THE LEARNING OF SEX-ROLE IDENTIFICATION AND SEX-TYPING BEHAVIOURS IN THE BIROM SOCIETY OF PLATEAU STATE, NIGERIA
THE LEARNING OF SEX-ROLE IDENTIFICATION AND SEX-TYPING BEHAVIOURS IN THE BIROM SOCIETY OF PLATEAU STATE, NIGERIA
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Date
1983-06
Authors
BASIL, JAMES AGWASIM
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Abstract
Societies vary in the degree to which they train
children differently according to their sexes. Some
societies segregate the sexes quite early and begin
training for differentiated adult roles right away.
In others girls and boys receive fairly similar early
training. The necessity for this study arose from the
author's interest in the rich culture of the Birom
people, and especially in the way the people handed
down to up-coming generation some of their values as
a society. Sex-role identification has far reaching
consequences for all societies because it touched on
the very lives of the people, and so the author wanted
to see how the Birom people differentiated between the
sexes.
Sex differences between males and females could
be biologically or culturally determined. This has been
shown to be the case by the works of several people,
including Hochschild (1973); Ernest (1978); Freud (1949);
and Kohlberg (1948). It was hypothesised for the
study that there would be no differences between boys
and girls in the patterns of identification adopted,
that there would be no differences between the efforts
of fathers and mothers in teaching sex-roles in Birom,
and that there would be no differences between boys
and girls in the acquisition of adequate sex-roles and
sex-typing through artifacts.
The study itself dealt with the emerging
perceptions of the Birom people, young and old, about
the men and women that they know they have become, or are
becoming. The study explored the ideas, definitions,
explanations, and evaluations of children about the
two sex categories as an index of how they themselves
learn to belong. A Parent Attitude Scale Towards
Sex-role and Sex-typing (P.A.S.S.S.) adapted from Hake's
(1972) model and containing sixty items to find out
parental attitudes as repositories of Birom cultural
practices; a collection of sex-typed articles such as
pots, bows and arrows, bangles and tarings, and beads
to determine wtaetfoer the choices the children would
make followed sex lines; and an interview schedule
designed with questions to ascertain to what extent
children answered questions on sex-role and sex-typing
were the instruments used for the study. Two hundred
parents and fifty of their children from five groups
of Birom village settlements "Scattered" around Bukuru,
Heipang and Barkin Ladi were involved with the study.
The r e s u l t s showed that in Birom society there was
a clear d i f f e r e n t i a t i o n between males and females with
specific sex-role expectations for the two sexes. The
ideology that supported sex s t r a t i f i c a t i o n in Birom
society t a l l i e d with Nemerowicz's 1979) assertion that
t h i s ideology was s t i l l fundamentally rooted in
Biology - which has "Blessed" men so much so that it
has equipped them for almost a l l social r o l e s , while
females have not been so "Blessed". The study also
revealed that in Birom society there was an image of
the work world as a tough, physically taxing environment
not only limited to the c h i l d ' s mind, but also to the
adult, and that "work" was not something enjoyed; it
was vissioned as a burden borne b e t t e r by the strong,
the masculine.
Description
(AN INDEPENDENT STUDY)
A PROJECT SUBMITTED TO THE POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL
AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA, IN PARTIAL
FULFULMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE
OF MASTER IN EDUCATION
*
DEPARTMENT OF VOCATIONAL EDUCATION
FACULTY OF EDUCATION
AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY,
ZARIA.
Keywords
LEARNING,, SEX-ROLE IDENTIFICATION,, SEX-TYPING BEHAVIOURS,, BIROM,, SOCIETY,, PLATEAU STATE,, NIGERIA.