Don Libby wrote: > The chart at the start: "Selected MDG Indicators for 177 Countries" > http://www.pelican-consulting.com/solisustv02n07.html
Hello Don, You are right. This is not a chart of trends over time. It is a chart of trends over countries. The idea is to see if there is a difference between countries where rigid religious patriarchies are influential in society and countries where the opposite is true. You can check the country names in the UN database: http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2005/pdf/HDR05_HDI.pdf On the horizontal axis, the countries are ordered in *ascending* value of HDI (Human Development Indicator). If you look at the names of the countries so ordered, left to right ... The first 20 countries have the lowest HDI scores and include ... -- 16 countries with dominant *very strong* patriarchal religion -- 4 countries with religious diversity and no dominant religion The last 20 countries have the highest HDI scores and include ... -- 3 countries with dominant *strong* patriarchal religion -- 17 countries with religious diversity and no dominant religion So there are some exceptions, but the other indicators roughly follow the same "trend" (i.e., "ceteris paribus", as the economists say when they know that there may be other factors involved). So again, "ceteris paribus," the countries with patriarchal religions/societies score low and the countries with less patriarchal religions/societies score high. [...] > Seems plausible. However, I think religious communities generally enforce > conformity by the threat of ostracism or social isolation, rather than by > the threat of violence. So I can see the effect of religion on fertility > via patriarchal doctrine, but the connection to religious violence still > isn't clear. There are many forms of violence in both religion and society: physical violence, psychological violence, moral violence ... many women hear from their clergy that "if your husband is beating you it must be that you are not pleasing him" ... many women hear from the clergy that "if you don't obey your husband you are going to hell" ... etc. This sort of moral/religious violence has a profound effect (for example, via the "collective unconscious") in family life and all other dimensions of social life. [...] > You also mention several examples of bias and violence against women (e.g. > sex slavery, female infanticide), but the connection to religious violence > isn't clear. Why isn't this thread called "Global impacts of patriarchal > violence"? Because (this is the working hypothesis) social-patriarchal violence is rooted in religious violence. The thread could be called "Global impacts of patriarchal violence rooted in religious violence," but this would be a long subject line ... By the way, this is not *my* working hypothesis ... I got the idea from the writings of a philosopher and theological anthropologist, René Girard, who has provided plenty of supporting evidence based on linguistic analysis of sacred texts from all the so-called "axial religions" (i.e., texts written roughly between 800 and 200 BCE). I am simply searching for other kinds of objective evidence that would seem to support (or contradict) the hypothesis. It is a very critical issue for humanity and, if Girard is right, religion is a factor that should be included in any analysis of global change. Sorry, but I cannot resist the temptation to suggest that you may want to consider sections 1 and 4 of the August issue of my newsletter ... http://www.pelican-consulting.com/solisustv02n08.html and then you are just one click away from reading this month's invited paper by Michael Hardin which is (surprise!) a tutorial on the work of René Girard (he is an expert ... I am just a neophyte). Take care, Luis --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Global Change ("globalchange") newsgroup. Global Change is a public, moderated venue for discussion of science, technology, economics and policy dimensions of global environmental change. Posts will be admitted to the list if and only if any moderator finds the submission to be constructive and/or interesting, on topic, and not gratuitously rude. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/globalchange -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
