Desire, Love and Work Sociology

Desire, Love and Work Sociology
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Introduction
Gender is the interpretation of the combination of one’s physical traits and the internal feelings of identification with maleness or femaleness or both. Ones interpretation of his or her gender subsequently determines his or her behavioral attitudes. African and Western cultures differ on the accepted types of gender and their respective gender roles. This distinction is particularly evident in relation to tolerance for transgender and third gender people. This paper presents a cross cultural analysis of genders and their roles in African and Western cultures. It shows the perceptions of different genders and their expected social and economic contribution in their respective societies. The paper also shows that each gender in both Western and African culture has a significant role in love, desire and work their status, sex or age notwithstanding.
African social culture
African culture requires men to express dominance in their interactions with women. They are also expected to talk assertively and in some instances smile less in comparison to women (Itula-Abumere, 2013). African culture frowns upon transgender and third gender people as it only recognizes two genders. Gender is assigned at birth as either masculine or feminine and identification with a gender type that is outside the assigned gender is considered as socially deviant and thus unacceptable.
African culture views childhood as a stage where children require delicate care of their parents. The end of childhood has historically been marked by ceremonies and rituals that usher in adulthood. Many boys go through circumcision and after this, they are considered as men and not boys who are children. In African cultures some girls undergo female circumcision to usher them into adulthood. For other girls, the onset of menstruation marks their transition into adulthood. For instance in Ghana, the Asante people require that girls sit under umbrellas as a sign to show that they have begun menstruating and are women enough to be married off (Descartes, 2012).
In African culture, women are traditionally expected to perform child rearing work and also work in farms. For instance, women in countries such as Mozambique perform most of the farm labor although cultural beliefs restrict them from owning land (Mukanga, 2011). Women perform most of the farm work in soil preparation and tending while the men participate in harvesting (White, Burton, & Dow, 1981). In some parts of Africa, it is forbidden to talk with cousins and in laws of the opposite sex. In Papua Guinea women are culturally expected to refrain from talking with their brothers out of respect for each other.
How African social culture compares/contrasts with western social culture
Just like in African culture, the Western culture socializes boys and girls to take up gender roles from their childhood. Girls are socialized to complete household chores indicative of their socially prescribed housekeeping roles they would take when they get married while boys are socialized through recreational activities indicative of their expected role of working outside the home (Descartes, 2012).
The western culture had for a long time viewed children as valuable for economic gain. They were considered property until the seventeenth century when a new perception of emerged. Western culture began to view childhood as an important stage of life requiring delicate care including emotional care (Descartes, 2012). This is in contrast to African culture where children are still considered as valuable property in parts of the African continent. For instance, many Maasai girls in the rural Kenya are married off to rich old men even at the tender age of eight years forcing them to drop out of school (Mukanga, 2011).
The western culture dictates that women and men make distinct labor contribution to the society. Women are seen as the important players in child rearing while men are required to act as the main hunters and gatherers or providers (Murdock & Provost, 1973). This is the same approach to division of labor where both men and women participate in providing for their families but the women perform most of the child rearing duties.
Unlike in the African cultural expectation that requires people from the opposite sex to maintain distance in their social interaction even within the confines of familial relations in some parts of Africa, the western social structure allows people to interact freely. The only limitation is observed where certain professions restrict people working in a certain organization from having romantic relations to maintain professionalism in the work place (Bada, 2003).How African culture constructs masculine behavior and how it contradicts popular ideas of "maleness" in Western societies
The African culture constructs masculinity based on the biological and cultural aspects of particular people. The male genitalia and other accessory characteristics define a man from a biological perspective (Uchendu, n.d.). In the African culture some ‘men ‘ have been stripped off of their biological identifiers as male such as hermaphrodites and those castrated to enhance their commitment to military obligations and are no longer considered masculine.
African culture’s perspective of masculinity also requires men to be naturally assertive, wise, aggressive and strong. Masculinity in the African culture’s sense rebukes laziness and African men are expected to work hard to fend for the family. Africans parents instill values such as courage in their boys consistently until they transition into adulthood. This is with the expectation that as an adult they exhibit virtues such as being intelligent, daring, critical thinker who is able to plot carefully and espouse diplomacy which are the epitome of achieving good repute in the society (Uchendu, n.d.).
There are other aspects of masculinity in different parts of Africa. For instance, males are served first during meals along age lines to assert masculinity. Premarital sex was also traditionally viewed as un-masculine among the Zulus and deflowering a girl before marriage brings shame to the male’s family and serious punishments including the confiscation of his family’s cattle for the Zulus (Uchendu, n.d.). In the same tradition males are taught how to clean and prepare food for father as well as to enable them to survive without a female subject particularly while in the military. Among the Tuareg, men wearing make-up is considered masculine in the same way that tattoo are considered feminine features among the Tuareg women. Traditionally in the Democratic republic of Congo, it was culturally acceptable as masculine for as many as twelve Lele men to be married to one wife. In this community the men took up domestic chores and their children belonged to the wife’s village and not to any of the men. The Lele men showed their masculinity by how well they served the wife and her parents (Uchendu, n.d...