Gender, Age, Social Status II

Anthro

Socialization

Socialization is the process through which we learn the norms, customs, values, and roles of the society, from birth through death.

Social Structure

The particular patterns of social relationships that characterize a society.

Social Organization

Refers to the way in which individuals perceive the structure and context of any situation and make decisions and choices from among alternative choices of behavior.

Refers to variations in individual behavior and emphasizes flux and change.

Practice

The emphasis on individual choices and decisions.

Agency

Refers to the fact that individuals are active responders to their culture.

Social Status

The culturally defined position or rank that a person occupies in a society; status is often based on relative honor, prestige, or social standing.

Social Role

The culturally expected behavior associated with status in a particular society.

Ascribed Status

A social status you are born into. Such as age, sex, and gender.

Achieved Status

A social status attained through effort. Such as marital, parental, and education.

Age and Sex

The most common basis for distinctions between social roles in society [child/adult; husband/wife; mother/father; daughter/son; brother/sister].

Age or Life Cycles

Such as Birth, Adolescence, becoming a parent, middle age, senior years, and death.

Sex

Biological differences between male and female (genitals, XX/XY, hormones)

Beyond this binary, however, is intersex, referring to atypical combinations of physical features that usually distinguish male from female

Sex Role

Normative behavior patterns associated with a particular sex (male or female); are sometimes used interchangeably with "gender role".

Gender

The social and cultural classification of masculine and feminine.

Gender Role

The cultural expectations of men/masculinity and women/femininity in a particular society. Can include such things as division of labor (men's work/women's work), dress, comportment, etc.

Studying Gender

While binary systems can be dominant, there are cultural variations around the world, and even here in the US societies recognize that a binary gender system can limit the way people express gender. There is much more genderfluidity now.

Cisgender

Denoting or relating to a person whose self-identity conforms with the gender that corresponds to their biological sex, not transgender.

Transgender

People who have a gender identity, or gender expression, that differs from their assigned biological sex. Transgender people are sometimes called transsexual if they desire medical assistance to transition from one sex to another.

Cultural Variations of Sexuality

Permissiveness or restrictiveness, such as masturbation or sex play, pre-marital sex, extra-marital sex, homosexuality.

Cultural Variations Woodabe of Niger

Men compete in beauty contests for women's attention.

Cultural Variations American Indian Berdache

Formal status for males and females who undertake alternative gender roles in certain American Indian groups. Connected with understandings of creation and spirituality that are dualistic (relational) not binary. "Two-spirit": Contemporary expression about males who assume female roles; females who assume male roles.

Cultural Variations Hijra (India, Pakistan)

Most are male-to-female transgender individuals or intersex (born biology does not match standard male/female). Officially recognized as "third gender".

Cultural Variations Kathoey (Thailand)

Transgender women or effeminate gay males; are 'originally' male but who cross into the body, personality, and dress defined as female. Flexible sexual orientation.

Cultural Variations Mahu (Hawaii, Tahiti)

In traditional culture, third-gender people with traditional spiritual and social roles.