Sexuality and Gender Performance, Essay Example

Through an exploration of ethnographies, one can uncover a significant connection between gender and sexuality as it relates to religion and culture. There is a significant similarity in all factors related to seemingly unique lifestyles because despite the different ways that humans express ourselves, we all react in response to similar emotions and needs. In order to an individual that belongs to a particular society, it is therefore essential to take careful note of their explanations for these institutionalized beliefs and behaviors. Once we understand the cause for a particular ritual and behavior, we can come to understand that all humans are one people and are this will help us explain the things we see people do.

In Veiled Sentiments by Lila Abu-Lughod, the author describes the lifestyle of the Bedouin tribes of Egypt and focuses on the tendency of the tribe’s use of poetry as a form of communication. In this publication, she also focuses on the world’s understanding of Muslim women and provides commentary to answer the question as to whether or not these individuals need to be saved, which is a common Western belief. She believes that our view of them is erroneous, and this it is essential to view the lifestyle of these individuals within the contexts of their own society. Therefore, by Western standards, it appears that these women are being abused and mistreated. However, their treatment is a social expectation within their own community. If they do not believe that they are being mistreated, then we must ultimately assume that they are not. This is important in terms of the other ethnographies because it allows us to view a social situation through the eyes of an experienced anthropologist; we must not push our own assumptions about behaviors upon others when we study a different culture or population. Therefore, gender equality has a different meaning for each society that we choose to study.

In Compassionate Cannibalism in an Amazonian Society, Beth A. Conklin demonstrates a ritual utilized by the Wari’ Indians of the western Amazonian rainforest that allows them to grieve for the dead and cope with their passing. These individuals would eat the roasted flesh of their deceased loved ones in order to show compassion for both the individual who had passed and their living friends and family. The main purpose of this ritual was to spiritually tie the bond between the living and the dead. People living in Western culture would consider this act to be an atrocity, but the book explained from many accounts that it was in reality an honorable way to treat the dead. Those who complete this book may even feel that this is a better way to treat the deceased than cremation or burial. Therefore, it demonstrates that we should abandon feelings of ethnocentricity when we study other cultures and attempt to understand the reasons why they engage in certain cultural or ritualistic behaviors. These ethnographies demonstrate that human emotions that we all share are often the driving factors behind these acts and that attempting to understand has the potential to unite different peoples.

In Caribbean Pleasure Industry: Tourism, Sexuality, and AIDS in the Dominican Republic author Mark Padilla discusses the life of male sex workers (Padilla, 2007). He demonstrates that the sex workers in the Dominican Republic are highly influenced by their foreign male clients. This is an interesting analysis because it demonstrates the bond that people share, even those who are highly sexualized. People have a desire to exchange ideas and to learn from one another. This happens more easily when people are able to communicate using the same language or belong to the same culture. In this particular example, the Dominican sex workers were not always able to communicate with their clients using the same language, but they often gained an understanding of one another on the basis of a shared sexuality. Ultimately, this relationship can be used to symbolize the greater relationship that all people have. Since we are all humans, independently of our gender and sexuality, we have an intrinsic understanding of one another that we can use to identify the factors that we do not understand. This ability to comprehend is what makes us different from animals.

A comparative study of these three ethnographies demonstrates that despite having unique cultural backgrounds and differing sexualities, all people are similar. The main difference among people is how we respond to our wants, needs, and emotions. However, these factors are common enough that interpretation of them will allow us to completely understand one another. It is important for us to consider that this understanding can be universal if we allow it to be. Rather than judging an individual or a culture in the context of our own society, it is important for us to understand the reasons they do things, as this will facilitate acceptance. It is necessary to consider that a majority of discriminatory acts are a consequence of our own personal biases, and that we can easily eliminate these evils by thinking more critically about the situation of others. Doing so will improve the world for the better, because we are all more similar than we are different.

Works Cited

Abu-Luhod L. Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society. University of California Press, 2000.

Conklin BA. Consuming Grief: Compassionate Cannibalism in an Amazonian Society. University of Texas Press, 2001.

Padilla M. Caribbean Pleasure Industry: Tourism, Sexuality, and AIDS in the Dominican Republic. University of Chicago Press, 2007.