Page 269 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol V

2046 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

connections, while simultaneously questioning the other disciplines, such as social anthropology and sociol-
coherence of Western or any other regional civilization. ogy. In the 1960s, universal history again attracted atten-
tion, mainly in the United States. By then historical
William H. McNeill
research was being criticized for neglecting women and
See also Writing World History seeing men as universal representatives of humankind.
Inspired by women’s movements and by new approaches
to historical studies, such as the history of mentalities,
Further Reading demographic history, and family history, the interest in
Spengler, O. (1922). The decline of the west (2 Vols.). (C. F. Atkinson, women’s history now blossomed at the national level.
Trans.). New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Toynbee, A. J. (1987). A study of history (12 Vols.). Oxford, UK: Oxford During the 1990s this approach also made itself felt
University Press. within the growing field of universal history.

The Theoretical
Framework
Women’s and Most historical research rests on a dichotomous under-
standing of gender. An individual is seen as either a
Gender History woman or a man. Some also take for granted that biology

determines not only the sex of a person but also the gen-
omen’s and gender history may be defined as the der. Historians have challenged this dichotomy by inves-
Whistory of relations between women and men, of tigating the historical understanding of sexual differences.
the changing understanding of femininity and masculin- Departing from Aristotle’s assumption of the existence of
ity, and of the importance of gender in the organization only one sex, which sees women as embryonic, unfin-
of society. Since any society, anywhere and at any time, ished males, passing by the dichotomy created by Chris-
consists of women and men, gender interacts with other tianity that equates men with spirituality and women
categories, such as race, ethnicity, class, citizenship, with materiality, they have traced the rise of the two-sex
nationalism, imperialism, and religion, and with other model from the end of the eighteenth century, reaching an
value systems. It assumes importance in divisions of apogee through Darwinism and the medical sciences,
labor as well as in cross-cultural encounters throughout and experiencing a recent rebirth with sociobiology.
time and has served as a trope for hierarchical percep- Anthropology and cross-cultural history have cast
tions of cultures and power relations. doubts on this dichotomous understanding of gender. In
Gender perspectives in world history date back at least many parts of the world, notably Africa, but also Alaska,
to Enlightenment world histories. At the end of the eigh- the Amazon region, and parts of Asia, individuals have
teenth century, historians frequently focused on costumes assumed tasks, behavior, and clothing that might be
and manners, and on peoples’ ways of life. Some works seen as characterizing the opposite sex. Some cultures
pointed to the importance of material conditions, as well have seen age as determining gender, understanding chil-
as to religious and political systems, for defining women’s dren and old people as belonging to different genders
status; some compared the lives of women within different than grown-up males and females. Add to this the study
cultures; some even characterised non-European people as of gay and lesbian history, and it will be understood that
feminine and implicitly less civilised. But when from the world histories need to be aware of variations in the
early nineteenth century historical research narrowed to understanding of femininity and masculinity.
national histories, mostly concentrating on political his- An increasing number of studies have shown that sys-
tory, the question of gender was left to be explored by tems of sexual differentiation affected both women and