Various forms of sexual control – most notably rigid regulation of sexual expression, asceticism, and female marginality – were developed in early mass societies that laid the groundwork for their continued expression in modern Western civilizations. I argue that these social control mechanisms proved their value initially through the mechanisms implicit in the development of agriculturalist societies, and following that centralized government and Kyriocentrism brought about through stratified, hierarchical socio-political systems.
Throughout this analysis, a specific set of sociological and anthropological terminology is used to describe specific phenomena and social patterns. Kyriocentrism specifies an expanded definition of androcentrism which specifies elite men at the center of a society and highlights their difference from both elite women as well as men, women, children, slaves and servants of all lower social classes. It intentionally divides a society into elite men vs. all others, and is therefore more appropriate in usage in certain contexts than patriarchy or androcentrism. Read the rest of this entry »