Books about Patriarchal from Amazon.com

The Gender Knot, Allan Johnson's response to the pain and confusion that men and women experience by living with gender inequality, explains what patriarchy is and isn't, how it works, and what gets in the way of understanding and doing something about it. Johnson's simple yet powerful approach avoids the paralyzing trap of guilt, blame, anger, and defensive denial that often result from conversations about gender. He shows how we all participate in an oppressive system we didn't create and how each of us can contribute towards its dissolution. He argues persuasively that something much better is possible and that our individual choices matter more than we can ever know.

This revised, and updated edition features expanded discussions of:

- the core characteristics of patriarchy and its power as a social system - the relationship between individuals and social systems - "men's movement" assessments of patriarchy and gender inequality - key—and controversial—terms such as sexism, privilege, and political correctness.
Price: $19.01 [Notify me when price goes down.]

"This is an original and, at times, groundbreaking piece of scholarship "

—John L. Esposito, University Professor and Director of the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, Georgetown University

Does Islam call for the oppression of women? Non-Muslims point to the subjugation of women that occurs in many Muslim countries, especially those that claim to be "Islamic," while many Muslims read the Qur'an in ways that seem to justify sexual oppression, inequality, and patriarchy. Taking a wholly different view, Asma Barlas develops a believer's reading of the Qur'an that demonstrates the radically egalitarian and antipatriarchal nature of its teachings.

Beginning with a historical analysis of religious authority and knowledge, Barlas shows how Muslims came to read inequality and patriarchy into the Qur'an to justify existing religious and social structures and demonstrates that the patriarchal meanings ascribed to the Qur'an are a function of who has read it, how, and in what contexts. She goes on to reread the Qur'an's position on a variety of issues in order to argue that its teachings do not support patriarchy. To the contrary, Barlas convincingly asserts that the Qur'an affirms the complete equality of the sexes, thereby offering an opportunity to theorize radical sexual equality from within the framework of its teachings. This new view takes readers into the heart of Islamic teachings on women, gender, and patriarchy, allowing them to understand Islam through its most sacred scripture, rather than through Muslim cultural practices or Western media stereotypes.

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Price: $13.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]

In this study of gender relations in late colonial Mexico (ca. 1760-1821), Steve Stern analyzes the historical connections between gender, power, and politics in the lives of peasants, Indians, and other marginalized peoples. Through vignettes of everyday life, he challenges assumptions about gender relations and political culture in a patriarchal society. He also reflects on continuity and change between late colonial times and the present and suggests a paradigm for understanding similar struggles over gender rights in Old Regime societies in Europe and the Americas.

Stern pursues three major arguments. First, he demonstrates that non-elite women and men developed contending models of legitimate gender authority and that these differences sparked bitter struggles over gender right and obligation. Second, he reveals connections, in language and social dynamics, between disputes over legitimate authority in domestic and familial matters and disputes in the arenas of community and state power. The result is a fresh interpretation of the gendered dynamics of peasant politics, community, and riot. Third, Stern examines regional and ethnocultural variation and finds that his analysis transcends particular locales and ethnic subgroupings within Mexico. The historical arguments and conceptual sweep of Stern's book will inform not only students of Mexico and Latin America but also students of gender in the West and other world regions..
Price: $25.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Vilate Kimball wrote to her husband, Heber C. Kimball, then on a Church mission in England: "Father Smith has died since I last wrote. he ordai[ned] his son Hiram to be a Patriarch, and pronounced great blessing upon all his children before he died."

In the LDS Church, patriarchal blessings offer comfort to individuals and foretell possible future accomplishments. The blessings are pronounced in the form of a prayer by an ordained patriarch (an office in the church's lay priesthood). The Bible describes the Old Testament patriarch Jacob (Israel) blessing his twelve sons regarding their futures (see Gen. 49). In LDS procedure, drawing on Old Testament precedent, the patriarch rests his hands upon the individualxs head, eyes shut while speaking without forethought regarding what to say. In most cases, the blessing identifies the recipient's spiritual heritage and lineage as a member of one of the twelve tribes of Israel and thus heir to the blessings Israel bestowed upon his sons. The promises and counsel contained in one's patriarchal blessing--prophetic insight into the individual's life and future--are said to be contingent upon the person's worthiness. A patriarchal blessing is given only once in a person's lifetime.

Contained in this volume are 755 blessings from 1833 through 1845 delivered by the church's first oracles, Joseph Smith Sr., Joseph Smith Jr., Hyrum Smith, and William Smith. Prominent in these blessings is the promise that the reciepeints will live to witness the Second Coming, together with other period-specific expectations and doctrinally based beliefs. The compilation is an indispensible source of early Mormon intellectual history, as well as a valuable resource for historians, biographers, and genealogists..
Price: $140.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

"A brilliant . . . analysis of the fragile hegemony and identities of colonial Virginia's elite men. . . . On the Sources of Patriarchal Rage compellingly illuminates the ragged edge where masculinity and colonial identity meet. . . . [the book] will undoubtedly send Jefferson scholars scurrying back to their notes. . . . Most significant, by being among the first to tackle the subject of masculinity in early America, Lockridge forces colonial scholars to reexamine the lives of men they thought they already knew too well."
—William and Mary Quarterly

Two of the greatest of Virginia gentlemen, William Byrd II and Thomas Jefferson, each kept a commonplace book--in effect, a journal where men were to collect wisdom in the form of anecdotes and quotations from their readings with a sense of detachment and scholarship. Writing in these books, each assembled a prolonged series of observations laden with fear and hatred of women. Combining ignorance with myth and misogyny, Byrd's and Jefferson's books reveal their deep ambivalence about women, telling of women's lascivious nature and The Female Creed and invoking the fallible, repulsive, and implicitly corruptible female body as a central metaphor for all tales of social and political corruption.

Were these private outbursts meaningless and isolated incidents, attributable primarily to individual pathology, or are they written revelations of the forces working on these men to maintain patriarchal control? Their hatred for women draws upon a kind of misogynistic reserve found in the continental and English intellectual traditions, but it also twists and recontextualizes less misogynistic excerpts to intensified effect. From this interplay of intellectual traditions and the circumstances of each man's life and later behavior arises the possibility one or more specific politics of misogyny is at work here.

Kenneth Lockridge's work, replete with excerpts from the books themselves, leads us through these texts, exploring the structures, contexts, and significance of these writings in the wider historical context of gender and power. His book convincingly illustrates the ferocity of early American patriarchal rage; its various meanings, however suggestively explored here, must remain contestable.

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Price: $22.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]