Hello,
Could you please read my essay and give me some feedback?
The prompt is:
THIS FINAL PROJECT WILL BE COMPLETED IN POWERPOINT IN A TIMELINE FORMAT
Each student will develop a timeline of "The Evolution of Violence" and this will include research and information dating from the caveman time to the year 2004. Your timeline will review history regarding gender differences over time, gender roles over time, power, control, political gender issues how this has affected intimate/family relationships. You will also need to discuss if you believe the events on your timeline are socially or biologically determined and why. Include at least 30 events in time
Thank you in advance
Frederic
-------------
A brief historical overview of violence and intimate/family relationships
1) c. 2,500,000 - 10,000 B.C.E. - First humans
- Scientists speculate that there was a rough equality between men and women in nomadic hunter-gatherer tribes living during the Palaeolithic Age. Moreover, although the first specimens of the Homo sapiens sapiens species favoured the R-selected reproductive strategy, monogamy as the normal standard in those days still remains dubious.
- The overall severity, frequency and focus of violence are still vague.
- Physical anthropologists attempt to reveal the biological causes of violence thanks to inference from comparison between pathologies in current human or non-human primates and prehistoric endocasts. Furthermore, physical anthology also provides potential explanations thanks to the study of contemporaneous non-human primates' behaviour.
- The social causes of violence may be apprehended thanks to ethnologists' works on current primitive societies.
2) c. 10,000 - 4000 B.C.E. - Emergence of civilization
- The agricultural revolution during the Neolithic initiated the gradual disappearance of the nomadic way of life to the benefit of settled communities.
- Systematic agriculture was performed by men while women undertook household tasks. Consequently, the considerable charge assumed by men empowered them with a dominant role in Neolithic societies.
- Physical anthropologists attempt to reveal the biological causes of violence thanks to inference from comparison between pathologies in current human or non-human primates and prehistoric endocasts. Furthermore, physical anthology also provides potential explanations thanks to the study of contemporaneous non-human primates' behaviour.
- The social causes of violence may be apprehended thanks to ethnologists' works on current primitive societies. In addition, archaeologists endeavour to decipher the signification of Neolithic artefacts and constructions that seem tightly associated with the growing role of religion, division of labour, and social stratification.
3) About 2000 B.C.E. - First legal recognitions of marriage and the family in human history
- Among the first written law codes developed by Sumerian city-states in Mesopotamia, the code of Hammurabi, based on the principle of retribution (i.e. lex talionis) and punishments, largely dwelled on stringent regulations on marriage and the family.
- These patriarchal theocracies established a new social structure based on domination according to economic power and gender and subdued their opponents thanks to well-disciplined armies of foot soldiers.
- Biology may be considered a causal factor of violence as far as homeostatic drives are concerned, given that control over water supplies and arable land were primordial to survive and expand.
- The strict obedience of offspring and women to men was officially acknowledged as standard.
4) 1500 B.C.E. - 100 B.C.E - Hellenistic Period
- The primary function of the nuclear family was to produce new citizens for the city-states as stated by the laws. Moreover, the law required that women bear children, take care of their family and children in addition to be supervised by a man in their activities outside their dwelling.
- Although most philosophers rejected equality between men and women and women were excluded from public life, women participated in religious life and gained new opportunities in the economic, scholar, and artistic spheres. Western civilization defined patriarchy as the social norm.
- Sex at birth assigned one's position in the dominant or subordinated position.
- Although heterosexuality was demanded for women, men's homosexuality was authorized because it aimed at introducing young males into the male world of political and military dominance.
5) 500 B.C.E - 500 C.E. Roman Empire
- Romans created standards of justice based on natural law that applied to all people on their territory and instituting the paterfamilias as the head of the family, which was at the heart of the Roman social structure, in addition to the legal authority over his wife and children.
- The Roman military and political expansion all over the Mediterranean laid the foundations of the future western legal systems
- Sex at birth assigned one's position in the dominant or subordinated position in the same way as in the Hellenic Empire.
- Patriarchal values of Roman law combined into local political frameworks, affirming the preponderance of males in Mediterranean societies.
6) 0 - 500 Development of Christianity
- Christianity emerged and spread within the framework of the Roman world, favouring the concept of monotheism in addition to carrying the ethical notions of humility, charity, and brotherly love.
- The diffusion of Christianity in the wake of the Roman expansion formed the basis for the value system of the medieval western civilization.
- God was seen as deciding individuals' sex and therefore place in society.
- Husband's patriarchal authority was granted by the Christian Church, asserting that the emergence and transmission of the original sin allowed men to subdue women.
7) 500 - 1500 The Middle Ages and the Renaissance
- During the Middle Ages, Christianity was an integral part of the fabric of the European society. Catholicism in Western Europe declares that revealed truths of the Christian religion set out in the Bible were not only authoritative but also soundly supported by reasons independent of faith.
- Christianity implemented dominance of aristocracy over the lower classes and of men over women and European kingdoms enforced these policies.
- God was viewed as planning individuals' sex and place in society.
- Social rules reflected the ancient Roman law, God's will, and terrestrial kings' will of divine authority. Women remained subordinated to men according to the Biblical vision of the family.
8) 1500 - 1600 The Reformation
- Christian humanism, whose goal was the reform of Christendom, promoted the emergence of the Reformation in Europe, headed by Luther and Calvin.
- Protestantism placed the family at the centre of human life and emphasized mutual love between married heterosexual intimate partners.
- God's command was that wife is to compel to her husband and please him.
- The Protestant Reformation did not markedly modify the women's subordinate position in the European society.
9) 1700 - 1800 Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment
- Modern European feminism emerged from the works of the English writer Mary Wollstonecraft. She argued that since all human beings were given an innate reason, including women, as a consequence women were also entitled to the same rights as men in terms of political, educational, and economic attributions. Olympe de Gouges (pen name employed by the French writer Marie Gouze) demonstrated against the sexist Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen through the redaction of the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen.
- The Philosophes promoted the diffusion of cosmopolitanism, tolerance, and reason thanks to social, legal, and political improvements in order to eradicate the pernicious Christian influence on social issues. For the first time in human history, women publicly claimed their right to equality with men and their desire to reject subordination to men.
- On the one hand, the French rationalism epitomized by Descartes favoured pure determinism, i.e. violence was rooted in one's biological background.
- On the other hand, the English empiricism exemplified by Locke promoted tabula rasa state at birth, i.e. violence was learnt.
10) 1824 - Denial of justice for battered women in the USA
- In the domestic violence case Bradley v. State, a court ruled that a husband had the right to batter his wife without being prosecuted.
- Through this judicial precedent, the United States of America legalized domestic violence on its territory.
- The American legal justice conspicuously promoted quasi-absolute patriarchy as standard of living for all American families in the US.
- Despite English and American Enlightened females' endeavours, the Anglo-Saxon world did not alter its commitment to the subjugation of women by men.
11) 1920s - Cultural evolution Ethologic instinct theory of aggression
- The nascent field of ethology, founded on the works of Lorenz and Tinbergen, argues that aggression is instinctive and is not a response to environmental stimuli but the discharge of a hydraulic drive.
- Violence is considered as one of the utmost important elements in the evolutionary development of species because aggression might be a means to adapt to the environment, survive in it and successfully reproduce.
- Although aggressiveness has biological bases and is therefore innate, domestic violence is perceived as a learnt behaviour that is transmitted from generation to generation.
- Domestic violence no longer appears as an abnormality but as a successful adaptation to a particular ecological niche.
12) 1920s and 1930s -Psychoanalytic instinct theory of aggression
- Freud's psychoanalysis asserts that the conflict between the life instinct (Eros) and the death instinct (Thanatos) because of the deprivation of intimate maternal care as an adult results in the displacement of individuals' aggression onto others.
- Although aggression can be avoided thanks to prior reduction of tension and excitation to a minimum through physical activities, psychoanalysis claims that women display a masochist need for experiencing violence, because aggression from their counterparts provides them with sexual gratification.
- Although the extent of the biological basis underlying the concepts of Eros, Thanatos, and masochism is not comprehensible, biological transmission of violence is acknowledged.
- Social interactions are viewed as the reflection of innate violent behaviours.
13) 1939 - Frustration-aggression hypothesis
- Dollard et al. transcribe some psychoanalytic concepts into learning theory terms by contending that aggression stems from frustrating events or situations and, reciprocally, frustration emerges from aggression.
- Domestic violence would result from a displaced aggression focusing on a weaker, safer target (i.e. often the female intimate partner) than the frustrating agent.
- This is an explanation that asexualizes the causal factors for perpetrating domestic violence.
- This hypothesis offers an alternative to the feminist theory by demonstrating that the pervasiveness of men's expression of violence stems from women's physical weakness and incapacity to defend themselves from their intimate partners.
14) 1964 - Rational choice
- Social-exchange theory claims that both offenders and victims, respectively, engage in or tolerate domestic violence because they deem that the benefits of such a relationship prevail over the costs that are generated by violence.
- Domestic violence is the lesser evil insofar as one expects commensurate return of one's behaviour. Therefore, domestic violence could be eliminated in meeting peculiar individuals' expectations as regards what seems a valuable relationship to them.
- One's sex has no demonstrated significant influence on one's involvement in violence.
- Economic theory of human behaviour emphasizes individual self-interest as the fundamental human motive for acting violently.
15) 1965 - Family dysfunction
- Some studies on domestic violence rely on Bandura's social learning theory and assert that domestic violence is learnt through one's witnessing or experience of violence in one's family of origin, the mass media, or with peers.
- Continuous exposure to abuse and violence during childhood contributes to the intergenerational transmission of violence from generation to generation. Consequently, domestic violence could be stopped thanks to policies aiming at protecting children from violent parents.
- Sex at birth does not determine one's likelihood to perpetrate abuse.
- Domestic violence results from personal cognitive processes, independently of one's sex.
16) 1966 - Aggressive cues
- Some research on domestic violence hinge on Berkowitz's aggressive-cue or cue-arousal theory and claim that frustration first produces painful anger that subsequently leads to aggression against one's intimate partner.
- This approach suggests that the presence of environmental cues are mandatory for initiating frustration which refines the frustration-aggression hypothesis, and denies the influence of learning as argued by the social learning theory.
- The biology underlying emotions triggers off aggressiveness and then domestic violence.
- Society influences the emergence of domestic violence because it is a source of cues but society is not the sole contributor (through learning) to domestic violence.
17) 1968 - Learnt helplessness
- Introduced by Martin E. P. Seligman et al., the learnt helplessness is an apathetic condition that results from an individual's confrontation with insoluble problems, or inescapable physical or emotional stress. The lack of visible emotions of this condition is reported to underlie depression.
- The acceptation of domestic violence from one's partner is a learnt behaviour that reinforces itself in the long run.
- Domestic violence seems the originator of biological consequences rather than the opposite.
- The victimization is considered as a social construct.
18) late 1960s - Women's movement
- A second wave of the women's movement puts forwards the feminist theory and contends that men assume a position of authority over women when addressing the aetiology of domestic violence.
- Men employ domestic violence because they are culturally encouraged to act this way. Accordingly, domestic violence could be eradicated thanks to the implementation of policies promoting equality between men and women.
- Sex at birth determines the appurtenance to either the dominant or the compliant gender.
- Domestic violence is purely a social construct that is rooted in the early history of human beings.
19) 1971 - Attribution bias
- The Zillman's excitation transfer theory suggests that an "aroused" person has some disposition to react aggressively and that the arousal is incorrectly attributed to the aggression-provoking person rather than to the correct source.
- Consequently, abusers attribute an improper intention to their intimate partner and, subsequently, perform retaliatory aggressions against them.
- Biology is the internal source of uncontrollable aggressiveness.
- However, social circumstances construct the misattribution of the initial intention.
20) Late 1970s - Socioeconomic status
- Scholars banking on the resource mobilization theory state that violent intimate partners usually command greater financial, educational, and social resources than victims do.
- Differences of socioeconomic status between intimate partners predispose the partner with the lowest status to be abused by the other one. Subsequently, an increase in abusers and victims' material resources could help them to abscond from domestic violence.
- Open new vistas on the comprehension of the existence of domestic violence in same-sex couples
- First attempt at explaining why domestic violence is not only widespread in destitute neighbourhoods but also in wealthy families
21) 1980s - Psychopathology
- Thanks to the examination of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory profiles of abusive men, Bernard and Bernard highlight the high rate of male abusers with psychopathologies.
- It appears that domestic violence may tightly be related to psychological and behavioural dysfunctions occurring in mental disorder or in social disorganization.
- Medical pathologies emerge as potential causal factors involved in domestic violence.
- Tremendous progress of science as a whole and medical investigation in particular breach the "all social" approaches.
22) Mid 1980s - Mandatory arrest laws in the USA
- Some states in the USA implement laws that incite police officers into arresting apparent domestic abusers when their violent acts are not even crimes. A few states instigate the adoption and enforcement of mandatory arrest laws.
- Compulsory arrest laws are the manifestation of the recognition of the severity and frequency of domestic violence in the American society.
- The scientific reliability of biological and social factors linked to domestic violence are at the heart of fierce political and legal debates concerned with the implementation of such laws, in addition to the disputability of some theoretical perspectives as regards individuals' privacy.
23) Late 1980s - Battered woman syndrome
- Feminists appropriate the learnt helplessness theory to provide an explanation for battered women's aversion to become estranged from their abusers. Moreover, victims are reported as suffering from posttraumatic stress disorders that are the direct consequence of their victimization.
- The study of victims becomes as central as the one of abusers for scholars conducting research on domestic violence.
- Domestic violence is reported to have severe consequences on the victims' mental and physical health.
- The pressure exerted by abusers and society as a whole opens new vistas on what seemed inconsistent behaviour on the part of victims of domestic violence.
24) 1993 - Global denunciation of violence against women
- The United Nations World Council of Human rights declared acts of violence against women as being a violation of human rights.
- Although the denunciation of violence against women remained a symbolic gesture since there was no obligation for the international community to conform to the United Nations' decisions, this act obviously affirmed the willingness of many actors on the world stage to recognize the universality of equality of rights between women and men.
- Individuals' sex and gender gradually commenced losing their significance as promoter or inhibitor of accession to the top of the social scale.
- Social factors favouring gender discrimination tended to be curbed by the powerful pressure exerted by globalization.
25) 1994 - First federal law against domestic violence in the USA
- The US Congress passed the Violence Against Women Act, part of the federal Crime Victims Act.
- This law not only subsidized agencies and services but also legal remedies for victims of violence in addition to enhancing criminal justice and legal justice people's awareness to these crimes.
- Biological and social influences can be used to incriminate and/or discredit victims and perpetrators of violence at trials.
- Biological and social influences that are utilized in the courts reflect the contemporaneous weight of scientific research, judicial precedents, and political involvement.
