the forms of status distinction. Age becomes an important aspect when determining the structure of the kinship system. Thus, as a person ages, more control is granted (kinship). As a result, gender becomes irrelevant to the !Kung when deciding who will possess authority in relation to kinship, granting women and men gender equality within the kinship system. In addition to age, children of the !Kung are given the names of their paternal and maternal grandparents. However, the paternal grandparent’s names for both genders take precedence, as seen when Lee writes, “A first born son is supposed to be named after his

Nadler and Stockdale mention how women face the most challenges in receiving higher positions in the workforce (282+). Nadler and Stockdale claim that women are viewed as competent, but individuals who are both competent and likeable are most likely to be promoted (287+). Nadler and Stockdale declare, “Women endeavoring to succeed in a masculine work role, such as upper management, currently face obstacles based on their perceived gender role” (283+). Women who succeed in earning a managerial position will have to eventually pay the cost of receiving that position (Nadler and Stockdale 282+). Many women will postpone relationships or having children to succeed in the workforce (Nadler and Stockdale 282+). Nadler and Stockdale add that women

Cultural Marxism is an ideology of critique, always attacking and undermining, but rarely offering clear alternatives. Mulan is a young woman who becomes a soldier and then the hero of China. As we see in the Disney Film “Mulan”; Mulan struggles against sexism, the constant struggle for women to overcome their role that is considered the “weaker sex” is common in our world history. The most impact and progress for women was during the civil rights movement of the 1960’s where women decided that they did not want to be told what they were supposed to be or do. Women were to be seen and not spoken to in many cultures and were good for only a few things in the culture to procreate and serve the desired sex. For example when Mulan finds out that a few of the Huns survived the avalanche that she created with the fire cracker and tries to ask for help from the men of China she is not only ignored but pushed aside. As we see here in many cases women felt as if they weren’t even there, “To be a woman under such conditions was in some respects not to

The late Qing gender-sex system continued to put women in an inferior position to men. The idea of cloistering women became the standard for females all over the country. Whether rich or poor, women aspired to lead a cloistered life. However, only the elite women, known as the gui xiu, were actually able to to put the ideals into practice. They were the ones with the money and education to do so. On the other side of the spectrum were the bare sticks, poor peasant women who couldn’t afford to stay cloistered. Despite their limitations, the bare sticks still did what they could to practice cloistering. This insistence on adhering to the ideals limits the women in their everyday life, subordinating them to the wills of men.

Though it was not very well presented and was clear to the readers, most of the time the author showed men overpowering the society. Meetings were usually led by a man. Clan’s heads were usually men. During discussion of important matters like on the first part of the story where there was a news that one of their clans men was killed from another neighboring village, it was described in the story that men of Umuofia gathered together to discuss on what to do about the issue. Additionally, the characteristic of the main character and how the author described him presented a hint of gender based issue on today’s time.

Oppression and violence against women is a global human rights violation that is widespread around the world, irrespective of religious, social and economic factors. The goal on eradicating violence against women has been the goal of many NGO’s and women organization, however it still continues to have a profound effect on women basic human rights. It can be argued that women in Afghanistan suffered tremendously from the violence inflicted on them by continue wars in the country. During the Soviet Era, many would argue that the Soviets and the PDPA government divided women on the issue of oppression. Violence and oppression are factors that trigger resistances against the oppressor; the resistance can be silence, non-violent and violent. All

Asian Indian women are subject to social limitations in there culture and are looked at has objects rather than people who can also contribute to society. There are some women in that society that are making great advances for women in that country socially. However, as much advance as they are getting men and mostly spouses are still objectifying them. Women in this culture often experience intimate partner violence. There are about 59% of women who have reported IPV in their relationships. A range of 14% to 20% of these women experience mental trauma and can develop PTSD, which is posttraumatic stress disorder, as well as, depression. Very few women who are abused seek professional help to cope with the depression, PTSD, and abuse. The abuse is likely from a cycle of abuse that has occurred in family relations, so boys seeing fathers treat mothers poorly and then the sons grow up seeing this they apply this to their relationships. Women who have experienced IPV have shown to have lower health qualities. In the United States, enculturation happens to many cultures from other countries. This process can cause there to be more experienced abuse and violence in this culture type. Actually, enculturation is one of the strongest factors of intimate partner violence among Asian Indian couples. Enculturation “values” had a specific and indirect relation with IPV attitudes. Another strong factor is patriarchal gender role attitude also had a positive association with

On page 148 on the text book, the female I think is most attractive would be the Asian female. Honestly, I did not find any male attractive on here. What I find attractive about the female would be her smile. I believe my opinion is influenced by my culture for the reason which we are used to seeing specific type of people whom we are attracted to.

As an expression of gratitude towards the !Kung Bushmen and there families for there cooperation, Ontah purchased the largest meatiest ox he could find for the Christmas festivities. After living with the !Kung Bushmen for three years, with experience and observation of the Tswana-Herrero custom of slaughtering an ox for Christmas, makes it apparent that Ontah’s ox was not the choice of a novice.

China，as the biggest developing country, has undergone enormous changes in economy, culture , and societies. Gender roles in Chinese societies, especially, have been changing rapidly, which can be traced and analyzed through the long historical journey backing to the mid-1900s. The 21st century portrays women as powerful beings across the social, economic and even political arenas, which had not been happen before. In the Chinese society, female gender roles have become more equal with male when it comes to job, marriage, and education from mid-1900’s to the 21st century.

The Moso are an ethnic gathering of around 40,000 people living in the highlands in southwestern China who rehearse matrilineal drop. Their essential exercises are agriculture and angling. They have their own religion, Ddaba, which is a mixture of nature love, soul love, and genealogical love. They talk their own dialect, Naru, which has a place with the "Yi limb of the Tibeto-Burman subfamily of the Sino-Tibetan family" .In Moso society, ladies are socially better than men. The idea of ladies being socially better than men is so engrained in their way of life that they don 't really have words for relatives on the male 's side of the family . The household economy is managed by the head of house, which can be from either gender, and property is collectively owned by the (matrilineal) household .