The Head Man Was a Woman by Kirk Endicott and Karen Endicott - Book Report/Review Example

Title of Paper Student Name Course Name Instructor Name Date Introduction “The Head Man was a Woman: The Gender Egalitarian Batek of Malaysia” is an ethnography written by anthropology authors Kirk Endicott and Karen Endicott. It is a vivid and comprehensive ethnography of the Batek community, one of the small numbers of remaining hunters and gatherers in South Asia (Endicott and Endicott 2008, 5). This ethnography thus brings out concepts of gender, roles as well as relations of the Batek people. Based on the authors’ fieldwork carried over a long period of time, they describe in their book, the lives of the Batek community with discussions focusing on their social organization, gender, cultural persistence, religious activities and hunting and gathering (Endicott and Endicott 2008, 9). Purpose of the Study This paper thus seeks to evaluate and study gender egalitarianism and how an indigenous community, the Batek community, has enormously thrived and progressed in gender relations. Their measure of progress has surpassed that of the western world that is often described as speciously constructed. The title of the book “The Head Man was a Woman” could not get any more precise in demonstrating the main issue discussed by the authors that gender egalitarianism flourishes among the Batek community of Malaysia. Theoretical Aspects of the Ethnography Throughout the book, the authors articulate in a clear and orderly manner, that the system of the Batek people was not controlled by sex nor was one sex considered culturally superior than the other. Arguments to support this can be attributed to six factors that the authors clearly bring out; (1) the Batek people were economically independent, (2) authority was highly decentralized, and (3) nonviolence was the highly regarded principle (Endicott and Endicott 2008, 13). By applying the Western framework of dependence for purposes of comparison, the authors demonstrated that the Batek women led highly independent live and did not depend on their male counterparts. Despite these dynamics, some sociologists and anthropologists are of the opinion that the persistence of egalitarian systems such as the Batek’s, have been as a result of such systems becoming more of defining devices drawing a definite line between a subjugated group and a dominant group (Endicott and Endicott 2008, 22). The authors however construct a theory that justifies their explanation that the Batek community has over the years developed their own egalitarian system. The authors go further to reject the concept that the Malays, Batek neighbouring community, were more than capable of dominating the Batek people (Endicott and Endicott 2008, 36). According to them, the emergence of the Batek egalitarian principles was a way of trying to satisfy their environmental and social niche that sustained their nonviolence way of life. By doing this, the Endicotts stick by the definition of the self by the Batek people and continue to rely on the Weberian Verstehen methodological tradition which demands that subjects under study should be describes in their own terms (Maurer 2005, 3). The Endicotts, in their ethnography, depict the Batek as a people who resist any form of attempts by anybody, male or female, to act as a dominant figure (Endicott and Endicott 2008, 16). Their values of self-autonomy, equality and cooperation and wealth sharing are just some of their guiding principles. The idea of competition, even during play, sounds repugnant to them. Using the theory of basic human values, it is easy to conceptualize the self-enhancing and self-transcending as two different and divergent value dimensions (Endicott and Endicott 2008, 31). According to this theory, values take the form of transsituational goals serving as guiding principles in Batek’s social entity. While self-enhancement illustrates power and achievement, self-transcendence emphasizes on concern for the interests of the majority, especially to the people one is constantly in contact with. Among the Batek people, self-transcendence is exemplified by their overall care for nature, understanding, egalitarianism, openness to diversity and caring for others (Endicott and Endicott 2008, 41). Self-transcendence in Schwartz’s model, can best explain the nonviolence nature of the Batek people and the dominant values of affiliation and nurturance are attributed to their peaceful way of life. Theories on the interpretation of cultural facts have been largely documented by sociologists as well as anthropologists (Ellen 2010, 387). One such sociologist is Steven Goldberg who, according to his innate male dominance theory, believes that male domination in the societies is universal, be it in hierarchical organisations or interpersonal relations (Goldberg 1993, 23). Goldberg attributes this to male hormones, the cause of males’ competitive nature. His theory may not be far-fetched after all because, a closer look at most societies around the world reveal that the husbands are the dominant figures within their households while wives are reserved to taking care of the children and other related domestic activities (Goldberg 1993, 44). Goldberg goes on to ask several questions such as the possibility of male dominance being human nature or a cultural fact that may be absent if cultural conditions are different, the possibility of human society being totally egalitarian, and if there exists societies where males and females are considered equal in relation to power and possessions (Goldberg 1993, 67). The Endicotts, however, are in total disagreement of this universal male dominance theory. They present a case of gender egalitarianism that exists in some few remaining indigenous societies globally (Endicott and Endicott 2008, 10). Using the Batek people to present their case, the authors argue the existence egalitarian systems supported by features of self-autonomy, shared governance and suppressed aggression. Despite Goldberg’s disagreement on this development, the Endicotts contend that his arguments against the egalitarian system are based purely on theoretical grounds because he has not taken to fieldwork that is ethnography and observed societies such as the Batek (Endicott and Endicott 2008, 54). The authors also disagree with theories on the cultural and biological forces that determine interpersonal relations between man and women in the society. Unlike previous suggestions that the forces are more biological – male hormones being cause factors – the Endicotts take a different route and demonstrate that gender equality in the case of the Batek people existed as a result of an intricate interaction of cultural factors (Endicott and Endicott 2008, 59). From the book and the video, it is clear that the Batek is an indigenous community, and has not been overly affected by technology. Being predominantly hunters and gatherers, the Batek live off the land by cultivating, hunting game and fishing (Yeoh 2009, 672). To them, taking care of children is not considered the role of the women and as such, fathers demonstrate paternal duties by actively involving themselves with taking care of the children. Everybody on the social entity was expected to put in some form of labour, upholding their value of equality where all contributed to the economic aspects of the community. Although, according to the authors, some of the Batek people can be seen to be wearing modern clothes, they still follow their traditions strictly. One of the most captivating images given by the authors of the Batek people is their wit (Yeoh 2009, 672). They have learnt, over the years, to keep their huts water proof by using canvas and using leaves and trees to make the roof. The men made the floors to the huts while the women made the roofs and installed the water proof materials. The children were also not left behind and they began learning certain skills such as honey harvesting and hunting at an early age. Despite the logging that has been going on in the forests that they live in, the video provides evidence that the Batek have retained their values (Yeoh 2009, 672). Strengths and Weaknesses of the Ethnography One of the main strengths of Kirk Endicott and Karen Endicott in their ethnography, is that they have been able to dispute what almost all sociologists have been writing for a very long time; that in all societies, men occupy high and dominating positions than women and also are the dominant figures in interpersonal relationships. For instance, the argument by Steven Goldberg that the male hormones play a big part in men’s nature to compete strongly than their female counterparts is a good example. Through their ethnography, Kirk Endicott and Karen Endicott bring out clearly and with evidence, that there are possibly some societies still existing where this does not occur (Yeoh 2009, 673). Their fieldwork brings undisputable evidence that among within the Batek community, gender roles are not clearly defined. They reinforce this reasoning by demonstrating that the even the headman they encountered during their fieldwork was a woman; a complete contrast of who a leader should be among sociologists (Yeoh 2009, 673). One weakness portrayed by the authors of “The Head Man was a Woman: The Gender Egalitarian Batek of Malaysia” is that they have used this single case of the Batek people to challenge the work of authors like Goldberg and other anthropologists opposed to the concept of gender egalitarianism (Yeoh 2009, 673). As one reads the different texts discussing societal leadership, questions arise as to whether he or she should rely on a single case of egalitarian society to make conclusions that total egalitarian societies did and do exists. The Endicotts fail to make reference to other possible societies in other parts of the world that are similar to the Batek people as this would help reinforce their arguments challenging the innate male dominance theory. Their case is not helped much by the simple fact that anthropology is a double edged sword. Anthropological investigations have shown that diversity does exist in all cultures throughout the world and as such, questions arise as to the universal nature of some societal institutions across all investigated societies; hierarchy, roles and interpersonal relationship (Yeoh 2009, 673). Methodological Approach of the Authors The authors take an observational approach as they study the social life of the Batek people. This is evident in the way they vividly describe their personal interactions with the community members and even describe their bewilderment when they find out that the headman is actually a woman. From the ethnography, it is clear that the authors in a bid to describe the culture of the Batek people, they studied the real people as they went through their daily chores, demands and practices within the context that these acts are enacted. From observation, the authors collected the data from a natural setting that was the Batek community in Malaysia. The authors also employ ethnomethodology approach where they decide to expose the Batek people’s interaction to the outside world. They manage to do this by filming specific organisational settings of the Batek people. It is a well known fact that ethnography is not an easy field as it requires objectivity in interpretation of cultures. This is because as human beings, they are prone to carrying their cultural selves whenever they go and this may affect the way they interpret their findings. However, being ethnographers of high calibre, the Endicotts project objectivity throughout their work by surveying and interpreting their study from the insider’s point of view and taking a short film to support their interpretation, they are able to demonstrate this objectivity. They do not in any way interfere with the way of life of their study group. The outsider’s point of view is also one that cannot be ignored by any ethnographer and the short film taken by the authors of the Batek people gives outsiders a chance to make their own interpretations without depending solely on the writings of the authors. Position of the Authors in the Study While in the field, the authors position themselves as just insiders who are there to just study the community and nothing more. The Batek people are at first cautious as they are facing the risk of assimilation due to the encroaching civilization within the Malaysian rainforest due to deforestation (Yeoh 2009, 672). Due to this they have become extremely cautious on whom they invite into their community settings as they would not want to lose their way of life that has served them well over the past hundreds of decades. Urbanization is a major threat to them as it threatens to pit them against the mainstream Malaysian society that is on the verge of assimilating them. With this in mind, the authors make preliminary efforts to present their sincerity and friendly nature to the Batek people by playing with the children and just minding their own business (Yeoh 2009, 673). Once they appear to be accepted by the community and seem harmless to them, they form a relationship of insider and informant whereby some of the community members act as the informants. The consequence of this relationship is that they are able to get first hand information on the nitty-gritty of the functioning of the society (Yeoh 2009, 673). Ethical Issues While doing the Ethnography Ethical issues form an integral part of the field of ethnography as social scientists are obliged to refrain from making negative judgmental perceptions of other human beings under study (Habermeyer 2012, 986). As such, ethical issues have inextricate relations with the views regarding ontological and epistemological foundations of ethnographers’ works. Ethical issues may be found in the different stages of the study; the getting in, getting on, and getting out (Habermeyer 2012, 987). On getting in, the authors present the community with an informed consent that will grant them access to the ‘insides’ of the community without any repercussions. They make sure that the headman understands what the informed consent is and what she is introducing the community into. The headman after understanding this gives the Endicotts consent, verbally, to carry out their study within their community (Evens 2013, 29). On getting on with their work, they ask again for consent to film activities of particular areas of the society. They are able to uphold privacy concerns as they focus solely on the community’s normal day to day activities that the Batek people engage in such as their creative ways of climbing trees, the construction of their huts, children playing, hunting, fishing, farming, honey harvesting as well as their food storage activities (Evens 2013, 42). One area within the ethical issues context that the authors may have looked into deeply is the issue of confidentiality of the findings of the study. The amount of information gathered from their fieldwork was massive and was sure to include certain aspects of the social organisation that they may have wished not to be put in the public domain. For instance, if they had been made to understand that monkey eating is a rarity in most societies, they would have asked the authors to leave that part out and focus on other aspects of their eating habits. This would have made it a more inclusive undertaking than it turned out to be (Evens 2013, 73). Relationship between the Authors’ Methodological and Theoretical Approaches The methodological approach employed by the authors is participant observation where they became part of the way of life within the Batek community (Maurer 2005, 4). This gave the authors a chance to observe the Batek people while taking daily notes on the events of daily happenings alongside informant’s interpretation. Ethnomethodological approach, under observation involved filming of various activities that the authors thought would be important or outsider interpretation (Ellen 2010, 396). Ethnology is the theoretical approach used in the ethnography and was used so as to distinguish the Batek community from other communities in an effort to bring out the egalitarian nature of the community. These approaches are interrelated in a very complex manner as the deductive scientific framework demands that researches be organized in a way that they theoretical hypotheses are addressed adequately and on the basis of prior reasoning. This complex relationship thus posed a dilemma for the authors who, however, overcame this with their in depth understanding of their observations and what they meant through informant interpretations (Ellen 2010, 400). Conclusion The authors bring forth, clearly, the thesis of gender egalitarianism by taking an in depth study of the Batek community. They are able to pose a challenge to previous anthropological theories that support the notion that male dominance is universal in all societies. Despite this strength, they are unable to give concrete evidence that there exist several other communities around the world that exhibit egalitarian system of societal organisation. This proves to be the main weakness of their work and leaves one undecided on whether they should base their belief of the gender egalitarian system theory just on the single community when their exist thousands upon thousands of communities whose social organisation is based on the innate male dominance theory. References Cited Endicott, Kirk, and Endicott, Karen. The Headman was a Woman: The Gender Egalitarian Batek of Malaysia. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, 2008 Evens, Terry. Anthropology as Ethics: Nondualism and the Conduct of Sacrifice. New York: Berghahn Books, 2013 Habermeyer, Wolfgang. Rev. of “Anthropology and ethics” by James D. Faubion. Anthropological Quarterly 85, no. 3 (2012): 985-990 Ellen, Roy. Theories in Anthropology and Anthropological Theory. The Journal of Royal the Anthropological Institute 16, no. 2 (2010): 387- 404 Maurer, Bill. “Introduction to Ethnographic Emergences.” American Anthropologist 107, no.1 (2005): 1-4 Goldberg, Steven. Why Men Rule: A Theory of Male Dominance. La Salle, IL: Open Court, 1993. Yeoh, Seng-Guan. Rev. of “The headman was a woman: The Gender Egalitarian Batek of Malaysia” by Kirk Endicott, Karen L. Endicott. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 15, no. 3 (2009): 672-673 Read More