Huaulu women are excluded from positions of authority & priesthood, & denied a voice in judicial meetings.

The cited justification is polluting menstruation.

This is a great example of how societies institutionalised patriarchy by making up reasons for women’s inferiority This is a good example of why gender equality isn’t just driven by getting women into the workforce,

Or some kind of self help group, or income-generating activity,

But rather a process of secular-scientific thinking, rejecting patriarchal religion.

Did the West invent democracy, feminism and queerness?

No.

1) Small-scale societies were often heterarchical, with Reverse Dominance Coalitions (Boehm, Stasavage)

2) Women's orgs in the Gulf of Guinea (Achebe)

3) Queerness in SouthEast Asia & SSA (see Ong, Epprecht)

https://twitter.com/bijurao/status/1811846805811789859

That said, it is also true that many books have massively exaggerated liberal progressivism in many parts of the world.

Eg DoE.

Some feminist anthropologists accuse Westerners of failing to recognise women’s “hidden powers” & “spheres of influence”.

Eg 1970s Java:

When a young couple eloped, the boy’s father spoke at the formal event

But actually it was the mother who did all the prior investigation But here’s the plot twist

The mother did all the prior investigation, because she had less spiritual potency and less status, so is permitted to speak more freely and openly.

Whereas men guard their potency by exercising restraint.

What led to the global rise of Salafism?

1) Saudi oil wealth - funding mosques, madrasas, training

2) Arab prestige bias + technology -> people in peripheral countries could learn from the Islamic heartland

3) Under-development

🧵 Yuki Shiozaki has a fascinating article on how SouthEast Asian fatwas have changed over the past 150 years!!!

This is brilliant data.

In the 19th century, Muslims in SouthEast requested fatwas from muftis in the Shaft school in Mecca

Ahmad Al-Fathani was a Thai mufti, Shafi’i

Southeast Asia was described by some Western observers as exceptionally gender equal.

However here’s an important caution

Outsiders may not necessarily be able to identify status

Eg Buddhist women were economically active in markets, but this actually signified impurity Which figure is more powerful?

Cakil (left) or Arjuna (right)?

Some argue that the MENA was religiously authoritarian, in which values were enforced by strong states.

But what about preacher Barbahari in Baghdad?

His followers challenged men & women walking together.

The caliph wanted but struggled to suppress their activism In his book “Commanding Right and Forbidding Wrong”,

Cook details that the “Hanbalites were thus a serious problem for the police, and a tribulation for Baghdadis who did not share their values”

Indicates state weakness & some ideological diversity.

Cities can catalyse gender equality - as I have detailed for Zambia & Cambodia.

BUT

If there is a strong ideal of gender segregation then cities create threats, triggering religious backlash & mobilisation.

Superb book on Salafism by @AaronRockSinger 👇 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/08…
“Sidqi was concerned … with “the enemy within yourselves, which goes by the name of corruption”.

This text was a call to action, instructing Muslims to “boycott those who have transgressed proper norms of comportment and modesty” .

Some attribute Egypt’s Islamic Revival to economic stagnation

But this neglects mobilisation in universities & transnational support

Students were the single largest majority writing to Islamic magazines.

Before looking for jobs, they were truly pious

Source: @AaronRockSinger .@AaronRockSinger’s book is SUPERB!

Instead of concocting stories about why people turn to religion, we should try to understand their beliefs & desires.

So, he studies readers’ letters to Islamists magazines: al-Da’wa, al-I’tisam, & Minbar al-Islam.

What did they want?

Sayyida Hurra Queen Arwa ruled Yemen for 71 years

(First as Queen consort, then regent, then finally queen in her own right for 54 years).

"Her sovereignty is unique in that she held both political and spiritual authority simultaneously".

https://twitter.com/_alice_evans/status/1790881477842104714

After her father’s death, young Arwa moved to live with her uncle - from one of the largest, most powerful Sulayhid tribes.

His wife was highly intelligent, loved her dearly & supported Arwa’s education

Her bride price was the annual revenue of the port city of Aden..

Do you recall this photo from the 2019 protests in Sudan?

22-year-old Alaa Salah was standing on a car, demanding the resignation of President Omar al-Bashir ..

Well… Some were surprised, as

Sudan is extremely patriarchal, with the lowest female labour force participation in SSA

And 86% of women have undergone female genital cutting

When people embrace a religion, they sometimes 'pick and choose' the bits they like. I did not know this…

By the 1670s, many Chams on the coast of Champa (Vietnam) had ‘converted’ to ‘Islam’

But they had a mother goddess and priestess,

No sex on Mondays.

When Americans refer to ‘slavery’, they usually mean the Trans-Atlantic slave trade,

In truth, slavery was pervasive worldwide

Great article by Sharman & @AyseZarakol

cambridge.org/core/journals/…
Lovejoy estimates that there were more slaves in West Africa’s Caliphates than the Americas.

History is defined by group competition

Success was enabled by population expansion, often waging wars over women’s wombs, eg

- Conquerors assimilating sex slaves’ kids
- Catholic prohibitions of abortions during the Counter-Reformation
- The US Right reacting to Civil Rights. In Randall Balmer’s book “Bad Faith”, he shows that Evangelicals had no strong concerns about abortion before Civil Rights.

He suggests it was just made up to organise ‘the Moral Majority’, in response to the IRS going after a white-only religious college

But..

Online, on social media & podcast, men express resentment about women’s preferences for tall, rich men.

So why is the anger erupting now?

It is because when women were socially obliged to marry, they weren’t so picky & settled for less.

Dating is now harder for (most) men.

https://twitter.com/zubymusic/status/1686438326344044562

The “problem” is not women’s first-order preferences nor dating apps.

Rather, as society liberalises, and there’s less compunction to get a boyfriend (let alone husband), women may think twice before staying with a guy who doesn’t measure up.

As I learn from diverse communities, I see many different aspects of patriarchy:

1) are men revered as leaders?
2) do parents treasure sons?
3) are women expected to serve?

4) are women kept away from unrelated men?

5) is it bad to openly criticise?

All vary by culture 🧶 1-3 were fairly typical worldwide.

Parents invested more in sons, who were revered as high status, while women did low-status work, serving men.

These are all beliefs and practices about *status*.

Confucius thought that the wise & virtuous should rule.

They blew like the wind, while the commoners bent like grass.

Imperial China was thus extremely hierarchical..

However… Confucius also championed a meritocracy.

Men were not born equal in intelligence or capacity.

Education and exams were important, so that the meritocratic few could rise to the top.

Only 3% of South Koreans said that family was a major source of meaning.

No wonder their birth rate is so low!!

I think part of this is that over the 20th century they worked insanely long hours, in order to match western productivity, and this may have broken family bonds. Only 1% of Taiwanese emphasised romance.

This tracks. I went to one mall and one supermarket today, there are no valentines.

But there are thousands of celebrations of money

“Bukkeureoum” is a Korean term meaning distressing awareness of other people observing your impropriety.

Other words for similar feelings are changpiham, minmangham, jjokpallim, and ssukseureoum.

It’s all about distress of public exposure of one’s failings.
Cc @ThomasTalhelm There are 3 sub-categories of shame:

(1) “Bukkeureoum” and “changpiham” are about the horror of one’s private self being exposed publicly

Only 44% of South Koreans say society should accept homosexuality.

It may be one of the most conservative wealthy countries

Latin Americans may be poorer, but they are much more liberal

pewresearch.org/global/2020/06…
Generational change is enormous, however.

79% of young South Koreans support homosexuality.

A huge leap in acceptance!

[This is fascinating; it tracks SK’s rising feminist movement]

Double gourd-shaped hangings, with character for good fortune.

Qialong period (1736-1795)

In 1746, the Qianglong emperor commissioned 62 hanging like this for the Lunar New Year celebration.

This, I believe, is a widely overlooked aspect of Chinese culture

This is a screen displayed during lunar New Year, in front of an entrance for feng shui

Note the “red packets” of money for younger relatives, symbolising abundance, peace & longevity.

Qianlong period.

A vase symbolises peace (it’s a homophone)

Historical societies usually had 3 key gender ideologies, but to differing degrees:

1) Men are high status, women are low status.
2) Women should stay away from unrelated men
3) Marriage is mandatory, divorce is terrible.

Before 1960, Europe and the US strongly endorsed all 3! (1) and (2) are two different elements of patriarchy, with distinct consequences.

Almost all societies endorsed (1), but they did not necessarily endorse (2).