KF

Notes on Gender and Creed (Fall 2025)

I. Introduction

As a historian, the author aims to place identity categories within their historical timeframes. He agrees with Appiah that sex and gender are among the oldest and most universal identity categories, though ideas about gender are culture-specific and continually changing. He suggests sex identity may predate Homo sapiens sapiens, who are at least 3{,}000{,}000 years old, though the correct figure is 3{,}00{,}0{,}0{0}; the intended meaning is that human sex/gender identities extend far back in time. He identifies language as the second oldest form of identity, noting that some languages still spoken today can be traced back to about 20{,}000 years ago; Harari argues language developed rapidly in the cognitive revolution, around 70{,}000 years ago. The third oldest is religious identity, with traditions such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam dating from roughly 1{,}500 to 5{,}000 years ago. These claims set the stage for examining how gender, language, and creed have interacted with historical forces.

II. Gender—the oldest form of human identity

The discussion frames gender as an enduring feature across all societies, but its expressions are shaped by historical changes in economic organization, especially the agricultural and industrial revolutions.

  • A. All current societies have some form of gender system that differentiates men’s and women’s roles and identities. Understanding these systems requires situating them within the shifts caused by the agricultural and industrial revolutions.

  • B. Going back roughly 2{,}00{,}000 years, Appiah notes that there are many more than two combinations of sex chromosomes and sexual morphology, challenging simple binary categories for gender. This diversity is a live issue today, including debates in sports.

  • C. Binary gender categories are reinforced by labels and stereotypes about abilities and characteristics that are specific to particular societies or states.

  • D. Nevertheless, gender systems remain pervasive worldwide.

  • E. History of sex and gender differentiation. In North America, several Native American nations historically practiced matriarchal structures, where children were named after their mothers and women held significant political power. Appiah notes that Ghana is matriarchal as well. By contrast, many European and African nations have been patriarchal, and European domination of Native American nations often involved imposing patriarchal power structures to justify conversion to Christianity. These dynamics show how gender arrangements intertwine with power and cultural change.

  • F. The Agricultural Revolution. Beginning around 10{,}000 years ago, the shift to agriculture rebalanced power in families and communities toward men. Hunter-gatherer and nomadic societies (roughly from the earliest periods of human history up to about 300{,}000 ext{–}10{,}000 BCE) tended toward flatter social structures with less gender-based power difference. Agricultural societies created hierarchies, with men controlling land and means of production (plows, oxen, or horses), and social norms that often allocated resources (including food) with a gendered bias. These changes are reflected in longstanding legal and cultural practices.

  • G. Historical and comparative perspectives. Goran Therborn’s work Between Sex and Power: Family in the World, 1900–2000 (Routledge, 200{,}004) synthesizes cross-cultural differences, emphasizing that distinctions in sex roles become more pronounced in industrial contexts compared to agricultural ones. Industrial states (e.g., the United States and England) tend toward greater individualism and a decline in the absolute power of fathers as children attend school and women increasingly work outside the home. By contrast, power relations in many agricultural societies in West and East Africa vary considerably, illustrating that the gendered distribution of power is context-dependent.

  • H. Feminism and Gender Studies. Over the past fifty years, since the 1970s, understandings and practices surrounding sex and gender have changed substantially. Appiah’s formulation highlights that sex is the biological dimension, while gender comprises the broader set of ideas about what women and men are like and how they should behave. This distinction—though ancient—continues to shift with society’s economic organizations and political contests. The debate over gender has also been a central ideological arena in US politics and in the wider world, including tensions between secular regimes and Muslim-majority societies such as Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan.

  • I. Intersectionality. Kimberlé Crenshaw’s concept, introduced in 1989, argues that people possess multiple intersecting identities (e.g., a Black woman who is an auto worker) that shape experiences of gender and sex roles. These overlapping identities can complicate how gender is experienced and expressed, suggesting that gender identities are increasingly complex and often not primary.

  • J. The Really Big Picture. Recent scholarship expands historical bandwidth beyond 100,000 years. Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens (2015) traces humankind from small communities (roughly 150 people) to vast states (tens of millions) and axial religions with more than a billion adherents. Cat Bohannon’s Eve (2023) shifts focus toward the female line of evolution, emphasizing women’s roles across millions of years.

  • K. At Capital. In the department’s current scholarly milieu, emphasis falls on the history of women from ancient times to the present. A new faculty member, Dr. Arincheva, teaches courses on women’s activism in Asia and globally, signaling that understanding of women’s historical roles will continue to evolve.

III. Creed

  • A. In chapter 2 on creed (religion), Appiah engages the question of why people are religious, challenging simplistic explanations.

  • B. Appiah’s parents had a “mixed marriage” (not simply a matter of color or ethnicity, but of slightly different variants of Christian faith) yet their children were nurtured in a life that Christianity infused into their daily conduct rather than confined to Sundays.

  • C. This lived reality is captured by the statement that religion infused their lives, not merely worshipped on a day of the week (quote: they were sustained by their slightly different variants of Christian faith). (Page reference: 35)

  • D. Creed and Identity. Appiah argues that religious creed includes both identity and beliefs. He contends that religion is not, in the first instance, a matter of belief. Religion combines three elements:
    1) A body of belief (texts, oral traditions, stories, proverbs, jeremiads passed down through centuries),
    2) Practice or norms (what you do), and
    3) Community (who you are with while you worship).

  • E. Habitus and Hexis. Religious identity often includes prescribed codes of conduct and dress (habitus) along with hexis, personal physical behaviors associated with the religion. In the United States over the last century, dress has become less central to signaling religious affiliation, though visible markers persist (e.g., crosses for Christians, hijabs or burkas for some Muslims, yarmulkes for some Jewish men).

  • F. Problems in religious texts. Appiah argues that scholars have tended to emphasize belief details over shared practices and the moral communities that sustain religious life. He proceeds to examine the constrictions and ambiguities in the textual traditions of Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Christianity, noting that virtually all sacred texts contain contradictions and ambiguities, especially when authored by multiple writers.

  • G. Culturalism versus fundamentalism. A key distinction is drawn between cultural religious identity (belonging to a faith community without accepting all textual interpretations) and fundamentalism (strict belief in the texts, often coupled with a strong identity). Amartya Sen’s case is cited, where his father described his stance as the atheist branch of the Hindu tradition, illustrating that belief and cultural identity can diverge.

  • H. Religion and Conflict. Religious affiliation can be a source of conflict when it delineates boundaries between groups (e.g., Sunni–Shia, Catholics–Protestants, Christians–Jews). However, much conflict attributed to religion is often tied to other factors such as land and resources. The ecumenical movement seeks to promote cooperation across religious divides.

  • I. Axial religions and Conflict. Axial traditions (e.g., Christianity and Islam) formed large, geographically dispersed communities linked by texts and clergy (priests, imams). As these religions expanded in urban, capitalist settings over the last ~1{,}500 years, adherents often essentialized their identities while nonetheless sharing broad ethical norms aimed at peaceful coexistence with others.

  • J. Religion, history, and mobility. Religious identity has tended to endure across generations: Protestants for more than 400 years, Catholics for more than 1{,}500 years, and Jews for about 3{,}000 years. Migration spreads religious identities, but also makes them a basis for outreach beyond one’s own group (e.g., an Orthodox Ethiopian family seeking an Orthodox church in Columbus).

  • K. At Capital. The charted development of Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, and other religious identities is reflected in institutional continuities and cross-cultural mobility (chart referenced in the source material).

IV. The Amish Case

  • A. The Amish offer a distinctive case study for understanding religion, community, and identity in modern America. They are insular, living among groups of roughly 150 people under lay leadership, speaking Pennsylvania Dutch, with education typically ending at the 8th grade in Amish schools rather than public schools.

  • B. Devil’s Playground (the case study focus) centers on Amish teenagers facing a life-defining choice about baptism and entry into the Amish church.

  • C. Rumspringa, the period during which Amish youths explore broader life options before deciding whether to be baptized, illustrates the pressure between creed and community.

  • D. The dilemma for these teenagers is not a choice between creed and community alone; it is a choice about whether to commit to a creed to remain part of a community. Many navigate a middle path—remaining within the social network while delaying baptism.

  • E. The pressure to be baptized, marry, and adopt Amish identity is intense; more than 90 ext{its}% of Amish youths ultimately choose creed and community, thereby acquiring the habitus and hexis of an Amish person and becoming recognizable by others.

  • F. The Amish and Cultural Pluralism. The Amish are a model of cultural pluralism in the US: they maintain distinct practices (education, social life) within a larger society that also includes public schooling and integrated neighborhoods; they are allowed to retain strong boundaries to protect their faith and community while engaging with broader society.

  • G. Faith Communities. Religions provide a sense of community, offering support during birth, marriage, hardship, loss, and death. For the Amish, community-based support extends to practical arrangements like health and social security—often relying on communal resources rather than external state mechanisms.

  • H. The Ancestors. Appiah recounts a Ghanaian family ritual of serving food and drink to ancestors—spiritual beings who can help or hinder daily life. In Asante culture, ancestors are integrated into everyday life, reflecting the blend of belief and practice in religious life.

  • I. Carlson Criticizes Appiah. Carlson contends that Appiah underestimates the importance of religion as a pervasive, inherited framework for worldviews, arguing that religion remains a primary source of identity and meaning beyond mere belief. He emphasizes that axial religions helped create norms for better intergroup relations and that belief and community are deeply intertwined.

  • J. Overall synthesis. The Amish case is presented as a concrete illustration of how creed and community interact, how habitus and hexis signal belonging, and how cultural pluralism can coexist with tight-knit religious subcultures in a pluralist society.

V. Carlson Criticizes Appiah

  • Carlson’s critique centers on the claim that Appiah underplays the role of religion in shaping worldviews and moral frameworks across generations. He argues that religion is not merely a matter of belief but a deeply embedded form of identity transmitted through families and communities. He contends that axial religions contributed to norms for peaceful coexistence, and that it remains difficult to separate belief from community identity given the long-term cultural transmission of religious life. This critique emphasizes the enduring, formative role of religion in human experience and identity formation.

VI. References

  • Appiah, Anthony. The Lies That Bind: Rethinking Identity. New York: W. W. Norton, 2019.

  • Harari, Yuval Noah. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. New York: Harper, 2015.

  • Therborn, Goran. Between Sex and Power: Family in the World, 1900–2000. Routledge, 2004.

  • Crenshaw, Kimberlé. (1989). Intersectionality and its implications for understanding overlapping identities.

  • Bohannon, Cat. Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution. New York: Knopf, 2023.

  • Additional course materials and figures referenced in the transcript.