WORLD SCIENTIFIC
IMAGE: COVER FOR “ANDROCENTRISM: THE ASCENDANCY OF MAN”
CREDIT: WORLD SCIENTIFIC
Why is it that women across the world are still faced with the task of shattering various glass ceilings? According to Henrietta Leyser FRHistS, Emeritus Fellow of St Peter’s College, the University of Oxford, UK, a popular explanation (or excuse) for the phenomenon is because “…allegedly, their brains are smaller than men’s, so that strive as they might they will never gain true equality with the other sex. [But] In this short but wide-ranging book Professor Pasternak exposes once and for all the fallacies of this myth.”
Since time immemorial, men have assumed superior innate qualities which have justified them in exerting power over the other sex right up to the twentieth century. The last few years have seen the emergence of a new literary genre to show that despite this, women have managed to become outstanding writers, artists, scientists, explorers, rulers, and politicians. Of such books, none discuss a fundamental question: is the supposed male superiority biological, or has it arisen for some other reason over the course of time?
In Androcentrism: The Ascendancy of Man, Charles Pasternak argues that it was the emergence of hierarchies, like chiefdom, that largely sparked androcentrism. It became established as villages grew into towns, with the ownership of property as an important ingredient, during the Bronze Age. “We visit the Neolithic Age, the Bronze Age, the Age of Enlightenment – and everywhere women are seen to display fortitude and independence of action, often showing themselves to be more intellectually and morally capable than the menfolk, who busy themselves acquiring property, thinking up misogynistic laws and being belligerent,” remarks Roger Lewis, journalist for The Sunday Telegraph. While the Mediaeval Period was a time of slight respite for women, the Age of Enlightenment in Europe did not bolster this trend; it reversed it, the book contends. Not until the latter half of the nineteenth century was androcentrism beginning to be seriously questioned, but significant change happened only after World War I.
While written for the general reader, the book is well-researched with a bibliography of over 100 items and 300 citations in text. “With this meticulously researched volume, Dr. Pasternak courageously tackles a central question that has challenged many of us involved in the history of gender studies: How and why have many societies tended toward male domination?” says Diane Lebow, Professor Emerita of Women Studies at Cañada College, USA. “Although there is no single explanation, with such a comprehensive and timely review, this study helps us gain a better understanding of the issues and steers us away from mistaken conclusions. Bravo for an important contribution to this central and complex issue.”
With a conclusion that is sure to invite a backlash from gender activists, the author argues that today, androcentrism has virtually disappeared from most parts of the world. “He introduces us to societies across the world where there has been true equality between the sexes and even shows us times when matriarchy has flourished,” Leyser points out. Androcentrism was just a cultural blip, Pasternak asserts, albeit one that lasted over 5,000 years. “Kingsley Amis once said that if men knew what women were really thinking and doing behind their tone and expressions, ‘you could destroy the world’,” Lewis adds. “Charles Pasternak takes us closer to this apocalypse.”
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