Vocab from Exam 1 needed for Exam 2

sex

• Biologically determined indicators of human distinction

• Broadly: outward physical traits

• Male/men; female/woman; intersex folks

gender

• Traits or characteristics valued in a particular culture for a particular sex

• The cultural interpretation of sex

sexuality

• “Cultural interpretation of a person’s sexual identity, determined by whether or not a person arranges her sexual life according to the norms of her society”

• Not the same as “heterosexuality”, “homosexuality,” “acesexuality,” etc

essentialist

• scholars who argue, against Foucault, that sexuality and sexual identity are an inborn essence or quality in a person that leads to commonalities across time and place

constructionalist

• scholars who, like Foucault, argue that sexuality and sexual identity are culturally specific. Both Ormand and I are constructionalists.

Athens

• Is a polis in the region Attica

• Known for democracy

• Where most of the stuff we read comes from

Athenian Citizenship Law

• Instituted in 451 BCE under the politician Pericles

• Said that in order for a person to be considered Athenian, both their mother and their father had to be Athenian by descent

• No one who wasn’t born from both citizen parents were allowed to participate in the polis

kurios

male guardian of female

pederasty

A relationship between an older and younger man. 

• Involved intricate courtship rituals

• had a sexual and educational component.

• Particularly prominent in the 5^th and 4^th centuries BCE in Athens

erastes

older, active partner in pederastic relationship

eromenos

younger, passive partner in pederastic relationship

enkrateia

self control over one’s body and desires

sophrosyne

• idea of having restraint, modesty

• what women should have

andreia

manly, masculine, brave

hybris

act of violating someone against his or her will

symposium

ritualized drinking party will all men where heavy drinking, reciting poetry, and eroticism occur

Aristophanes

• Athenian comic playwright from the late 5th century BCE (classical period)

• There were many playwrights who wrote comedies during this time period, but only Aristophanes’s plays survive

• His comedies make direct references to political events and public figures