[ExI] Women

[F. C. Moulton]

On 12/27/2012 11:36 PM, Rafal Smigrodzki wrote:
> 
> ### If you know it's hard to get a replacement, you *will* be more
> likely to treat what you have with care. And if your hard-to-get,
> irreplaceable wife demands some respect, you will give it to her more
> readily that to one you picked up at no cost.


You appear to be starting to agree with me since you wrote "will be more
likely" which is different from simply "will".  Spike's original
statement was "Then the women will be treated as princesses" not "Then
the women will more likely treated as princesses" and this is not just a
quibble about words rather it is an important distinction.  These
differences are important when discussing and analyzing complex social
situations.

Perhaps what we see in this discussion is that some people are confusing
two different things.  The first thing is for a person will have some
value in obtaining something.  The second thing is how the thing is
treated once it is obtained.  These are two different things.  They
might be related but they are different and I am attempting to point out
this difference.

As an example imagine a society where the men and boys grow up seeing
wives treated poorly it would not be surprising to see that behavior
repeated.  Further if there is a wide spread belief that treating a wife
harshly is good for the entire family then do not be surprised if that
behavior continues.  Also consider that in many less developed societies
divorce is either de facto or de jure not a viable option for a wife who
is poorly treated thus once a man has obtained a wife then there is no
incentive to treat her well to keep her from leaving.  Another factor to
consider is if the wife has already been raised to feel that her role is
to obey and be subservient to the husband to her own detriment and that
harsh treatment is expected.  I am not saying every less developed
society is like this; what I am saying is that for very specific
historical and cultural reasons there may be social dynamics and
behaviors which do not match our first world expectations.

This is why I suggested the first thing to do is to use 50% of the funds to
> develop a deep understanding of the social, cultural,
> psychological, medical and economic situation as it relates to women and
> their role in society under consideration
and
> In particular it would be a really
> good idea to actually talk to the girls and women

Economics is a fine and useful way of understanding human social systems
but it is not the only way and certainly does not yield an exhaustive or
complete understanding.  If we are analyzing a complex social system
then certainly we need to use the economic perspective but we also need
cultural anthropology, history, gender studies, psychology, sociology
and the other social science and related fields to develop a full
understanding of the situation.  Having a full understanding of a
situation might be the first step in avoiding a project which has an
undesired outcome.

Fred

> Rafal
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> 


-- 
F. C. Moulton
moulton at moulton.com