Is gender a biological or mental identity? I believe it is mental.
Gender is immensely ancient concept met alreay in remote past.
I would like to say some words about our, Latvian, national values and views
on this theme.
Our rather archaic language and folk tales, and – to a rather remarkable
extent – also the national mentality, have retained, in most cases, strict
gender distinctions. On the one hand, it may seem something very old and
ancient, but, on the other, and that is what I suppose: all these simple (and at
the same time difficult and intricate) phenomena are expressive proof s of what
we could call historical democracy and equal rights.
The Sun for us, Latvians, is “she” while the Moon
is “he” – most of humans, however, will agree that the Sun is the strongest
among the two. And that might be the reason why, in most cases, summer solstice
for Latvians means far and much more than Christmas. The fact is that Sun has a
peculiar place in Latvian folklore – fairy tales, legends, folk songs dainas, sayings and proverbs.
A Latvian always looks up – to see the Sun, because he or she loves the Sun
dearly. There are thousands of dainas dedicated to the Sun alone. The Sun is
often present at grief, as a soothing mother, but as a rule always is tender,
kind, loving and nice. We are northerners, and our Sun is mild and lovely, at
least should be (I don't want to speak about climatic deformations).
The Latvians are very close to nature indeed, and another feature of our
culture and attitude to the Universe is the numerous things that may be called
in diminutive forms. Even some female names originally are in diminutive
(sometimes this causes ridiculous effects, because the names have also the
meaning: for instance Skaidrīte: little, clear female).
All trees in Latvian have genders, too. The oak,
ash-tree and birch are male while lime, fir and pine are female. The same with
animals. Fox and squirrel are women, but wolf, bear and hare are
men.
The same with the tools: scissors, a spade are female, the ax is male.
The world outlook, on which also the culture depends, is based on a kind,
tender attitude to the surrounding universe, to neighbours, friends, even
enemies.
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