Article review

Introduction:- In this article the author tries to establish the difference between familism and
machismo. He first gives the definition of familism and then establishes how machismo is the
other side of the coin of which familism is a part. This article discusses two conceptualizations of
the Latin American family: familism and machismo. Machismo centers on aggression and sexual
exploitation and could be considered anti-family. While familism basically focuses upon how
family needs are to be prioritized before the individual needs. The causes for macho behavior are
explored, and an attempt to theorize about these two approaches to family life is made. The
Latin-American society tends to take care of the family better than the Anglo-oriented families
which from the very beginning teach their children about masculine cultures which are prevalent
in their society since time immemorial.
Summary:-

Ingoldsby in his article focuses upon the relationship between familism and

machismo. He first instigates the reader to learn about the various needs of the family and the
importance of putting forward the needs of the whole family before his own individual
development. He then enlists the basic characteristics of machismo- aggressiveness and hyper
sexuality. Hyper sexuality leads to the impotent and homosexuals being scorned at while having
a monogamous or polygamous affair were considered normal. 1This article also talks about the
psychological causes of machismo. According to him men displaying feelings of machismo
would be due to feelings of inferiority which is suppressed by strong masculine ones. He also in
this article, talks about the poor father-son relationship in the Latin America to being a cause of
instigating a feeling of inferiority. Bron Ingoldsby also writes about the support which is
provided to machismo by the female individuals of the Latin- American society. He tells that the
sense of inferiority combined with poor socio-economic standards and sense of support from the
females leads to the glorification of hyper- masculinity otherwise known as machismo.
Body:

Methodological aspect of the author:- Bron. B. Ingoldsby in this article uses a simple
approach by which he can establish the differences between familism and machismo as

1 The people of Aritama by Gerardo and Alicia Rachel Dolmatoff(1961:146)

two different sides of the same coin. He goes step by step, first describing the topics of
the study and then giving the causes and then supporting the arguments provided by him
in favor of each of the topics described.

Originality of the aspect:- The topic originality is an issue which can be told as the issue
where the author has tried to support his arguments by acquiring knowledge from
different sources such as The people of Aritama by Gerardo and Alicia Rachel Dolmatoff
(1961:146)and Social interest: A challenge to mankind. He also gives his findings a
firm structure with accessing the articles of other persons and using them to criticize as
well as justifying the arguments proposed by him in favor of either familism or
machismo. The credibility of this particular article goes to the various articles of the
previous Latin- American authors who have either written about familism or machismo.

Findings of the article:- The Article has the main objective of finding out the differences
between familism and machismo and also tries to perfect the relationship between them.
The causes which contribute to the induction of the feeling of machismo are enlisted as
follows:1. Poor father-son relationship
2. Bad socio-economic background
3. Support from the female society of male superiority
4. Lastly, the sense of feeling superior to others.
He also introduces the concept of Marianismo were the women are described to be semidivine and morally superior to men. He in his article talks about how women are
dominated over in the society, how they are passive and dependant on others and endure
physical punishment.

Moral Significance of the study:- This study, as I discussed above talks about
differentiating familism and machismo. Familism, in the current world is actually more
similar to the feeling of kindness and compassion shown to the members of the family by
other members. Machismo has a new name nowadays that of hyper masculinity which is

basically same to that of the earlier days. The belief of the author that women are
submissive, dependant and are subdued by men is still prevalent in some parts of the
world but with the change in time, that has also reversed in nature.
Conclusion:- I shall conclude by saying that the article written by Bron B. Ingoldsby has by far
the most knowledge acquired about a particular topic. This topic was well-chosen and
accumulates knowledge from various different sources. This topic instills a sense of superiority
in men and submissiveness in women. It also specifies the basic characteristics of machismo.
The female support from the society of male superiority and the sense of superior behavior by
the males of the society shows altogether a different perspective of machismo than is prevalent in
the current world. Nowadays the concept of feminism has subdued the concept of machismo
altogether.