--- In [email protected], "si_andi" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 
wrote:
>
> Bu Mariana,
> 
> Dari kemarin saya tidak menggeneralisir. Saya cuma bilang 
> kecenderungan wanita kepada pria dominan itu alamiah sifatnya dan 
> dalam hubungan (romantis) laki-laki perempuan, kecenderungan itu 
> terlihat. Saya tidak membantah bahwa manusia itu memiliki akal 
sehat 
> dan dalam berbagai kondisi akal sehatnya mengalahkan kecenderungan 
> alamiahnya. 
> 
> Saya juga memberi alasan ilmiah, saya tunjukkan riset-riset yang 
> mendukung. Tentu ada penelitian dan rujukan yang menentang; banyak 
> malah. Tapi kalau itu datangnya dari saya juga, namanya kuliah 
umum, 
> Bu, bukan diskusi. Sebenarnya itu saya harapkan datangnya dari 
Anda, 
> tapi sayang tidak kunjung datang. 
=====================================================
SEbenarnya saya tidak begitu mengikuti diskusi ini dari awal. Tapi 
bingung juga kok diksuinya tiap kali saya tengok isinya, seakan-akan 
jalan di tempat ya? :)

Saya sendiri berpendapat kalau "kebanyakan" wanita suka pria dominan 
lebih karena konstruksi sosial di mana wanita tersebut tumbuh besar. 
KArena kebanyakan masyarakat di dunia sekarang adalah bersifat 
patriarki (dan yang tadinya matriarki-pun mungkin sudah berubah jadi 
patriarki karena terpengaruh oleh kebudayaan agama2 semitik => trio 
Yahudi, Kristen dan Islam), ya jadinya kalau diadakan penelitian, 
maka sebagian besar akan terlihat hasilnya bahwa secara "alamiah" 
wanita menyukai pria dominan.

Tapi apa kata sebuah artikel dari CNN (didapat dari milis sebelah 
sih...) yang melaporkan suatu fenomena dari wilayah Afrika yang 
budayanya masih "cukup perawan" (baca: belum begitu terpengaruh 
dengan budaya patriarki/budaya trio agama semit):

CNN.com
Powered by

Here, women propose marriage and men can't refuse
Story Highlights

• Woman presents special plate of fish to man; he takes a bite and is
married
• Matriarchal society exists in archipelago of 50 islands off
Guinea-Bissau
• Missionaries bring new concept of men proposing, causing strife in
families
• Women build the homes: Once completed, couple moves in, officially 
wed

ORANGO ISLAND, Guinea-Bissau (AP) -- He was 14 when the girl entered
his grass-covered hut and placed a plate in front of him containing an
ancient recipe.

Like all men on this African isle, Carvadju Jose Nananghe knew exactly
what it meant. Refusing was not an option. His heart pounding, he
lifted the steaming fish to his lips, agreeing in one bite to marry
the girl.

"I had no feelings for her," said Nananghe, now 65. "Then when I ate
this meal, it was like lightning. I wanted only her."

In this archipelago of 50 islands of pale blue water off the western
rim of Africa, it's women, not men, who choose. They make their
proposals public by offering their grooms-to-be a dish of
distinctively prepared fish, marinated in red palm oil.

It's the equivalent of a man bending on one knee and offering a woman
a diamond ring, except that in one of the world's matriarchal
cultures, it's women that do the asking, and once they have, men are
powerless to say no.

To have refused, explained the old man remembering the day half a
century ago, would have dishonored his family -- and in any case, why
would he want to choose his own wife?

"Love comes first into the heart of the woman," explained Nananghe.
"Once it's in the woman, only then can it jump into the man."
'Now the world is upside down. Men are running after women'

But the treacherous tides and narrow channels that have long kept
outsiders out of these remote islands are no longer holding back the
modern world. Young men are increasingly leaving Orango, located 38
miles (60 kilometers) off the coast of Guinea-Bissau, a country in
West Africa.

They find jobs carrying luggage for tourist hotels on the
archipelago's more developed islands; others collect oil from the
island's abundant palm trees and sell it on the African mainland.

They return bringing with them a new form of courtship, one which
their elders find deeply unsettling.

"Now the world is upside down," complained 90-year-old Cesar Okrane,
his eyes obscured by a cloud of cataracts. "Men are running after
women, instead of waiting for them to come to them."

Standing in the shade of a grass roof, he holds himself upright with
the help of a tall spear and explains that when he was young he took
extra care to maintain his physique, learned to dance and practiced
writing poetry -- all ways in which men can try to attract women,
without overtly making the first move.
'Now, with men choosing, divorce has become more common'

In recent years, young men have become increasingly bold, going so far
as to openly propose marriage -- a dangerous turn, say 
traditionalists.

"The choice of a woman is much more stable," explains Okrane. "Rarely
were there divorces before. Now, with men choosing, divorce has become
common."

With records not readily available, it's unclear how many divorces
there were earlier, but islanders agree that there are significantly
more now than in the years when men waited patiently for a proposal on
a plate.

They waited some more, as their brides-to-be then set out for the
eggshell-white beaches encircling the island, looking for the raw
materials with which to build their new house.
Women build homes; afterward it's official

Women built all the grass-covered huts here, dragging driftwood back
from the ocean to use as poles, cutting blankets of blond grass to
weave into roofs and shaping the pink mud underfoot into bricks. Only
once the house is built, a process that takes at least four months,
can the couple move in and their marriage be considered official.

There are matrilineal cultures in numerous pockets of the world,
including in other parts of Africa, as well as in China's Yunnan
province and in northeastern Thailand, says anthropologist Christine
Henry, a researcher at France's elite National Center for Scientific
Research, or CNRS.

But the unquestioned authority given to women in matters of the heart
on this island is unique -- "I don't know of it happening anywhere
else," says Henry, who has written a book on the customs of the
archipelago.

That things are changing is evident in the material chosen for the
island's newest house: concrete. It was erected by paid laborers, not
local women.

Although priestesses still control the island's relationship with the
spirit world, their clout is waning, as churches sown by missionaries
have taken root.
Missionaries bring upsetting new custom of men proposing

"When I get married it will be in a church, wearing a white dress and
a veil," says 19-year-old Marisa de Pina, who strikes a modern pose
under the blond grass of her family's hut, wearing tight Capri pants
and sequined sandals.

She says the Protestant church she attends has taught her that it is
men, not women, that should make the first move, and so she plans to
wait for a man to approach her. To make her point, the teenager pops
into her hut and returns holding a worn copy of the New Testament, its
pages stuffed with Post-it notes, letters and business cards.

It's a decision that has caused strife inside the mud walls of her
family's house.

Like her niece, Edelia Noro wears store-bought clothes instead of the
grass skirts still favored by some older women. She, too, attends
church. But she says she doesn't see why these trappings of modern
life should alter the system of courtship.

More than two decades ago, she set off for the closest beach looking
for the ingredients with which to propose to the man she loved.

Noro waited for the tide to recede, then dug in the wet sand for
clams, collecting them in a woven basket. She was embarrassed, she
said, that she was too poor to afford a proper meal of fish and could
only offer her groom-to-be what she could gather with her own hands.
So after preparing the dish, she placed it in front of him, then ran
and hid behind a tree, peeking out to see his reaction.

"He did not hesitate and ate right away. I could see the love shining
in his eyes," she said, a glow spreading across her cheeks.
'I learned the hard way, a man never approaches a woman'

Although the island's unique customs may be fading, there are still
pockets of resistance. Often, it's women that lure men back into the
fold of ancient ways.

Now 23, Laurindo Carvalho first spotted the girl when he was 13. He
worked in a tourist hotel, wore jeans, and owned a cell phone and
thought of himself as modern and so he thought he could turn tradition
on its head, asking the girl to marry him. With the wave of a hand,
she rejected him.

Six years passed and one day, when both were 19, he heard a knock at
his door. Outside, his love stood holding out a plate of freshly
caught fish, a coy smile on her face.

Carvalho still wears sandblasted jeans and flip-flops bearing the
Adidas logo, but he now sees himself as embedded in the village's
matriarchal fiber.

"I learned the hard way that here, a man never approaches a woman," he
says.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material
may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
===========================================

Silahkan lanjutkan diskusi... :)

Salam,


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