Research Report on Edwin Ardener's "Belief and the Problem of Women"
By: Danielle McLaughlin


SUMMARY

In order to gain a deeper understanding of Cheris Kramarae's Muted Group Theory I read an article by Edwin Ardener titled "Belief and the Problem of Women." Ardener was a social anthropologist at Oxford University and was the first to propose the idea of women as a muted group. Before I begin to summarize the article I would like to give you some background on Muted Group Theory. This theory claims that the words of women and any group that "occupies the low end of the totem pole" are discounted in our society. Kramarae believes that our language is man-made and that women have to adapt to the man-made language in order to communicate effectively with men. Ardener believes the same thing to be true. In the article that I read she looked at the problem that many ethnographers have when they overlook women in different societies.

The major premise of this article is that women construct models of society in which women and nature are outside men and society. Ardener suggested in the first paragraph of his article that "the problem that women present to social anthropologists falls into to different categories 1-techinical and 2-analytical. The technical part of the problem is the inarticulateness of women. Women find it hard to communicate with men because they have to adapt their whole language to a "man-made" language. Sometimes, women who can not adapt to a "man-made" language become inarticulate in society eyes. Ardener researched the analytical part of the problem through his research of the Cameroon tribes. Ardener found that if he looked at the beliefs and rituals of these three tribes he would be able to gain a better understanding of how men and women are regarded in each tribe. In each of these tribes it was evident that women had a far less significant role in society then their male counterparts played. By studying these tribes Ardener tried to show, through the interpretation of the symbolism of the beliefs, the relations between men and women. Ardener found that in these tribe's women had to do much of the hard physical work whereas, men stayed at home and oversaw the workings of the community. The women of these tribes had to go through these rituals or "rites of passages", to become women. The women had to go through long periods of seclusion, strange rituals, and were tested by the males of their tribes at the end of ritual. Often the young women would be raped or molested by the males of the tribe. The women of the tribes went through these harsh rituals in order to be treated with more respect from the males of the tribe.

By studying these tribes Ardener found that the women of these tribes symbolically lived in the "wild" outside of the closed society in which the males of the tribe lived in. The women would symbolically try to gain the respect of the males by performing a series of rituals that would help them attain the ultimate goal of women; to gain the respect of males and be on a somewhat "level playing field" with them. These findings can be compared with our society today. It is evident that women are not on an equal playing find with men. Women are "in the wild" they almost have their own society that is separate from males and then they also have a society that includes males. On the other hand, males only have one society where women must adapt their language in order to gain their respect. The women of our society today do not necessarily have to go through rituals to gain the acceptance of men but they do have to work extra hard in this male dominated world!


EVALUATION

When I began to read this article I must admit that I was lost! I could not concentrate on the article because I did not understand what it was saying. I had to read the article twice before I could make any sense out of it. By the second time around I finally realized why it was losing me, it was way too technical. Ardener had some very strong points however; they were lost in all of the technical terms. I felt that if someone was just reading it for pleasure and not scrutinize for a research report they would have surely been lost by the second paragraph.
After I finished reading the article I sat down and pondered it for a while and realized that Ardener was telling us about the rituals of the Cameroon tribes so that we could look at it symbolically and compare to our male dominated society. I then saw how the women of these tribes were like the women of society because they are outside the male culture. The women of our society are like the women of these tribes because they have to adapt their language and their ways in order to communicate with men. Although, they do not have to go through strange rituals, they have to adjust their ways to live in a male dominated world. We see in both societies that men dominated women in almost every aspect of life.


LINKS

To return back to our homepage click here

To read Jeff's application of Muted Group Theory click here

To read Chaisty's critique of Muted Group Theory click here

To read about Sex Role Theory click here

To read the Theory of Hegemonic Masculinity click here

To read a summary about Muted Group Theory In Griffin's textbook click here

To read about the National Women's History Project click here

To read about how other cultures, not just women, have specific ways of communicating with others click here