Thursday, March 19, 2009

Clifford Geertz “Life without Fathers or Husbands”

Yuliya Sesina
March 19th , 2009
Anthropology 1001 TV24A/Gaunt
Clifford Geertz “Life without Fathers or Husbands”

We are much a product of our society. Although we shape our society it in turn shapes us, through the processes of enculturation and often assimilation. When it comes to marriage many of us think of two people who fall in love, get married and have children. Their extended family consists of parents-in-law, grandparents, aunt, uncles, etc. It is a “typical” family structure that is reinforced by the media, education, family, etc. So, when we are faced with something different, such as the Na families, we are often shocked by the difference and often automatically see at as “wrong”.
As Clifford Geertz writes “…it is not licentiousness that powers most fear. Nor even immorality. It is difference.” However, when thinking about the reading, I thought that perhaps the Na’s way of life is very similar to a “single parent home” which is increasingly common today. Many women in our own society have children from a man who is not their husband and sometimes children from several different men throughout their life. In the past they too were ostracized by society, but with time and the increasing commonness society paid less and less attention to the “new family structure”. Similarly the single mothers were denied benefits such as TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) if they did not oblige by certain rules such as “no man in the house”. Those enforcing the regulations had the right to come into the house of the woman receiving assistance at any time of night and if there was a man she would loose her benefits. The Chinese government’s approach of “reforming” the Na also took away much needed grain rations to those who did not participate in creating a “traditional” household through marriage.
Geertz writes that the trouble of deciding succession was one of the reasons that the government or dynasties tried to change the Na way of life. This shows that often it is not because people truly care or even know which way of life is wrong or right, but because of pure convenience that certain ways of life are eradicated. The author compares what was being done to the Na to someone trying to change our understanding of family but in reverse.
Personally, I believe that the personal life of an individual is for them to decide as long as it causes no significant harm to anyone else. The fact that Na children feel “different” once they go to school with children from “traditional” households is definitely hard for the children but most of us feel “different” in one or more ways. If the schools are really looking out for the best interests of the children they should than focus on helping them understand that being different does not make them “worse” or “less” than others. Simply exposing them to the idea of the “traditional” family will allow them to make a choice of what family they would want when they grow up, because they will have the information. That way it will be their choice about their own lives.

Bibliography
Geertz, Clifford. “Life without Fathers or Husbands”. In Conformity and Conflict: Readings in Cultural Anthropology, 12 ed., ed. Spradley and McCurdy. Allyn & Bacon, 2008, 75-83.

3 comments:

  1. Make sure each essay has a header (title of chapter) and I don't beed your biographical info each time, it's all on your blog. LOL.

    Go back and edit all your headers.

    Notice how the phrase "many of us" excludes anyone not like us as if what we know is the real or right way and the others is different. Not everyone in American culture, even those raised here believe in marriage.

    Although single parent households exist in U.S. the context for that phenomenon is VERY different. Most for example black women like my mom wanted to be married and couldn't find a husband. Be careful. Comparing the contents of cultures (marriage or single-headed households) can disregard the barrel model of culture. It's the environment that shapes meaning.

    Also beware of cynicism about the gov't response. They also had health problems, public health issues seemingly arise from this scenario. But the question remains what percentage of normally married couples were spreading STDs.

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  2. This post is 509 words -- watch it! ;-)

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