Gender, Trade and Religion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Gender, Trade and faith - Essay ExampleAccording to Drislane and Parkinson, Patriarchy is liter anyy rule by the father but loosely it refers to a social situation where men are dominant over women in wealth emplacement and in all other aspects (Online Dictionary of the Social Sciences). Since the time of creation women had been assigned the natural federal agency of childbearer, homemaker and pleaser of their husbands every whim. She didnt chose, she was chosen. As in the case of biblical Leah and Rachel who were some(prenominal) given to Jacob in exchange of 14 years of labor. Or in the case of Rebekah, who was given to Isaac in exchange for gold, silver and other jewelries (Genesis 2916-28). For thousands of millenia, the lot of women had been dictated by Patriarchy. When men had discovered that by bartering and trading, gargantuan profits could be amassed, women were either given apart by their fathers in exchange for something high-priced or they served as courtesans to t he foreign traders more or lessly with the knowledge and blessing of the fathers (Whitfield 133 ). To my opinion, this inhumane status of women being either given, bartered or rented by the hour as a result of international trade and contacts by the indigen populace with foreign merchants, soldiers and other kibitzers is the most inte take a breathing and important idea that we can put advancing regarding gender relations in history. In the Indian epic poem of Ramayana, 2Sita was given remote in marriage to Rama because Rama succeeded in wielding the mighty bow of Siva a possession of Sitas father, King Janaka (Narayan 23). In utter obeisance to paternal pressure, Sita acceded. In The Analects of Confucius, out of 20 chapters of desiderata that compel the men to keep up or avoid, only four sentences pertained to women, two of them were outright shocking to modern civilization. One says The Master verbalize of Kung-ye Chang that he might be wived.Accordingly, he gave him his i nduce daughter to wife and Of Nan Yung.He gave him the daughter of his own elder brother to wife (Confucius chapter 5). Confucianism then, was the worst because women were non bartered or exchanged but outrightly given away gratis et amore. In the African Igbo tribe in Nigeria where polygamy is being practiced by men, women are not allowed to choose their husbands but they are given away after negotiations by groups representing both sides (Achebe xxx ).Since the capable matter of this paper involves gender relations as a result of international trade which similarly result to the spread of religion, nothing else illustrates this situation better than the Silk Road of olden days as all 3 elements are interlaced together.We therefore focus on the Silk Road phenomenon.The Silk Road is one of the worlds most important and oldest trade route leading to ancient China. It was made possible because ancient China peculiarly during the Han Dynasty was reputed to be the wealthiest and the most civilized among all nations and it had so many important and useful products to offer to the rest of humanity. Some of these are silk, porcelain, jade, lacquer ware, pearls, rubies, diamonds, satin, musk and rhubarb (Wood 9, 13-23).