Family And Hierarchy In Kurdistan

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Family and Hierarchy in Kurdistan As the origins of the word family is going back to the Latin word Familia meaning “servants of a household” or the slaves who belong to a man, the meaning of the word family may differ from a group of people to another. Apparently, hierarchy has always been one of the imperative aspects of family, and its type has changed according to the different cultural and educational backgrounds. Hence, the way that family and hierarchy function in the Kurdish communities will be examined within this research paper. Since there are two different definitions of family one of them which is common among the conservatives is a group of people who are arranged in a hierarchical structure in which the father or the oldest…show more content…
While the lexical definition of hierarchy is “a system, especially in a society or an organization, in which people are organized into different levels of importance from highest to lowest,”(hierarchy) this way of organization functions positively in some sectors of life and negatively in some others. For example, in the working sectors, it is useful to have some sort of hierarchy to divide the jobs based on their working background and experience. If there were no hierarchy, then everyone would ask to have an easy job which would result in stopping innovations and development. In contrast, it is useless and misused in some other sectors of life such as family because in some families it has been used in unbeneficial ways. For instance, restricting negotiation and subordinating women are two of the ways in which hierarchy has been implemented in the families. As in the article Patriarchy and Development in the Arab World it has been stated that Arab world defines the word hierarchy as the case that males dominate power and have more respect (JDFKKA). As Kurdistan is a region which locates in an Arabic country, we share similar believes or practices as Arabs. Therefore, the same stereotype applies to Kurdistan, and this article demonstrates the misunderstanding of hierarchy in this part of the…show more content…
Patriarchy is a concept which Oxford Dictionary defines as “a society, system or country that is ruled or controlled by men”(oxford) this definition basically explains the meaning that patriarchy is a system in which men are in power, but it does not necessarily need to be a country or city. It also applies to the families that are ruled by men, and females are the last ones who could be asked in the decision makings. As in the book (----------) Engels says that “the overthrow of mother right was the world-historic defeat of the female sex”(book) he basically implying that after the end of matrilineal, the rights of women and females were gone and controlled by the males. Additionally, Joseph divides patriarchy into different categories such as economical patriarchy and religious patriarchy (arab). Economical patriarchy means that in the families men are the ones who make money while women are seen as the secondary sources even if they work harder and gain more than the man. Religious patriarchy means children supposed to follow their father’s religion which teaches children to follow their fathers and obey them from their
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    The origin of the word family is going back to the Latin word Familia meaning “servants of a household”, and its meaning alters due to various perspectives. Family is defined as “a group consisting of one or two parents, their children and close relations” according to Oxford dictionary. However, there are different standpoints about it in Kurdish culture based on the people’s educational level. Firstly, among the educated or modernized members of the community family is explicated as the source

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