Stark Realities and Eurocentric/Androcentric Bias in the Sociology of Religion

Abstract

It is hardly novel to suggest that scientific theories can be shaped by prevailing cultural values. Writing in 1862, just three years after publication of Origin of species, Marx noted how remarkable it was that Darwin recognizes among beasts and plants his English society with its division of labor, competition, opening up of new markets [and] inventions (cited in Schmidt 1971:46). Engels was even blunter, saying that the whole Darwinist teaching of struggle for existence is simply a transference from society to living nature . . . of bourgeois-economic doctrine of competition (cited in Schmidt 1971:47). Any number of subsequent commentators have made similar remarks about other theories in both natural and social sciences. Yet despite this long-standing recognition of cultural underpinnings of scientific thought, it has been distinctive contribution of modern feminist theorists to demonstrate that scientific theories are often permeated by specifically Earocentric and androcentric biases that were missed entirely by earlier commentators. bias initially meant biases that seemed characteristic of middle-class European intellectuals but its meaning has since been expanded to include biases associated with white middle class in any Western industrial society, including United States. Androcentric bias refers tO emphases or conceptualizations that derive from a distinctively male experience in society or that work to reinforce patriarchal arrangements. In this article I will be drawing upon feminist discussions of Eurocentric and