Things Fall Apart: Nature and Culture in West Africa Essay

Every single society features elements that structure the culture that are customs, rules, and traditions.

In addition to structures, culture is also shaped by a society’s environment. In a few regions, mother nature is the most significant factor of a culture’s id. In the book Points Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, the reader is given a glance into the composition of a West African small town called Umuofia.

In Umuofia, culture and gender will be closely related to nature. This link has shaped many techniques from the sexes of their gods to the parting of work that men and women were supposed to do. Character in this West African society is a effective force that is certainly intertwined together with the life and culture with the Umuofia persons.

In the book Things Fall Apart, Achebe illustrated just how instrumental mother nature was in defining gender structures in Umuofia society. Such as men and women cultivated different plants based on the crop’s perceived masculinity or femininity. In Umuofia, yams were considered as the “king in the crops” and were equated with masculinity. Men were expected to herb, cut, and cultivate yams. According to Achebe, yams were the cause of power in Umuofia society, and a man’s worth was measured by amount of yams this individual produced every year.

Women alternatively were expected to plant and cultivate crops such as canteloup and espresso beans because these crops were equated with femininity. Additional separations of relating to nature and gender were that girls were anticipated to cook, clean, and maintain their families. Men were required to match masculine activity such as, chopping wood, tapping palm trees intended for wine, and building huts. Nature likewise influenced Western world African’s male or female perceptions relating to their gods, for example the “great goddess of the earth” who the Umuofia people worshiped, was considered a female our god with the ability to duplicate and replace the area.

The “great goddess in the earth” was symbolized as a female deity because of her relationship into a woman’s ability to reproduce and bear kids, like the land does every year by bearing fruits and crops intended for the community. Nature a new profound effect on the male or female relationships in Umuofia world. The villagers used nature as a way of drawing limitations between masculinity and femininity. Everything in Umuofia culture was structured into male or female roles, your task of farming needed to be structured by simply gender.

Moreover, the simple artwork of history telling needed to be genderized to keep up society’s male or female structure. Blameless fairy tales were regarded as feminine and womanly, while stories of death and gore were considered assertive manly stories. Gender is extremely structured and is very important to maintain West The african continent identity and culture inside the Umuofia culture. The Power of Women in Umuofia Millions of girls across the globe are in male completely outclassed societies. Governments, militaries, households, and areas continue to be focused and managed by males.

However , throughout history girls have always were able to exert some form of power in their societies. Whether, it was while subtle as a wife rebelling against her husband or as brave as a queen defending her nation, these kinds of examples present that women usually held some type of power in their societies. The book Issues Fall Apart by simply Chinua Achebe captures the essence of this dynamic throughout the women in Umuofia world, who in spite of the obstacles that they faced within a polygamous and patriarchal culture they still managed to keep some form of electricity within Umuofia society. One woman that had electric power in Umuofia society was Chielo who had been the Priestess of the Oracle god Agbala.

The Oracle had incredible influence in Umuofia world because it was believed the Priestess possessed the forces of the our god Agbala. Everybody in Umuofia society feared Priestess Chielo including the guy elders who also governed Umuofia society. The Priestess played a vital role in society since she offered advice towards the villagers who also listened in fear of angering the goodness Agbala.

The Oracle also used her power to avenge women who had been mistreated by their husbands. This happened when the Priestess Cheilo ordered boys named Ikemefuna killed since she realized Okonkwo (who was the primary character in the story) was close to the youthful boy to get revenge on him for conquering his better half. Furthermore, the priestess was not the only woman in the Umuofia society with power.

The women of the Umuofia village also had power as a group unit. The women were responsible for protecting the crops and penalizing people who have heavy aigu? if we were holding responsible for harming another villager’s crops. This is demonstrated in the story each time a cow got loose and all the women in the village were obligated to defend and shield the crops from the cow.

As a communautaire unit the women were able to put in some power in Umuofia society. Females in Umuofia society can also rebel against their husbands if that they believed all their husbands were being extremely inappropriate. Although home-based abuse was common for women in Umuofia.

Some women would flee with their children to their homelands to escape the abuse. In a single situation in the story, a man’s partner left him and he previously no control on if she would take him back again. Instead having been forced to plea before the elders of the town for his wife’s returning or for the go back of her bride selling price if the girl chose to stay separated from him. This is the where a girl was actually keeping power more than a man in Umuofia world.

The women in Umuofia contemporary society faced enduring hardships but they were continue to able to maintain some form of power in world. Women acquired very little electricity in Western African contemporary society but they had just enough power to have an impact on the society. Even in fatality women were allowed to become buried with their ancestors being a symbol for their enduring impact and legacies within a patriarchal West African society.

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