My questions dealing with this portion of Oyewumi’s “Invention of Women” primarily derived from considering the Yoruba society, which Oyewumi tells us had no recognition of gender and in fact, didn’t even have language in place to define gender before penetrated by Western culture.
1) I thought this was very interesting to hear considering I was not aware of any societies that existed without any sort of gender identification. Is there record of other societies completely void of gender recognition or “unsexed humanity”?
2) How did sexuality function in their society? Was there any type of distinction made for sexual orientation in a society without gender?
3) I was shocked (amongst other things) at the missionary’s forceful installation of monogamy on the society, without any allowances made for even a small period of transition. What kind of effects would this have on an entire generation of children newly “bastardized” by Western society? I would like to know further about how the Yoruba family functioned before and after the imposition of gender. How did Yoruba families initially behave and subsequently adapt to these foreign cultural constructs?
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