The Metamorphosis of a Female Subject into a Gendered subject: A Study of Easterine Iralu’s A Terrible Matriarchy

It is a universally practised phenomenon across society to conveniently create a dichotomy that is based on the physiological difference between a male and a female. This difference is further defined by the dichotomy of gendered roles and labour that are imposed on them. The hegemony of the gendered ideology makes it all so natural to assign gendered role to a baby the moment it is born. Its body serves as a continuing signifier for the gendered structure of a patriarchal society. Since these gendered ideologies are disseminated through established institutions such as education, religion and law; their manifestations can be found in culture, religion, clothes, discourse, movies, and even in gestures that this polarity between a man and a woman is accepted as natural. There still is no general consent among the cultural anthropologists that an unambiguous matriarchal society existed. Classical scholars like Johann Jakob Bachofen tried to argue that matriarchal society existed on the basis of unreliable historical sources such as Iliad and Odyssey (Bamberger, p.263). Easterine Iralu’s A Terrible Matriarchy intrigues the reader with this highly deceptive title that ironically bares the patriarchy of contemporary Naga society. However, if these reasons are taken into account that Feminism is all about equality and that matriarchy is the flip side of patriarchy with all its horrors; then she is not far from the truth in prefixing “terrible” to “matriarchy”. This article is an attempt to familiarize the milieu of a quintessential Naga girl and her resistance to the anxious process of self-denial imposed upon her by her grandmother who embodies the concept of ‘terrible matriarchy’. The article also concentrates on the typical mechanism of gender construction and how such mechanisms are responsible for metamorphosing a female subject into a gendered subject.

The Anatomical and Physiological Perspectives of Siras and Dhamanis; Differences, Similarities and Related Disease

Ayurveda is considered as traditional science of healing and well-being since it described many theories to remain healthy and free from disease conditions. Ayurveda described all aspects related to the anatomical and physiological functioning of body and in this regards Ayurveda also elaborated concepts of vessels that carry fluids from one place to another. The vein and artery are important vessels of body that carry bloods from one place to another Ayurveda also mentioned terms Siras and Dhamanis for vein and artery respectively. Dhamani is considered as thick vessels while Sira is considered as thin blood vessel. There are significant anatomical and physiological difference between Sira and Dhamani and understanding of these differences is very important for clinical point of view. Considering this concept present article explored anatomical and physiological considerations related to vein and artery.

Podróżniczki wobec Innego. Rasa w rozumieniu Marii Rakowskiej i Heleny Pajzderskiej (na przykładzie Podróży Polki do Persji i nowel z tomu Z dalekich lądów)

The article presents the perception of the concept of race in texts of two travel writers: Maria Rakowska and Helena Pajzderska. It points to similarities and differences between the concepts of the authors and the anthropological discourse of the second half of the 19th century. Further, it is demonstrated that the authors extended racial typologies based on the physiological difference with reflection on social and cultural diversity (the concept of family, everyday life). The final remarks lead to considerations on the relationship between the literary genre and the 19th-century travel discourse.

Islam and the “Universal” Gender Difference in Religious Commitment: A Brief Report in Response to Stark (2002)

Stark (2002) demonstrated across 57 nations that men were less likely to report being religiously oriented than were women. He concluded that a physiological difference in risk-taking among younger males might account for disinterest in religion among such males, although he would prefer to explain the gender difference as a consequence of socialization. One socialization hypothesis overlooked by Stark was that Islam as a religion might have been developed, in a small part, as a response to the gender differential observed in earlier religions. Reanalysis of Stark's 2002 data indicates that Islamic nations were more likely to yield smaller gender differences on religious questions, although the effect ranged from p <.06 to a significant p < .005, depending on the method of analysis.