Cultural Anthropology: Sex and Gender

Sex and Gender

Learning Objectives

  • To what extent does biology influence maleness and femaleness?
  • Are males dominant over females in all societies?
  • How similar are gender roles throughout the world?
  • How can extreme gender ideology lead to the exploitation of women?

Sex and Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective

  • Humans are a sexually dimorphic species, like other primates.
  • Men are generally larger and more muscular than females.
  • However, the question remains: are there biologically determined differences of gender and sexuality?
  • Gender refers to the ways the members of the sexes are perceived, evaluated, and expected to behave.
  • Data suggests wide cross-cultural variability in gender and sexual behavior.
  • Gender and sexual norms can change over time.

Gender

Masculinity
  • The social definition of maleness, which varies from society to society.
  • Example: A Hijra man who presents himself as being “like a woman” demonstrates the socially constructed basis for sexuality.
Femininity
  • The social definition of femaleness, which varies from culture to culture.
  • Example: A nine-year-old girl may represent an atypical definition of femininity in the United States.

Gender Studies: An Example

  • Margaret Mead: Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies (1935)
    • Arapesh: Cooperation between men and women, considered “feminine.”
    • Mundugumor: Aggressive, with males dominating.
    • Tchambuli: Women aggressive, men passive.
  • Mead argues that sex and temperament are culturally determined in ways that apparently defy cross-cultural explanation.

Human Sexuality (Examples)

  • Human sexual practices vary from culture to culture.
  • Extramarital activity: Sexual activity outside marriage.
  • Sex drive: Desire for sexual activity.
  • Heterosexual: A person who is sexually attracted to people of the opposite sex.
  • Homosexual: A person who is sexually attracted to people of the same sex.
  • Bisexual: A person who is sexually attracted to people of both sexes.
  • Asexual: A person who feels no sexual attraction to other individuals.
  • Transgender: A person whose sense of personal identity and gender does not correspond with their birth sex.

Sexual Behavior

  • Anthropologists have found wide cross-cultural variability in what is considered normal or appropriate sexual behavior.
  • Sexual behavior is not necessarily confined to marriage.
  • Differences in sexual “aggressiveness” or “passivity” between men and women vary widely across cultures.
  • Wide differences exist in “normal” gender and sexual orientations; e.g., between homosexual and heterosexual behavior.
  • One perspective: Evolutionary Ecology
    • Is sexual behavior structured by evolution?
    • Men spreading genes; women nurturing the young?
    • Male-female coalition building to raise the young is critical
  • Karl Heider and the Dani tribe of New Guinea
    • Argues that the Dani have a very low sex drive
    • Question: Was he just being ethnocentric?

Gender Roles in Non-Industrial Societies

  • Men have greater body mass and strength and are better equipped for hunting, warfare, and land clearing.
  • Women do tasks that are compatible with pregnancy, breastfeeding, and child care.
  • What could motivate changes in gender roles?
  • Example: A baseball player engaged in child care in the locker room is just one example of changing gender roles in the United States.

Division of Labor (Worldwide)

Generally Male Tasks
  • Hunting large animals
  • Fishing as a primary task
  • Tending large animal herds
  • Mining, smelting, and metalworking
  • Conducting warfare
  • Boat building
  • Working wood and stone
  • Clearing/preparing the land for crops
  • Making musical instruments
  • Making nets and ropes
Generally Male and Female Tasks
  • Fishing as a secondary task
  • Tending small animals
  • Planting and harvesting crops
  • House building
  • Making certain craft items
  • Local market trading
Generally Female Tasks
  • Childcare
  • Collecting fuel and water
  • Food preparation
  • Gathering wild plants, fruits, and nuts
  • Making clothes
  • Household maintenance

Gender Differences in Culture

Sexual Asymmetry
  • The universal tendency of women to be in a subordinate position in their social relationships with men.
Gender Stratification
  • A division in society where all members are hierarchically ranked according to gender.
  • This has a significant impact on women in society:
    • The status of women varies between societies.
    • Within a society, the status of women often fluctuates.
    • The relative age of a woman often determines her status.
Areas of Gender Disparity
  • Education
  • Employment
  • Reproductive health

Gender Ideology

  • Thoughts and values that legitimize gender roles, statuses, and customary behavior.
  • Example:
    • In some African societies, men’s physical well-being is thought to be jeopardized by contact with a woman’s menstrual discharge.
    • In Bangladesh, men are associated with the right side and women with the left side, a dichotomy that also denotes purity–pollution, good–bad, and authority–submission.

Feminization of Poverty

  • Refers to the high proportion of female-headed families below the poverty line, which may result from the high proportion of women found in occupations with low prestige and income.

Exploitation Caused By Gender Ideology

Male Gender Bias
  • A preference found in some societies for sons rather than daughters.
Female Infanticide
  • The killing of female children.
Nutritional Deprivation
  • A form of child abuse involving withholding food; can retard learning, physical development, or social adjustment.

Exploitation Caused By Gender Ideology

Honor Killings
  • A euphemism referring to a practice found in various Middle Eastern cultures whereby women are put to death at the hands of their own family members because they are thought to have dishonored the family.
Dowry Death
  • The killing of a wife by her in-laws if the wife’s parents fail to pay additional dowry.

Gender Stereotypes in the U.S.

Breadwinner
  • A traditional gender role found in the United States that views males as being responsible for the economic support and protection of the family.
Housewife
  • A traditional gender role found in the United States that views females as responsible for child-rearing and domestic activities.

Gender Realities in the U.S.

Double Workload
  • Situation in which employed married women, particularly those with children, are both wage employed and primarily responsible for housework and child care.
Occupational Segregation
  • The predominance of one gender in certain occupations.

The “Sexual Revolution” of the 60s and 70s: A Cultural Materialist Perspective

  • Marvin Harris argues that men and women are now competitors for economic and social success in modern U.S. society.
  • Harris predicts that ideas about gender and sexuality are changing as well.
  • He points to the following factors:
    • Improvements in birth control (The Pill, e.g.).
    • Increasing competition between men and women economically and socially
    • Break down of natal family
  • Sex emerges as self-expression, rather than reproduction
  • Sex roles of all kinds are changing, including notions of sexual orientation and gender
  • Decline of the value of child-bearing causes gender and sexual orientation to change?
  • Are we in an era of change toward new sexual roles and attitudes?

Gay and Trans-Gendered Movements

  • Re-definition of gender and sexuality opens the way for genuine social movements

Inter-Generational Changes in Sexuality

  • "Teenile" parents?
  • Sexualization of children?
  • "Sexy" Seniors?

Changing Gender Ideologies

  • Are we moving toward a "unisex" approach to male-female gender and sexuality?

Changing Gender Ideologies

  • Jack Sparrow: Androgynous, post-modernist pirate?