Gender, Sexuality, and Kinship: Key Concepts in Anthropology

Sex

Biological traits (chromosomes, hormones, anatomy)

Gender

Cultural roles, behaviors, and expectations tied to sex

Sexual dimorphism

Physical differences between males and females of a species

Gender stratification

Unequal access to power and resources based on gender

Gender ideology

Cultural beliefs that justify gender roles and inequalities

Structural gender violence

Social systems that harm people based on gender

Human sexuality trait 1

Sex not limited to reproduction

Human sexuality trait 2

Continuous sexual receptivity

Human sexuality trait 3

Sexual privacy norms

Human sexuality trait 4

Moral regulation of sexuality

Human sexuality trait 5

Cultural variation in sexual meaning

Mati (Suriname)

Cultural system where women may have sexual relationships with men and women

Sexology

Scientific study of sexuality emerging in late 19th-early 20th century

Sexology discovery

Sexuality exists on a spectrum

Dutch colonial sexual control

Regulation of sex to reinforce race, class, and nationality hierarchies

Sex tourism

Travel where sex is a major attraction, often reinforcing inequality

Dominican Republic sex tourism

Creates economic dependence and power imbalances

Ch. 9 - Kinship, Family & Marriage

Kinship

Socially recognized relationships between people

Descent group

People who trace ancestry to a common ancestor

Parallel cousin

Child of a parent's same-sex sibling

Cross cousin

Child of a parent's opposite-sex sibling

Matrilineage

Descent traced through the mother

Patrilineage

Descent traced through the father

Ambilineal descent

Individuals choose maternal or paternal descent

Affinal relations

Kin through marriage (in-laws)

Companionate marriage

Marriage based on love and emotional intimacy

Monogamy

Marriage to one spouse

Polygyny

Marriage of one man to multiple wives

Incest taboo

Cultural prohibition against sex with close kin

Langkawi kinship

Kinship formed through shared residence and food

Southall youth kinship

Kinship formed through social bonds rather than biology

Family of orientation

Family you are born into

Family of procreation

Family you create through marriage and children

Anthropocene

Era in which humans significantly impact the planet

Martinique pesticide case

Environmental harm intersecting with sexuality and legal rights

Multispecies ethnography

Study of human and non-human relationships

Ecotourism

Tourism aimed at environmental protection and local benefit

Kichwa ecotourism

Indigenous group marketing culture and nature to tourists

Ecotourist motivation

Desire for authenticity and environmental responsibility

Gentrification

Process where wealthier residents displace longtime communities

Bed-Stuy gentrification

Rising rents and displacement in Brooklyn

Sustainability

Meeting present needs without harming future generations

Ch. 13 - Migration

Climate refugee

Person forced to migrate due to environmental change

Push factors

Conditions that force people to leave (poverty, violence)

Pull factors

Conditions that attract migrants (jobs, safety)

Bridges

Factors that facilitate migration

Barriers

Factors that restrict migration

Chain migration

Migration following family or community members

Remittances

Money migrants send home

Cumulative causation

Migration becoming self-sustaining over time

Fuzhou migration culture

Migration seen as success; debt normalized

Labor immigrants

Migrants seeking work

Professional immigrants

Migrants with specialized skills

Entrepreneurial immigrants

Migrants who start businesses

Refugees

People fleeing persecution or violence

Internally displaced persons

Forced migrants who remain within their country

Post-1965 U.S. immigration

Increased migration from Latin America and Asia

Band

Small, egalitarian political group

Tribe

Larger kin-based political group

Chiefdom

Ranked political system with centralized leadership

State

Political system with formal laws and bureaucracy

Hegemony

Power maintained through consent rather than force

Killer apes theory

Argument that human violence is natural based on ape studies.

Counterevidence to killer apes: Cooperative and peaceful societies

Social construction of soldiers

Training that normalizes violence

Child soldiers (Sierra Leone)

Childhood defined differently than in the U.S.

Social movement

Organized effort to bring social change

Framing process

How issues are presented to shape meaning

Religion

Beliefs and practices related to the sacred

Sacred

Things set apart and meaningful

Profane

Ordinary, everyday life

Ritual

Repeated symbolic action

Rite of passage

Ritual marking change in social status

Separation

First stage of rite of passage

Liminality

In-between stage where normal rules are suspended

Incorporation

Final stage where new status is recognized

Communitas

Sense of unity during liminality

Shaman

Mediator between human and spirit worlds

Magic

Practices meant to influence outcomes

Everyday magic

Rituals like athletes' lucky routines

Symbol

Object or action with layered meaning

Authorizing process

How beliefs gain legitimacy

Illness

Lived experience of sickness

Disease

Biological condition diagnosed medically

Ethnomedicine

Culture-based healing systems

Biomedicine

Western scientific medicine

Lia Lee case

Clash between Hmong and biomedical explanations of epilepsy

Explanatory model

Cultural explanation of illness cause and treatment

Illness narratives

Stories people tell about being sick

Human microbiome

Microorganisms essential to human health

Health transition

Shift from infectious to chronic disease

Cordon sanitaire

Controlled zone to prevent disease spread

Qatar COVID cordon

Migrant workers faced harsher restrictions

Ch. 17 - Art & Media

Art

Culturally meaningful creative expression

Universal gaze

Western way of viewing art as visual objects

Primitive art

Western term used to devalue non-Western art

Earliest art

Cave paintings and body ornamentation

Lascaux Cave

Early evidence of symbolic art