General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Where have societies' views of women come from? [View all]chervilant
(8,267 posts)about Chodorow. And, I liked that Gilligan took Kohlberg to task over his gender bias -- that was a refreshing change of pace.
I remember having some reservations about Chafetz, too. Her "Sex and Advantage" is a 'macro-structural' treatise on "sex stratification." Perhaps, as with Dinnerstein and others, I'd wished she'd written in a populist style, so that her work was accessible to the gp. I'll have to revisit her...
I have a theory that polytheistic matriarchies may have experienced a radical shift in gender relationships when men balked at that power imbalance. If human sacrifice was part of the picture, they may have balked at being on the short end of that bloody ritual. IOW, I think the shift from polytheism to monotheism -- and from matriarchies to patriarchies -- was much more complicated than many cultural anthropologists have postulated. (With regards to this implied complexity, I'd bet Chafetz had a big influence on me...)
There's one other book in my library that I hesitated to mention, but it's a rare and intriguing perspective: "The Descent of Woman," by Elaine Morgan. Definitely, food for thought ...