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Women's Roles in Different Cultural Settings

The following four works examine women's roles in several cultural settings and offer various perspectives on menstruation, pregnancy and childbirth. In most societies, pregnancy is a time of vulnerability--a trait often considered particularly feminine. But at the same time, women of many cultures see their (value( in their ability to produce children and continue a familial and cultural lineage. According to Lucile F. Newman, however, this view is less strong in the United States, where women regard their husbands and the marital unit as the "nexus of emotional strength" during pregnancy (Newman 87).

Brigitte Jordan, in her study of Birth in Four Cultures, recognizes birth not solely as a physiological function but as a biosocial event. This approach is justified by noting that while the physiology of birth is universally the same, "parturition is accomplished in strikingly different ways by different groups or people" (Jordan 2). Since birth is also universally recognized as a life crisis event, the period is everywhere a time of consensual shaping and social patterning. In most societies, she notes, birth and the postpartum period are considered a time of vulnerability for mother and child.

Jordan believes that cross-cultural analysis is important because the physiological and social problems associated with parturition require practices and beliefs consistent in that particular cultural context, which leads a system's practitioners into believing they have the best way, the right way to bring a child into the world. Birth practices are often packaged into standardized, ritualized, even morally required routine. For these reasons it is often difficult to see beyond the birth practices and beliefs to separate real from imagined advantages. A cross-cultural investigation allows for the gathering of information on a variety of birth practices and provides a more objective view of the importance and effectiveness of th...

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Women's Roles in Different Cultural Settings. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 01:09, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1704014.html