Conference quark::mennotes-v1

373.0. "Why men? (Anonymous)" by QUARK::LIONEL (Free advice is worth every cent) Tue Sep 19 1989 22:22

The following topic has been contributed by a member of the community who
wishes to remain anonymous.



	Would you please enter the following note anonymously into
	Mennotes. I have already entered it into Womannotes and 
        it has had some very interesting responses. I would like to
	get the Mennotes perspective.

        Thank you.
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   Six or seven years ago, I was taking a course on the Humanities as
   part of an undergraduate program at Boston University. One evening
   the instructor, a full-time Associate Professor at B.U., started the
   class with this question. 

       "Why have men, through the millennia and in most present day
       cultures, found themselves in more responsible/visible/
       necessary roles than their female counterparts."

   The examples used were traditional head of the household, hunter as
   opposed to gatherer, tribal chieftain, farmer versus housewife/mother
   and  warrior/soldier versus nurse/camp follower. The instructor also
   mentioned the fact that in many cultures men were permitted more than
   one wife, yet few cultures allowed wives more than one husband. Also
   used as an example was  the preference in many cultures to the birth
   of male children or the practice in some of those cultures of killing
   of female children. [Prior to flaming] All of the examples came with
   the usual disclaimer regarding generalizations and  were used ONLY to
   set the discussion in motion.

   The discussion that followed, it was a three hour class, was very
   "lively" and most interesting. So interesting, in fact, that I'd like
   to re-open it here with the same question.

   BTW: The instructor had an opinion, which I'll put in later if there
   seems to be sufficient interest/need.

   So what say you... Why men???

    
    Well, one reason was that men lived longer - it was hitorically common
    for women to be dead by 35, if not 30, having had umpteen children.
    
    As that has changed, the roles have equalised.
    
    - ���

    re: multiple wives/women for men...This was because if a woman had been
    intimate with more than one man, and had become pregnant, she might not
    be sure who the father was.  Whereas, a man, could be intimate with
    more than one woman, and possibly have children by all of them.  But at
    least everyone knows who their parents are.

    
    (Musing out loud...)
    
    If all property in a community was held in common and child rearing
    was done communally, would it matter if everyone knew who their parents
    were? 

    genetics. Inbreeding could be more prevalent in smaller communities.
    
    Dj

    
    (Still musing)
    
    Dunno. I remember from anthropology that _some_ societies have social
    mechanisms that discourage inbreeding--the men have to capture a bride
    from outside the tribe, for example. (Conversely, there's other small
    communities that do encourage/demand inbreeding, like the Pennsylvania
    Dutch, who have a form of hereditary dwarfism that's reinforced by
    their inbreeding).