Transcript Social Institutions • Our experiences, as they happen through our culture, determine our behavior • Social institutions – Are not gender-neutral – Have evolved over.

Social Institutions
• Our experiences, as they happen through
our culture, determine our behavior
• Social institutions
– Are not gender-neutral
– Have evolved over centuries to reproduce to
the relationship between men and women
• Religion is a Social Institution
Religion
• Institution with institutionalized norms
• We learn prescriptions and proscriptions
(what we should and should not do,
respectively) from it.
• Religion socially constructs reality for us, in
the sense that it “mandates” a perspective
for us.
• Religion socializes us.
Ethnocentric
• We value Judeo-Christian religions over
others and reject those others, on an
unconscious and subconscious basis.
– We see these beliefs as natural, when we think
of them at all.
– This narrows our interpretations and diminishes
our reality (as we construct it).
Religion
• Creates order and meaning
– Beliefs, practice
– Myths, sacred symbols
– Answers questions about our ultimate concerns
with life
– Gives us a sense of knowledge about good/evil,
right/wrong, etc.; It gives knowledge of cultural
norms.
Religion
– Teaches us rituals, to which
• We attach meanings
• Within the intimate parts of our lives
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Sexuality
Birth
Marriage
Death
• And from which we make important decisions
– Power/control
– Violence/non-violence
Religion and Gender
• Demarcates order and disorder by appeal to
the female body
– Historically, men see female body as
mysterious and dangerous
– Each female body harbors life/death,
order/disorder, meaning/chaos
• Life
• Reproduction
• Death (Menopause)
Role of Women in Religion
• Institution is very effective for making and
keeping women in a lesser status than men
– All major world religions have accorded
women a less than equal status and men, at least
by the time the religion has matured/solidified.
– Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism focuses on a
single male patriarchal view of God, resulting
in a masculine symbolism and imagery.
Women compared to Men
• Women are subordinate and either icons of
purity/goodness or evil
• Women are almost never presented as
independent human beings
– Catholic Church holds that the relationship of
gender is absolutely one of men controlling
women. Rationale: Jesus supposedly only had
men as apostles and chose only men as
successors, only men should be priests. Jesus
did this because God directly decided this.
– In Islam and orthodox Judaism, there is no
official role for women in any public manner.
– In the some Protestant sects there are leadership
positions for women. In the Congregational
church, for example, women can be ministers.
Christianity
• One God who has one son, Jesus Christ
• Those who practice it are Christians
• Christ is born in Palestine, but we call the
state Israel
– Teacher
– Healer
• Began practicing these works when he was
about 30 years old (about 33-34 C.E.)
• Cult = a new religion, sociologically
– Christianity in the beginning was new, a small
group
– Established by Jews
• Christ = Jewish
– Accepted many people pf many faiths as it
grew
• Sect = offshoot of an established religion
Doctrine
• All people are alike in spirit
– Ethnic group does not matter
– Race does not matter
– Religion does not matter
• Christianity is monotheistic, like Judaism
– Christianity challenges Roman polytheism
Text
• Christians use the Bible
– Old Testament
• From Hebrew heritage and Judaism
• Contains histories, songs, poetry and laws
– New Testament
• Represents the life and death of Christ
– Gospels = story of Christ’s life
– Epistles = establish Christianity and its policies
• Christianity becomes institutionalized
eventually (losing its cult status)
11th Century
• Christianity divides East and West, when East refuses
to recognize the Roman Pope as head of Church
– East = Greek Orthodox
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Constantinople was center
Istanbul, Turkey now
Fell to Islam in 1453, losing power
Moved north to Russia and south to Greece
– West = Roman Catholic
• 1517, Religious wars
– Crusades and Inquisition
– The Reformations
» Catholics and Lutherans split
» Later Lutherans will split into other Protestant denominations
Colonialism
• Converting natives of “third-world”
countries to Christianity by force,
combining religion with economics
• Beginning in 15th century and extending
through the 18th and 19th centuries and still
today
Islam
• Arabic word for “peace” and “surrender”
– The peace that comes from the surrender to
God
– Practioners are Muslims
– Younger religion
– Dominates the Middle East and North Africa,
Pakistan and Bangladesh
– 1/5 people in the world are Muslims
Mohammed
• Born in Mecca in 570 C.E., now Saudi Arabia
• Islam is based on his teachings
• He is not the son of God but God’s last prophet; he
is the last messenger of God
– They recognize the Judaic prophets and Christ as God’s
prophets
• Their text is the Koran; God is Allah
– Allah revealed His will to Mohammed
– Since Mohammed is last, his word is final, the seal
• Therefore, Islam is the one true religion
(according to its followers)
Islam’s Split
• After Mohammed’s death in 632 C.E., two religions
are formed:
– Sunni
• Dominant in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East
• Any good man can become a prophet and a religious leader
– Shiites
• Dominant in Iran
• Only male descendents of Mohammed can be religious leaders
• Hussein killed 4,000 people in battle and was martyred: selfsacrifice is hero-ified; the highest you can go is to kill yourself for
your religion
Muslims
• Are forbidden to drink or take drugs
• Pray five times a day
• Follow other requirements
– Basic unit of social life = family
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Husbands and fathers in total control
No public role for women
Polygamous
No separation between church and state, theocracy
– The state is the law; Allah provides all legislation and
laws in the Koran
Hinduism
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Brahmin, priests
Kshatriya, warriors
Vaisy, artisans and merchants
Sudra, peasants
Upward mobility through reincarnation is
done by being the best possible, making
sacrifices, observing religious rituals,
having faith . . . leads to moksha.
Woman’s Role within Hinduism
• The best a woman can hope for is to come back
as a man.
– Purpose: To be a good wife to help her husband
attain moksha, and to be a good mother to her sons
– Good wife treats husband as a god
– Virtues: self-sacrifice, submission, patience
Sati means
virtuous
woman
Hindu Women
Sati was
banned in
1829
• Are to behave as good women/wives, have little
value as daughters until marriage
• When widowed were to follow help ensure their
husbands’ ascension by showing their devotion
and to provide their own families with generations
of good luck by killing themselves on the funeral
pyre: Sati
• If not Sati, were to give up all their wordly
belongings and pray for their husbands’ success in
moksha while begging on the streets