8-year-old Saudi girl divorces 50-year-old husband

I do believe (but could be wrong) that there are some South-East Asian and Pacific tribes which are also matriarchal. Whether these are still functioning in any traditional way, however, I am not sure.

EDIT: There is a significant ethnic group in Sumatra that is matriarchal and Taureg culture is matrilineal, though not matriarchal according to Wiki (grain of salt and all that).

It is very interesting how these cultures evolved differently to the vast majority of the world. It leads me to wonder why, and as such, hypothesise that it must be external influences. It can therefore be assumed that patriarchal society is not as a result of "human nature" (whatever that is), but of the prevailing environment which the groups evolved within. It may be prudent to analyse the geographical and physical characteristics of these communities and whether this had some possible influence on the evolution of their cultural structure. The fact that all cultures around the world, however, do stratify leads me to believe that humans require, by necessity, structure and common understandings.

I agree, I was just throwing the idea out there as a catalyst for thought and discussion. Doesn't mean I don't prefer it though

Do you have any research to the claim highlighted above? Of course, it is a logical path of assumption and probably true, I am just wondering what research has been done on it. The next question would be, where did these roles originate? I would say as a reaction to the surrounding environment and the biological abilities and constraints of each gender to fulfilling certain roles.

I think humans are also indefatigable in their ability to see failings and opportunity in their world, and as such we are incapable of leaving anything alone for too long. Something is always being tinkered on. Social norms are no different. Change is inevitable.

 

Yes! I've seen several documentaries about them. The women go to sleep where she wants at night haha. Pimp.
The men work at home and take care of the children, while she does the hard jobs. Crazy!

 

I finally decided to read this thread. First of all, the original post disgusts me. 8 years old? Really? WTF?? That's considered pedophilia here.

As for the anthropological stuff, I'll have to get back to that, when I have more time to read through it all.

Men seemed to have feared the perceived power of the woman who can make/give life, so they sought ways to keep women down in society. Very few ancient societies celebrated women for their ability to make life.

On a side note, I was talking with someone a couple of years ago and they had read somewhere that babies come out looking like their fathers, because it's nature's way of telling who the father of the baby is.....I haven't really looked into that theory as to how true it is. I find it rather fascinating nonetheless.

I only have one child, but when she came out, she was the spitting image of her father. And now everyone tells me she looks identical to me. :smt102

Anyway, I'll be coming back to this thread.

 

My reasoning is based on the fact that human cultures are generally patriarchal and many that were originally matriarchal have since become, through myriad disruptions, patriarchal as well.

Now the reason why most cultures are patriarchal dovetails with your point about "a reaction to the surrounding environment and the biological abilities and constraints of each gender . . ." Gender is the social construction of sex, so perceptions of capabilities that grow from sexual dimorphism will inform everything from the division of labor (e.g. female domesticity) to ideas concerning reproduction and the availability of sex.

As see it, most modern cultures are the byproduct of three dominant streams of historical influence: the ancient Greek culture, the Confucian-era Chinese culture and the Arab Islamic culture. All are/were patriarchal.

 

Yeah. Fair enough. I would agree with you on all that, I was just wondering if there has been any conclusive research done on it. I guess it doesn't matter a whole lot, as the historical development of cultural practices commenced such a long time back that it's part of humanity now.

The evolution of the human race is incredibly interesting. I would love to have the power to sit back and watch the whole thing from start to finish like a movie. I wonder what would stand out, and whether the current era would be bland compared to our past, or if temporal progression is directly related to development, activity and productivity?

Back to the original point of the thread, however. I would take a biological stance on marriage. The purpose of which is to (as discussed by Saty) give confidence as to the paternity of the child from any union. Since an 8 year old child is not physically mature enough to become pregnant, marriage at such an age seems, to me at least, inappropriate.

On a humanistic level, it disgusts me and I feel very sorry for that child. I am glad that she was even able to get a divorce.

This thread just reminds me that there are such vast differences between cultural understandings of people accross the world. How do we reconcile that and come to mutual understandings?

 

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