The Meaning of Paternity and the Virgin Birth Debate

Year 2021, Issue: 8, 300 - 326, 08.03.2021

Carol Delaney Translator: Gökhan Bakır

https://doi.org/10.46250/kulturder.871747

Abstract

The notion of paternity has been central to theoretical debates about the evolution and organization of human society. These debates were intensified when it appeared that certain contemporary “primitives” did not acknowledge paternity. Their procreative beliefs were classified, along with the Virgin Birth, as examples of a widespread theme of supernatural birth. In this article, I argue that it is the anthropologists who have not understood the meaning of paternity and thus have distorted the beliefs of others and obscured the implications of our own. Drawing upon fieldwork in Turkey, I show that paternity has meant begetting; it has meant the primary and creative role, while maternity has meant nurturing and bearing. This “monogenetic” meaning of paternity is made explicit in Christianity and exemplified by the Virgin Birth but is consistent with the theological concept of monotheism. Similarly the procreative beliefs of the Trobriand Islanders and the Australian Aborigines are consistent with their cosmological beliefs. These are different systems, but both are integrated between intimate and ultimate concerns. Finally, it is asked why paternity has been of such fascination to theorists from the nineteenth century until the present.

Keywords

paternity, women, procreation, seed, beliefs

Babalığın Anlamı ve Bakire Doğum Tartışması

Abstract

Babalık kavramı, insan toplumunun evrimi ve örgütlenmesi ile ilgili teorik tartışmaların merkezinde yer almıştır. Bu tartışmalar, bazı çağdaş “ilkellerin” babalığı kabul etmediği ortaya çıkınca yoğunlaştı. Onların doğurganlık inançları, Bakire Doğum ile birlikte, doğaüstü doğumun yaygın temasına örnek olarak sınıflandırıldı. Bu makalede babalık anlamını anlamayan, bu nedenle başkalarının inançlarını çarpıtan ve kendi çıkarımlarımızı gizleyen antropologlar olduğunu iddia ediyorum. Türkiye'deki saha çalışmasından yararlanarak babalığın ortaya çıkarmak, birincil ve yaratıcı rol anlamına geldiğini, anneliğin ise yetiştirme ve taşıma anlamına geldiğini gösteriyorum. Babalığın bu “monogenetik” (tekkaynakçı) anlamı Hristiyanlıkta açıkça belirtilmiştir ve Bakire Doğum tarafından örneklendirilmiştir ancak tek tanrılığın teolojik konseptiyle de tutarlıdır. Benzer şekilde Trobriand Adalılarının ve Avustralya Aborjinlerinin üreme inançları, kozmolojik inançlarıyla tutarlıdır. Bunlar farklı sistemlerdir ancak her ikisi de samimi ve nihai kaygıların tam ortasında, ikisiyle de bütünleşmiştir. Son olarak, babalığın 19. yüzyıldan günümüze kadar teorisyenler için neden bu kadar cazip olduğu sorulmuştur.

Keywords

babalık, kadınlar, doğum, tohum, inançlar

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