Roles of Women in Vedic Culture
Vedic culture seems to have conflicting views regarding its attitude towards women, specifically its attitude towards a woman’s sexuality. This conflict can be seen by contrasting the ways in which women are treated in sacrificing rituals with how they are treated in a more intimate atmosphere, such as lovemaking, which is still often treated as a ritual in and of itself; ritual regarding fertility, love, and childbirth. To represent the roles of women in ritual, Stephanie W. Jamison has written “Sacrificed Wife, Sacrificer’s wife, which is a description and evaluation of women’s roles in ritual and hospitality in ancient India.
“The general subject of [Jamison’s] book is the conceptual position of women in early Indic culture, but it is not designed as an inclusive overview of women in ancient India and all the institutions and attitudes affecting them. Rather it focuses on a single, apparently marginal female role-the activities of the wife in solemn ritual… and isolates a set of conceptual functions the wife fills in ritual practice” (Jamison 4).
To get a more expansive view of women’s roles in ritual, it is important to also consider other texts, perhaps including what is known as a “sex manual” for the roles of women in other aspects of their culture. The “Kama Sutra” will help to provide a contrast between the roles of women in solemn ritual, and the roles of women in sex ritual, since sex is often viewed as just as ritualistic as the Srauta ritual, described in Jamison’s text. The two texts, combined, will illuminate a contrast between the differing views of women, as Jamison’s book illuminates negative attitudes towards a woman’s sexuality and inequalities in the participatio...
... middle of paper ...
...arding a woman’s sexuality, whereas in the “Kama Sutra” the woman’s sexuality is appreciated as a beautiful thing, and as a thing that is capable of being used in a positive way for both the woman and her partner. Certainly there are even moments of inequality apparent in the “Kama Sutra”, but, there are also passages that describe the importance of equality, and yet others that describe the duties of a man to please his wife. Whereas women are treated as deviants for their sexuality in ritual, they are praised for it in the bedroom, revealing a conflict in male minds as to how they feel about a woman’s sexuality, confused about whether they want a virgin or a whore.
Works Cited
Dane, Lance. The Complete Illustrated Kama Sutra. Inner Traditions. Singapore. 2003.
Jamison, Stephanie W. Sacrificed Wife, Sacrificer’s Wife. Oxford University Press. New
During the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, many saw alcohol as a cause of instability among communities. To counteract the effects of alcohol on American society, The Temperance Movement, Prohibition Party and many others sought to enact anti-liquor laws that would prohibit the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol. On January 19, 1920, the Eighteenth Amendment had taken effect and a nationwide ban on alcohol was enacted. This was thought of as a solution to the many problems that America had at the time, but it only made matters worse. The American society had been greatly affected by the Eighteenth Amendment in many negative aspects such as increasing crime and violence, worsening the economy, and much more.
...taken the form of universalization of those same structures across the world through reforming measures or through discourses in the Muslim world, thus creating conflicts as noted by Majid. The main weapon of this power relationship is observing and differentiating between good and bad, thus ingraining binary oppositions with the western values at the superior end. Thus, the western hegemony is like a beauty myth which is an unattainable western standard which is not only undesirable but harmful for the non-west. Still, they are coerced to adopt this standard due to a constant gaze and pressure from the West. Therefore, there is a need to revert this gaze and dismantle the western hegemony and power structures through the proliferation of ideas; ideas that take root not merely from the power elite or existing structures but stem from individual and provincial needs.
Even before the 18th Amendment went into effect in January of 1920, many Americans were in support of Prohibition. Supporters wanted America to be a healthier, safer, and more moral country. Alcohol was causing many problems around the United States. Some people were getting drunk on the job, causing accidents. Others were abusive towards their families. Many people began to realize the affects that alcohol was causing to their country. They believed that enforcing a law that would prohibit the manufacturing, transportation, and selling of alcohol would solve many of these problems by making it unavailable.
Prohibition originated in the nineteenth century but fully gained recognition in the twentieth century. The Prohibition was originally known as the Temperance Movement. In the 1820s and 1830s, a wave of religious revivalism developed in the United States, leading to increased calls for temperance, as well as other reform movements such as the abolition of slavery (“Prohibition”). These reforms were often led by middle class women. The abolition of slavery became a more important topic of debate until after the Civil War. By the turn of the century, temperance societies were a common thing throughout the communities in the United States (“Prohibition”). Women advocated the unity of the family, and they believed alcohol prevented such a thing. Drunken husbands only brought about negativity to the home, and women could not support that behavior. Suffragists, in their pursuit for voting rights, also sought to eliminate alcohol from the home. Small-scale legislation had been passed in several states, but no national laws had been enacted. On January 29, 1919, the Eighteenth Amendment was ratified by Congress; it banned t...
Bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive illness, is a brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in mood, energy, activity levels, and the ability to carry out day-to-day tasks, which can impair the individual's ability to function in ordinary life. Symptoms of bipolar disorder are severe. They are different from the normal ups and downs that everyone goes through from time to time (Bressert, 2006). Bipolar disorder symptoms can result in damaged relationships, poor job or school performance, and even suicide. But bipolar disorder can be treated, and people with this illness can lead full and productive lives. Treatment commonly includes mood stabilizing medication and psychotherapy (Smith & Segal, 20...
The 18th amendment was ratified on January 16, 1920. It was a very drastic measure taken by the United States government to reduce drinking and crime by outlawing the businesses that manufactured, distributed, and sold alcoholic beverages (“Why Prohibition?”). Its passage was the result of a “widespread temperance movement” during the first ten years of the 20th century that sought to end all vices and turn the United States into a land of morality (“Prohibition”). The amendment led to the period in American history known as Prohibition, an era that lasted almost fourteen years and was characterized by “speakeasies, glamor, gangsters, and a period of time in which even the average citizen broke the law” (Rosenberg). Clearly, the Prohibition
(2013). Prevalence, chronicity, burden and borders of bipolar disorder. Journal of Affective Disorders, 148, 161-169.
Smith, Melinda. Segal, Jeanne and Segal, Robert. “Treatment for Bipolar Disorder.” n.p. Oct. 2011. Web. (accessed Oct. 22, 2011).
The organization’s culture places an emphasis on a family centered framework that believes in eight principles. The first principle is that all children should be able to grow up in a safe and stable home. Secondly, it is implied most parents want to keep their children safe but some parents need to build on their family strengths. Thirdly, all families are different in culture, race and values. Fourth and fifth, when families are involved in CPS, CPS is responsible for finding permanency for the children and family engagement is more likely to occur if the family is involved in the process. Sixth, if parents are not able to protect their children from harm, CPS has the obligation to intervene for the child’s well-being. Next, if children have to be removed from their home, CPS should create and work on a permanency plan. Lastly, the permanency plan should be achieved as soon as possible (US Dept of Health and Human Services, 2013).
This project explores the intersection between conceptions of gender, sexuality and their relationship with cultures of different...
The thesis of this article is that Western culture in itself is a unique and diverse culture, but it is not nor will it ever be the culture of the rest of the world. Two theories are introduced, the Coca-colonization theory and the modernization theory.
In Sikhism, it is debatable whether religious texts portray women well, or if they portray women often enough in general. What is undisputed, however, is that women continue to hold a lower status in the Sikh tradition. Often, women are ignored in the Sikh religion. Doris Jakobsh states that, “While Sikh apologetics repeatedly insist that women and men are inherently equal in the Sikh world view, in reality, historical writings contain virtually nothing about women, apart from minimal asides referring to the occasional exceptional woman who has been deemed worthy enough to have made the pages of history” (Relocating, 7). This shows that there is a discrepancy between the equality that Sikhs seem to believe that women have in their religion and the restrictions placed on women anyway. While learning about Sikhism, I found it curious that there was a serious lack of female influence acknowledged in the conception of the religion. Considering the fact that there were many women present, upon visiting a Sikh Mandir, it seemed that many members of the female population in Sikhism are unaccounted for. M.K. Gill notes that though Mata Sundri [one of Guru Gobind Sing’s wives] led the panth longer than any of the nine Gurus subsequent to Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh tradition, and through one of its more difficult and d...
Sen, Gita. "Subordination and Sexual Control: A Comparative View of The Contorl of Women- A View Across Cultures." Nalini Visvanthan, Lynn Duggan, Laurie Nisonoff, Nan Wiegersma. The Women, Gender and Development Reader. The University Press, 2005. 142-149.
In ancient India, the apotheosis of traditional Hindu womanhood was the concept of pativrata, which called for total subordination of a woman in the service of the supreme deity in the form of her husband. There was no corresponding concept of conjugal loyalty spelt out for husbands as a man had the supreme power in society. Subjected to unprecedented subordination, women were not only deprived of the right to formal education, but also denied the right to property and were treated as mere items of property.1 In the backdrop of this patriarchal society, the practice of Sati gained popularity, especially among the upper classes2. The word Sati refers to the burning of a widow on the funeral pyre of her husband, often seen as a manifestation
Mundy, M., Kupczynski, L. and Kee, R. 2012, “Teacher's Perceptions of Technology Use in the Schools”, SAGE Open, pp. 1-8, viewed 15 Jan 2014, retrieved from Sage Online Article.