In Dual Inheritance Theory may be a key to understanding how culture transmits its bias with respect to the gender binary. If indeed the gender binary exists as a cultural ordering system than the transmission of gender bias serves to maintain social equilibrium within a given clan or cultural unit.
Social inheritance thus forms the functional analogue to genetic inheritance. According to DIT, social inheritance and genetic inheritance are dynamically interactive. Adaptive behaviors that reinforce the established social order, as bound by the gender binary, are reinforced. While maladaptive behaviors, that tend to threaten that established social order, invariably result in a destabilizing "social friction" which arises from motivations for the larger social unit to extinguish such behaviors. It can be seen in other animal species as a form of natural selection, wherein the pack [and its ‘alpha’ leader(s)] determine which behaviors to reinforce and which behaviors result in the threats to the established pack social structure. Gender role reinforcement has its genesis and perpetuation in its (subconscious?) imperative to maintain male social and economic dominance.
From the Wikipedia entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_inheritance_theory
Model-based biases
Model-based biases result when an individual is biased to choose a particular "cultural model" to imitate. There are four major categories of model-based biases: (1) prestige bias, (2) skill bias, (3) success bias, (4) similarity bias. [30][31] A "prestige bias" results when individuals are more likely to imitate cultural models that are seen as having more prestige. A measure of prestige could be the amount of deference shown to a potential cultural model by other individuals. A "skill bias" results when individuals can directly observe different cultural models performing a learned skill and are more likely to imitate cultural models that perform better at the specific skill. A "success bias" results from individuals preferentially imitating cultural models that they determine are most generally successful (as opposed to successful at a specific skill as in the skill bias. A "similarity bias" results when individuals are more likely to imitate cultural models that are perceived as being similar to the individual based on specific traits.
Frequency-dependent biases
Frequency-dependent biases result when an individual is biased to choose particular cultural variants based on their perceived frequency in the population. The most explored frequency-dependent bias is the "conformity bias." Conformity biases result when individuals attempt to copy the mean or the mode cultural variant in the population. Another possible frequency dependent bias is the "rarity bias." The rarity bias results when individuals preferentially choose cultural variants that are less common in the population. The rarity bias is also sometimes called a "nonconformist bias".
With respect to the social evolution of the gender binary from its theoretical late Paleolithic and Neolithic origins, certain questions with respect to selection for gender-conformance begin to emerge. How do constructions of gender become ingrained through the reinforcement of social/economic roles within the clan/village social structure? When do behaviors become ingrained to the degree they can then be passed on via social inheritance? How were those structures modified when human societies began to organize itself in larger and more diverse social and economic structures?
Social inheritance requires that socially desirable behaviors be transmitted for the most part non-verbally and quickly assimilated in the individual and group subconscious. Is it a form, of operant conditioning to absorb and subsequently perform within the boundaries of "approved" and thus adaptive behavioral schemas. The reward of such conformance is the absence of social friction of sufficient force to challenge the dominant narrative and in so doing, destabilize long established social orders.
What reinforces that social order? To put it coarsely, what's in it for female humans to acquiesce and ultimately accept the gender binary as the way things have always been?
Lori Girshick (Transgender Voices, University Press of New England 2008) notes:
"Binaries depend on hierarchical systems, which are built on the belief that those in power deserve their privileged positions. According to those in power, those with less power have some innate characteristic that keeps them from the top rungs of society. These hierarchical systems are kept in place by language, socialization, laws, the media, custom, religious justification and theories that justify the pecking order as natural. They are complex, institutionalized, and often taken for granted -so much so that they are invisible as systems" (pg 46).
Renee Thomas ©2009 All Rights Reserved
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