Patriarchy (anthropology) - Biological Vs. Social Theories

Biological Vs. Social Theories

Most sociologists reject predominantly biological explanations of patriarchy and contend that social and cultural conditioning is primarily responsible for establishing male and female gender roles. According to standard sociological theory, patriarchy is the result of sociological constructions that are passed down from generation to generation. These constructions are most pronounced in societies with traditional cultures and less economic development. Even in modern developed societies, however, gender messages conveyed by family, mass media, and other institutions largely favor males having a dominant status.

Biologist Richard Lewontin asserts that patriarchy persists through social and political reasons rather than purely scientific reasons. In The Determined Patriarchy, Lewontin reflects feminist concerns for the future of patriarchy and how to rid society of it by uprooting the source. People who oppose feminism have argued that patriarchy has its birth in biological reasons. This is called biological determinism, which looks at humanity from a strictly biological point of view. These people believe that because of a woman's biology, she is more fit to do what society perceives as womanly roles, such as cooking and cleaning. However, Lewontin and other feminists argue that biological determinism unjustly limits women. In his study, he states females behave a certain way not because they are biologically inclined to, but rather because they are judged by "how well they conform to the stereotypical local image of femininity" (Lewontin 137). Feminists believe that people have had gendered biases since others around them have set apart a social standard for people to follow. For instance, an American doctor said that women cannot make rational decisions during their menopausal periods. This claim may cloak the fact that men also have periods of time where they can be aggressive and irrational. Women's biological traits, such as their ability to get pregnant, are often used against them as an attribute of weakness. However, even as biology is used against women, it is often that the perceived biological bias towards them is not correct. For example, it has been asserted for over a century that women are not as intellectually competent as men because they have slightly smaller brains on average. However, no substantiated significant difference in average intelligence has been found between the sexes. Furthermore, no discrepancy in intelligence is assumed between men of different heights, even though on average taller men have been found to have slightly larger brains. Feminists assert that although women may excel in certain areas and men in others, they are just as competent as men in every field.

Some sociobiologists, such as Steven Goldberg, argue that social behavior is primarily determined by genetics, and thus that patriarchy arises more as a result of inherent biology than social conditioning. Goldberg also contends that patriarchy is a universal feature of human culture. In 1973, Goldberg wrote, "The ethnographic studies of every society that has ever been observed explicitly state that these feelings were present, there is literally no variation at all." Goldberg has critics among anthropologists. Concerning Goldberg's claims about the "feelings of both men and women" Eleanor Leacock countered in 1974 that the data on women's attitudes are "sparse and contradictory", and that the data on male attitudes about male-female relations are "ambiguous". Also, the effects of colonialism on the cultures represented in the studies were not considered.

There is considerable variation in the role that gender plays in human societies. Although there are no known human examples of strictly matriarchal cultures, there are a number of societies that have been shown to be matrilinear or matrilocal and gynocentric, especially among indigenous tribal groups. Some hunter-gatherer groups have been characterized as largely egalitarian.

One evolutionary psychology explanation for the origin of patriarchy starts with the view that females almost always invest more energy into producing offspring than males, and therefore in most species females are a limiting resource over which males will compete. This is sometimes referred to as Bateman's principle. One important female preference will be for males who control more resources which can help her and her children. This in turn has caused a selection pressure on men to be competitive and succeed in gaining resources and power in competition with other men. There has not been a similarly strong selection pressure on females.