Gender Flashcards
1
Q
What is Gender?
A
- Sex - biology?
- sexually dimorphic: The physiological differences in form between males and females.
- Gender - culture
- The way the sexes are perceived, evaluated, and expected to behave.
- But science is cultural
- How does gender relate to biology?
- Some anthropologists take the maximum constructivist viewpoint
- Others think of cross-cultural variation in gender as different cultural solutions to universally-shared human variation
- Gender = an assignment into categories; part of a cultural ontology
- Categories entail certain expectations and obligations
- he way the sexes are perceived, evaluated, and expected to behave.
- Gender intersects with other forms of difference
- gender ideology:gender ideology A system of thoughts, attitudes, and values that legitimizes gender roles, statuses, and customary behaviour. A system of thoughts, attitudes, and values that legitimizes gender roles, statuses, and customary behaviour.
2
Q
Genotype and phenotype
A
- Consider the case of Belgian supermodel Hanne Gaby Odiele
- If genetics don’t always determine “sex” how useful is this biology/culture distinction anyway
- We are bio-cultural – just as language highlights this, gender does too
3
Q
Emily Martin
A
- The Egg and the Sperm: How Science Has Constructed a Romance Based on Stereotypical Male-Female Roles” (1991)
- Gametes are real (as are hormones, chromosomes, etc.) – but how do we understand objective reality?
- Remember, language is symbolic; science is cultural
4
Q
Three Basic Concepts
A
- Society is a group of people joined by recurrent patterns of interaction and relationship
- A person is an individual in a society (societies are made up of different kinds or categories of person)
- The categories and meanings that characterize a society make a cultural ontology (Gilbert Herdt 1994)
- Gender is part of a cultural ontology
5
Q
We learn to be persons
A
- We learn the categories of persons that characterize our cultural ontology
- Categories are based upon differences
- Learning the categories is an active endeavour
- We enact the categories to which society conditions or places us
- The cross-cultural study of gender illustrates variability in cultural ontologies, and highlights challenges in determining to what degree we are shaped by culture or nature (or if those distinctions are the right place to start from)
6
Q
Gender Roles
A
- Cultural ontology ascribes people to particular roles as a function of gender attribution
- As with other social roles, we may conform or resist
- Gender roles include types of occupation or work, familial duties, leadership positions, ritual participation
- Gender roles vary cross culturally, though we observe some general patterns
7
Q
The Gendered Division of Labour
A
- Gender roles form the building blocks for the division of labour
- Cross-cultural regularities – certain tasks are typically reserved for men and certain tasks are reserved for women – does this support biological determinism?
- fertility maintenance, physical strength, reproductive roles, and child care compatibility
- Despite these regularities, there is also cross-cultural variation that appears related to other factors (economics, kinship)
- And as changing gender roles show us, these roles are not (always) rigid – depends on several contextual factors
8
Q
Gendered Patterns in the Division of Labour
A
- Men engage in warfare, trap and kill large animals, work with hard substances (wood and stone), clear land, build houses, and fish at sea
- Women tend to crops, gather wild fruit and plants, trap and kill small animals, prepare food, collect firewood, clean house, launder clothing, and carry water
- Childcare is overwhelmingly a job women perform
- Both men and women tend small domesticated animals, make utilitarian products (pottery, baskets), milk animals, plant and harvest crops, and collect shellfish
9
Q
Fertility Maintenance
A
- Theory - Recurrent physical exertion (hunting, clearing land, fighting, etc.) can compromise fertility in females
- Low body fat ratio and hormonal changes impact on childbearing
- Critique - Humans are cultural creatures
- We create technologies that get around the physical rigours of work
- Women work just as hard as men (i.e.,perform physically demanding tasks)
10
Q
Relative Strength
A
- Theory - Men are stronger so they do the harder tasks
- This is why they hunt and do heavier farm work
- Critique
- Not all division of labour n=break down around strength
- Women can perform tasks that require strength too
11
Q
Reproductive Roles
A
- Theory - Women are more important in reproductive terms
- Men have lots of sperm, so few men can impregnate many women- men are expendable (which is why they’re most often fighters or perform more hazardous roles)
- Critique
- Men are important models for children; they are not just needed for impregnation
12
Q
Compatibility with Child Care
A
- Theory – The division of labour reflects tasks well-suited to childcare
- Women’s task are compatible with pregnancy, breastfeeding and care-taking
- Critique
- Women sometimes prioritize economic activities over childcare
- There are many ways to divide labour, including childcare tasks
13
Q
Cross-cultural variation
A
- The patterns are general, not universal
- We find differences in gendered role obligations
- Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies (1935) Margaret Mead
- Comparison of Arapesh, Mundugomor, and Tchambuli
- Tchambuli – roles inverted when compared to “Western societies”
- Arapesh – both men and women cooperative, non-aggressive and responsive to needs of others
- Mundugomor – both men and women expected to be fierce, ruthless, and aggressive
- Examples of women hunting have been documented among the:
- Mbuti, Tiwi, Ojibwe, Cree and Matses
- The Agta (foragers from the Philippines) are often touted as an example, since women hunting is common (wild pig, deer and monkey)
14
Q
Gender Stratification
A
- The hierarchical ranking of members of a society according to gender.
- Differences in gender roles are tied to differences in status
- Major factors that influence the relative status of women are:
- Subsistence strategies, control over key resources, and kinship system and post-marital residence patterns
- The text discusses education, employment, reproductive health, finance, and progress toward equality for women
- The textbook recognizes biological differences and suggest that equality is the goal (but if we’re different, how can we be equal?) – the equality sought is equality of status, not equality to, say, menstruate
15
Q
How do we observe gender gratification?
A
- Economics
- Politics
- Religion
- Legal rights
- Education
- Health
- Ideology
- Employment
- How deferential
- Freedom to choose marriage partner, profession, conception, etc.
- Freedom to participate in public life
- Note that physical attributes are not on this list!
- We can also look at the roles played by women and the value society places on those roles
- Generally, made evident through differential access to wealth, power, and prestige
- Not all societies are characterized by male dominance (that doesn’t mean women dominate)
- Mbuti of Central Africa
- Mutual respect among men and women
- Giving birth is considered very powerful and provides women w/ high status
- Minangkabau of Sumatra
- Women control inheritance
- Husband lives in wife’s residence
- Decision making is based on consensus
- Haudenosaunee (Six Nations Confederacy)
- Women important to agriculture
- Women could not be chiefs, but choose the leaders who are largely men
- Mbuti of Central Africa
