Cultural Changes in Society

In my opinion, the changes we can see in the ethnography “Meaning of Macho” regarding the Mexican society are more or less the same kind of changes that are taking place in the rest of the world. Actions and behaviours that 50 years ago were attributed to women only as if they were part almost of their intrinsic nature, are now the daily bread in men lives.

When talking about the reasons why these changes are being produced, the text highlights that they occur “por necesidad” meaning that since women also have to work outdoors to contribute in making the family’s living, men have been forced to cope with the daily chores and household activities in general. However, I agree with the assumption that states that these changes are taking place as part of a change in culture in general. What I mean with the latter is that there has been a historic change regarding gender roles. What many years ago was considered as a female task (everywhere, independently of the country) now it is considered also a male’s task thanks to the modern thought of gender equality.  In fact, I think that the main reason why the proposal of gender roles is being reformulated is because of these cultural changes.

Now, these cultural changes can be strongly linked to the theory of Symbolic Anthropology, specifically to the ideas of Clifford Geertz that takes culture as something embodied in public symbols and not locked inside people’s head. So, according to Geertz the changes in actions and behaviours (that in this particular case would stand for the symbols) would lead to a change in culture. Not only we see changes in terms of women working outdoors and men taking care of the household, but there are also other areas were some changes had been taking place as in the postponement of parenthood. This phenomenon is also mentioned in the ethnography, as well as the fact that marriage (as the starting point of domestic life) is being put off for the sake of professional development in the case of women. These changes, according to our reading, occur because “culture is a product of acting social beings trying to make sense of the world in which they are living.” So, what women would be doing is trying to find a place in a social context which has openly opened its arms to them. Had they refused the call, culture had become stagnant.

These cultural changes we are experiencing are the most faithful proof that the idea that symbols are constantly being reinterpreted is true. In addition, the meaning carried out by symbols is not at all fixed nor is in direct relation to reality. Language, for example, which is also a social system of signs, agrees upon the names of things. In the same fashion, symbolic acts (gender roles) have emerged as the result of a long-standing convention that, as the ethnography shows, has started to change. The same way in which words change their meanings, social roles ascribed either to men are women are bound to be reformulated as history pushes forward.