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  • Essay / The Pongal Festival in Tamil Culture

    When looking in depth at the ritual of Pongal, gender roles are represented by what is considered ideal for a woman and a man. In other words, gender is a socially constructed perspective that describes what is expected of the behavior, occupation, or roles of men and women. Therefore, women tend to be caring, gentle and sensitive. Looking at the harvest festival, we see that women perform household chores, such as cleaning and cooking. They perform repetitive work and spend most of their time inside the house caring for children, the elderly or livestock. Compared to men, they are characterized by strong, courageous, independent, assertive and powerful individuals. Thus, men's work is generally physically intense. Men carry out agricultural work consisting of plowing the land using bulls. Since bulls are very strong and powerful, they can be associated with men who must use their strength and power to overtake and control the bulls. Therefore, men spend most of their time away from home, on their land, plowing, collecting milk from other animals, and providing meat for the family. As a result, through their physical labor and labor, they help provide income and a source of food for the family. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Additionally, men are seen as powerful individuals within their household, indicating that Sri Lankan Tamils ​​live in a patriarchal society. This happened when the men had to sprinkle the uncooked rice around the neck of the pot. Since they are identified as the leaders, they are believed to be the first individuals to participate in the ritual before other family members. Therefore, when comparing men and women, this society presents women as subordinate. Indeed, women are considered weaker than men because they are expected to do less physically demanding work. Thanks to the work and labor of men, women are able to use their efforts and provide food for the whole family. As a result, this demonstrates that even though their works are contrary to each other, women and men contribute to the benefit and support of their families on a daily basis. Furthermore, through the symbolic actions carried out within “Pongal”, it helps to display the worldview of the Tamils ​​on their land. Worldview is the ideal of how reality is based on shared cultural assumptions about how a society functions. Accordingly, symbolic actions are those activities carried out within a group of people for which they have shared meanings in order to help them establish their worldview. The symbolic actions here include the drawing of the “kolam”, praying to the Sun and the “arathi” taken for the bull. Through these actions, Tamils ​​interact with the land, which illustrates the respect we give to our domain. While creating 'kolam', women have to create it on the ground in front of their house using colored rice. As a result, when they interact with the ground to create the design, they are able to establish a connection to honor and welcome the gods as well as banish evil spirits or what they call "evil pollution" away from the earth. home and land. This helps create purity in the house on an auspicious day while performing a ritual. When they pray to the Sun,..