ABOVE AND BELOW - TOWARD A SOCIAL GEOMETRY OF GENDER

Sexual stratification in gender relations in Andalusia cannot be fully understood unless perceived within a broader cognitive schema of ''ab oveness'' and ''belowness.'' Males and females relate on verticalized scales of power, morality, and sexuality. These hierarchies exist with in wider orientational metaphors that include the built environment, n orms about sexual intercourse, domestic relations, political dominatio n, and geography. However, expressive genres invert such linear scales , reversing or negating the existing social hierarchies.