Summary
Title: Desert Patriarchy: Mormon and Mennonite Communities in the Chihuahua Valley
Author: Janet Bennion
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
ISBN: 0816523347
Pro:
• Very well written account of a socio-religious structure not generally known about or understood
• Explains how and why women would be attracted to a place where they have little formal power
Con:
• None
Description:
• Anthropological and sociological study of three patriarchal communities in the Mexican desert
• Compares and contrasts Mennonite and polygamous Mormon groups
• Argues that there is a symbiotic relationship between desert environments and patriarchal systems
Book Review
Janet Bennion, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Lyndon State College in Vermont and herself from a polygamous Mormon background, set out with students to study the history and culture of those who have chosen to settle in Mexico's Chihuahua Valley. The results, contained in her book Desert Patriarchy, are part gender study and part religious study but also thoroughly interesting.
The concept "desert patriarchy" is, I think, hers and she uses it to try to fathom why strict patriarchal systems would develop so readily in the desert environment. Mennonites and Mormons may both be Christian, but they have significant differences in their history and theology. Yet in this desert, they have settled upon similar ways of structuring gender and social relations. This is a situation that simply begs for further study.
- "The model I use here specifically defines the circumscriptive process by which male supremacy, female autonomous networking, and religious fundamentalism work together to facilitate successful adaptation to a harsh desert environment. The roots of this process lie in the teleological relationship of environment and culture: the desert facilitates religious patriarchy and female networking, which in turn create a social structure conducive to isolation and separateness. Men are drawn to the desert because it removes them from the persecution of other men in the mainstream; the women who are drawn to these outspoken, charismatic men are also attracted to the unique social network, religious solidarity, and authoritative security that desert fundamentalism provides."
Because she herself comes from patriarchal, polygamous Mormon stock, Bennion is sympathetic to the people she studied (she even received a round-about marriage proposal from one Mormon man who wanted her to become his fourth wife!). She doesn't believe in studying people from the outside but rather from the inside — thus she and her students lived with the Mennonite and Mormon families to acquire an insider's perspective on how their world works.
Bennion does not argue that the desert creates patriarchy; instead, the relationship is far more symbiotic. People inclined to such social roles are drawn to the desert because there they are more free to explore their options than they are in more crowded urban environments. Once there, though, the extreme isolation and conditions foster rigid social roles and encourage more extreme developments than might otherwise occur.
Why, though, would any woman want to be part of such a system?
