Final Exam Flashcards
Gender Studies
The study of how gender identities and expressions are shaped by and affect one’s life chances
Sex
 the culturally agreed upon physical differences between male and female, especially biological differences related to human reproduction
Gender
The expectations of thought and behavior that each culture assigns to different sexes
Sexual dimorphism
 the phenotypic differences between males and females of the same species
Gender identity
Each person’s internal experience and understanding of their own gender
Gender expression
How a person expresses or presents themselves in relationship to gender, whether in their appearance, behavior, name or pronouns
Transgender
People whose gender identity and expression do not correspond with the biological sex category they were assigned at birth.
Cisgender
 people whose gender identity and expression correspond with the biological sex category they were assigned at birth
Cultural construction of gender
 the ways humans learn to perform and recognize behaviors as masculine or feminine within their cultural context
Masculinity
The ideas and practices associated with manhood
Femininity
The ideas and practices associated with womanhood
Gender performance
The way gender identity is expressed through action
Intersex
The state of being born with a combination of male and female, genitalia, gonads and/or chromosomes
Gender stratification
An unequal distribution of power in which gender shapes who has access to a groups resources, opportunities, rights, and privileges
Gender stereotypes
Widely held preconceived notions about the attributes of differences between, and proper roles for men and women in culture
Gender ideology
A set of cultural ideas, usually stereotypical, about the essential character of different genders that functions to promote and justify gender stratification
Gender violence
Forms of violence shaped by the gender identities of the people involved
Structural gender violence
Gendered societal patterns of unequal access to wealth, power and basic resources, such as food, shelter and healthcare that differentially affect women in particular.
Sexuality
The complex range of desires, beliefs, and behaviors that are related to erotic physical contact, and the cultural arena in which people debate what kinds of physical desires and behaviors are right, appropriate, and natural
Sex tourism
Travel usually organized through the tourism sector, to facilitate commercial sexual relations between tourist and local residents and destinations around the world
Sex work
Labor through which one provides sexual services for money
Kinship
The system of meaning and power created to determine who is related to whom and to define their mutual expectations, rights, and responsibilities
Nuclear family
The kinship unit of mother, father and children
Descent groups
A kinship group in which primary relationships are traced through certain consanguineal (blood) relatives.
Lineages
A type of descent group that traces genealogical connections through many generations by linking persons to a founding ancestor
Clans
A type of descent group based on a claim to a founding ancestor, but lacking genealogical documentation
Patrilineal descent group
A kinship group in which membership passes to the next generation from father to son
Affinal relationships
A kinship relationship established through marriage and/or alliance not through biology or common descent
Marriage
A socially recognized relationship that may involve physical and emotional intimacy as well as legal rights to property and inheritance
Arranged marriage
Marriage orchestrated by the families of the involved parties
Companionate marriage
Marriage built on love, intimacy, and personal choice rather than social obligation
Polygyny
Marriage between one man and two or more women
Polyandry
Marriage between one woman and two or more men
Monogamy
A relationship between only two partners
Incest taboo
Cultural rules that forbid sexual relations with certain close relatives
Exogamy
Marriage to someone outside the kinship group
Endogamy
Marriage to someone within the kinship group
Bridewealth
The gift of goods or money from the grooms family to the brides family as part of the marriage process
Dowry
The gifts of goods or money from the brides family to the grooms family as part of the marriage process
Family of orientation
The family group in which one is born, grows up, and develops life skills
Family of procreation
The family group created when one reproduces, and within which one rears children
Class
A system of power based on wealth, income, and status that creates an unequal distribution of a societies resources
Stratification
The uneven distribution of resources and privileges among members of a group or culture
Egalitarian Society
A group based on the sharing of resources to ensure success with a relative absence of violence or hierarchy
Reciprocity
The exchange of resources, goods, and services among people of relatively equals status; meant to create and reinforce social ties
Reciprocity
The exchange of resources, goods, and services among people of relatively equals status; meant to create and reinforce social ties
Ranked societies
A group in which wealth is not stratified, but prestige and status are
Redistribution
A form of exchange in which accumulated wealth is collected from the members of a group and reallocated in a different pattern
Potlatch
Elaborate redistribution ceremony practice among the Kwakiutl of the Pacific Northwest
Bourgeoisie
Marxian term for the capitalist class that owns the means of production
Means of protection
The factories, machines, tools, raw materials, land, and financial capital needed to make things
Capital
Any assets employed or capable of being deployed to produce wealth
Proletariat
Marxian terms for the class of laborers who owns only their labor
Prestige
The reputation, influence, and deference bestowed on certain people because of their membership in certain groups
Life chances
An individuals opportunities to improve their quality of life and realize life goals
Social mobility
The movement of one’s class position upward or downward in stratified societies
Social reproduction
The phenomenon whereby social and class relations of prestige or lack of prestige are passed from one generation to the next
Habitus
Bordieu’s term to describe the self perceptions, sensibilities, and taste developed in response to external influences over a lifetime that shapes ones conceptions of the world and where one fits in it.
Cultural capital
The knowledge, habits, and taste learned from parents and family that individuals can use to gain access to scarce and valuable resources in society
Intersectionality
An analytic framework for assessing how factors such as race, gender, and class interact to shape individual life chances and societal patterns of stratification.
Income
What people earn from work plus dividends and interest on investments along with earnings from rent and royalties.
Wealth
The total value of what someone owns, minus any debt
Caste
A system of stratification most prominently found in south Asia in which status is determined by birth
Dalits
Member of India’s “lowest” caste; literally “broken people”. Also called “untouchables”
Ascribed status
A status assigned, usually at birth
Achieved status
A status acquired during one’s lifetime
Band
A small kinship based group of foragers who hunt and gather for a living over a particular territory
Chiefdom
An autonomous political unit composed of a number of villages or communities under the permanent control of a paramount chief
State
On autonomous regional structure of political, economic, and military rule with a central government authorized to make laws and use force to maintain order and defend its territory.
Civil Society organizations
A local non-governmental organization that challenges state policies and uneven development and advocates for resources and opportunities for its local community. (NGOs)
Militarization
The contested social process through which a civil Society organizes for the production of military violence
Agency
The potential power of individuals and groups to contest cultural norms, values, mental maps of reality, symbols, institutions, and structures of power.
Social movements
Collective group actions that seek to build institutional networks to transform cultural patterns and government policies
Religion
A set of beliefs and rituals based on a vision of how the world ought to be, and how life ought to be lived, often, though not always focused on a supernatural power and lived out in the community.
Martyr
A person who sacrifices their life for the sake of religion
Martyr
A person who sacrifices their life for the sake of religion
Martyr
A person who sacrifices their life for the sake of religion
Saint
An individual considered exceptionally close to God and who is exalted after death
Sacred
Anything that is considered holy
Profane
Anything that is considered unholy
Ritual
An act or series of acts regularly repeated over years or generations that embodies the beliefs of a group of people and creates a sense of continuity and belonging.
Rite of passage
A category of ritual that impacts a change of status from one life stage to another, either for an individual or for a group.
Liminality
One stage in a rite of passage during which a ritual participant experiences a period of outsider hood, set apart from normal society, that is key to achieving a new perspective on the past, present, and future community.
Communitas
A sense of camaraderie, a common vision of what constitutes the good life, and a commitment to take social action towards achieving this vision that is shaped by the common experience of rites of passage.
Pilgrimage
A religious journey to a sacred place as a sign of devotion and in search of transformation and enlightenment
Secular
Without religious or spiritual basis
Shamans
Local religious practitioners with abilities to connect individuals with supernatural power or beings to provide special knowledge and power for healing, guidance, and wisdom.
Magic
The use of spells, incantations, words, and actions, and an attempt to compel supernatural forces to act in certain ways, whether for good or evil.
Symbol
Anything that represents something else
Authorizing processes
The complex historical and social developments through which symbols are given power and meaning
