INTRODUCTION
Harmful cultural practices are practices that violate the right of humans and are defended under the rules of tradition, religion, and culture. Gender inequalities, superiority of men, “rigid gender roles and ascribing women lower status in society” are main factors of the causes of harmful cultural practices.
SHORT SUMMARY AND CAUSES OF HARMFUL CULTURAL PRACTICES
Harmful Cultural practices are social norms which have a desire of upholding cultural ideas about social and gender roles. There are many practices that violate human rights but I will be mentioning a few harmful practices which affect females such as early marriages and dowry, son preference and female
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It may mean that a female child is disadvantaged from birth; it may determine the quality and quantity of parental care and the extent of investment in her development and it may lead to acute discrimination, particularly in settings where resources are scarce.
Although neglect is the rule in extreme cases son preference may lead to selective abortion of female infanticide
Son preference is universal and not unique to developing countries or rural areas. It is a practice enshrined in the value system of most societies. It thus dictates the value judgements, expectations and behaviour of family members.
Son preference is a transcultural phenomenon, more marked in Asian societies and hysterically rooted in the particular system. In certain countries in the Asian region the phenomenon is less prevalent than in others. Son preference is stronger in countries where patriarchy and patrilineal are more firmly rooted. Tribal societies, which are matrilineal societies, tended to be more gender egalitarian until the advent of settled
One example was the forced European ideals on male hierarchical structuring as it disrupted the inner workings of tribal council. Traditionally, the clan mother appointed male chiefs, “[serving] at her pleasure.” The clan mothers’ ratification was necessary on all council decisions as well. (p. 32) Shaking the community basic structures would undoubtedly affect all other aspects within their culture as well.
To some women, a fetus is a stranger and a personal connection is not evident, even if a biological connection is. Furthermore, pregnancy takes a huge toll on a woman’s body and not all women have the desire to withstand such a situation. Also, the intention of abortion is to not necessarily kill the baby, that’s merely an unfortunate result of the action. Abort means to ‘eject’ or ‘stop’, not kill.
illustrates the discrimination against women and the issues that arise from a gender double standard society.
According to Angelari, Marguerite (1997), “this is a technical term used to collectively refer to violent acts that are primarily or exclusively committed against women. Similar to a hate crime, which it is sometimes considered, this type of violence targets a specific group with the victim's gender as a primary motive”. This means that these violence acts are specifically directed to women in our society. Examples of the types of violence against women are: financial, emotional, physical, social and sexual violence. According to Prugl, E (2013), “forms of violence perpetrated by individuals are rape, domestic violence, sexual harassment, coercive use of contraceptives, female infanticide, prenatal sex selection, obstetric violence, harmful customary or traditional practices such as honor killings, dowry violence, female genital mutilation, marriage by abduction and forced marriage.”
Determining what is good and what is bad is almost impossible to do. Each individual person & culture both have a different opinion on that. Realistically, there is no one person who can determine if morals are in fact correct or wrong. This is the biggest and most argued flaw with the idea of cultural relativism. Some important facts about cultural relativism is that the idea that a person’s culture shapes their morals and beliefs has been studied for over a century. Bernard Williams is one of the most renowned researches into the topic of cultural relativity. One of the biggest examples of cultural relativism is the treatment of women in Middle Eastern countries, compared to the treatment of women in Western Countries. Another great example of this theory is that children in America are raised to believe that dogs are pets, while in other countries, such as China, dogs are considered a source of food. This theory is most debated through the religious world because religious sects believe that their set of morals is the only correct ones. culturally traditional things begin to shift and change in order to appease the world view of said culture. When you visit other country, keep in mind that there are varied cultures and tradition. Some of the traits or behavior that you are accustomed or familiar
For many years society has embraced the idea that the difference between men and women were biologically determined. Others see not only the physical but also the social, emotional and intellectual differences between males and females. Though through traditions, media, and press, we act accordingly to how others view us. Each individual has pressure placed upon them based on their genders. Our sex is determined by genetics while our gender is programmed by social customs. Gender roles by definition are the social norms that dictate what is socially appropriate male and female behavior. Some theories interpret that a woman is tender and a loving mother, while on the other hand men are aggressive and are the dominant one of the family. An individual gender role is modeled through socialization. Individuals learn the ways, traditions, norms, and rules of getting along with others. A person’s environment has a big influence on the roles deemed expectable for men and women.
Cultural causes go back far in the world. It is the cause that people will think that violence will get the victim to do what him or her wants to be done. They might get this done by physically harming, threating, or verbally insulting another. Cultural causes are also in the wrestling sport because the opponents are known as the glorification of bullies. They usually are always physically, verbally, and threaten the opposing
Gender-based violence is made possible by the ideology of sexism in Indian traditional culture which argues that women are worth less than men in the sense of having less power, status, privilege, and access to resources that is more prevalent in middle class and low caste families.
There are many limitations valued when it comes to the right of abortion. The news media still outlines the pros and cons of anti-abortion rights in certain-states-to soon, the entire country. My perspectives on the issue of abortion have been entitled from it to never be banned among citizen’s rights. The reproduction of pregnancy has been emphasized heavily on a mother’s decision to abort their child, but the father of the child plays an active role since he considers to that particular title. Through this current issue, majority of the people against abortion do not seem to have an open mind to how much it primarily affects the decision of the mother amongst her own views of considering abortion.
Matrilineage, as defined in our textbook, is “A lineage that is formed by tracing descent in the female line” (Robbins et al. 2017). In Euro-American culture, people generally, follow bilateral kinship where individuals trace their descent through both parents. In Matrilineage, the father (man who the child biologically came from) doesn’t play a big role in the child’s life. In Euro-America children often have two equal caregivers one being their mother who birthed them and the other being the father who got their mother pregnant. In a Matrilineage society often it is the brother of the mother (or uncle) who is the “father” figure for the child. While the father is still active in his biological children’s’ lives he is not a primary decision
How does culture influence health? Give some examples of ethnic and cultural influences on the health of individuals or populations.
Culture and society, while important terms to the field of anthropology, are often misunderstood or misused by new students. They are frequently used in daily life, but with a somewhat different context and meaning than those used in anthropological discussions, hence the misunderstanding. They refer to concepts which act as foundations of this field, and it is difficult to make sense of both old and new studies or ideas without them.
Racial characteristics infuse gender stereotypes in particular: African American masculinity (hyper-virile and threatening), Asian femininity (hyper-feminine and submissive) being two key instances. This kind of cultural racism survives the downfall of institutional racism that is, racism that formally disbars some races from access to jobs, neighbourhoods, clubs, etc. And cultural racism is especially damaging in that it can so easily be interiorised by members of oppressed races
This longitudinal study was based on the hypothesis that the gender roles and attitudes of children can be predicted by the parent’s ideology and behaviours. The purpose of this research is to address gaps in current literature on gender development in the context of family, especially the role of fathers. Research was conducted over six-years using self-reporting methods from working-class, dual-earner households. This was done to determine the parent’s attitudes towards various gender-typical activities. During the final data collection, the Sex Roles Learning Inventory was completed by the child. Subsequently, it was concluded that children tend to think more traditionally in terms of gender roles if their parent’s views were more traditional.
Through various cultures, there can be great consistency in the standards of desirable gender-role behavior. At a very early age, children go through the process of gender socialization and learn what it means to be a boy or girl in society. These behaviors and attitudes are generally instilled at home and then reinforced by the child’s friends, school life and exposure to media (Witt para. 1). The ultimate actors, however, are the parents. From their influence as role models, a child may be pushed towards activities and commitments that are meant for their specific gender. Some may wonder why they lean them toward such standards. In fact, with the conformity of gender roles come a wide variety of variables to consider such as possible discrimination,