The Polarization And Socialization Of Gender Roles In Ancient China

There are two different kinds of meaning in the concept of gender, one is biological, concerning the difference among human body, it constitutes the subject of physiology; another is sociological, concerning the behavior model between men and women. There is a kind of cultural phenomenon of men being superior to women. Gender study is to analyze how this kind of cultural phenomenon was shaped and how to interpret it. In the western gender studies, the concept of gender refers to the social structure of two sexes. Therefore, gender analysis is a kind of destruction. The objective of my dissertation is to analyze how the way of life of the two sexes and the idea of gender were constructed and controlled by economic, political, and cultural factors.The dissertation includes four parts:Part one clarifies the former unilateral understanding of women's social position in ancient China. We have believed that the period of prehistory in China is matriarchal. With the establishment of patriarchy and hierarchical society, the social status of women had been declining. Such kind of understanding is not based on the reliable historical and archaeological research, but on the American anthropologist Morgan's matriarchal theory. It has been pointed out that Morgan's maternal theory is based on the misunderstanding of original kinship. Matriarchy does not necessarily let mother control powers. Morgan's theory has its impact on our understanding about the record of "knowing mother but not father" and the interpretation of the myth of "Gan-Sheng" and the worship of goddess. In addition, it finally influences the interpretation of women's status in prehistory.Part two examines the polarization of the two sexes in economic, social and marriage life, using the fruits of anthropology and sociology. 1. According to materialist view, production includes two parts, one is production for substance, and another is the reproduction of human being. The two kinds of production deeply influence various systems in human society. One of the most important systems is gender division of labor. Although gender division of labor is not the same around the world, there is a common phenomenon that male dominates the production of substance, and female is responsible for the reproduction of humans, the former activities is social work, because it needs alliance among people, the later is domestic work. Therefore, the two kinds of production actually fall into two spheres in human production: society and home, which is the main reason why domestic work is not taken as economic activities. The connotation of gender division of labor is not only to divide work according to gender, but confirms two social roles including producer for life and life producer. The result is that women's work being looked down upon, although women in any kinds of society participate production, and play a very important role in it. And it also led to a result of women's dependence on men, the custom of female infant killing and close relationship among men. 2. There is a public sphere among man, including religion, civil life and war, and man established social contact regulations, including taboo, criterion and system in these fields. Women have no rights to establish regulations, but become the object of regulation. Public power is coming from the public field which is dominated by man, rather than from the home. 3. Women is responsible for birth giving, home is their sphere. What women learn from marriage is totally different from what men learn, the fundamental regulation is women's "three follows" in ancient China. Women belong to man, especially to husband and his family; women themselves have no human rights. Under such kind of circumstances, women's body is controlled by men through marriage, which constitutes the main routes to establish social relationship.Part three tells the socialization of gender roles. Socialization includes not only the recognition of the connotation and training of gender roles, but also the pattern of social control. By means of education, rituals and social norms, males and females can conform to the attitudes and behavior that are socially accepted. That is to say, these attitudes and behavior are revealed in the form of courtesy. Education is extended based on gender roles. Therefore, those women who are to be wives and mothers do not have special schooling. Also, what they have received is the education of female responsibilities and female virtues. This is virtually different from males' schooling that shows that the males' responsibility is to govern the country and make it peaceful. On the eventful moments such as one's being born, one's being a grown-up, one's getting married, or one's being buried, some rituals will be accompanied as the establishments of gender roles. Gender norms refer to the gender orders established to keep the differences between the two genders.Part four discusses respectively gender concepts and philosophies. The philosophical abstract of gender concept is embodied in Zhou Yi's ethics of heaven and earth as well as the differences between feminine and masculine. That female is the cause of misfortunes is regarded as an authoritative orthodox concept, which is philosophically based on Zhou Yi's dualism. However, I firmly believe that the social structure, in which husbands are responsible for outward affairs while wives are in charge of household chores, results in the social phenomenon of females as the cause of misfortunes.This article draws the conclusion that in the polarization between public field and household realm, males have established and controlled the powerful public rights which are pretty superior to household fights. And this thoroughly led to a cultural phenomenon that males are superior whereas females are inferior. Getting hold of the marriage and keeping to the family may enable wives to feel the happiness, but they are not contributory to the equality between males and females. Furthermore, social justice does not advocate the kind of happiness built on the lack of equality.In this dissertation, I make my attempt to liberate the study of social gender from the scholars' bookshelves and make it an operable applied theory in the great cause of setting up a harmonious socialist society. The factors, which have ever influenced the behavior of males and females, either died out, or are left behind in a different form, or still exist unchanged. I hope that my analysis in this dissertation will be helpful to coordinate the relationship between males and females in their work and make them more self-conscious and rational.