1. Gender and Anthropology
interest in social relations between human sexual differences (men and women?) has been a feature of anthropology since its earliest days
19th century evolutionists and their explanations for the rise of society & culture
promiscuous horde gives way to socially organized marriage and kinship, for example
Mother right

2. Margaret Mead & 20th cent. Cultural/Social Anthropology
Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies (1935)
Male and Female (1949).
temperamental differences between the sexes were culturally determined rather than innate biological
different patterns of male and female behavior in each of the cultures she studied

3. The gentle mountain-dwelling Arapesh
Arapesh child-rearing responsibilities evenly divided among men and women
The fierce cannibalistic Mundugumor
a natural hostility exists between all members of the same sex”. Mundugumor fathers and sons, and mothers and daughters were adversaries.
The graceful headhunters of Tchambuli
While men were preoccupied with art the women had the real power, controlling fishing and manufacturing

4. Divisions of Labor & Society
Social differentiation (sex based differences) & social integration = society
Anthropology
Sex differences not only a biological fact
A universal social fact
At the same time -- culturally specific and historical anchored
Universal & particulars/the general & the specific

5. development of the study of gender in anthropology
Anthropology of Women
early 1970's attention to the lack of women in standard ethnographies
Anthropology of Gender
more thorough examinations of gender in social structure
challenged the basis for understanding social roles of male and female
Feminist Anthropology challenged the biological basis of sex and sexuality
Patriarchy; universal subordination of women
and the foundations of anthropology as it had been done

6. Society-culture Culture – meaningful (action)
Society – bundle of institutions
Institution -- institutions in society work together to produce social order
behavior patterns important to a society
structures and mechanisms of social order and cooperation governing the behavior of a set of individuals
transcending individual human lives and intentions
Culture presupposes society -- something shared & supra-individual
Society presupposes persons -- assemblage of individuals

7. Social structure
Social relationships – ongoing network of social relations
Relationships among and between definite entities or groups to each other
enduring patterns of behaviour by participants in a social system in relation to each other
institutionalised norms or cognitive frameworks that structure the actions in the social system
systems of relationships, organization, forms of associations - standardized modes of behavior

8. Social stratification
inequality in society
the unequal distribution of goods and services, rights and obligations, power and prestige
all attributes of positions in society, not attributes of individuals
Stratified society is:
when a society exhibits stratification it means that there are significant breaks in the distribution of goods services, rights obligations power prestige
as a result of which are formed collectivities or groups we call strata

9. GENDER ROLES, STEREOTYPES, STRATIFICATION
gender roles - tasks & activities that a culture assigns to sexes
gender stereotypes - oversimplified strongly held ideas about the characteristics of men & women & third sex-third gender
gender stratification - unequal distribution of rewards (socially valued resources, power, prestige, personal freedom) between men & women reflecting their position in the social hierarchy

10. Gender Stratification
unequal distribution of wealth, power and privilege between men and women
unequal distribution of wealth, power and privilege between any embodied orientation
cultures everywhere give man, as a category opposed to women, higher social value and moral worth.
Is the secondary status of women one of the true cultural universals?

11. How does one measure gender stratification?
economic power
prestige
Autonomy
ideology
Legal rights
Freedom to choose marriage partner, profession, and conception. Etc.
look at the roles played by women and the value society places on those roles

13. Structure & Agency Agency = action Agency as praxis/practice
Praxis – activity/action oriented towards a historically relevant change
Practice -- Practical sense (practice) -- adjustment (anticipatory) to demands of structure

14. SEX, SEXUALITY, GENDER not the same thing
all societies distinguish between males and females
a very few societies recognize a third, sexually intermediate category
Gender-sexuality – fixed and fluid identities
Embodiments of history – human bodily experience
Corporeal experience and social structure/organization

15. GENDER
GENDER - the cultural construction of male & female characteristics
vs. the biological nature of men & women
SEX differences are biological - GENDER differences are cultural/historical
behavioral & attitudinal differences from social & cultural rather than biological point of view

16. Sex Versus Gender Sex refers to biological differences
Gender refers to the ways members of the two sexes are perceived, evaluated and expected to behave.
The cultural construction of male and female characteristics.
what different cultures make of sex.

17. SEX differences in biology Socially & culturally marked
the body is "simultaneously a physical and symbolic artifact, both naturally and culturally produced, anchored in a particular historical moment" (Scheper-Hughes & Lock)

18. SEXUALITY (reproduction)
all societies regulate sexuality
lots of variation cross-culturally
degree of restrictiveness not always consistent through life span
adolescence vs. adulthood
Varieties of “normative” sexual orientation
Heterosexual, homosexual, transexual
Sexuality in societies change over time

19. The “Four Bodies” Individual body The social body The body politic
The mindful body

20. The Individual Body
lived experience of the body-self, body, mind, matter, psyche, soul

21. The Social Body
representational uses of the body as a natural symbol with which to think about nature, society, culture

22. The Body Politic
regulation, surveillance, & control of bodies (individual & collective) in reproduction & sexuality, in work & leisure, in sickness & other forms of deviance

23. The Mindful Body
the most immediate, the proximate terrain where social truths and social contradictions are played out
a locus of personal and social resistance, creativity, and struggle
emotions form the mediatrix between the individual, social and political body, unified through the concept of the 'mindful body.'

24. universals versus particulars
universal subordination of women is often cited as one of the true cross-cultural universals, a pan-cultural fact
Engels called it the “world historical defeat of women”
even so the particulars of women’s roles, statuses, power, and value differ tremendously by culture

25. Friedl and Leacock argument
variation among foragers
male dominance is based on exchange, public exchange
versus that exchanged privately by women
Exchange of scarce resources in egalitarian societies, gender stratification, and universal subordination of women

26. DOMESTIC - PUBLIC DICHOTOMY (M. Rosaldo)
opposition between domestic (reproduction) & public (production) provides the basis of a framework necessary to identify and explore the place of male & female in psycho, cultural, social and economic aspects of life
degree to which the contrast between public domestic (private) sphere is drawn promotes gender stratification-rewards, prestige, power

27. persistence of dualisms in ideologies of gender
a particular view of men and women as opposite kinds of creatures both biologically and culturally
nature/culture
domestic/public
reproduction/production

28. Production, Reproduction and Social Roles
roles - those minimal institutions and modes of activity that are organized immediately around one or more mothers and their children
women everywhere lactate & give birth to children
likely to be associated with child rearing & responsibilities of the home

29. We (North Americans in general) demand that the categories of male and female be discrete
since gender is culturally constructed the boundaries are conceptual rather than physical
Boundaries require markers to indicate gender
the boundaries are dynamic, eg. now it is acceptable for men to wear earrings.
Gender Boundaries
Is this a man or a woman?
How do you know?
Voice
Physique
Dress
Behaviour
Hair style
Kinetics
Language use

30. The “Third Gender”
essentialism of western ideas of sexual dimorphism - dichotomized into natural & then moral entities of male & female that are given to all persons, one or the other
committed western view of sex and gender as dichotomous, ascribed, unchanging
other categories - every society including our own is at some time or other faced with people who do not fit into its sex & gender categories

31. The “Third Gender”
a significant number of people are born with genitalia that is neither clearly male or female
Hermaphrodites
persons who change their biological sex
persons who exhibit behavior deemed appropriate for the opposite sex
persons who take on other gender roles other than those indicated by their genitals

32. Third Genders
transsexual – gender/ sex incongruent, “trapped in wrong body” but with the gender identity of their organs/sex change operation
transvestite – dressing as other gender, biological sex (cross-dresser)
homosexual
bisexual
eunuch – castrated male
hermaphrodite – both sets of biological organs
Virgin?
Boy/Girl?

33. Third Gender: Western Bias
multiple cultural & historical worlds in which people of divergent gender & sexual desire exist
margins or borders of society
may pass as normal to remain hidden in the official ideology & everyday commerce of social life
when discovered - iconic matter out of place - "monsters of the cultural imagination“
third gender as sexual deviance a common theme in US
evolution & religious doctrine
heterosexuality the highest form, the most moral way of life, its natural

34. Third Gender Cross-Culturally
provokes us to reexamine our own assumptions regarding our gender system
emphasizes gender role alternatives as adaptations to economic and political conditions rather than as "deviant" and idiosyncratic behavior
rigid dichotomozation of genders is a means of perpetuating the domination of females by males and patriarchal institutions.

35. RETHINKING SUBORDINATION
Ardener - muted models that underlie male discourse
diversity of one life or many lives
gender roles, stereotypes, stratification
changes over time
changes with position in lifecycle
status of men & women i.e. in male dominant societies
decision making roles belong to men but as women reach menopause; change with marriage status, virgins, wives, widows (and men)

36. RETHINKING SUBORDINATION
women, like men, are social actors who work in structured ways to achieve desired ends
formal authority structure of a society may declare that women are impotent & irrelevant
but attention to women's strategies & motives, sorts of choices, relationships established, ends achieved indicates women have good deal of power
strategies appear deviant & disruptive
actual components of how social life proceeds