18 Gender Anthropology Appreciating Human Diversity 14 th

18 Gender Anthropology: Appreciating Human Diversity 14 th Edition Conrad Phillip Kottak

2 Gender • • Sex and Gender Recurrent Gender Patterns Gender Among Foragers Gender Among Horticulturalists Gender Among Agriculturalists Patriarchy and Violence Gender and Industrialism Sexual Orientation © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

3 Gender • How are biology and culture expressed in human sex/gender systems? • How do gender, gender roles, and gender stratification correlate with other social, economic, and political variables? • What is sexual orientation, and how do sexual practices vary cross-culturally? © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

4 Sex and Gender • Women and men differ genetically. – Sexual dimorphism: marked differences in male and female biology besides the primary and secondary sexual features – Sex differences are biological. – Gender is a cultural construction of male and female characteristics. © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

5 • The biological nature of men and women (should be seen) not as a narrow enclosure limiting the human organism, but rather as a broad base upon which a variety of structures can be built. (Friedl 1975) • Fluidity of sex and gender!! (Judith Butler) © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

6 Sex and Gender • Gender roles: tasks and activities that a culture assigns to the sexes • Gender stereotypes: oversimplified, strongly held ideas of characteristics of men and women • Gender stratification: unequal distribution of rewards between men and women, reflecting their different positions in a social hierarchy © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

7 Recurrent Gender Patterns • The subsistence contributions of men and women are roughly equal crossculturally. – In domestic activities, female labor dominates. – In extradomestic activities, male labor dominates. – Women are the primary caregivers, but men often play a role. © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

8 Recurrent Gender Patterns • Differences in male and female reproductive strategies – Men mate, within and outside marriage, more than women do. – Double standards restrict women more than men and illustrate gender stratification. • Gender stratification is lower when men and women make roughly equal contributions to subsistence. © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

9 Table 18. 1: Generalities in the Division of Labor by Gender, Based on Data from 185 Societies © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

10 Table 18. 2: Time and Effort Expended on Subsistence Activities by Men and Women © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

11 Table 18. 3: Who Does the Domestic Work? © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

12 Table 18. 4: Who Has Final Authority over the Care, Handling, and Discipline of Infant Children (Under Four Years Old)? © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

13 Table 18. 5: Does the Society Allow Multiple Spouses? © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

14 Table 18. 6: Is There a Double Standard with Respect to Premarital Sex? © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

15 Table 18. 7: Is There a Double Standard with Respect to Extramarital Sex? © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

16 Gender Among Foragers • The Domestic–Public Dichotomy – The strong differentiation between home and the outside world is called the domestic–public dichotomy, or the private–public contrast. • Activities of the domestic sphere tend to be performed by women. • Activities of the public sphere tend to be restricted to men. – Gender stratification is less developed among foragers. © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

17 Gender Among Foragers • Almost universally, the greater size, strength, and mobility of men have led to their exclusive service in the roles of hunters and warriors. – Lactation and pregnancy also tend to preclude the possibility of women being primary hunters in foraging societies. – The Agta (women hunt small animals) – The Ju/’hoansi San (gender equality) © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

18 Gender Among Horticulturalists • Gender roles and stratification among cultivators vary widely (economy, social structure). – Matrilineal descent: people join mother’s group at birth – Patrilineal descent: people have membership in the father’s group © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

19 Gender Among Horticulturalists – Patrilocality: couple lives in husband’s community – Matrilocality: couple lives in wife’s community © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

20 Gender Among Horticulturalists • Martin and Voorhies: women main producers in horticultural societies – Dominate horticulture in 64 percent of matrilineal societies and 50 percent of patrilineal societies © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

21 Gender Among Horticulturalists • Reduced Gender Stratification— Matrilineal, Matrilocal Societies – Matrilineal-matrilocal systems tend to occur in societies where population pressure on strategic resources is minimal and warfare infrequent. – Women tend to have high status (status, social identity). – For example, the Iroquois (women manage production and distribution, control alliances, make political decisions) © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

22 Table 18. 8: Male and Female Contributions to Production in Cultivating Societies © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

23 Figure 18. 2: Historic Territory of the Iroquois © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

24 Gender Among Horticulturalists • Reduced Gender Stratification—Matrilocal Societies – Tanner: A combination of male travel and a prominent female economic role reduced gender stratification and promoted high female status. • Igbo of eastern Nigeria © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

25 Gender Among Horticulturalists • Matriarchy – Sanday: Matriarchies exist in that society, but not as mirror images of patriarchies. – Among the Minangkabau, despite the special position of women, the matriarchy is not the equivalent of female rule. © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

26 Gender Among Horticulturalists • Increased Gender Stratification— Patrilineal-Patrifocal Societies – Patrilineal-patrifocal complex: male supremacy is based on patrilineality, patrilocality, and warfare – Martin and Voorhies: The decline of matrilineality and spread of the patrilinealpatrifocal can be linked to pressure on resources. © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

27 Gender Among Horticulturalists • The patrilineal-patrilocal tends to have a sharp domestic-public dichotomy; men tend to dominate the prestige hierarchy. – Women do most of the cultivation, cooking, and raising children, but are isolated from the public domain. – Males dominate the public domain: politics, feasts, warfare © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

28 Table 18. 8: Male and Female Contributions to Production in Cultivating Societies © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

29 Gender Among Agriculturalists • Women typically lose roles as primary cultivators in an agriculture economy. – Women are main workers in 50 percent of horticultural societies but only in 15 percent of agricultural societies. – The advent of agriculture cut women off from production. – Belief systems started contrasting men’s valuable extradomestic (outside the home) with women’s domestic role. © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

30 Patriarchy and Violence • Patriarchy: a political system ruled by men in which women have inferior social and political status – Societies that feature a full-fledged patriarchy, with warfare and intervillage raiding, adopt such practices as dowry murders, female infanticide, and clitoridectomy. – Isolated families and patrilineal social forms spread at expense of matrilineality © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

31 Patriarchy and Violence • With the spread of the women’s rights and human rights movements, attention to domestic violence and the abuse of women increased. – Patriarchal institutions persist in what should be a more enlightened world. © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

32 Gender and Industrialism • The domestic–public dichotomy has affected gender stratification in industrial societies. • Gender roles are changing rapidly in North America. – The traditional idea that a woman’s place is in the home developed among middleand upper-class Americans as industrialism spread after 1900. © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

33 Gender and Industrialism • Margolis: gendered work, attitudes, and beliefs have varied in response to U. S. economic needs. – Attitudes about gendered work have varied with class and region. – Woman’s role in the home is stressed during periods of high unemployment. – Today’s jobs are not especially demanding in terms of physical labor. © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

34 Gender and Industrialism • The Feminization of Poverty – There is an increasing representation of women and their children among America’s poorest people. – Globally, households headed by women tend to be poorer than those headed by men. • It is widely believed that one way to improve the situation of poor women is to encourage them to organize. © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

35 Table 18. 9: Cash Employment of U. S. Mothers, Wives, and Husbands, 1960– 2007 © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

36 Table 18. 10: Earnings in the U. S. by Gender and Job Type for Year-Round Full-Time Workers, 2006 © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

37 Table 18. 11: Median Annual Income of U. S. Households by Household Type, 2006 © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

38 Sexual Orientation • Sexual orientation: a person’s habitual sexual attraction to, and sexual activities with – Persons of opposite sex (heterosexuality) – Persons of same sex (homosexuality) – Both sexes (bisexuality) – Asexuality: indifference toward or lack of attraction to members of either sex © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

39 Sexual Orientation • Recently in U. S. , the tendency has been to see sexual orientation as fixed and biologically based. – Culture always plays a role in molding individual sexual urges to a collective norm. – Sex acts involving people of the same sex were absent, rare, or secret in only 37 percent of 76 societies studied by Ford and Beach © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

40 Sexual Orientation • Various forms of same-sex sexual activity are considered normal and acceptable in some societies. – Sudanese Azande – Etoro • Flexibility in sexual expression seems to be an aspect of our primate heritage. © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

41 Figure 18. 3: The Location of the Etoro, Kaluli, and Sambia in Papua New Guinea © 2011 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.