04: Spanning the World: Culture Constructs Gender Differences

Question 1

cultural diversity vs. cultural universals

Answer 1

virtually all cultures manifest a gendered division of labour, differences between women and men, and some form of male dominance

Question 2

margaret mead: sex and temperament in three primitive societies

Answer 2

argued gender roles differ in different societies; coined statement “human nature is malleable”

Question 3

Friedrich Engels

Answer 3

demise of the original matriarchal family form is a result of the knowledge of paternity and male control over private property

Question 4

Melvin Harris

Answer 4

argues warrior societies develop patrilineality, male dominance, and, for purposes of legitimation, patriarchal religion

Question 5

descent theorisists

Answer 5

emphasize that men’s uncertain paternity drives them to form bonds with other men in hunting/warfare group (rather than with women and children)

Question 6

alliance theorists

Answer 6

focus on the defining of acceptable marriage partners which leads to a system in which men exchange women to cement alliances, a practice that diminishes women’s status as a prerequisite for social cohesion

Question 7

determinants of women’s lower status

Answer 7

strong sexual division of labour
men's control of property
Men's absence from child care
unequal contribution to subsistence
sex segregation
rituals that highlight gender difference separate or exclude on the basis of gender

Question 8

couvade

Answer 8

a number of rituals that men in some cultures observe when their wives are having babies

Question 9

purdah

Answer 9

the primarily Islamic practice of social seclusion of women; a system of segregation aimed at keeping women (particularly married and marriageable ones) completely separate from the world of men

Question 10

circumcision

Answer 10

excision of foreskin; ritual incorporating a male into society

Question 11

female ‘circumcision’ aka female genital mutilation (FMG) or female genital cutting (FGS)

Answer 11

WHO recognizes 4 ‘types’ of FGM/FGC, rem the removal of the hood of the clit all the way to infibulation - involving removal of most external genital tissue and sewing together ofremaining tissue with only a small opening left for urination

Question 12

berdache

Answer 12

a word (now considered offensive by Aboriginal people) for the custom by which persons of one sex (usually men) adopt the gender identity of the other sex.