Corpses,Lepers,and Menstruating Women: Tradition,Transition,and the Sociology of Knowledge

Abstract

A study of 1148 middle-aged women in five Israeli subcultures ranging from modern Central European immigrants to traditional Moslem Arab villagers is the point of departure for this essay on tradition, transition and the sociology of knowledge. The study is shown as having evolved through the competing hypotheses of the investigators, which in turn reflect the biases born of the experiential framework: two men and one young woman design a study that assumes an overvaluation of fertility and childbearing. When the findings reveal that middle-aged women do not regret the loss of fertility, regardless of tradition or modernity (and thus of childbearing history), the investigators discover their own assumptions to be erroneous. Further, the meaning of modernity is reconsidered as tradition is shown to incorporate a recognition of the strength of women despite formal status subordination; it is proposed that the dilemma of middle age is inevitably cultural transition. Finally, it is suggested that the broader social context of which the investigators were a part legitimates the study of women as `other' and as objects, while denying opportunity to study men in the same framework-a social context in which men shape decisions that grant or deny research funds, and thus shape the evolution of knowledge of gender.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Antonovsky, A. (1972) `Breakdown: A Needed Fourth Step in the Conceptual Armamentarium of Modern Medicine', Social Science and Medicine 6: 537-544.

Antonovsky, A. (1973) `The Utility of the Breakdown Concept', Social Science and Medicine 7: 605-612.

Antonovsky, A. (1979) Health, Stress, and Coping. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Antonovsky, A. , Maoz, B. , Datan, N. and Wijsenbeek, H. (1971) `Twenty-five Years Later: A Limited Study of the Sequellae of the Concentration Camp Experience', Social Psychiatry 6(4): 186-193.

Datan, N. (1971) `Women's Attitudes Toward the Climacterium in Five Israeli Subcultures', PhD Dissertation, University of Chicago.

Datan, N. (1972) `To Be a Woman in Israel', School Review 80(2): 319-332.

Datan, N. (1973) `Your Daughters Shall Prophesy: Ancient and Contemporary Perspectives on the Women of Israel', in M. Curtis and M. Chertoff (eds), Israel: Social Structure and Change. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books.

Datan, N. (1977) `Ecological Antecedents and Sex-role Consequences in Traditional and Modern Israeli Sub-cultures', in A. Schlegel (ed.) Emergent Women. New York: Columbia University Press.

Datan, N. , Antonovsky, A. and Maoz, B. (1981) A Time to Reap: The Middle Age of Women in Five Israeli Sub-cultures. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press.

10.

Datan, N. , Antonovsky, A. and Maoz, B. (1984) `Multidisciplinary Cross-Cultural Research: Perspectives from Developmental Psychology, Medical Sociology, and Psychiatry', in J.K. Brown (ed.) Middle-Aged Women: Cross-Cultural Perspectives. Bergin.

11.

Datan, N. , Antonovsky, A. and Maoz, B. (1985) `Love, War, and the Life Cycle of the Family', in K. McCluskey and H.W. Reese (eds) Life-Span Developmental Psychology: Historical and Cultural Crises. New York: Academic.

12.

Datan, N. , Maoz, B. , Antonovsky, A. and Wijsenbeek, H. (1970) `Climacterium in Three Cultural Contexts', Tropical and Geographical Medicine 22: 77-86.

13.

Deutsch, H. (1945) The Psychology of Women. Vol. II. Motherhood. New York: Grune and Stratton.

14.

Exodus 32: 1-35.

15.

Maoz, B. (1973) `The Perception of Menopause in Five Ethnic Groups in Israel', Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Leiden, Netherlands, 300 pp. Kupat Holim Publication.

16.

Maoz, B. (1975) `Perception of Menopause Among Five Ethnic Groups in Israel', The Family Physician 4(2): 1-8.

17.

Maoz, B. , Antonovsky, A. , Apter, A. , Datan, N. , Rochberg, J. and Salomon, Y. (1978) `The Effect of Outside Work on the Menopausal Woman', Maturitas 1: 43-53.

18.

Maoz, B. , Antonovsky, A. , Apter, A. , Wijsenbeek, H. and Datan, N. (1977a) `Ethnicity and Adaptation to Climacterium', Archivffur Gynikologie 223: 9-18.

19.

Maoz, B. , Antonovsky, A. , Apter, A. , Wijsenbeek, H. and Datan, N. (1977b) `The Perception of Menopause in Five Ethnic Groups in Israel', Acta Obstetricka Gynecologicka Scandanavia 65: 69-76.

20.

Maoz, B. , Datan, N. , Antonovsky, A. and Wijsenbeek, H. (1970a) `Female Attitudes to Menopause', Social Psychiatry 5(1): 35-40.

21.

Maoz, B. , Wijsenbeek, R. , Antonovsky, A. and Datan, N. (1970b) `The Climacterium and Non-Psychotic Disturbances in Women', in L. Miller (ed.) Mental Health in Rapidly Changing Society. Jerusalem.

22.

Mishnah: Nashim (Ketubot, Kiddushin); Taharot (Kelim, Niddah).