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Definition
Explores the physical, social, psychological, evolutionary, economic, and political aspects of human behavior.
Fore people of New Guinea were cannibals who ate human brain which gave them the degenerative disease known as Kuru |
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Term
| approach and methodology of the field of anthropology |
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Definition
Cultural relativism: Understanding of other cultures by their own categories, which are assumed to be valid and worthy of respect.
Ethnocentrism: Evaluation of other cultures from the perspective of one’s own – presumably superior – culture. |
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Definition
An emic perspective attempts to capture what ideas and practices mean to members of a culture.
An etic perspective describes and analyzes culture according to principles and theories drawn from the Western scientific tradition such as ecology, economy, or psychology. |
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| Margaret Mead Sex vs. Gender |
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Definition
Sex: Biological categories within which people are typically placed, or the biological difference between males and females
Gender: The perceived or projected …masculinity or femininity of a person. …appearance, speech, movement, occupation and other factors
not solely limited to biological sex |
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| Meaning of multiple identities |
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Definition
| Gender varies cross-culturally, Gender varies over historical time , Gender varies among men and women within any one culture , Gender varies across the span of an individual human life |
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| Freidl and Engles’ contributions toward understanding gender inequalities |
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Definition
Freidl: The position of women is likely to be higher the more involved they are:
with primary subsistence as owners or controllers and with public distribution of the product of subsistence.
Engles: |
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| Nature Vs. Nurture debate |
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Definition
Are humans a “blank slate” or are we “hardwired”?
Gender variation
socialization (nurture)
innate qualities (nature) |
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| Biological vs. Cultural Determinism |
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Definition
Biological: biology determines gender behavior.
Cultural:Culture determines gender behavior. “The subordinate status of women is not biologically rooted but socially imposed (or imposed by men)” (Stone 2000: 3). |
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| Hypothesis of Male Dominance |
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Definition
Male Strength hypothesis
Men are physically stronger than women (larger, stronger muscles, less fat, pelvis adapted for sprinting, larger hearts and lungs) this gives them superiority |
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| What did feminist anthropology do for the overall practice of anthropology |
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Definition
Identified bias in past research
*Gender is important to understand how societies operate (identity and experience shaped by gender)
*Conducting research: how to ask questions, who to ask, and where to ask (public/private)
Feminist anthropology goal is “understanding and ending oppression.” (18) |
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| The Public-Domestic Dichotomy |
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Definition
Strong differentiation between the home and the outside world is called the domestic-public dichotomy, or the private-public contrast.
The activities of the domestic sphere tend to be performed by women.
The activities of the public sphere tend to be restricted to men.
Public activities tend to have greater prestige than domestic ones, which promotes gender stratification. |
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Term
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Definition
Roughly equal contributions to subsistence by men and women correlates with decreased gender stratification.
As women’s contributions to subsistence become differentially high or low, gender stratification increases.
Gender stratification is lower when domestic and public spheres are not clearly distinguished. |
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| People of Alto do Cruzeiro seen by Nancy Shepard Hughes |
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Definition
| sometimes mothers and daughters are pregnant simultaniously. Life expectancy in the Northeast is only 40 years b/c of high rate of infant and child mortality about 1 mill. children die each year in brazil under age of 5. Babies are seen of as contaminants and are not allowed into the homes of the wealthy. Shepard-Hughes found a malnourished baby, treated it and it got better so she took the baby back to its mother along with a load of guilt. |
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Definition
| Contradiction to the belief that in nature, mammal mothers instinctively and automatically care for every infant they produce. Mothers had other women care for their children when they were born, only 5% of all mothers actually cared for their children at infancy. |
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| Ayoreo Indians of Bolivia |
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Definition
nearly every woman in one village had committed infanticide. mothers buried alive nearly 38% of all infants born
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| Baby abandonment - Paris 1830-1860 social experiment |
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Definition
•La Maternite – state run charity hospital.
•Hospice des Enfants Assistes – legal abandonment
•Reduce the number of abandoned babies.
•Increased infant exposure – 8 days
•Abandoned babies dropped from 24 to 10%. |
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| What biological primers for parenting did Hrdy present as promoting mother-infant attachment |
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Definition
•Cute – “Kewpie Doll Effect”
•Reflex Responses – ability to suck, grasp, smile
•Crying – need for something
•Mother’s heart rate increases
•Maternal endorphins – oxytocin and prolactin – “happy hormones”
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Term
| What is a major determiner of female parental investment? |
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Definition
Mother’s emotional commitment to her infant is contingent on ecologically and historically produced circumstances.
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Term
| How do Andean outside markets in Ecuador fit the public/private dichotomy? |
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Definition
Hand-made stalls, open-walled structures
–invite people to look, touch and taste
Cooking -Smells of food, Garbage, Women yelling, Washing dishes and emptying slop buckets, Eating in public
All these activites are traditionally seen as a domestic or private womanly roles in which men are excluded and therefore fit the public/private dichotomy
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Term
| Critiques/examples that limit the public/private dicotomy model |
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Definition
| The dichotomy between civilized and native is a result of missionization and has created a status hierarchy differentially applied to men and to women. An example that limits the public/private dicotomy model is the Comanche, Cheyenne and Kiowa indians. They illustrate the recent focus on gender and on the multiple positions that men and women hold in societies in which the domestic-public dichotomy seems inappropriate. This is because these spheres are integrated and there is no firm line between domestic and public space. The Comanche are an example of how men and women live relatively autonomous, the concept of feminity was not elaborated and the greatest status differences were between unmarried and married men. Another example is Nelson’s study of Middle Eastern societies where women are born in one patrilineal group and marry into another, thus serving as important links and mediators. |
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Term
What is the relationship of “the big four”: biological sex, gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation |
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Definition
Biological sex
Gender Identity
- Man, third gender, two spirited, hijra, woman
Gender expression
- Masculine, androgyne, feminine
Sexual orientation
- Attracted to men, attracted to people, attracted to women
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Term
| Be able to discuss gender diversity in terms of “the big four,” transgender, transsexual, and the terms under “the umbrella” (see power point- literal umbrella). |
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Definition
Transgender
- inclusive sex/gender category including both transexuals and others who keep feminine and masculine characteristics
Transexual
- a person who considers him/herself to be the gender opposite to that of his/her anatomy-some go through sex reassignment surgery.
Umbrella
- anyone who is either a female impersonater, inter sexed, male impersonator, transvestites, masculine woman, effinate man, transexuals, drag queens, transgenderists, crossdressers, drag kings
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| What are some ways researchers have tried to predict gender diversity in society |
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Definition
Gender differientation
- Indian (high), and American Indian and Polynesian Cultures (low)
Gender not determined by anatomical sex or anatomical sex is unstable, fluid and non-dichotomous
Worldwide view or cosmology
- cultural concept of person
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Term
| Polynesian gender diversity specifically the fa’afafine |
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Definition
Sociocentric society: gender is a social role, not rooted in the individual
Egocentic society: having or regarding the self or the individual as the center of all things: an egocentric philosophy that ignores social causes.
Traditional/cultural Fa'afafine do not approve of city fa'afafine because they seem them as too flamboyant and that they should retain some of their manhood
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Native American gender diversity specifically the two-spirits |
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Definition
Tribal Variations
- Transvestism: dress, hairstyles, weapons and mannerisms
- Cross gender occupations: preference and achievements in the work of the "opposite" sex and/or unique activities specific to their identities
- Gender difference: distinguished from men and women in terms of temparment, dress, lifestyle, and social roles
4 hypothesis to account for two-spirited people
- Accomidate homosexuality
- Unable to fullfill demanding male roles
- Transgender as religious phenomenon
- Occupational prestige
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Term
| India gender diversity specifically the hijra |
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Definition
What aspects of Indian cosmology and belief system socially legitimize the roles of hijra
- Dharma (Hindu belief/acceptance of unique life paths)
- Shiva (Ardhanariswar)
– Vehicles of the divine power
of the Mother Goddess
– The god of destruction and
unparalleled anger
– Half man and half woman
Why is the transformation to become a hijra considered to be a rite of passage
What roles do hijra have in Indian society
- Six hijras in elected to public office
Explain the importance of the sexual division of labor and why the sexual stereotypes of man the breadwinner and woman the caretaker are not true |
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Definition
| Women are increasingly entering the workforce. While men may work, women also are entering the labor force while being expected to run the domestic side of the family. Women in these instances are working double duties, while the domestic side is negatively valued and not considered work once they get home from their "real" days work. |
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| Discuss the patterns in different cultures of the sexual division of labor for the Agta, !Kung, Vatanai, Kichwa, Tuareg, and Masai |
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Definition
Agta
- virtually no division of labor between sexes. Agta women hunt game animals and fish just as men do. Not only do they make significant contributions to the daily food supply, but they also control the distribution of the foods they acquire, sharing them with their families and trading them in the broader community. Most Agta prefer to eat corn, cassava, and sweet potatoes, and neglect the several varieties of roots, palm hearts, and greends procurable in the forrest. They are located in the phillippines.
!Kung
- 60-80% DIET IS VEGETABLES, GATHERED BY WOMEN;2-3 DAYS/WEEK. Women provide 2-3 times the amount of food as men.
- Men are the hunters which achieve a kill once about every 4 days.
- They are a egalitarian society with no social stratification. Located in south africa.
Kichwa
Vatanai
- The people of Vanatinai are primarily horticulturalists, practicing a nonintensive form of agriculture, which anthropologists sometimes refer to as gardening.Both men and women fish collectively, using nets woven by men from the ibrous aerial root of pandanus. Women do much of the harvesting of garden produce, often several times a week. One major restriction for women is that it is taboo for them to hunt with spears because women are seen as life givers and men are life takers. In Vanatinai when discussing gender there is no principle of male superiority or female weakness or inferiority, no idea that women are supposed to defer to men. Men and women are valued for the same qualities which includes being strong, wise and generous. Both men and women can achieve fame through active participation in the prestige and ritual economy of exchange and feasting but can also earn respect through nurturing families and gardens, practicing food magic or weather magic, or helping kin and neighbors through the spirit-directed practices of healing. Matrilineal society. Island society off the coast of Papua New Guinea.
Taureg
- Taureg are a seminomadic and agropastoral society which offers opportunities for women, who enjoy traditionally-high social prestige and along with men independent property ownership of livestock. Women are not sequestered, do not veil their faces, and have much social and economic independence and freedom of movement. However the official political structure is male dominated. Women are also discouraged from performing heavy physical labor, reflecting past nole disdain for household, herding and gardening labor formerly performed by servile and client peoples. Located in the Saharian interior of Northern Africa.
Masai
- Almost always patrilineal and patrilocal society. Prestige is gained for the men in how much cattle they own, how much dung they have on their huts, children they have and how many women they have. For women prestige is gained by the order in which they are married to men. Women are supposed to take care of the village while men have no obligations. Women are the property of men and the more women a man is married to the higher his status. They are located in Kenya above Tanzania.
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