Social Institutions

• Our experiences, as they happen through our culture, determine our behavior

• Social institutions – Are not gender-neutral– Have evolved over centuries to reproduce to

the relationship between men and women

• Religion is a Social Institution

Religion

• Institution with institutionalized norms• We learn prescriptions and proscriptions

(what we should and should not do, respectively) from it.

• Religion socially constructs reality for us, in the sense that it “mandates” a perspective for us.

• Religion socializes us.

Ethnocentric

• We value Judeo-Christian religions over others and reject those others, on an unconscious and subconscious basis.– We see these beliefs as natural, when we think

of them at all.– This narrows our interpretations and diminishes

our reality (as we construct it).

Religion

• Creates order and meaning– Beliefs, practice– Myths, sacred symbols– Answers questions about our ultimate concerns

with life– Gives us a sense of knowledge about good/evil,

right/wrong, etc.; It gives knowledge of cultural norms.

Religion

– Teaches us rituals, to which • We attach meanings

• Within the intimate parts of our lives– Sexuality

– Birth

– Marriage

– Death

• And from which we make important decisions– Power/control

– Violence/non-violence

Religion and Gender

• Demarcates order and disorder by appeal to the female body– Historically, men see female body as

mysterious and dangerous– Each female body harbors life/death,

order/disorder, meaning/chaos• Life• Reproduction• Death (Menopause)

Role of Women in Religion

• Institution is very effective for making and keeping women in a lesser status than men– All major world religions have accorded

women a less than equal status and men, at least by the time the religion has matured/solidified.

– Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism focuses on a single male patriarchal view of God, resulting in a masculine symbolism and imagery.

Women compared to Men

• Women are subordinate and either icons of purity/goodness or evil

• Women are almost never presented as independent human beings

– Catholic Church holds that the relationship of gender is absolutely one of men controlling women. Rationale: Jesus supposedly only had men as apostles and chose only men as successors, only men should be priests. Jesus did this because God directly decided this.

– In Islam and orthodox Judaism, there is no official role for women in any public manner.

– In the some Protestant sects there are leadership positions for women. In the Congregational church, for example, women can be ministers.

Christianity

• One God who has one son, Jesus Christ• Those who practice it are Christians• Christ is born in Palestine, but we call the

state Israel– Teacher– Healer

• Began practicing these works when he was about 30 years old (about 33-34 C.E.)

• Cult = a new religion, sociologically– Christianity in the beginning was new, a small

group– Established by Jews

• Christ = Jewish

– Accepted many people pf many faiths as it grew

• Sect = offshoot of an established religion

Doctrine

• All people are alike in spirit– Ethnic group does not matter– Race does not matter– Religion does not matter

• Christianity is monotheistic, like Judaism– Christianity challenges Roman polytheism

Text

• Christians use the Bible– Old Testament

• From Hebrew heritage and Judaism

• Contains histories, songs, poetry and laws

– New Testament• Represents the life and death of Christ

– Gospels = story of Christ’s life

– Epistles = establish Christianity and its policies

• Christianity becomes institutionalized eventually (losing its cult status)

11th Century

• Christianity divides East and West, when East refuses to recognize the Roman Pope as head of Church– East = Greek Orthodox

• Constantinople was center

• Istanbul, Turkey now

• Fell to Islam in 1453, losing power

• Moved north to Russia and south to Greece

– West = Roman Catholic• 1517, Religious wars

– Crusades and Inquisition

– The Reformations

» Catholics and Lutherans split

» Later Lutherans will split into other Protestant denominations

Colonialism

• Converting natives of “third-world” countries to Christianity by force, combining religion with economics

• Beginning in 15th century and extending through the 18th and 19th centuries and still today

Islam

• Arabic word for “peace” and “surrender”– The peace that comes from the surrender to

God– Practioners are Muslims– Younger religion– Dominates the Middle East and North Africa,

Pakistan and Bangladesh– 1/5 people in the world are Muslims

Mohammed• Born in Mecca in 570 C.E., now Saudi Arabia• Islam is based on his teachings• He is not the son of God but God’s last prophet;

he is the last messenger of God– They recognize the Judaic prophets and Christ as God’s

prophets

• Their text is the Koran; God is Allah– Allah revealed His will to Mohammed– Since Mohammed is last, his word is final, the seal

• Therefore, Islam is the one true religion (according to its followers)

Islam’s Split• After Mohammed’s death in 632 C.E., two religions

are formed:– Sunni

• Dominant in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East

• Any good man can become a prophet and a religious leader

– Shiites• Dominant in Iran

• Only male descendents of Mohammed can be religious leaders

• Hussein killed 4,000 people in battle and was martyred: self-sacrifice is hero-ified; the highest you can go is to kill yourself for your religion

Muslims

• Are forbidden to drink or take drugs• Pray five times a day• Follow other requirements

– Basic unit of social life = family• Husbands and fathers in total control• No public role for women• Polygamous• No separation between church and state, theocracy

– The state is the law; Allah provides all legislation and laws in the Koran

Hinduism

• Brahmin, priests• Kshatriya, warriors• Vaisy, artisans and merchants• Sudra, peasants• Upward mobility through reincarnation is

done by being the best possible, making sacrifices, observing religious rituals, having faith . . . leads to moksha.

Woman’s Role within Hinduism

• The best a woman can hope for is to come back as a man.– Purpose: To be a good wife to help her husband

attain moksha, and to be a good mother to her sons– Good wife treats husband as a god– Virtues: self-sacrifice, submission, patience

Hindu Women

• Are to behave as good women/wives, have little value as daughters until marriage

• When widowed were to follow help ensure their husbands’ ascension by showing their devotion and to provide their own families with generations of good luck by killing themselves on the funeral pyre: Sati

• If not Sati, were to give up all their wordly belongings and pray for their husbands’ success in moksha while begging on the streets

Sati means virtuous woman

Sati was banned in 1829