Bringing Beginner's Mind/Etic Research to Women in Islam

“In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's mind there are few”

Shunryu Suzuki quotes (Japanese Zen priest, ?-1971)

Originally posted 3/31/2009 at 1:54pm

I said last week I'd send an email about our conversations last class. The group presenting on gender presented a few videos out-of-cultural-context without any intervention into the generalizing stereotypes that exist in our culture about 1) women in Islam and 2) female circumcision in Africa. These two topics are fraught with stereotypes, "evolutionary" bias (like they are behind the modern way things SHOULD be), and mere misinformation that is worse than the truths are for actual men and women who are Muslims in the majority of cases.

Here's a different view than what we saw last Thu in class.



I insist that everyone take a look at a great website I found on PBS called GLOBAL CONNECTIONS: The Middle East. The first question they delve into is "What factors determine the changing roles of women in Middle East and Islamic societies?

Some Americans believe that Muslim women are oppressed by their religion, forced to cover themselves completely, denied education and other basic rights. It is true that Muslim women, like women all over the world, have struggled against inequality and restrictive practices in education, work force participation, and family roles. Many of these oppressive practices, however, do not come from Islam itself, but are part of local cultural traditions. (To think about the difference between religion and culture, ask yourself if the high rate of domestic violence in the United States is related to Christianity, the predominant religion.)...

The Quran explicitly states that men and women are equal in the eyes of God. Furthermore, the Quran: forbids female infanticide (practiced in pre-Islamic Arabia and other parts of the world) instructs Muslims to educate daughters as well as sons insists that women have the right to refuse a prospective husband gives women rights if they are divorced by their husband gives women the right to divorce in certain cases gives women the right to own and inherit property (though in Sunni Islam they get only half of what men inherit. Men are expected to care for their mothers and any unmarried female relatives, and would, it is reasoned, need greater resources for this purpose.) While polygyny is permissible, it is discouraged and on the whole practiced less frequently than imagined by Westerners. It is more frequent in the Gulf, including Saudi Arabia. Many Muslims cite the Quranic phrase "But treat them equally... and if you cannot, then one [wife] is better" and argue that monogamy is preferable, or even mandatory. The Quran and the role of women As the Islamic state and religion expanded, interpretations of the gender roles laid out in the Quran varied with different cultures. For example, some religious scholars in ninth- and 10th-century Iraq were prescribing more restrictive roles for women, while elite women in Islamic Spain were sometimes able to bend these rules and mix quite freely with men (see Walladah bint Mustakfi below). Some contemporary women -- and men as well -- reject the limitations put on women and are reinterpreting the Quran from this perspective.

How do you bring beginner's mind to something that seems so strange, even shocking at first? What tools do you have to have to begin considering how to think like an anthropologist. Think about how Geertz had to learn how to see sculptures in jungles, paintings in deserts, and political order OUTSIDE of state political structures that we recognize as "normal" or "the way is should be."

We will discuss this in class this week and the coming weeks.

Chapter 2 : Ethics and Method

I invite you each week to post a comment about the readings or about questions that you find yourself asking about cultural anthropology or our class discussions. Anything is possible to discuss as long as you can make it relevant to the group. No talking to yourself out loud, so to speak. Speak to forwarding the action of our shared community of knowledge. Thanks, Prof. G

Some key ideas to discuss in Chapter 2: ethics, ethnographic practices, etc.

INTRODUCING TED TALKS: Anthropologist Wade Davis muses on the worldwide web of belief and ritual that makes us human. He shares breathtaking photos and stories of the Elder Brothers, a group of Sierra Nevada indians whose spiritual practice holds the world in balance.
A National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence, Wade Davis travels the globe to live alongside indigenous people, and document their cultural practices in books, photographs, and film.

Warren Buffet once again World's Richest Man

In the slide show last week, Warren Buffett appears eating Dairy Queen ice cream (which he owns). Veronica knew of Buffett but made a comment about his image that reflects what I was sort of after with the slide show--multiple interpretations of culture. Remember interpretative ethnography? See Chapter 2 of Kottak.

Just read an article about Bill Gates no longer being the richest man in the world. In the article Buffett is revealed as a BIG MAN:

In October, Buffett issued a challenge to members of the Forbes 400 richest Americans list, saying he would donate $1 million to charity if the collective group (or a significant number of them) would admit they pay less taxes, as a percentage of income, than their secretaries.

Days after issuing the challenge, Buffett appeared before Congress to encourage it to keep the estate tax. Armed with a few Forbes 400 issues, he told the hearing that "dynastic wealth, the enemy of a meritocracy, is on the rise."

Kottak defines big man Figure often found among tribal horticulturalists and pastoralists. The big man occupies no office but creates his reputation through entrepreneurship and generosity to others. Neither his wealth nor his position passes to his heirs. p. 114 (5th ed.)

AAA STATEMENTS ON ETHICS

Principles of Professional Responsibility

Adopted by the Council of the American Anthropological Association
May 1971 (As amended through November 1986)

Note: This statement of principles is not intended to supersede previous statements and resolutions of the Association. Its intent is to clarify professional responsibilities in the chief areas of professional concern to anthropologists.

Preamble

Anthropologists work in many parts of the world in close personal association with the peoples and situations they study. Their professional situation is, therefore, uniquely varied and complex. They are involved with their...

PLEASE READ THE REST OF STATEMENT FOR TUE FEB 19th at http://www.aaanet.org/stmts/ethstmnt.htm

Photo is of Shauna LaTosky doing fieldwork on transcultural understanding in Southern Ethiopia. Click photo for more on Shauna's work.