Introduction
Gender, gender roles, and gender stratification are important aspects of any society. However, gender is not biological, similar to sex but is a cultural construction (Kottak, 2015). Gender segregation is especially evident in eastern regions and rural areas in particular, such as Asian or African regions. This paper provides an analysis of the life of a Namibian woman and that of Chinese women in the village based on two documentaries, N! ai The Story of a! Kung Woman and Small Happiness: Life of a Chinese Village.
N! ai The Story of a!Kung Woman
The story in N! ai The Story of a! Kung Woman is more social than related to gender. However, the changes in the social life of Bushmen, or San as they are called now, population after the Dutch arrived on their lands brought in the necessity of change within every family. N! ai, the main character of this story, was not an exception. In traditional African societies, the division of labor related to finding food included such activities as hunting for males and gathering for female members (Kottak, 2015). Ju/’hoansi people in the film could get food any time they needed it. After the Dutch intrusion, money became necessary to buy food or other goods.
Therefore, people had to abandon their initial historically appointed gender roles. For example, N! ai had to go to work for the Whites to earn money for her family and was rejected by her people for doing that. The gender aspect is regarded in the part of the story about N! ai’s marriage. Despite the fact that she was young and did not want to marry, her parents prepared her for marriage and took her to her husband. Early marriages are typical of Namibian tribes. N! ai was 8 at that time, and her husband was 13.
They did not have good relationships at first, but the situation changes as N! ai grew older. However, the major gender message is that girls similar to N! ai could not decide on their life and even choose a husband. The primary role of a woman is to give birth to children, take care of them and the house. Certainly, the situation is changing at present, but in the middle of the 20th century, when the documentary was filmed, it was typical of many African tribes.
Small Happiness: Life of a Chinese Village
Chinese women observe gender stratification and inequality since birth. The film Small Happiness: Life of a Chinese Village by Marshal states that to give birth to a girl is small happiness while to give birth to a boy is big happiness (2016). Certainly, it is still happiness, but a boy can stay in the household while a girl will get married and leave. The movie depicts the Chinese countryside as a background to the story. It is not a common scenery for the western spectator.
Certainly, the example of one village cannot reflect the life of a country as big as China. Nevertheless, the experiences of female peasants from Low Bow village represent what was going on in rural China for about a century (Marcjblecher, 2016). The women from Low Bow village share their traditions related to birth control, family relationships, work, or foot binding. Sharp segregation of male and female duties, as well as home and social life, is typical of Chinese rural areas.
This differentiation is called the domestic-public dichotomy (Kottak, 2015). It means that women in Chinese villages take almost no part in social or political life, being busy with housework and work in the field instead. Women are not allowed to interfere with male occupations. For example, if they work somewhere apart from home, it is a local all-woman workshop where only girls are engaged (Marcjblecher, 2016).
Probably, the community depicted in the movie can be considered patriarchal because it is evident that senior men decide on the future life of young girls and their marriage. Moreover, a girl leaves her home after marriage and follows her husband. Also, education did not play a significant role because even if a girl was successful at school and could find a better fortune than working in the field, the traditions did not allow her to do so. In present-day China, in cities, in particular, girls and women have more freedom now. Still, in the 1980s, the depicted stories were normal for Chinese villages.
Conclusion
On the whole, gender issues are inseparable from the life of a society. Gender stratification developed historically and has a strong impact on people’s lives. In present-day industrial societies, gender roles have changed greatly in the recent century. Nevertheless, many traditional societies in rural areas of Asia or Africa still have sharp gender segregation. With the prevailing importance of males, women have to be satisfied with the roles of wives and mothers, frequently having no opportunity to study or to work. The supreme role of men in some societies is evident from birth when being a girl is just a “small happiness” to the family.
References
Kottak, C. P. (2015). Cultural anthropology: Appreciating cultural diversity (16th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
Marcjblecher. (2016). Small happiness . Web.
Marshal, J. (2018). N!ai: The story of a !Kung woman. Web.