Corpses, Lepers, and Menstruating Women: Tradition, Transition, and the Sociology of Knowledge

Abstract

A study of 1148 middle-aged women in five Israeli subcultures ranging from modern Central European immigrants to traditional Moslem Arab villagers is the point of departure for this essay on tradition, transition and the sociology of knowledge. The study is shown as having evolved through the competing hypotheses of the investigators, which in turn reflect the biases born of the experiential framework: two men and one young woman design a study that assumes an overvaluation of fertility and childbearing. When the findings reveal that middle-aged women do not regret the loss of fertility, regardless of tradition or modernity (and thus of childbearing history), the investigators discover their own assumptions to be erroneous. Further, the meaning of modernity is reconsidered as tradition is shown to incorporate a recognition of the strength of women despite formal status subordination; it is proposed that the dilemma of middle age is inevitably cultural transition. Finally, it is suggested that the broader social context of which the investigators were a part legitimates the study of women as `other' and as objects, while denying opportunity to study men in the same framework-a social context in which men shape decisions that grant or deny research funds, and thus shape the evolution of knowledge of gender.