Gender
Offline Why do religions, which supposedly value the spiritual over the physical, often make such a point of dividing people into male and female?
Christian churches in most cases haven't allowed - and many stil don't allow - women to have important roles in the clergy. Some churches don't even let women speak in mass. Many forms of islam impose strict standards of dress based on gender. On the other side, many wiccans insist that women have more inate magical power than men.
Other wiccans insist that when we reincarnate we always reincarnate as the same sex - how boring is that, I'd like to try being a woman for a lifetime or two.
I guess it makes sense in terms of evolution, it helps to know who you can successfully breed with, and having clearly defined gender roles probably helped us function better in groups. Giving people clearly defined roles in the running of the tribe. The men hunt, the women stay home and look after the children, no argument from anyone, just the way things are.
However if our current bodies are not the entirity of our existence why then is our gender so important in religion. Do our souls have genitals?
Oh, a lesson in not changing history from Mr. I'm-My-Own-Grandpa!
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I figure if gender was a black and white issue then we wouldn't have transgendered, transsexual, hermaphrodite, etc.
Scientificcally isn't gender just a hormone difference? We all essentially start out the same, its just one little gene that tells our bodies to produce a specific amount of estrogen or testosterone. And apparently nobody told said gene it had to make absolute differences between male and female.
My theory is that for the most part men could always beat the shit out of women. So for survival's sake women assumed a posture less likely to get their skull cracked. Eventually the dominant male crap was codified into whatever religion was in charge.
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There are historically matriarchial societies though (The minoans are the only one that comes to mind off the top of my head.) So I dont thinks its a clear cut as might makes right. A lot of religions glorified women for their ability to give birth and therefore ensure the survival of the tribe.
There are other cultures where the genders were more or less equal (Again, nothing comes right to mind, I'll have to check sources later.)
True. Perhaps it is more accurate to say that cultures where physical dominance prevailed ended up with religions that made women subserviant. Sounds like a question for an anthropologist.
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