Essay Example on Berdache & Plymouth Settlement: Examining Gender Roles Across Cultures

There is a relationship between The Berdache and Plymouth settlement cultures. Two historical chapters in the Plymouth settlement history which will be compared with Berdache (Ryle 1-3) are; chapter 2 and chapter 5 which talk about the Search for Order in North America and Husbands and Wives respectively (Bailey 1-107). There is a connection between the Berdache and the two chapters through gender roles and societal expectations for each gender.

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The culture in the Plymouth settlement has well-defined gender roles between men and women in a marriage setup. The husbands are the heads of the family and the breadwinners (Bailey 1-107). Women hold no position in the family, other than childbearing and domestic roles. In Husbands and Wives, chapter women are seen as just vessels that men use for sexual pleasures. According to the culture at that time, women were supposed to be submissive to men. Any woman who showed any signs of resistance was rebuked (Bailey 1-107). In the Berdache, there is no clear line between the roles of man and wife because the society of the Indian Americans practiced homosexuality (Ryle 1-3). The rules of husband and wife are not distinct in Berdache because there are no descriptions of gender roles for each sex. However, heterosexuality is emphasized given that the people defined by this lacked the biological and physical description (Ryle 1-3). Husbands could perform women's roles in a Berdache household, while women also played male characters. For instance, women could hunt when men stayed at home, a behavior that the Plymouth settlement culture did not tolerate.

While the men in the culture of the settlement depicted masculinity, some men in the Indian-American Berdache displayed femininity. Because of this, the purpose of marriage in the two cultures was different. The use of marriage in the Plymouth settlement culture was to procreate because children were given a priority in marriages (Bailey 1-107). However, in the American Berdache, culture children were not compulsory because some of the people of the same sex are engaged in matrimony (Ryle 1-3). Due to these, sometimes females could assume male roles as men also assume the gender roles for the female. For instance, the male could assume passive sexual roles in marriage.

There is polygamy in both the Berdache and the Plymouth settlement cultures. The American Indian culture was polygamous, and some chiefs were allowed to get second wives who were Berdaches (Ryle 1-3). Also, the two cultures allowed wife battering. For marriages that involved two Berdaches, women bartering did not take place because there was equality in marriage (Ryle 1-3). Also, at the encroachment of the Europeans into American soil, equality in marriage was demonstrated through the Bible because it emphasized gender equality in friendship and love. Because of the integration between the Europeans and Americans, Plymouth culture changed because of the new way of life that Europeans imported to America. In the search for Order in America, the culture emphasized men governing women who also happened in Berdache but from heterosexual couples.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Plymouth settlement culture and the Berdache culture share some similarities. However, the two cultures are dissimilar. While in the Plymouth settlement culture, marriage was purely heterosexual, there were some elements of homosexuality in Berdache marriages. The two share some customs that are marriage rites. In the two cultures, women are seen as weaker sexes and have to be submissive before their men and are punishable once they made mistakes. Lastly, in the two cultures, marriage was meant for companionship and child procreation as the two cultures ensured childbearing for continuity of their generation.

Works Cited

Ryle, Robyn. "Berdache." The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality Studies (2016): 1-3.

Bailey, Budd. Plymouth and the Settlement of New England. Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC, 2017.