12. Women and Men

Question 1

What is the biological theory of gender?

Answer 1

1. Body thought of solely as a physical entity.

2. Differences between male and female bodies justified gender inequality.

Question 2

What did feminist theorists want to respond to and how did they want to do it?

Answer 2

1. Wanted to criticize the male-centric nature of anthropological writings and the conception of gender difference as solely biological.
2. To do this, they wanted to create an ‘anthropology of women’ and introduce an alternative approach to the study of gender.

Question 3

What were the initial feminist theories of gender?

Answer 3

1. female : male :: nature : culture (Ortner 1974)
2. female : male :: domestic : public (Rosaldo 1974)
3. Prior to capitalism, women = men. Capitalism renders the value of productive labour>reproductive labour thus men>women

Question 4

How were the initial feminist theories of gender challenged?

Answer 4

1. married : unmarried :: nature : culture since both men and women associated to nature through sexual relations (Goodale 1980).
2. Nature/culture opposition not always reognised in all cultures -> couvade = social practices that complement the biological birth process + both parents take part! (Rival 1998).

Question 5

What is the common premise of all the feminist theories of gender?

Answer 5

Gender inequality is the result of cultural and social processes and is not the immediate result of biological differences.