Gender Equality: Dangerous Radicalism or Healthy Good Sense?
The idea that gender equality could help lower the rate of HIV infection may be one of the hardest of all to sell in the fight against the disease, especially in developing countries, but it finds startling vindication among the Ju/hoansi people, whose territory straddles the northern border between Botswana and Namibia.
The general rate of HIV infection in the population of Namibia is 20%, while it's a low 4% among this tribe's members. Before this statistic is dismissed as nothing more than simply a lucky result of the tribe's relative isolation, it should be pointed out that other isolated groups have shown high rates of infection, so the isolation is not a magic preventative.
University of Toronto anthropologist Richard Lee has been studying the tribe since 1963 and has come to the conclusion that one habit of theirs, in particular, has allowed them to largely escape the scourge this disease has visited on so many of their fellow Africans. It is generally accepted that the subservience of women in so much of Africa has facilitated the spread of the disease. The women of the Ju/hoansi, in contrast, have high status in their community, giving them power to negotiation as they please rather than simply the onerous duty of doing whatever some randy male demands.
These people have accepted the radical concept that men and women are equal, and act on it by giving women respect and a dangerous degree of autonomy. Unlike so many of their sisters worldwide who are given no say about their sexual or marriage partners, the women of the Ju/hoansi have to right to say yes or no for themselves. Unlike so many of their sisters, they have the right to demand a man wears a condom.
How such a free-thinking bunch of extremists could be allowed to continue on their way is an interesting question. Is there no-one who will keep the developing world safe from anarchists like that? If word gets out about this bunch of obviously nihilistic intransigents and their health, who knows what could follow? There might be some people (read, women) actually beginning to believe they could think for themselves, instead of blindly following rigid, patriarchal norms.
Where's a good, suicide-bombing, homegrown boy when you really need one?
The general rate of HIV infection in the population of Namibia is 20%, while it's a low 4% among this tribe's members. Before this statistic is dismissed as nothing more than simply a lucky result of the tribe's relative isolation, it should be pointed out that other isolated groups have shown high rates of infection, so the isolation is not a magic preventative.
University of Toronto anthropologist Richard Lee has been studying the tribe since 1963 and has come to the conclusion that one habit of theirs, in particular, has allowed them to largely escape the scourge this disease has visited on so many of their fellow Africans. It is generally accepted that the subservience of women in so much of Africa has facilitated the spread of the disease. The women of the Ju/hoansi, in contrast, have high status in their community, giving them power to negotiation as they please rather than simply the onerous duty of doing whatever some randy male demands.
These people have accepted the radical concept that men and women are equal, and act on it by giving women respect and a dangerous degree of autonomy. Unlike so many of their sisters worldwide who are given no say about their sexual or marriage partners, the women of the Ju/hoansi have to right to say yes or no for themselves. Unlike so many of their sisters, they have the right to demand a man wears a condom.
How such a free-thinking bunch of extremists could be allowed to continue on their way is an interesting question. Is there no-one who will keep the developing world safe from anarchists like that? If word gets out about this bunch of obviously nihilistic intransigents and their health, who knows what could follow? There might be some people (read, women) actually beginning to believe they could think for themselves, instead of blindly following rigid, patriarchal norms.
Where's a good, suicide-bombing, homegrown boy when you really need one?
2 Comments:
The opposite can be concluded of India. India will soon top the world as the country with the greatest number of HIV/AIDS infections -- if they haven't already done so. (Despite this, the percentage of infections in the population is still low compared with the African countries because of India's size.) Women are increasingly becoming infected, as, 1) they are hardly aware of their own sexuality, and 2) they lack any social status that would allow them to refuse a man's advances. India, especially the rural areas, still lives in the dark ages, where women who are victims of rape are stoned to death because they're a disgrace to their family. The same happens to women who become infected with HIV/AIDS.
It's a shitty situation that won't get any better soon. Meanwhile, millions of women will die.
Some related information, see: Economic Security for Women [PDF]; Facts on Women and HIV/AIDS; and, "Without My Consent" — Women and HIV-Related Stigma in India.
I do find it interesting that there are so many things we can learn from traditional groups. We've always been taught that 'we' are 'more advanced'. That may be true technologically, but many older cultures have a whole lot to teach us about what works for people. Thanks for another good example:-)
tp
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