Androcentrism: The Ascendancy Of Man

Description

Since time immemorial, men have assumed superior innate qualities which have justified them in exerting power over the other sex right up to the twentieth century. The last few years have seen the emergence of a new literary genre: to show that despite this, women have managed to become outstanding writers, artists, scientists, explorers, rulers and politicians. Of such books, none discusses a fundamental question: is the supposed male superiority biological, or has it arisen for some other reason over the course of time? This is the issue that Androcentrism: The Ascendancy of Man addresses. The stronger physique of males may have given Palaeolithic man a feeling of superiority, but the two sexes probably lived in fairly gender-neutral, or even matriarchal, groups right up to the end of the Neolithic Age. Charles Pasternak argues that it was the emergence of hierarchies, like chiefdom, that largely sparked androcentrism. It became established as villages grew into towns, with the ownership of property as an important ingredient, during the Bronze Age. While the Mediaeval Period was a time of slight respite for women, the Age of Enlightenment in Europe did not bolster this trend; it reversed it. Not until the latter half of the nineteenth century was androcentrism beginning to be seriously questioned, but significant change happened only after World War I. Today androcentrism has virtually disappeared from most parts of the world. It was just a cultural blip, albeit one that lasted over 5,000 years. Contents Acknowledgements About the Author Prologue Part 1: Science Chapter 1. Genes and their Expression: The ‘Female’ Brain Notes Part 2: Culture Chapter 2. Stirrings: The Neolithic Age Notes Chapter 3. Arrival: The Bronze Age and Early Civilisations Mesopotamia Europe Indus Valley Nile Valley Notes Chapter 4. Maintenance: Classical Age Civilisations Persia Greece Rome Elsewhere Beliefs and Religions Notes Chapter 5. Easing: The Middle Ages Women’s Daily Lives Women’s Voices Women of Action Women of Patronage Notes Chapter 6. Resumption: Enlightenment and Hypocrisy European Ruling Queens Enlightenment and the Age of Reason Revolutions Victorian England Notes Chapter 7. Decline: The 20th Century Politicians Higher Education Notes Chapter 8. Primitive Societies in Modern Times The Bushmen of the Kalahari The Hadza of Tanzania The Aborigines of the Malay Peninsula Australian Aborigines Trobriand Islanders The Hopi of North America Elsewhere Notes Epilogue Notes Bibliography Index