Cultural Anthropology SSC-327

Yet another variation in defining one’s sexuality results from the combination of Islamic values, urban modernity, and the rejection of Western binary labels of heterosexual and homosexual among youth in Tehran, the capital of Iran (see Map 8.3) (Mahdavi 2012). Many young women in Tehran have their first sexual experience with another woman, given the gender segregation that exists and the likelihood that young women will become close with one another. Yet they do not self-define as gay and would even make occasional homophobic comments. Politically, however, many male and female youths in Tehran are subscribing to international human rights standards in protesting the execution of gay men in Iran.

Beyond sexuality and its many complications, another category exists that challenges all the existing terms:  asexuality . An asexual person is someone who does not experience sexual attraction. Asexuals exist around the world and are beginning to come out and identify themselves through websites and in public arenas, such as gay rights parades, even though asexuals are not gay (Scherrer 2008).

All the above examples speak against  heteronormativity , the belief that all people fit into two distinct genders, male and female, with corresponding distinct social roles and adhering to heterosexual relations.

No matter what one’s theoretical or personal perspective is on sexuality, homosexuality, and asexuality, it is clear that homophobia (hatred of people whose sexual preferences are toward the same sex) is widespread worldwide, and homosexuals are discriminated against wherever heterosexuality is the standard. In the United States, homosexuals are disproportionately victims of hate crimes, housing discrimination, and problems in the workplace, including wage and benefits discrimination. They often suffer from being stigmatized by their parents, peers, and the wider society. The psychological damage to their self-esteem by social stigma and discrimination is related to the fact that homosexual youth in the United States have substantially higher suicide rates than heterosexual youth (Suicide Prevention Resource Center 2008). A public health study shows that lesbian Hispanic women in the United States have higher rates of several health problems compared to heterosexual Hispanic women, including asthma (Kim and Fredriksen-Goldsen 2012).

Think Like an Anthropologist

Cultural Relativism and Female Genital Cutting

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Female genital cutting (FGC) is a necessary step toward full womanhood in cultures that practice it. People believe that an uncircumcised daughter is unmarriageable and that removing the labia makes a woman beautiful by removing “male” parts. The prevailing Western view, increasingly being shared by many people who have long practiced FGC, is that FGC is both an indication of women’s low status and an unnecessary cause of women’s suffering.

FGC is linked with several health risks, including those related to the surgery itself (shock, infection) and subsequent genitourinary complications (Gruenbaum 2001). Infibulation scars the vaginal canal and may lead to problems during childbirth, sometimes causing the death of the infant and mother. Having an infibulated bride’s husband “open” her, using a stick or knife to loosen the aperture, is both painful and an opportunity for infection. After giving birth, a woman is usually reinfibulated, and the process begins again. Health experts say that repeated trauma to the woman’s vaginal area increases the risk of contracting HIV/AIDS.

Besides the pain and health risks, outsiders argue that clitoridectomy severely reduces a woman’s sexuality since it makes clitoral orgasm impossible. Others point out that FGC and infibulation may cause infertility, which lowers a woman’s marital value. Thus, a practice done to ensure a woman’s marriageability may reduce her value and happiness as a mother. So far, however, studies have not found a clear relationship between FGC or infibulation and infertility (Larsen and Yan 2000).

What are the views of insiders? Is there any evidence for female agency in these practices? Or is it all structure and should anthropologists support FGC liberation movements? Insights that transcend insider–outsider divisions come from cultural anthropologist Fuambai Ahmadu, who was born and raised in Washington, DC, and is descended from a prominent Kono lineage in Sierra Leone (2000). In 1991, Ahmadu traveled to Sierra Leone with her mother and other family members for what she refers to as her “circumcision.” Upon her return, she wrote about her initiation experience and what it meant to her. Although the physical pain was excruciating (in spite of the use of anesthetics), “the positive aspects have been much more profound” (2000:306). Through the initiation, she became part of a powerful female world. Her analysis addresses the effects of genital cutting on health and sexuality. Ahmadu argues that Westerners exaggerate these issues by focusing on infibulation rather than on the less extreme forms. She adds, however, that if global pressures against the practice continue, she will go along with that movement and support “ritual without cutting” (2000:308).

Food for Thought

· Why do you think FGC is a prominent issue in human rights debates in the West, whereas male circumcision and other forms of sometimes dangerous forms of adolescent initiation (such as fraternity and sorority hazing) are not?

· Where do you stand on FGC and why?

· What kinds of cultural remodeling of the female body are practiced in your culture?

Map 4.5

Sierra Leone

The Republic of Sierra Leone was an important center of the transatlantic slave trade. Its capital, Freetown, was established in 1792 as a home for African slaves who fought with the British during the American Revolution. Sierra Leone’s coast is covered with mangrove swamps, while the interior is plateau, forests, and mountains. The population is six million. Sierra Leone suffered a terrible civil war from 1991 to 2002, causing thousands of deaths and the displacement of two million people. It has the lowest per capita income in the world. English is the official language, but most people

Adulthood

For most people, adulthood means entering into some form of marriage or long-term domestic relationship and having children. The following discussion considers the psychological aspects of parenthood and the “senior years.”

BECOMING A PARENT  In Euro-American culture, a woman becomes a mother when she gives birth. Matrescence is the cultural process of becoming a mother (Raphael 1975). Like adolescence, matrescence varies cross-culturally in terms of duration and meaning. In some cultures, a woman is transformed into a mother as soon as she thinks she is pregnant. In others, she becomes a mother and is granted full maternal status only when she delivers an infant of the “right” sex, as in much of northern India, where son preference is strong.

In many nonindustrial cultures, matrescence occurs in the context of supportive family members. Some cultures promote prenatal practices, abiding by particular food taboos, which can be regarded as part of matrescence. Such rules make the pregnant woman feel that she has a role in ensuring that the pregnancy turns out well. In the West, medical experts increasingly define the prenatal period as an important phase of matrescence, and they have issued many scientific and medical rules for potential parents, especially mothers (Browner and Press 1996). Pregnant women are urged to seek prenatal examinations, be under the regular supervision of a doctor who monitors the growth and development of the fetus, follow particular dietary and exercise guidelines, and undergo a range of tests such as ultrasound scanning. Some anthropologists think that such medical control of pregnancy leads to the greater likelihood of postpartum depression, as a result of the mother’s lack of agency in the process of matrescence.

Patrescence, or the cultural process of becoming a father, is less marked cross-culturally than matrescence. One exception to this generalization is  couvade  (coo-VAHD), beliefs and customs applying to a father during his wife’s pregnancy and delivery (Broude 1988). In some cases, the father takes to his bed before, during, or after the delivery, and he may experience pain and exhaustion. Couvade often involves rules for the expectant father: He may not hunt a certain animal, eat certain foods, or cut objects. Early theories of why couvade exists relied on Freudian interpretations that men were identifying with the female role in contexts where the father role was weak. Cross-cultural data indicate the opposite, because couvade occurs in societies where fathers have prominent roles in child care. In these contexts, couvade is a phase of patrescence: The father’s proper behavior helps ensure a safe delivery and a healthy baby. Once the baby is born, who takes care of him or her? Most cultural anthropologists agree that child care is predominantly the responsibility of females worldwide—but not universally. They seek to provide a cultural construction explanation rather than a genetic or hormonal one. As evidence, they point to the cross-cultural variation in child-care roles. For example, throughout the South Pacific, child care is shared across families, and women breastfeed other women’s babies. Paternal involvement varies cross-culturally as well. Among Aka foragers of the Central African Republic (Map 4.6), paternal child care is prominent (Hewlett 1991). Aka fathers are intimate, affectionate, and helpful, spending half their time each day holding or within close reach of their infants. Fathers are more likely to hug and kiss their infants than mothers are. The definition of good fatherhood among the Aka means being affectionate toward children and assisting the mother when her workload is heavy. Among the Aka, gender equality prevails and violence against women is unknown. This high level of paternal involvement is related to all these patterns and supports a constructionist view of parenting and gender roles rather than a biological determinist view.

MIDDLE AGE  In many industrial/digital societies, a major turning point for men is the 40th birthday. According to a study of men turning 40 in the United States, the 40 syndrome involves feelings of restlessness, rebelliousness, and unhappiness that often lead to family break-ups (Brandes 1985). A possible reason behind the emphasis on the age 40 as a turning point for males is that it is the current midpoint of a typical life span for a middle-class American man. In cultures with shorter life spans, a so-called midlife crisis would necessarily occur at some point other than the age of 40 years.

Menopause, or the cessation of menstruation, is a significant aspect of middle age for women in many, but not all, cultures. A study examined differences in the perception and experience of menopause among Maya women of Mexico and rural Greek women (Beyene 1989). Among Maya women, menopause is not a time of stress or crisis. They consider menstruation an illness and look forward to its end. They do not experience negative physical or emotional symptoms. In contrast, the rural Greek women recognized menopause as a phase of hot flashes, especially at night, that may last about one year, and something that all women experience. The women did not think it was serious and did not regard it as worthy of medical attention. Postmenopausal women emphasized the relief and freedom they felt. Postmenopausal women can go into cafes by themselves, something they would never do otherwise, and they can participate more fully in church ceremonies. In Japan, likewise, menopause is minimally stressful and women rarely consider it something that warrants medical attention (Lock 1993).

THE SENIOR YEARS  The senior life-cycle stage may be a development of contemporary human society, because, like most other mammals, our early ancestors rarely lived beyond their reproductive years. In many cultures, elders are highly revered as having great wisdom based on their life experiences. In others, aged people become burdens to their families and to society.

Cross-cultural comparisons reveal that the status of elderly people is higher and their welfare more secure in contexts where they continue to live with their families (Lee and Kezis 1979). This pattern is, however, more likely to be found in nonindustrial societies than in industrialized ones, where the elderly live with younger kin less frequently. Instead, they are increasingly experiencing a shift to living in age-segregated residences such as “retirement homes,” where they have to create new social roles and ties and find new ways of gaining self-esteem and personal satisfaction. Research conducted in a retirement home in a small town in central New York State shows that having a pet promotes a person’s sense of well-being (Savishinsky 1991).

THE FINAL PASSAGE: DEATH AND DYING  It may be that no one in any culture welcomes death, unless he or she is in very poor health and suffering greatly. The contemporary United States, with its dependence on medical technology, appears to play a leading role in resistance to death, often at high financial and psychological costs. In many other cultures, a greater degree of acceptance prevails.

A study of attitudes toward death and dying among Alaskan Inuits revealed a pervasive feeling that people are active participants in their death rather than passive victims (Trelease 1975). The person near death calls friends and neighbors together, is given a Christian sacrament, and then, within a few hours, dies. The author comments, “I do not suggest that everyone waited for the priest to come and then died right away. But the majority who did not die suddenly did some degree of planning, had some kind of formal service or celebration of prayers and hymns and farewells” (1975:35).

Terminally ill people, especially in industrial/digital economy societies with a high level of medical technology, are likely to be faced with choices about how and where they should die, at home or in a hospital, and whether they should prolong their lives with “unusual means” or opt for “physician-assisted suicide.” Depending on the cultural context, the options are affected not only by the degree of medical technology and health-care services available but also by matters of kinship and gender role ideals (Long 2005). In urban Japan, terminally ill people have clear ideas of what is a “good death” and two major “scripts” for a “good death.” A modern script of dying in a hospital is widely accepted because it reduces burdens on family members. But a value on dying surrounded by one’s family members still prevails; this practice reassures the dying person that he or she will be remembered.

In many cultures, the inability to perform a proper burial and funeral for a deceased person is a cause of serious social suffering. Among refugees from Mozambique living in neighboring Malawi, the greatest cause of stress was being forced to leave behind deceased family members without providing a proper burial for them (Englund 1998). Such improperly treated deaths mean that the unhappy spirit of the deceased will haunt the living. This belief is related to the high rate of mental health problems among the refugees. A culturally informed recommendation for reducing their anxiety is to provide them with money to travel home and to perform a proper funeral for their deceased relatives. In that way, the living may carry on in greater peace.

Anthropologists know little about people’s grief at the death of a loved one or a close community member. It might seem that sadness and grief, as well as a period of mourning, are only natural. But the outward expression of grief varies from extended, dramatic, public grieving that is overtly emotional to no visible sign of grief at all. The latter pattern is the norm in Bali, Indonesia (see Map 1.1), where people’s faces remain impassive at funerals and no vocal lamenting occurs (Rosenblatt, Patricia, and Douglas, 1976). Do impassive faces and silence mean that the Balinese feel no sadness? Different expressions of loss may be related to the healing process for the survivors by providing socially accepted rules of behavior—in other words, a script for loss. Either highly expressive public mourning or repressed grief may be equally effective, depending on the context.