SOC 201 Chapter Notes - Chapter 14: Arapesh Languages
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This conclusion becomes even stronger when we consider the actual reversal in tchambuli of the position of dominance of the two sexes . There are, of course, physical differences between men and women, and most societies divide their own population into two groups male and female on the basis of these physical characteristics. What sociologists have found most fascinating, however, is what different societies have made of these sex differences. Mead"s research in new guinea brought home the fact that we may have overlooked the real source of most differences between men and women. More specifically, many of the differences between men and women that people conventionally assume are related to biological factors turn out to be products of socialization. Physically, females among the arapesh, mundugumor, and tchambuli were the same, as were the males among the three tribes. Nonetheless, what it meant to be a woman or a man varied tremendously across these groups.
