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  • Title: A voice of alarm: a historian's view of the family.
    Author: Arroba A.
    Journal: Gend Dev; 1996 Jun; 4(2):8-13. PubMed ID: 12291317.
    Abstract:
    Most studies of the family follow a Eurocentric and an ahistorical perspective that ignores the origins of family structure and assumes it is natural for fathers to protect and mothers to nurture. Such concepts make heterosexuality and the birth of children with the same biological parents compulsory for families. In fact, however, the concept of family has not only evolved, it has not always existed. The process that established the patriarchal family stretched from 3100 to 600 B.C. in Mesopotamian society. Patriarchy was encoded in Mesopotamian and in later Hebrew society and replaced a universal system of family organization in which mothers cared for children under the leadership of women. In this prepatriarchal era, motherhood was the only recognized bond of relationship, and kinship was based on matriarchal lines. The very idea of fatherhood was alien because only women had the divine power to give life. Creators, thus, were perceived as female, and women were the cultivators of crops and owners of the land. As the relationship between men and reproduction became clear, patriarchy developed. The patriarchal family has been resilient and flexible and has accepted polygamy, monogamy, and a sexual double standard that disadvantaged women and gave men absolute control over them. Such control moved from private to public life and still underlies class and race dominance and the sexual regulation of women through ideas of "morality." Women complied in order to survive. The Western notion of the nuclear family with employed fathers and housewife mothers has been central to many policies and programs, and the implication of mothering continues to be of nurturing, whereas that of fathering is begetting. Today most families are held together by women on their own because women do most of the domestic work even if they generate income. Women and children also constitute a majority of the world's poor. In order to understand the factors that created this situation, we must analyze misogyny and patriarchy. In practical terms, any development project that involves women and men should include a child care center where women and men take turns caring for their young. This would allow the concept of family to acquire a collective connotation.
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