Reason, Desire, and Sexuality: The Meaning of Gender in Northern Afghanistan

Abstract

Gender and sexuality can be viewed as symbols that are given meaning by societies through the interrelation and interpretation of social experience and social discourse. In this paper I will interpret and interrelate the various symbolic elements of gender ideology for a northern Afghanistan group. Using comparative materials from other Middle Eastern societies, analysis in this case will show that a crucial component of gender ideology includes the idea that a person uses reason and moral character to contain desire, and that the struggle against desire and self-indulgence is conducted in everyday life under constant evaluation by the self and others. Further, in the following argument I propose that there are two intrinsic aspects of gender ideology present and that, depending on context, both men and women will switch from one aspect to the other when describing their own and the other sex. The two aspects may be summarized as categorical statements concerning the nature of man and woman, and evaluative statements concerning the of men and women. An illustrative categorical metaphor and symbol is the almasti, a witchlike figure linked to concepts of pollution from menstrual blood, sexuality, and power. Key symbols that deal with the interaction between men and women are eat-