Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T00:08:01.819Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The social images of man and woman

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2011

Rosemary Firth
Rosemary Firth
Affiliation:
Institute of Education, University of London
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

A good deal of the best-known work on the relationships between the sexes among humans has concentrated mainly on two aspects of this subject: either the physical or the psychological implications of sexual interaction have been quite widely discussed in literature easily available and often popularly presented. Without wishing to minimize the importance in its time of the work of Alfred Kinsey and his colleagues, one cannot help feeling, as Richards (1969) has recently observed in this journal, that since all primates copulate in much the same way, one is not going to achieve great insights by examining this in much detail. It is the humanity, not the animality, of man which provides the most significant part of his behaviour in this field. No one can write on this theme without paying due tribute to the work of Margaret Mead (1950), but much of it has concentrated on looking at ways in which upbringing in different societies makes people feel differently about their male and female roles.

Type
Sex ratios in different populations
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 2 , supplement S2: Biosocial Aspects of Sex , 1970 , pp. 85 - 92
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1970

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Antoun, R.T. (1968) On the modesty of women in Arab villages. Am. Anthrop. 70, 671.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bateson, G. (1936) Naven. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Firth, R. (1966) Housekeeping among Malay peasants. LSE Monographs on Social Anthropology, 7. Athlone Press, London.Google Scholar
Freedman, M. (1967) Rites and Duties, or Chinese Marriage. Bell, London.Google Scholar
Goody, E. (1962) Conjugal separation and divorce among the Gonja of N. Ghana. In: Marriage in Tribal Societies. Edited by Fortes, M.. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kaberry, P. (1939) Aboriginal Woman. Routledge, London.Google Scholar
Langness, L.L. (1967) Sexual antagonism in the New Guinea Highlands: A Bena Bena example. Oceania, 37, No. 3, p. 161.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leyhausen, P. (1967) Sexual behaviour in mammals. In: Biology of Sex. Penguin Science Survey. Edited by Allison, A.. Penguin Books, Harmondsworth.Google Scholar
Lévi-Strauss, C. (1956) The family. In: Man, Culture and Society. Edited by Schapiro, H.L.. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lévi-Strauss, C. (1957) Social structure. In: Anthropology Today. Edited by Kroeber, A.L.. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Malinowski, B. (1932) The Sexual Life of Savages. Routledge, London.Google Scholar
Mead, M. (1950) Male and Female. Gollanz, London. (Also 1967 Pelican).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richards, A. (1939) Land Labour and Diet in Northern Rhodesia. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Richards, M.P.M. (1969) Review of Genetic and Environmental Influences on Behaviour. J. biosoc. Sci. 1, 281.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Safilios-Rothschild, C. (1969) Honour crimes in contemporary Greece. Br. J. Sociol. 20, 205.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tinbergen, N. (1968) On war and peace in animals and man. Science, N. Y. 160, 1411.CrossRefGoogle Scholar