We are regarded as “anatomically modern humans” with “full behavioral modernity.” Anthropologists say anatomically modern humans can be traced back about 195,000 years to Africa. Before that we were in the realm of archaic Homo sapiens. By 50,000 BP (before present) we reached full behavioral modernity, including language, music and other forms of culture.
Where am I going with this sketchy primer on human evolution? It is the claim of “full behavioral modernity” that I find difficult to square with the very widespread tradition of gender control/oppression aimed at women. The New York Times has a story today by Adam B. Ellick about how young Pakistani women go through a terrible time striking a balance between economic necessity that compels them to work outside their homes and tradition that seeks to keep them confined.
There is something bizarrely out of sync in a society where a woman is encouraged to strap explosives around her body and blow herself up very publicly as one just did on December 25 in the Bajaur region killing over 40 people, but slapped across her face and threatened with limb destruction if she wants to work and earn a decent, honorable living. In their defense, those men who trained the female bomber did not violate their tradition that forbids women from working with “strange” men. She did not work with “strange” men. She merely blew them up along with other women and children.
I do not wish to single out Pakistan when it comes to questioning the claim of “full behavioral modernity” but one has to concede that it has become a powerful example of what can go wrong with a society that lets tradition run amuck.
The Times story cites a young woman named Rabia Sultana of Karachi. Sultana, 21, works as a cashier at McDonald’s. Her tradition-bound brother strongly disapproves. So, according to the story, he slapped her across her face and threatened to break her legs if she ever stepped out of her home. The story says this:
“At work, some women spend more time deflecting abuse from customers than serving them. On the way home, they are heckled in buses and condemned by neighbors. It is so common for brothers to confiscate their uniforms that McDonald’s provides women with three sets.
“If I leave this job, everything would be O.K. at home,” Ms. Sultana said. “But then there’d be a huge impact on our house. I want to make something of myself, and for my sisters, who are at home and don’t know anything about the outside world.”
That brings me back to full behavioral modernity. I understand that this is a scientific term and not necessarily a construct with moral connotations. Nevertheless, it is a bit of a stretch to say that as a species we reached full behavioral modernity 50,000 years ago and yet confront today a world where people get kicked for something as trivially modern as wanting to work.
As John Lennon put it in an unrelated context, “Strange days indeed, most peculiar mama.”