Perspectives An Open Invitation to Cultural Anthropology Textbook Chapter 10 Gender and Sexuality

10 GENDER AND SEXUALITY Carol . San Jose State University Tami , University with Susan Harper , Texas Woman University , and Abby , Learning Objectives Identify ways in which culture shapes and sexuality . Describe ways in which gender and sexuality organize and structure the societies in which we live . Assess the range of possible ways of constructing gender and sexuality by sharing examples from different cultures , including societies . Analyze how anthropology as a discipline is affected by gender ideology and gender norms . Evaluate cultural origin stories that are not supported by anthropological data . INTRODUCTION SEX AND GENDER ACCORDING TO ANTHROPOLOGISTS are fond of pointing out that much of what we take for granted as natural in our lives is actually is not grounded in the natural world or in biology but invented by 231

232 PERSPECTIVES AN OPEN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL Because culture is invented , it takes different forms in different places and changes over time in those places . Living in the century , we have witnessed how rapidly and dramatically culture can change , from ways of communicating to the emergence of marriage . Similarly , many of us live in culturally diverse settings and experience how varied human cultural inventions can be . We readily accept that clothing , language , and music are , created , and often find it difficult to accept that gender and sexuality are not natural but deeply embedded in and shaped by culture . We struggle with the idea that the division of humans into two and only two categories , male and female , is not universal , that male and female are cultural concepts that take different forms and have different meanings . Similarly , human sexuality , rather than being simply natural is one of the most culturally significant , shaped , regulated , and symbolic of all human capacities . The concept of humans as either heterosexual or homosexual is a culturally and historically specific invention that is increasingly being challenged in the United States and elsewhere . Part of the problem is that gender has a biological component , unlike other types of cultural such as a sewing machine , cell phone , or poem . We do have bodies and there are some female differences , including in reproductive capacities and roles , albeit far fewer than we have been taught . Similarly , sexuality , sexual desires and responses , are partially rooted in human natural ties . However , in many ways , sexuality and gender are like food . We have a biologically rooted need to eat to survive and we have the capacity to enjoy eating . What constitutes food , what is delicious or repulsive , the and meanings that surround food and human are cultural . Many potentially edible items are not food ( rats , bumblebees , and cats in the United States , for example ) and the concept of food itself is embedded in elaborate conventions about eating how , when , with whom , where , utensils , for what purposes ?

A romantic dinner at a gourmet restaurant is a complex invention . In short , gender and sexuality , like eating , have biological components . But cultures , over time , have erected complex and elaborate around them , creating systems of meaning that often barely resemble what is natural and innate . We experience gender and sexuality largely through the prism of the culture or cultures to which we have been exposed and in which we have been raised . In this chapter , we are asking you to deeply on the ways in which what we have been taught to think of as natural , that is , our sex , gender , and our sexuality , is , in fact , deeply embedded in and shaped by our culture . We challenge you to explore exactly which , if any , aspects of our gender and our ity are totally natural . One powerful aspect of culture , and a reason cultural norms feel so natural , is that we learn culture the way we learn our native language without formal instruction , in social , picking it up from others around us , without thinking . Soon , it becomes deeply embedded in our brains . We no longer think consciously about what the sounds we hear when someone says hello mean unless we do not speak English . Nor is it difficult to tell the time on a clock even though time and clocks are plex cultural inventions . The same principles apply to gender and sexuality . We learn very early ( by at least age three ) about the categories of gender in our individuals are either male or female and that elaborate beliefs , behaviors , and meanings are associated with each gender . We can think of this complex set of ideas as a gender ideology or a cultural model of gender . All societies have gender ideologies , just as they have belief systems about other significant areas of life , such as health and disease , the natural world , and social relationships , including family . For an activity related to this section , see Activity in the Teaching Resources of the Perspectives website .

233 FOUNDATIONS OF THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF GENDER Gender Ideologies , Biology , and Culture Gender . Sex Words can reveal cultural beliefs . A good example is the term In the past , sex referred both to sexuality and to someone biologic sex male or female . Today , although sex still refers to sexuality , gender now means the categories male , female , or increasingly , other gender possibilities . Why has this occurred ?

The change in terminology reflects profound alterations in gender ideology in the United States ( and elsewhere ) In the past , by religion and nineteenth and twentieth century scientific beliefs , biology ( and reproductive capacity ) was literally considered to be destiny . Males and females , at least normal males and females , were thought to be born with different intellectual , cal , and moral capacities , preferences , tastes , personalities , and predispositions for violence and Ironically , many cultures , including European Christianity in the Middle Ages , viewed women as having a strong , often insatiable sexual drive and capacity . But by the nineteenth century , women and their sexuality were largely defined in reproductive terms , as in their capacity to carry a mans Even human sexuality texts often referred only to reproductive systems , to genitals as reproductive organs , and excluded the clitoris and other female organs of sexual sure that had no reproductive function . women , the primary , if not sole , legitimate purpose of was Nineteenth and century European and gender ideologies linked sexuality and gender in other Sexual sex to whom one was naturally sexual , at least among normal humans , and normal , according to century psychology , was defined largely by whether one adhered to conventional gender roles for males and females . So , appropriately , masculine men were naturally attracted to feminine women and vice versa . Homosexuality , too , was depicted not just as a sexual preference but as role behavior , down to gestures and color of This is apparent in old stereotypes of gay men as effeminate ( acting like a female , wearing female fabrics such as silk or colors such as pink , and participating in feminine professions like ballet ) and of lesbian women as butch ( cropped hair , riding motorcycles , wearing masculinity ) Once again , separate preference and gender role because of beliefs that rooted both in . Abnormality in one sphere ( sexual preference ) was linked to abnormality in the other sphere ( capacities and preferences ) In short , the gender and sexual ideologies were based on biological determinism . According to this theory , males and females were supposedly born fundamentally different reproductively and in other major capacities and preferences and were naturally ( biologically ) sexually attracted to each other , although women sexual drive was not very well developed relative to mens and was reproductively oriented . Rejecting Biological Determinism Decades of research on gender and sexuality , including by feminist anthropologists , has challenged these old theories , particularly biological determinism . We now understand that cultures , not nature ,

234 PERSPECTIVES AN OPEN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY create the gender ideologies that go along with being born male or female and the ideologies vary widely , What is considered man work in some societies , such as carrying heavy loads , or farming , can be woman work in others . What is masculine and feminine varies pink and blue , for example , are culturally invented linkages , and skirts and can be worn by men , indeed by Hindu deities , male and female , are highly decorated and difficult to distinguish , at least by conventional masculinist stereotypes ( see examples and Figures and ) Figure Hindu deities Vishnu and his many avatars or forms ( all male ) Figure . Hindu Deities Vishnu and Goddess Shiva plus avatars Women can be thought of as stronger ( tougher , more rational ) than men . Phyllis , an anthropologist who studied the of in the , said males in that culture argued that land preparation for the crop was a woman job , which is too strenuous for the men and that women could carry heavy loads because they had stronger Among the Aka who live in the Central African Republic , fathers have close , intimate , relationships with infants , play major roles in all aspects of , and can sometimes produce breast As for sexual desires ,

235 research on the human sexual response by William Masters and Virginia Johnson established that men and women have equal biological capacities for sexual pleasure and orgasm and that , because males generally ejaculate simultaneously with orgasm , it is easier for women than men to have multiple Gender A Cultural Invention and a Social Role One biologic sex is a different phenomenon than ones gender , which is socially and historically Gender is a set of culturally invented expectations and therefore constitutes a role one assumes , learns , and performs , more or less consciously . It is an identity one can in theory choose , at least in some societies , although there is tremendous pressure , as in the United States , to conform to the gender role and identity linked to your biologic sex . This is a profound transformation in how we think about both gender and sexuality . The reality of human biology is that males and females are shockingly There is arguably more variability within than between each gender , especially taking into account the enormous variability in human ical traits among human populations Notice , for example , the variability in height in the two photos of college students shown in Figures and . Which gender is taller ?

Much of what has been defined as biological is actually cultural , so the possibilities for transformation and change are nearly endless ! That can be liberating , especially when we are young and want to create identities that fit our particular configuration of abilities and preferences . It can also be upsetting to people who have deeply internalized and who want to maintain the old gender ideology . Figure . Gender variability students in a Human Sexuality Class at Sari Jose State University with Carol ,

236 PERSPECTIVES AN OPEN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY Figure Gender variability students in at Michigan State University , Carol , 2010 The Gender Binary and Beyond We anthropologists , as noted earlier , love to shake up notions of what is natural and One common assumption is that all cultures divide human beings into two and only two genders , a binary or dualistic model of gender . However , in some cultures gender is more and , allowing individuals born as one biologic sex to assume another gender or creating more than two genders from which individuals can select . Examples of cultures come from Native . Anthropologists such as Ruth Benedict long ago identified a fairly widespread phenomenon of people , individuals who do not comfortably conform to the gender roles and gender normally associated with their biologic sex . Among people of New Mexico , beginning in the era which was a relatively horticultural society for example , individuals could choose an alternative role of or A man would do the work and wear clothing normally associated with females , having shown a preference for activities and symbols at an early age . In some , but not all cases , they would eventually marry a man . Early European ethnocentric reports often described it as a form of homosexuality . suggested motivations , including dreams of selection by spirits , individual , biological characteristics , and negative aspects of male roles ( warfare ) Most significantly , these alternative gender roles are acceptable , publicly recognized , and sometimes Less is known about additional gender roles available to biological women , although stories of manly hearted women suggest a parallel among some Native American groups . For example , a nai woman known to have lived in 1811 was originally married to a man but then returned to the and assumed a male gender role , changing her name to ( becoming a spiritual prophet , and eventually marrying a A example of a gender system is found among the in India . Often called a third gender , these individuals are usually biologically male but adopt female clothing , gestures , and names eschew sexual desire and sexual activity and go through religious rituals that give them certain divine powers , including blessing or cursing couples fertility and performing at weddings and births . may undergo voluntary surgical removal of genitals through a or rebirth operation . Some are males born with ambiguous external genitals , such as a particularly small penis or testicles that did not fully Research has shown that individuals with ambiguous genitals , sometimes called intersex , are common . Martha Ward and Monica estimate that such intersex individuals

237 tute five percent of human So what are cultures to do when faced with an infant or child who can not easily be sexed ?

Some cultures , including the United States , used to force children into one of the two binary categories , even if it required surgery or hormone therapy . But in other places , such as India and among the Isthmus in southern , Mexico , they have instead created a third gender category that has an institutional identity and role to perform in These examples demonstrate that the traditional rigid binary gender model in the United States is neither universal nor necessary . While all cultures recognize at least two biological sexes , usually based on genitals visible at birth , and have created at least two gender roles , many cultures go beyond the binary model , Offering a third or fourth gender category . Other cultures allow to adopt , without sanctions , a gender role that is not congruent with their biological sex . In short , biology need not be destiny when it comes to gender roles , as we are increasingly discovering in the United States . Variability Among Binary Cultures Even societies with a binary gender system exhibit enormous variability in the meanings and associated with being male or female . Sometimes distinctions pervade virtually all aspects of life , structuring space , work , social life , communication , body decoration , and expressive forms such as music . For instance , both genders may farm , but may have separate fields for male and female crops and crop rituals . Or , the village public space may be spatially segregated with a men house ( a special dwelling only for men , like a men club ) and a women In some societies , such as the of New Guinea , even when married couples occupy the same house , the space within the house is divided into male and female Women and men can also have religious rituals and deities and use tools . There are cases of male and female foods , rains , and even languages ( including words , verb forms , pronouns , and writing systems one example is the Nu Shu writing system used by some women in parts of China in the twentieth century ) ideologies can emphasize differences in character , capacities , and morality , sometimes portraying males and females as opposites on a . In societies that are highly segregated by gender , gender relationships sometimes are seen as hostile or oppositional with one of the genders ( usually female ) viewed as potentially threatening . Female ily , such as menstrual blood and vaginal secretions , can be dangerous , damaging to men , impure , and polluting , especially in ritual . In other cases , however , menstrual blood is associated with positive power . A girl first menstruation may be celebrated publicly with elaborate community rituals , as among the in southern Africa , and subsequent monthly bring special Men in some societies go through ritualized , sometimes called male tion , though the meanings are quite Gender Relations Separate and Unequal Of course , is not unique to societies like the . Virtually all major world religions have traditionally segregated males and females spatially and marked them in other ways . Look at and century churches , which had seating at contemporary Saudi Arabia , Iranian , and conservative Malaysian mosques and at Orthodox Jewish temples today in Israel and the United States . Ambivalence and even fear of female sexuality , or negative associations with female bodily ,

238 PERSPECTIVES AN OPEN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL such as menstrual blood , are widespread in the worlds major religions . Orthodox Jewish women are not supposed to sleep in the same bed as their husbands when menstruating . In , Greece , ple believe that menstruating women can cause wine to go In some Catholic Portuguese villages , menstruating women are restricted from preparing fresh pork sausages and from being in the room where the sausages are made as their presence is believed to cause the pork to spoil . Contact with these women also supposedly wilts plants and causes inexplicable movements of Orthodox forms of prohibit menstruating women from activities such as cooking and attending temple . These traditions are being challenged . A 2016 British Broadcasting Company ( television gram , for example , described Happy to Bleed , a movement in India to change negative attitudes about menstruation and eliminate the ban on women entering the famous ple in Emergence of Public ( Male ) Domestic ( Female ) Spheres In large stratified and centralized is , the powerful empires ( civilizations ) that have dominated much of the world for the past several thousand public private or domestic distinction appears . The public , sphere of life is a relatively recent in human history even though most of us have grown up in or around cities and towns with their obvious public spaces , physical manifestations of the political , economic , and other institutions that characterize societies . In such settings , it is easy to identify the domestic or private spaces families occupy , but a similar distinction exists in villages . The public sphere is associated with , and often dominated by , males . The domestic sphere , in contrast , is ily associated with it , too , can be divided into male and female spheres . In India , for example , where households frequently consist of groups of male siblings and their families , there often are lounging spaces where men congregate , smoke pipes , chat , and meet visitors . Women spaces typically focus around the kitchen or cooking hearth ( if outside ) or at other sites of womens In some cases , an inner court is the womens area while the outer porch and roads that connect the houses are male spaces . In some Middle Eastern villages , women create paths for visiting each other without going outside into male The gender division between public and domestic , however , is as symbolic as it is spatial , often emphasizing a gender ideology of social separation between males and females ( except young children ) social regulation of sexuality and marriage , and male rights and control over females ( wives , daughters , sisters , and mothers ) It manifests as separate spaces in mosques , schools , and separate ladies compartments on trains , as in India ( Figure )

239 Of course , it is impossible to separate the genders completely . Rural women pass through the spaces of a village to fetch water and firewood and to work in cultural fields . Women shop in public markets , though that can be a mans As girls more often attend school , as in India , they take transportation and thus travel through male spaces even if they travel to schools ( Figure ) At college , they can be immersed in and even live on campuses where men predominate , especially if they are ing engineering , computer science , or other technical subjects ( Figure ) This can severely limit Indian girls educational and occupational choices , particularly for girls who come from relatively conservative families or One way in which women navigate male spaces is by adopting routes , behavior ( avoiding eye tact ) or clothing that create The term purdah , the separation or segregation of women from men , literally means veiling , although other devices can be used . In nineteenth century , royal women inhabited the inner courtyard spaces of the palace . But an orate false building front , the mahal , allowed them to view the comings and goings on the street without being exposed to the public male gaze . As demand for educating girls has grown in traditionally sexually segregated societies , schools have been constructed ( see Figure ) processes in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century in the United States . At the university level , however , prestigious schools that offer demand subjects such as engineering often have historically been , excluding women as Harvard once In other cases , there are no female faculty members teaching traditionally male subjects like engineering at colleges . In Saudi Arabia , women universities have taught courses using television to avoid violating norms of sexual segregation , particularly for young , In countries such as India , gynecologists and obstetricians have been predominantly female , in part because families object to male doctors examining and treating women . Thus , in places that do not have female physicians , women health can suffer . Figure A women only train car in India Photograph by Ajay , 2007

240 AN OPEN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY Figure school in Bangalore , India Photograph by Carol , 1989 . Figure Management studies graduate students at University of Science and Technology , India Photograph by Carol , 1989 . Sanctions , Sexuality , Honor , and Shame Penalties for deviating from the rules of social separation vary across and within cultures . In small communities , neighbors and extended family kin can simply report inappropriate behavior , especially between unmarried young adults , to other family members . More severe and sometimes violent responses by family members can occur , especially if the family honor is is , if the young adults , especially girls , engage in activities that would shame or dishonor the family . Honor and shame are complex concepts that are often linked to sexuality , especially female sexuality , and to behavior by family members that involves or hints at sexual impropriety . The Turkish film Mustang , nominated for the 2016 best foreign film Academy Award , offers a good illustration of how concepts of sexualized honor and shame operate . We hear in the news of honor killings carried out by conservative Muslims in countries such as

241 Pakistan and powerfully portrayed in documentaries such as A Girl in the River The Price of Forgiveness ( 2015 ) But it is not just Islam . Some orthodox sectors of major religions , including Christianity , Judaism , and , may hold similar views about honor and shame and impose sometimes lent sanctions against those who violate codes . The brutal 2012 gang of a young woman on a bus in Delhi , though perpetrated by strangers , was rationalized by the men who committed the crime ( and their defense attorney ) as a legitimate response to the woman shameful on a bus at night with a male friend , implying sexual Social separation , schools , and penalties for inappropriate sexual behavior have also existed in the United States and Europe , especially among women for whom female purity was traditionally emphasized . Chastity belts in Europe , whether or not actually used , the idea that a woman sexuality belonged solely to her husband , thus her from ing not only in premarital and sex but also in masturbation ( Figure ) In Nathaniel Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter , set in century Massachusetts , Hester was forced to wear a scarlet A on her dress and to stand on a public scaffold for three hours a day , a relatively nonviolent but powerful form of shaming and punishment . Stoning women to death for sexually inappropriate , especially adultery , and other violent sanctions may have occurred in some European Christian and Jewish communities . Rape , so frequent in warfare past and present , also can bring shame to the victim and her family , particularly in sexually conservative societies . During the 1971 war of independence against Pakistan , East Bengali women who were raped by soldiers were ostracized by their lies because of the shame their rape had brought . During the partition of India into India and Pakistan in 1947 , some families reportedly forced daughters to jump into wells to drown rather than risk being raped by Alternative Models of Gender Complementary and Fluid A I Chasm Not all binary cultures are nor does gender hostility necessarily accompany gender separation . Nor are all binary cultures deeply concerned with , some might say obsessed with , regulating female sexuality and marriage . Premarital and sex can even be common and acceptable , as among the ! Kung San and And men are not always clearly ranked over women as they typically are in stratified centralized societies with patriarchal systems . Instead , the two genders can be seen as complementary , equally valued and both recognized as necessary to society . Different need not mean unequal . The of southwest China and Thailand exemplify a complementary gender system in which men and women have distinct expected roles but a pair is necessary to accomplish most daily tasks ( Figure ) A female pair historically took responsibility for local leadership . completed daily household tasks in tandem and worked together in the fields . The title of anthropologist Du book , Chopsticks Only Work in Pairs ( 1999 ) encapsulates how complementary gender roles defined society . A single chopstick is not very useful neither is a single person , man or woman , in a focused

242 PERSPECTIVES AN OPEN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY Figure farmers in , Thailand . Like the , the nearby Na believe men and women both play crucial roles in a family and hold . Women are associated with birth and life while men take on tasks such as butchering animals and preparing for funerals ( Figures 10 and 11 ) Every Na house has two large pillars in the central hearth room , one representing male identity and one representing female identity . Both are crucial , and the house might well topple symbolically without both pillars . As sociologist Zhou explained in his 2002 book about the Na , this is a society that values women without diminishing 37 Figure 10 . A Na woman , weeds rice seedlings outside her family home in southwest China Province . Photograph by Tami , 2002 .

243 Figure Na men carry a wooden structure to be used at a funeral . Photograph by Tami , 2002 Anthropologists have also encountered relatively androgynous cultures . In these , some gender differentiation exists but gender bending and are frequent , accepted , and circumstances and individual capacities and preferences . Examples are the ! Kung San earlier , Native American Washoe in the United States , and some segments of European in countries such as Sweden and Finland and , increasingly , in the United Contemporary century gender ideologies tend to emphasize commonality , not difference shared human traits , and individual expression . Even cultures with fairly gender roles do not necessarily view them as fixed , biologically rooted , permanent , essentialist , or naturalized as occurred in the traditional gender ideology in the United Gender may not even be an identity in a psychological sense but , rather , a social role one assumes in a particular social context just as one moves between being a student , a daughter , an employee , a wife or husband , president of the bicycle club , and a musician . Cultures also change over time through internal and external forces such as trade , conquest , globalization , immigration , mass media , and , especially , films . Within every culture , there is tremendous diversity in class , ethnicity , religion , region , education level , and generation , as well as diversity related to family circumstances , predilections , and experiences . Gender expectations also vary with one age and stage in life as well as one social role , even within the family ( wife sister mother and father son brother ) Finally , people can appear to conform to cultural norms but find ways of working around or ignoring them . Even in highly , sexually segregated societies , women find ways to pursue their own goals , to be actors , and to push the boundaries of the gender system . Among Egyptian Ali Bedouin families , for example , women rarely socialized outside their home compounds or with lated men . But within their spheres , they freely interacted with other women , could their husbands , and wrote and sang poetic couplets as expressive In some of the poorest and developed areas of central India , where patrilocal households reign ,

244 PERSPECTIVES AN OPEN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY activist Pal has organized local rural women to combat violence based on dishonor and Her Gang , the subject of two films , illustrates both the possibilities of and the difficulties of changing a deeply embedded system based on gender , caste , and class system ( Figure 12 ) For a related activity , see Activity Understanding Gender from a Martian . Figure 12 Gang in India . Unraveling Our Gender Myths Primate Roots , Man the Hunter , and Other Origin Stories of Gender and Male Dominance Even unencumbered by pregnancy or infants , a female hunter would be less , generally less strong , possibly more prone to changes in emotional as a consequence of the cycle , and less able to adapt to changes in temperature than . anthropologist , 1969 Women don ride motorcycles because they cant they can because they are not strong enough to put their legs down to stop boy , Los Angeles , 1980 Men hunted because women were not allowed to come out of their houses and roam about in student in India , 1990 All cultures have creation stories . Many have elaborate creation stories that describe the origins of males and females , their traits , their relationships and sexual proclivities , and , sometimes , how one gender came to dominate the other . Our culture is no different . The Christian Bible , like the and other religious texts , addresses origins and gender ( think of Adam and Eve ) and traditional folk tales , songs , dances , and epic stories , such as the in and Shakespeare The Taming of the Shrew , treat similar themes . Science , too , has sought to understand gender differences . In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries , a number of scientists , immersed in Darwinian theories , began to explore the evolutionary

245 roots of what they assumed to be universal male dominance . Of course , scientists , like the rest of us , view the world partially through their own cultural lenses and through a version . Prior to the , women and gender relations were largely invisible in the research literature and most researchers were male so it is not surprising that theories prevailing folk beliefs about The Hunting Way of Life Molds Man ( and Woman ) The most popular and persistent theories argued that male dominance is universal , rooted in wide biological traits that we acquired , first as part of our primate heritage , and further as we evolved from apes into humans . Emergence of the hunting way of life plays a major role in this story . Crucial components include a diet consisting primarily of meat , obtained through planned , cooperative hunts , by groups , that lasted several days and covered a wide territory . Such hunts would require persistence , skill , and physical stamina tool kits to kill , butcher , transport , preserve , and share the meat and a social organization consisting of a stable home base and a monogamous nuclear family . Several biological changes were attributed to adopting this way of life a larger and more complex brain , human language , an upright posture ( and humans unique foot and stride ) loss of body hair , a long period of infant dependency , and the absence of ' Female ' female sexual arousal ) Figure 13 ) which made females sexually receptive throughout the monthly cycle . Other human characteristics purportedly made sex more enjoyable frontal sex and breasts , buttocks , and genitals , especially the human penis . Making sex sexier , some speculated , cemented the , helping to keep the man around and the family unit Hunting was also linked to a world view in which the of animals from humans seemed natural and ( male ) aggression became normal , easy to learn , rewarded , and enjoyable . War , some have suggested , might psychologically be simply a form of hunting and pleasurable for male The Hunting Way of Life , in short , molded man , giving our species its distinctive characteristics . And as a result , we contemporary humans can not erase the effects of our hunting past even though we live in cities , stalk nothing but a parking place , and can omit meat from our diets . The biology , psychology , and customs that separate us from the , these we owe to the hunters of time past . And , although the record is ' em ' incomplete and speculation looms larger than fact , for those who would understand the origin and nature of human behavior there is no choice but to try to understand Man the and Lancaster ( 1974 ) 49 Gender roles and male dominance were supposed to be part of our evolutionary heritage . Males evolved to be , more aggressive , more effective leaders with cooperative and bonding capacities , planning skills , and technological inventiveness ( In this creation story , females never acquired those capacities because they were burdened by their reproductive

246 PERSPECTIVES AN OPEN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL , giving birth , lactation , and child thus became dependent on males for food and protection . The gender gap widened over time . As males initiated , explored , invented , women stayed at home , nurtured , immersed themselves in domestic life . The result men are active , women are passive men are leaders , women are followers men are dominant , women are subordinate . Many of us have heard pieces of this Hunting Way of Life story . Some of the men interviewed in Los Angeles in the late invoked our hunting past to explain why men barbeques rather than their wives . Women qualifications to be president were questioned on biological grounds such as stamina and Her women informants , all nurses , doubted their navigational abilities , courage , and strength despite working in intensive care and regularly lifting heavy male patients . encountered serious scholars who cited women menstrual cycle and emotional instability during ovulation to explain why women can hunt . Similar stories are invoked today for everything from some men love of hunting to why men nate technical fields , accumulate tools , have affairs or commit the vast majority of . Strength and toughness remain defining characteristics of masculinity in the United States , and these themes often permeate national political One element in the complex debate over gun control is the and association , and it is still for some males in the United States to feel comfortable with their soft , emotional , and artistic What is most striking about scenarios is how closely they resemble els of family and gender , which were rooted in the late nineteenth century cult of domesticity and true Father is head of the family and the final authority , whether in household or in disciplining children . As provider , Father goes outside into the cold , cruel world , hunting for work . Mother , as chief mom , remains inside at the home base , creating a domestic refuge against the survival of the fittest American anthropologists seemed to have subconsciously projected their own folk models onto our early human ancestors . Altering this supposedly fundamental gender system , according to widely read authors in the , would go against our basic human This belief was applied to the political arena , then a virtually domain , especially at state and national levels . The following quote from 1971 is particularly relevant and worthy of critical evaluation since , for the first time , a major political party selected a woman as its 2016 presidential candidate ( See Text Box , Gender and the Presidential Election ) To make women equal participants in the political process , we will have to change the very process itself , which means changing a pattern bred into our behavior over the millennia . Tiger and Robin Replacing Stories with Reality Decades of research , much of it by a new generation of women scholars , have altered our view of the hunting way of life in our evolutionary For example , the old stereotype of primates as living in , groups does not accurately describe our closest primate relatives , gorillas , chimpanzees , and bonobos . The stereotypes came from research on savannah , dwelling baboons that suggested they were organized socially by a stable hierarchy , the core of the group , that was established through force , regulated sexual access to females , and internal and external defense of the troop in a supposedly hostile savannah environments Females lacked hierarchies or , were passive , and were part of dominant male harems .

247 Critics first argued that baboons , as monkeys rather than apes , were too far removed from humans to tell us much about early human social organization . Then , further research on baboons living in other environments by such as Thelma discovered that those baboons were neither nor . Instead , the stable group core was mother and her offspring constituted the central and enduring ties . Nor did males control female sexuality . Quite the contrary in fact . Females mated freely and frequently , choosing males of all ages , sometimes establishing special 53 eS friends with Dominance , while infrequent , was not based simply Reserve in , India . on size or strength it was learned , situational , and often . And like other primates , both male and female baboons used sophisticated strategies , dubbed primate politics , to predict and manipulate the intricate social networks in which they also the savannah baboons . Even they did not fit the baboon She found that their groups were loosely structured with no specialized stable and were sociable , and centered much like the Rhesus monkeys pictured below ( see Figure 15 ) Females actively initiated sexual encounters with a variety of male partners . When attacked by predators or frightened by some other major threat , males , rather than defending the troop , typically would , running away first and leaving the females carrying infants to follow behind ( Figures 16 ) Figure 16 Baboon group with infants being carried by male Man the Hunter , the ?

The second , more important challenge was to key assumptions about the hunting way of life . ological and paleontological fossil evidence and ethnographic data from contemporary revealed that hunting and meat it provided were not the primary subsistence mode . Instead , gathered foods such as plants , nuts , fruits , roots and small fish found in rivers and ponds constituted the bulk of such diets and provided the most stable food source in all but a few settings ( northerly climates , herd migration routes , and specific geographical and historical settings ) When meat was important , it was more often scavenged or caught than hunted . A major symposium on human evolution concluded that opportunistic scavenging was probably the best description of early human hunting activities . Often , tools found in human sites such as caves would have been more appropriate for smashing scavenged bones than hunting live Hunting , when carried out , generally did not involve , cooperative involving extensive planning and lengthy expeditions over a wide territorial range . Instead , as among the of , hunting was likely typically conducted by a single male , or perhaps two males , for a couple of hours , often without success . When hunting collectively , as occurs among the in the Central African rainforest , groups of families likely participated with women and men ving animals into nets . Among the of the Philippines , women rather than men hunt collectively

248 PERSPECTIVES AN OPEN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY using dogs to herd animals to a place where they can be And ! Kung San men , despite what was shown in the 1957 ethnographic film The Hunters , do not normally hunt giraffe they usually pursue small animals such as hares , rats , and gophers . Discrediting the Hunting Hypothesis Once the hypothesis was discredited , other parts of the theory began to unravel , especially the link between male dominance and female economic dependency . We now know that for most of human percent of it prior to the invention of agriculture some or so years have worked , often providing the stable sources of food for their family . Richard Lee , Marjorie , and others have detailed , with caloric counts and estimates , the of women gathering contributions even in societies such as the ! Kung San , in which hunting occurs In foraging societies that rely primarily on fish , women also play a major role , fish from rivers , lakes , and ponds . The exceptions are atypical environments such as the Arctic . Of course , is a narrow definition of food getting or subsistence work . Many food processing activities are . ing water and firewood is crucial , heavy work and is often done by women ( Figure 17 ) Making and maintaining clothing , housing , and tools also occupy a significant amount of time . Early humans , both male and female , invented an array of items for carrying things ( babies , wood , water ) dug tubers , processed nuts , and cooked food . The invention of string some years ago , a so essential that it produced what some have called the String Revolution , is attributed to There is the work of kinship , of . AK . A . Collecting firewood in , Democratic Republic ! next and emotional work . All are part of the work of living and of the invisible work that women do . Nor is it just hunting that requires intelligence , planning , cooperation , and detailed knowledge . have lived in a wide variety of environments across the globe , some more challenging than others ( such as Alaska ) In all of these groups , both males and females have needed and have developed detailed knowledge of local and fauna and strategies for using those resources . Human social interactions also require sophisticated mental and communication skills , both verbal and nonverbal . In short , humans complex brains and other modern traits developed as an adaptation to complex social life , a lengthy period of and that required cooperative nurturing , and many different kinds of work that even the simplest human societies performed . Refuting Pregnancy and Motherhood as Debilitating Finally , data refutes another central stereotype the burden of nancy and child care . Women reproductive roles do not generally prevent them from , including hunting among the , women hunt when pregnant . Foraging societies accommodate the by spacing out their pregnancies using indigenous methods of family

249 planning such as prolonged breast feeding , long periods of sexual inactivity , and native herbs and medicinal plants . Child care , even for infants , is rarely solely the responsibility of the birth mother . Instead , multiple caretakers are the norm spouses , children , other relatives , and Reciprocity is the key to human social life and to survival in societies , and reciprocal child care is but one example of such reciprocity . Children and infants accompany their mothers ( or fathers ) on gathering trips , as among the San , and on Aka collective expeditions . women carry nursing infants with them when , leaving older children at home in the care of spouses or other In horticultural and agricultural societies , having children and working are not the opposite ! Anthropologists long ago identified female farming systems , in parts of Africa and Southeast Asia , in which farming is predominantly a woman job and men help out as In most agricultural societies , women who do not come from or wealthy families perform a significant amount of agricultural labor , though it often goes unrecognized in the dominant gender ideology . agriculture , common in south and southeast Asia , is , particularly weeding and transplanting rice seedlings , which are often done by women ( Figure 10 ) Harvesting rice , Wheat , and other grains also entails essential input by women . Yet the Indian Census traditionally records only male family members as In the United States , women work on farms is often Women may accommodate their reproductive and roles by engaging in work that is more compatible with child care , such as cooking , and in activities that occur closer to home and are interruptible and perhaps less dangerous , though cooking fires , stoves , and implements such as knives certainly can cause harm ! 55 More often , women adjust their work in response to the demands of pregnancy , and other child care activities . They gather or process nuts while their children are napping they take their children with them to the fields to weed or harvest and , in more recent times , to urban construction sites in places such as India , where women often do the ( and ) work . In the United States , despite a cultural model of the mom , some mothers have always worked outside the home , mainly out of economic necessity . This shifting group includes mothers and married ( and ) grants , and women with limited financial resources . But workplace policies ( except during World War II ) have historically made it harder rather than easier for Women ( and men ) to carry out family responsibilities , including requiring married women and pregnant women to quit their Circumstances have not improved much . While pregnant women in the United States are no longer automatically dismissed from their least not United States lags far behind most European countries in providing affordable child care and paid parental leave . Family and Marriage A Cultural Construct and a Social Invention Unraveling the theory of the scenario , especially female dependence on males , undermines the naturalness of the nuclear family with its and division of labor . More than one hundred years of research has revealed the varied forms humans have invented for partnering in households , raising dren , establishing relationships , transmitting valuables to offspring , and other social associated with Once again , the universality and evolutionary origins of the form of

250 PERSPECTIVES AN OPEN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY the human family is more fiction than fact , a projection of our cultural model of family and gender roles onto the past and onto the entire human species . Family Biology and Culture What is natural about the family ?

Like gender and sexuality , there is a biological component . There is a biological mother and a biological father , although the mother plays a significantly larger and longer role from the time of conception through the end of infants dependence . In the past , conception ally required sexual intercourse , but that is no longer the case thanks to sperm banks , which have made the embodied male potentially obsolete , biologically speaking . There is also a biological relationship between parents and , more obvious in the case of the mother since the baby ops in and emerges from her body . Nevertheless , DNA and genes are real and the traits and potentialities of the next generation . Beyond those biological realities , culture and society seem to take over , building . We all know there are biological fathers who may be unaware of or not concerned about their biological offspring and not involved in their care and biological mothers who , after giving birth , give up their children through adoption or to other family members . In recent decades , technology has allowed women to act as surrogate mothers , using their bodies as carriers for implanted fertilized eggs of couples who wish to have a child . On the other hand , we all probably know of excellent parents who are not the childrens biological mothers and fathers , and legal parenthood through adoption can have parenting consequences for children than biological parenthood . When we think of good ( or bad ) parents , or of someone as a really good mother , as an excellent father , as two wonderful mothers , we are not talking biology . We usually are thinking of a set of and behavioral expectations , and being an adoptive rather than a biological parent isn really the issue . Clearly , then , parenthood , relationships , and other kinship relationships ( with , grandparents , and ) are not simply rooted in biology but are also social roles , legal relationships , meanings and expectations constructed by human cultures in specific social and cal . This is not to deny the importance of kinship it is fundamental , especially in societies . But kinship is as much about culture as it is about biology . Biology , in a sense , is only the may not be necessary . Marriage also is not It is a cultural invention that involves various meanings and functions in different cultural . We all know that it is not necessary to be married to have sex or to have children . Indeed , in the United States , a growing number of women who give birth are not married , and the percent of unmarried Women giving birth is higher in many northwestern European countries such as , marriage seems to be primarily about societal regulation of social contract between two individuals and , often , their families , that specifies rights and obligations of married individuals and of the offspring that married women produce . Some have argued that marriage IS primarily about children and descent will own To whom will they belong ?

With what rights , obligations , social statuses , access to resources , group identities , and all the other exist within a society ?

Children have historically been essential for family literal reproduction and for social reproduction . Think , for a moment , about our assumptions about to whom children Clearly , children emerge from a woman body and , indeed , after approximately nine months , it is her body that has nurtured and grown this child . But who owns that child whom it belongs and the beliefs associated with how it was conceived and about who played a role in its not a biological given . Not in human societies . One fascinating puzzle in human evolution is how

females lost control over their sexuality and their offspring ! Why do so many , though not all , cultural theories of procreation consider women role as minor , if not as the seed , for ple , but merely as a carrier of the male seed she will eventually deliver to its owner ?

Thus , ing a child biologically is not equivalent to social Marriage , deals with social ownership of offspring . What conditions must be met ?

What exchanges must occur , particularly between families or kinship groups , for that offspring to be theirs , his , it to be a legitimate heir ?

Marriage is , then , a contract , usually between families , even if unwritten . Throughout most of human history , kinship groups and , later , religious institutions have regulated marriage . Most major religions today have formal laws and marriage contracts , even in societies with civil marriage codes . In some countries , like India , there is a separate marriage code for each major religion in addition to a secular , civil marriage code . Who children belong to is rarely solely about biology , and when biology is involved , it is biology shaped by society and culture . The notion of an illegitimate child in the United States has not been about biology but about legitimacy , that is , whether the child was the result of a legally recognized relationship that entitled offspring to certain rights , including inheritance . From this perspective , what we think of as a normal or natural family in the United States is ally a culturally and historically specific , legally codified set of relationships between two individuals and , to some extent , their families . the ( and traditional ) nuclear family is quite unusual and atypical . Married couples in the United States ideally establish a separate household , a household , rather than living with one spouse parents and forming a larger household , often referred to as an extended family , which is the most common form of family structure . In addition , marriages are , one may have only one husband or wife at a time . But a majority of societies that have been studied by have allowed polygamy ( multiple spouses ) Polygyny ( one husband , multiple wives ) is most mon but polyandry ( one wife , multiple husbands ) also occurs occasionally marriages involve multiple husbands and multiple wives . Separate spouses , particularly wives , often have their own dwelling space , commonly shared with their children , but usually live in one compound , with their husbands parents and his relatives . Across cultures , then , most households tend to be versions of groups . These two contrasts alone lead to families in the United States that are smaller and focused more on the ( or spousal ) and relationships other relatives are more distant , literally and often conceptually . They are also more independent , some would say , more dependent on a smaller set of relationships to fulfill family responsibilities for work , child care , finances , emotional companionship , and even sexual obligations . Other things being equal , the death or loss of a spouse in a traditional family has a bigger impact than such a loss in an extended family household ( see Text Box I ) On the other hand , nuclear families own and control their incomes and other assets , unlike many extended families in which those are jointly held . This ownership and control of resources can give couples and wives in nuclear families greater freedom . There are other variations in family , marriage and kinship in expectations for spouses and children , exchanges between families , inheritance rules , marriage rituals , ideal ages and of spouses , conditions for dissolving a marriage and remarriage after a spouse death , attitudes about premarital , and marital sexuality , and so forth . How descent is calculated is a process that carves out a smaller group of kin from all of the potential relatives in which individuals have rights ( to property , assistance , political representation ) and obligations ( nomic , social ) Often there are explicit norms about who one should and should not marry , including which relatives . Marriage between people we call cousins is common . These

252 PERSPECTIVES AN OPEN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL in the definition of marriage and family what human cultures do with the biological facts of life , creating many different kinds of marriage , family , and kinship systems . Another major contrast between the and many other cultures is that our is based on free choice and romantic Marriages are arranged by the couple and reflect their desires rather than the desires of larger societal groups . Of course , even in the United States , that has never been entirely the case . Informal prohibitions , often imposed by families , have shaped ( and continue to shape ) individual choices , such as marrying outside one religion , ethnic group , and class or within one gender . Some religions explicitly forbid marrying someone from another religion . But formal government prohibitions have also existed , such as laws against racial marriage , which were only declared unconstitutional in 1967 ( Loving Virginia ) These laws , directed mainly at and , were designed to preserve the system of social stratification in the United They did not affect both genders equally but the intersection of gender with class and racial inequality . During slavery , most sexual activity was initiated by males . It was not uncommon for male slave owners to have illicit , often forced sexual relations with female slaves . The laws were created so that children of slave women inherited their mothers racial and slave status , thereby also adding to the slave property of the women relationships with men , though far less frequent and usually voluntary , posed special problems . Offspring would inherit the mothers free status and increase the free population or possibly end up passing as Social and legal weapons were used to prevent such relationships . women , especially poorer women , who were involved sexually with men were stereotyped as prostitutes , sexually depraved , and outcasts . Laws were passed that fined them for such behavior or required them to work as indentured servants for the child father slave owner other laws prohibited cohabitation between a White and someone of African descent . laws tried to preserve the color line biologically by outlawing ing and to maintain the legal purity and status of lineages by outlawing marriage . In reality , of course , mating continued , but offspring did not have the rights of legitimate children . By the , some states , like Virginia , had outlawed Whites from marrying anyone who had a single drop of African blood . By 1924 , 38 states had outlawed White marriages , and as late as the , marriage bans existed in almost half of the states and had been extended to Native Americans , Mexicans , East Indians , and other groups not 71 Overall , stratified societies tend to have the strictest controls over marriage . Such is especially common when some groups are considered inherently superior to others , be it racially , castes , or royal blood . Patriarchal societies closely regulate and restrict premarital sexual contacts of women , especially women . One function of marriage in these societies is to reproduce the existing social structure , partially by insuring that marriages and any offspring resulting from them will maintain and potentially increase the social standing of the families involved . Elite , dominant groups have the most to lose in terms of status and wealth , including inheritances . Royalty in Britain , for example , traditionally are not supposed to marry commoners so as to ensure that the royal blood , titles , and other privileges remain in the royal family . even in societies that are relatively egalitarian such as the San and the Islanders studied by Annette Weiner , marriage is rarely a purely individual choice left to the whims of , or electricity two This is not to say that spouses never have input or prior contact they may know each other and even have grown up together . In most

253 , however , a marriage usually has profound social consequences and is far too important to be ply an individual choice . Since marriages affect families and kin economically , socially , and politically , family members ( especially elders ) play a major role in arranging marriages along lines consistent with their own goals and using their own criteria . Families sometimes arrange their children marriages when the children are quite young . In communities of southwest China , some families held mal engagement ceremonies for babies to , ideally , cement a good partnership , though no marital relationship would occur until much There also can be conventional categories of who are supposed to marry each other so young girls might know that their future husbands will be particular cousins , and the girls might play or interact with them at family functions as This does not mean that romantic love is purely a recent or and European phenomenon . tic love is widespread even in cultures that have strong views on arranging marriages . Traditional in India , both Hindu and Muslim , are filled with love stories expressed in songs , paintings , and famous temple sculptures . One of the most beautiful buildings in the world , the Taj Mahal , is a ment to Shah love for his wife . Where young girls marriages are arranged , often to older men ( as among the ) we know that those girls , once married , sometimes take lovers about whom they sing love songs and with whom they engage in sexual Truly , romantic love , sex , and marriage can exist independently . Nevertheless , and historically , marriages based on free choice and romantic love are relatively unusual and recent . Clearly , young people all over the world are attracted to the idea , which is romanticized in Bollywood films , popular music , poetry , and other forms of contemporary lar culture . No wonder so many conservative social and religious concerned , if not terrified , of losing control over young people mating and marriage behavior ( see , for example , the excellent documentary The World before Her ) A social revolution is truly underway and we haven even gotten to sex and marriage . Text Box What Can We Learn from the Na ?

Shattering Ideas about Family and Relationships By Tami We have certain expectations about the trajectories of relationships and family life in the United people meet , fall in love , chase a diamond , and then marry . To some extent , this specific view of family is changing as relationships and technologies expand our views of what family can and can not be . Still , quite often , we think about family in a rigid , heteronormative context , assuming that everyone wants the same if we think about family in an entirely different way ?

In fact , many people already do . In 2014 , 10 percent of American adults lived in cohabitating relationships . Meanwhile , 51 percent were married in ships , and that percentage has been dropping Those numbers may sound familiar as part of politicians focus on the family , the number of children born to unmarried parents and bemoaning the weakening of an institution they hold dear ( even though their colleagues are frequently exposed in the news for sexual indiscretions ) is true that adults with limited resources face challenges raising children when they have limited access to affordable , child care . They struggle when living wage jobs migrate to other countries or other states where workers earn less . In an economic system that encourages concentration of resources in a tiny fraction of the population , it is no wonder that they struggle . But is the institution of marriage really to blame ?

The number of cohabitating unmarried individuals is high in many parts of Europe as well , but with better support structures in place , parents fare much better . They enjoy parental leave policies that mandate theirjobs be held for them upon return from leave . They also benefit from strong educational systems and child care , and their children enjoy better outcomes than see the focus on the family by politicians as a convenient political trick that turns attention away from crucial policy issues and it on the plight of the institution of marriage and the fate of the nation children . Few people can easily dismiss these concerns , even if they do not reflect their own lived realities . And besides , the family model trumpeted by politicians as lost is but one form of family that is not universal even in the United States , much less among all human groups , as sociologist Stephanie argued in books including The Way We Never Were ( 1992 ) and The Way We ( 1997 ) In fact , the focus on family ignores the diverse ways peoples on this continent have organized their relationships . For Hopi , a Native can group living in what is today the southwestern United States , for example , it is their mother kin rather than their husbands from whom

254 PERSPECTIVES AN OPEN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY they draw support . The Navajo , and Native American cultures all organize their family units and arrange their relationships people living in the foothills of the have many ways to structure family relationships . One relationship structure looks like what we might expect in a place where people make their living from the land and raise livestock to sustain themselves . Young adults marry , and brides sometimes moves into the husband childhood home and live with his parents . They have children , who live with them , and they work together . A second Na family structure looks much less familiar young adults live in large , extended family households with several and form romantic relationships with someone from another household . When they are ready , the young man seeks permission to spend the night in the young woman room . If both parties desire , their relationship can evolve into a one , but they do not marry and do not live together in the same household . When a child is conceived , or before if the couple chooses , their relationship moves from a secretive one to one about which others know . Even so , the young man rarely spends daylight hours with his partner . Instead , he returns to his own home to help with farming and other work there . The state is not involved in their relationship , and their money is not pooled either , though change hands . If either partner becomes disenchanted with the other , the relationship need not persist . Their children remain in the mother home , nurtured by adults who love them just by their mothers but also by their grandmothers , maternal aunts , maternal uncles , and often older cousins as well . They enjoy everyday life with an extended family ( Figure 18 ) The third Na family structure mixes the preceding two systems . Someone joins a larger household as a spouse . Perhaps the family lacked enough women or men to manage the hold and farming tasks adequately or the couple faced pressure from the government to marry . Figure Na grandmother with her maternal grandchildren They live the same household , along the grandmother adult sons and her daughter , the mother Photograph by Tami . 2002 As an anthropologist who has done fieldwork in Na communities since 2001 , I can attest to the loving and nurturing families their system encourages . It protects adults as well as children . Women who are suffering in a relationship can end it with limited consequences for their dren , who do not need to relocate to a new house and adjust to a new lifestyle . Lawyers need not get involved , as they often must in divorce cases elsewhere in the world . A man who can not afford to build a new house for his significant pressure for people in many areas of China that prevents young men from marrying or delays their still enjoy a relationship or can choose , instead , to devote himself to his role as an uncle . Women and men who do not feel the urge to pursue romantic lives are protected in this system as well they can tribute to their natal families without having to worry that no one will look out for them as they age . Like any system composed of real people , Na systems are not perfect , and neither are the people who represent them . In the last few decades , people have flocked to Lake hoping to catch a glimpse of this unusual society , and many tourists and tour guides have taken Na flexibility in relationships as signifying a land of casual sex with no recognition of paternity . These are highly problematic assumptions that offend my Na acquaintances deeply . Na people have fathers and know who they are , and they often enjoy close relationships despite living apart . In fact , fathers are deeply involved in children lives and often participate in everyday activities . Of course , as in other parts of the world , some fathers participate more than others . Fathers and their birth families also take responsibility for contributing to school expenses and make other financial contributions as circumstances permit . Clearly , this is not a community in which men do not fulfill

255 responsibilities as fathers . It is one in which the responsibilities and how they are fulfilled varies markedly from those of fathers living in other places and cultures . Though problems exist in Na communities and their relationship patterns are already changing and transforming them , it is encouraging that so many people can live satisfied lives in this flexible system . The Na shatter our expectations about how families and relationships should be organized . They also inspire us to ask whether we can , and should , adapt part of their ethos into our own For more information , see the TED ) presentation by Tami Male Dominance Universal and Biologically Rooted ?

Unraveling the myth of the hunting way of life and womens dependence on male hunting mined the logic behind the argument for biologically rooted male dominance . Still , for feminist ars , the question of male dominance remained important . Was it universal , natural , inevitable , and unalterable ?

Were some societies ?

Was gender inequality a cultural phenomenon , a product of culturally and historically specific conditions ?

Research in the and addressed these Some argued that sexual asymmetry was universal and resulted from complex cultural processes related to women reproductive Others presented evidence of gender equality in societies ( such as the ! Kung San and Native American ) but argued that it had disappeared with the rise of private property and the 81 Still others focused on evaluating the status of women using multiple variables or identifying key ( economic , political , ecological , social , and cultural ) of womens 82 By the late , scholars realized how difficult it was to define , much less measure , male dominance across and even the status of women in one culture . Think of our own society or the area in which you live . How would you go about assessing the status of women to determine whether it is ?

What would you examine ?

What information would you gather and from whom ?

What difficulties might you encounter when making a judgment ?

Might men and women have different views ?

Then imagine trying to compare the status of women in your region to the status of Women in , lets say , the Philippines , Japan , or China or in a , small society like that of the living in Indonesia and the ! Kung San in . Next , how might Martians , upon arriving in your city , decide Whether you live in a male dominated ture ?

What would they notice ?

What would they have difficulty deciphering ?

This experiment gives you an idea of what anthropologists they were trying to include all societies that ever existed . Many were accessible only through archaeological and paleontological evidence or through historical records , often made by travelers , sailors , or missionaries . Surviving cultures were surrounded by societies that often imposed their cultures and gender ideologies on those under their control . For example , the ! Kung San of Southern Africa when studied by anthropologists , had already been pushed by European colonial rulers into marginal areas . Most were living on reserves similar to Indian reservations in the United States . Others lived in market towns and were sometimes involved in the tourist industry and in films such as the ethnographically flawed and ethnocentric film The Gods Must Be Crazy ( 1980 ) Kung San women at the time were learning European Christian ideas about , clothing , and covering their breasts , and children were attending schools , which taught the church and European views of gender and spousal roles along with the Bible , Jesus , and the Virgin Mary . During the struggle against apartheid in South Africa , the South African tried to recruit San to fight against the South West Africa People Organization (

256 PERSPECTIVES AN OPEN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ing reluctant ! Kung San men by calling them chicken and assuming , erroneously , that the ! Kung San shared their tough guys tough guise version of Given the complexity of evaluating universal male dominance , scholars abandoned the search for simple global answers , for key of womens status that would apply to all societies . A 1988 Annual Review of Anthropology article by and Higgins concluded that One of the profound realizations of the past ten years is that the original questions , still unanswerable , may be both naive and 84 Among other things , the concept of status contains at least five separate , potentially independent components economics , prestige , autonomy , and gender beliefs . One stage , kinship role , class , and other and variables affect one gender status . Thus , even within a single culture , women lives are not New Directions in the Anthropology of Gender research has been focused on improving the ethnographic and archaeological record and old material . Some have turned from relations to better understanding how gender systems work and focusing on a single culture or cultural region . Others have explored a single topic , such as menstrual blood and cultural concepts of masculinity and infertility across Many American anthropologists returned home , looking with fresh eyes at the diversity of womens lives in their own society women , immigrant women , women of various ethnic and racial groups , and women in different geographic regions and Some , for example , immersed themselves in the abortion debates , conducting fieldwork to understand the and logic behind and activists in North Dakota . Others headed to campuses , studying the culture of romance or fraternity gang Peggy work on sexual coercion , including her study of societies , was followed by other ies of relationships , such as using new reproductive technologies for selecting the sex of Many previously unexplored areas such as the discourse around reproduction , representations of women in medical professions , images in popular culture , and international development policies ( which had virtually ignored gender ) came under critical Others worked on identifying plex local factors and processes that produce particular configurations of gender and gender relations , such as the ( cultural model of family in many parts of Sexuality ies expanded , challenging existing binary paradigms , making visible the lives of lesbian mothers and other traditionally marginalized and The past virtual invisibility of women in archaeology disappeared as a host of new studies was , often by feminist anthropologists , including a pioneering volume by Joan and Margaret , Archaeology Women and Prehistory . That book gave rise to a series specifically on gender and archaeology edited by Sarah Nelson . Everything from divisions of labor to power relations to sexuality could be scrutinized in the archaeological Some anthropologists argued that there are recurring patterns despite the complexity and variability of human gender systems . One is the impact of womens economic contributions on their power , tige , and Women work , alone , does not necessarily give them control or ownership of what they produce . It is not always valued and does not necessarily lead to political power . Women in many cultures engage in agricultural labor , but the fields are often owned and controlled by their bands families or by a landlord , as in many parts of India and The women have little authority ,

257 prestige , or Many foraging and some horticultural societies , on the other hand , recognize women economic and reproductive contributions , and that recognition may relative equality in other spheres as well , including sexuality . Gender relations seem more egalitarian , overall , in scale societies such as the San , and Na , in part because they are , often with relatively few valuable resources that can be accumulated those that exist are communally owned , ally by kinship groups in which both Women and men have rights . Another factor in gender equality is the social environment . Positive social absence of constant hostility or warfare with to be correlated with relatively egalitarian gender relations . In contrast , militarized horticultural groups like the who perceive their neighbors as potential enemies or stratified societies with formal organizations and vast to benefit men more than women Warrior culturally value men roles , and warfare gives men access to economic and political resources . As to old stereotypes about Why men are Warriors , there may be another explanation . From a standpoint , men are far more expendable than women , especially women of reproductive While this theme has not yet been taken up by many anthropologists , male roles in warfare could be more about expendability than supposed greater male strength , aggressiveness , or courage . One can ask why it has taken so long for women in the United States to be allowed to combat missions ?

Certainly it is not about women not being strong enough to carry the Patriarchy . But What about Matriarchy ?

The rise of stratified centralized states has tended to produce transformations in gender relations and gender ideologies that some have called patriarchy , a political and authority structure and an ideology that privileges males over females overall and in every strata of society . Gender intersects with class and , often , with religion , caste , and ethnicity . So , while there could be powerful queens , males took precedence over females within royal families , and while women in India could have male servants , they had far fewer formal assets , power , and rights than their brothers and husbands . Also , as noted earlier , families strictly controlled their movements , interactions with males , social reputations , and marriages . Similarly , while British colonial women in India had power over some Indian men , they still could not vote , hold high political office , control their own fertility or sexuality , or exercise other rights available to their male Of course , poor Indian Women were ( and still are ) the most Vulnerable and mistreated in India , more so overall than their brothers , husbands , fathers , or sons . On the other hand , we have yet to find any , that is , societies in which the extent and range of womens power , authority , status , and privilege parallels men in chal societies . In the twentieth century , some anthropologists at first confused matriarchy with lineal . In matrilineal societies , descent or membership in a kinship group is transmitted from mothers to their children ( male and female ) and then , through daughters , to their children , and so forth ( as in many Na families ) Matrilineal societies create kinship groups in which having is often more important to continuing the line than having sons , and living arrangements after marriage often center around related Women in a matrilocal extended family household ( See Text Box , What Can We Learn from the Na ?

Female sexuality may become less regulated since it is the mother who carries the seed of the lineage . In this sense , it is the reverse of the kinds of patrilineal , patrilocal , kinship groups and households one finds in many patriarchal societies . Peggy

258 PERSPECTIVES AN OPEN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY suggested , on these and other grounds , that the , a major ethnic group in sia , is a Ethnographic data have shown that males , especially as members of , can be powerful in matrilineal societies . Warfare , as previously mentioned , along with political and social stratification can alter gender dynamics . The ( in , India ) the , and the Na are matrilineal societies embedded in , or by , dominant cultures and patriarchal religions such as Islam and . The society of the Na in China is also in some ways . Thus , the larger context , including contemporary global processes , can undermine women power and At the same time , though , many societies are clearly , are relatively , and do not have the kinds of gender ideologies and systems found in most patriarchal Text Boxes and Vide examples of such systems . Text Box Does Black Matriarchy Exist in Brazil ?

Histories of Slavery and African Cultural in Religion By Abby is an spirit possession religion in which ( West African ) deities called are honored at religious sites called where the priestesses ( maes do same ) and their daughters ( do santo ) live . One of the central hubs of worship in Brazil is the northeastern state of , where make up more than 80 percent of the population in the capital city , Salvador . Brazil geography is perceived through the lenses of race and class since , a majority state , is viewed as underdeveloped , backward , and poor relative to the whiter and wealthier Southern the , a Jewish female anthropologist Ruth provided a different perspective about , one that emphasized black women communal power . During the time in which conducted her research , the Brazilian police persecuted communities for harboring . The Brazilian government was linked with Nazism , torture , rape , and racism , and resisted this Also ing this period , debate began among social scientists about whether was a matriarchal religion in which women were the primary spiritual leaders . The debate was rooted in the question of where black matriarchy came from . Was it a result of the history of slavery or was it an African cultural survival ?

The debate was simultaneously about the power and importance of women in spiritual and cultural life . On one side of the debate was Franklin , an sociologist trained at University of Chicago , who maintained that and the lack of legal marriage gave women their important position in . He believed that black women had been matriarchal authorities since the slavery period and described them as defiant and . On the other side of the debate was Jewish anthropologist , who was trained by German immigrant Franz Boas at Columbia University . believed that black women nomic roles demonstrated African cultural , but downplayed the priestesses importance in portrayed archy rather than matriarchy as the central organizing principle in . He argued that African cultural in Brazil came from the patrilineal practices of and in West Africa and portrayed communities as with wives and concubines catering to men and battling each other for male attention . Ruth and her work triggered the debate about black matriarchy in . had studied with anthropologists Franz Boas and Ruth Benedict at Columbia University . She began her studies of in 1938 in Salvador , working with her research partner , guide , and significant other , Edison , a scholar of studies and journalist , resulting in publication in 1947 of The City of Women . contended that women were the powerful matriarchal leaders of de . She called them matriarchal because she argued that their leadership was made up almost exclusively of women and , in any case controlled by women . claimed that the women provided spiritual advice and sexual relationships in exchange for financial support from male patrons of the . She also explained that newer houses ( in which indigenous spirits were worshipped in addition to spirits ) had guidelines and allowed men to become priests and dance for the gods , actions considered taboo in the tradition . elaborated that these men were primarily passive homosexuals . She looked down on this modern development , which she viewed as from the supposedly pure ( West African ) controversial ) argument about homosexuality was part of her claim about matriarchy she contended that the homosexual men who became pais do santo ( fathers of the saint , or priests ) had been outcasts and vagrants who were hounded by the police . By becoming like the mothers and acting as women , they could gain status and respect . was strongly influenced by both Edison opinion and the convictions of do ( a revered or father of the secrets ) and the women priestesses of the traditional houses ( Casa , and He ) with whom she spent the majority of her time . Thus , her writings likely represent the views of her primary informants , making her work unique at that time , anthropologists (

259 cally ) considered themselves more knowledgeable about the cultures they studied than the people in those incorporated ideas from the research of Franklin and to contend that the existence of the matriarchy in rested on women economic positions , sexuality , and capacities , which were influenced by ( white slave owners preference for black women as heads of families and the inculcation of leadership traits in black women and not black men and ( the history of women roles as property owners , market sellers , priestesses , and warriors in West ' findings continue to be critiqued in contemporary academic because some scholars disagree with her matriarchy thesis and her views about homosexual pais and do santo . director of African and research at Duke University , has taken one of the strongest positions against , arguing that she altered the evidence to argue for the existence of the cult matriarchate . believes that her division between new and traditional ' houses is a false one and that men traditionally were the leaders in . In fact , contends that , at the time of ' research , more men than women were acting as In contrast , Cheryl Sterling sees ' The City of Women as still relevant today as the first feminist account of and maintains that is a space in which women are the supreme authority and that the is an enclave of female power . The Brazilian state stereotypes black women as socially pathological with unstable family structures , making them , but Sterling argues that is a space in which female blackness Has Civilization Advanced Women Position ?

Ironically , some and writers and social scientists , such as Herbert Spencer , have argued that women positions advanced with civilization , especially under European influence , at least relative to primitive societies . The picture is complicated , but the opposite may actually be true . Most anthropological studies have suggested that civilization , colonialism , development , and globalization have been mixed blessings for Their traditional loads tend to increase while they are simultaneously excluded from new opportunities in agricultural cash crops , trading , and technology . Sometimes they lose traditional rights ( to property ) within extended family kinship groups or experience increased pressure from men to be the of traditions , whether in clothing or marriage practices . On the other hand , new political , economic , and educational opportunities can open up for women , allowing them not only to contribute to their families but to delay marriage , pursue alternatives to marriage , and , if they marry , to have a more voice in their marriages . 14 Deeply embedded stories are extremely powerful , difficult to unravel , and can persist despite contradictory evidence , in part because of their familiarity . They resemble What people have seen and experienced throughout their lifetimes , even in the century , despite all the changes . Yet , nineteenth and twentieth century cultural models are also continuously reinforced and reproduced in every generation through powerful devices children stories rituals like Valentines Day fashion , advertisements , music , video games , and popular culture generally and in financial , ical , legal , and military institutions and leaders . But profound transformations can produce a backlash , as in movements to restore traditional family forms , traditional male and female roles , sexual , and the sanctity of heterosexual Some would argue that backlash elements were at work in the 2016 Presidential and Congressional elections ( see Text Box ) Cultural origin stories also persist because they are legitimizing belief systems often developed by those in power to rationalize , explain , and perpetuate systems of inequality . The theory of human evolution , for example , both and male dominance and other traits and provides an origin story and a legitimizing ideology for the traditional nuclear family as fundamental to human social organization and It also can be used to justify spousal rape and domestic violence , treating both as private family matters and , in the past , as male Not surprisingly , elements of the traditional nuclear family model appear in the 2015 Supreme Court case that legalized marriage , especially in the dissenting views . And cultural models of gender and family played a role in the 2016 Presidential election . For a related activity , see Activity below .

260 PERSPECTIVES AN OPEN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY Text Box Gender and the 2016 Presidential Election By Carol The 2016 presidential election was gender in ways that will take decades to analyze ( see for example Gail Collins ) For the first time , a major political party chose a woman as its presidential candidate . And while Hillary Rodham Clinton did not win the electoral college , she won the popular vote , the first woman to do so , and by nearly three million votes . As a cultural anthropologist who has long studied women and politics , I offer a few preliminary observations on the role of gender in the 2016 presidential Women on the Political Leadership Stage From a positive perspective , for the first time , two women ( Republican Carly and Democrat Hillary Clinton ) participated in televised presidential primary debates and one went on to the Millions of people , including children , saw articulate , accomplished , powerful women competing with men to be . During the 2016 Democratic National Convention the country watched a major cal party and key male leaders celebrate the life and professional and achievements of a woman , its presidential nominee . The impacts are , one hopes , The White House Family The 2016 presidential campaign challenged , at least momentarily , the traditional , institution of the White House first family . What if the president spouse were male ?

This would wreck havoc with the conventional first lady role ! Traditionally , the spouse , even if highly educated , becomes the help mate and , handles domestic affairs , organizes and attends important social occasions , and works on projects such as children health . Hillary Clinton was roundly criticized , as first lady , for venturing beyond the domestic sphere and pursuing health care reform in Bill Clinton administration even though she had indisputably relevant professional expertise . Michelle Obama , with her Harvard law degree and prior career as a lawyer , became best known as First Mom and a whose clothing was discussed and emulated . While she was a very positive role model , especially for , and developed major initiatives to combat childhood obesity and promote fresh food , she did not challenge gender conventions . How many girls remember her credentials and achievements ?

Had Hillary Clinton won , the need to confront elements of the conventional White House family would have come to the forefront as the first gentleman role gradually evolved . Certainly , no one would have expected Bill Clinton to choose china patterns , redecorate the living quarters , or become a fashion . consensual Sexual Interactions Which Century Are We In ?

The 2016 presidential campaign stimulated discussion of other topics . Despite some progress , sexual ment and sexual assault , including rape , remain widespread in the workplace and on college campuses ( Stanford case , The Hunting Ground . Yet there has been enormous pressure on remain silent . In October 2016 , after a video was released of Donald Trump bragging about his ability to sexually grope women he did not know , the candidate said it was only locker room talk not anything he had ever done . Hearing these denials , several women , some , came forth with convincing claims that Trump had groped them or in other ways engaged in inappropriate , sexual behavior . Trump responded by denying the charges , insulting the accusers , and threatening lawsuits against the claimants and news media organizations that published the reports . For many women , the video aroused memories of their own recurring experiences with sexual harassment and assault . After the video was released , Kelly Oxford started a tidal wave of women unburdening secrets with her tweet Women tweet me your first assaults . Others went on record denouncing Trumps talk and behavior , and the hashtag surged on Twitter . In a normal presidential election , the video and repeated accusations of sexual assault would have forced the candidate to withdraw ( as happened with Gary Hart in a previous election ) Instead , accusers experienced a backlash not only from Trump but from some media and Trump supporters , illustrating why women are reluctant to come forth or press sexual charges , especially against powerful men ( see the 1991 Anita Thomas case . These voters reactions and the continued willingness of so many others to vote for the candidate suggest that locker room banter and unwanted sexual advances are still considered normal and acceptable among significant segments of our population . After all , boys will be boys , at least in the old ( false ) baboon stereotype of male behavior ! Clearly , we need more public about what constitutes appropriate and consensual sexually related behavior . Sexism Alive and Well The 2016 presidential campaign revealed that sexism is alive and well , though not always recognized explicit , or acknowledged even when obvious ( see article by Lynn ) The media , both before and after the election , generally underplayed the impact of sexism despite research showing that sexist attitudes , not political party , were more likely to predict voters preference for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton . The campaign also reflected a persistent double standard . Despite widespread agreement that Hillary Clinton was highly qualified to be dent , competence , stamina , and even her proven accomplishments were subjected to scrutiny and criticism not normally

applied to similarly experienced male candidates . Additional criteria were imposed , smiling enough , warmth , and appearance . She did not look ' presidential image of leadership that evoked the stereotype baboon model ! But being six feet tall with large biceps and acting tough and aggressive probably would have disqualified her , as a woman , from the start ! Other traits that are able in , strategic , wanting the treated as liabilities in Clinton , pan ofa , as though women are not legitimately supposed to pursue or hold power . Patriarchal Stereotypes of Women Hillary Clinton candidacy seems to have activated patriarchal stereotypes and images of women . One is the good bad woman opposition . The good woman is chaste , obedient , nurturing , Virgin figure . The bad woman is greedy , selfish , independent , aggressive , and often , sexually , she lies , deceives , is totally untrustworthy . Bad ( nasty ) women in myths and reality must be punished for their transgressions they are dangerous to men and threaten the social order . As a researcher and someone who had many conversations with voters during this election , I was shocked by the intensity and level of directed at Hillary Clinton . It was palpable , and it went far beyond a normal critique of a normal candidate . At Republican rallies , mass shouts of lock her up and and bumper stickers bearing slogans like rump that and worse ) bore a frightening resemblance to historically directed at and at Jews , gays , and socialists in Nazi Germany , as well as to filled speech that fueled Medieval European in which thousands ( if not millions ) mainly women , were burned at the stake burn the witch ' Clinton was indeed challenging gender roles in , the workplace , and at home . Patriarchy was being threatened , and many , though not all , voters found that profoundly disturbing even though they did not necessarily recognize it or admit Beyond that , there is a long tradition of blaming women for personal and societal convincing Adam to eat the forbidden fruit , for the breakup of joint family households in places like India . Women often become the repository for people frustrations when things go wrong ( Remember the spoiled sausage in Portuguese culture discussed earlier in this chapter ?

minorities , immigrants , and evil empires culturally familiar , available targets to which one can legitimately assign blame , frustration , and even rage , as we saw in the Hillary Clinton as a Symbol of Change Ironically , Hillary Clinton was depicted and criticized during the campaign as a symbol of the establishment while her key opponents stood for change . I think it is just the opposite . Hillary Clinton and her campaign and coalition symbolized ( and embraced ) the major , have occurred in the United States since the . It is notjust feminism and a new definition of masculinity that rejects the old baboon model , although that is one While economic anxiety and white nationalism both played roles , the election was also about an America that is changing demographically , socially , religiously , sexually , linguistically , and what constitutes truth and reality . For many in rural areas , outside the government , run by liberal , urban seen as trying to control one way of life with gun control , environmental regulations , ending coal mining , ning school ( Christian ) prayer , requiring schools to teach evolution and comprehensive sex education ( abstinence only ) Hillary Clinton , her coalition , and her alignment with the Obama White House , not just with its policies but with an first family , symbolized the intersection of all these social , demographic , and cultural transformations . She truly represented change . Ironically , Clinton opponents , even in the Democratic Party , were more establishment candidates culturally , demographically , and in their gender relationships . Bernie Sanders attracted an enormous , enthusiastic following and came close to winning the Democratic presidential mary . Vet his rhetoric and policy proposals , while unusual in century mainstream politics , resembled the economic inequality , Wall Street , it only about economics focus of early twentieth century democratic socialists such as Eugene Debs and Norman Thomas and of progressive Henry Wallace . And , not surprisingly , Sanders appealed largely to demographic groups rather than to the broader spectrum of century voters . In short , the election and the candidacy of Hillary Rodham Clinton symbolized more than half a century of enormous a choice between continuing that change or selecting a candidate who symbolized what was traditional , familiar , and , to many , more comfortable . Whether the transformations of the past fifty years will be reversed remains to be Discussion From a global perspective , the United States lags behind many countries in women political leadership and representation . For national bodies , women constitute only 19 percent of Congress , below the world average of 23 percent , below the average in the Americas , 28 percent , and far below Nordic countries , 41 percent . The ranks of 193 countries in the world ( see it comes to political leadership , over 65 nations have elected at least one woman as their head of state , including countries with predominantly Muslim , Christian , Jewish , Hindu , Buddhist populations . see . Yet the still has never elected a woman President ( or even ) Are you surprised by these data or by some of the countries that rank higher than the United States ?

Why ?

What do you think are some of the reasons the US lags behind so many other Ines ?

Additional Resources and Links Center for American Women and Politics 262 PERSPECTIVES AN OPEN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL Presidential Gender Watch Institute for Women Policy Research Pew Research Institute ( us . and international data ) United Nations UN Women CONTEMPORARY ANTHROPOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO STUDYING SEXUALITY AND GENDER Contemporary anthropology now recognizes the crucial role played by gender in human society . Anthropologists in the era have focused on exploring within and beyond sexuality , incorporating a lens in all anthropological research , and applying feminist science works , analyses , political theory , critical studies of race , and queer theory to better understand and theorize dynamics and power . Pleasure , desire , trauma , mobility , boundaries , reproduction , violence , coercion , globalization , development policies and courses , immigration , and other areas of anthropological inquiry have also informed gender and studies . We next discuss some of those and Sexuality in the United States In the long history of human sexual relationships , we see that most involve people from different biological sexes , but some societies recognize and even celebrate partnerships between members of the same biological In some places , religious institutions formalize unions while in others unions are recognized only once they result in a pregnancy or live birth . Thus , What many people in the United States consider normal , such as the partnership of one man and one woman in a sexually exclusive relationship legitimized by the state and federal government and often sanctioned by a religious tion , is actually heteronormative . is a term coined by French philosopher Michel to refer to the system of rights and privileges that accompany normative sexual choices and family formation . For example , a biologically female woman attracted to a logically male man who pursued that attraction and formed a relationship with that man would be lowing a heteronormative pattern in the United States . If she married him , she would be continuing to follow societal expectations related to gender and sexuality and would be agreeing to state involvement in her love life as she her relationship . Despite pervasive messages reinforcing heteronormative social relations , people find other ways to satisfy their sexual desires and organize their families . Many people continue to choose partners from the opposite sex , a phrase that the old bipolar view of males and females as being at opposite ends of a range of characteristics ( Others select partners from the same biological sex . Increasingly , people are choosing partners who attract female , perhaps male , and perhaps someone with ambiguous ical sexual characteristics . Labels have changed rapidly in the United States during the century as a wider range of sexual has been openly acknowledged , accompanied by a shift in our binary View of . Rather than thinking of individuals as either heterosexual OR homosexual , scholars and activists now recognize a spectrum of sexual . Given the focus on identity , it is not surprising that a range of new personhood categories , such as bisexual , queer , questioning , lesbian , and gay have

263 emerged to a , shifting , expansive , and ambiguous conception of sexuality and sexual identity . Transgender , meanwhile , is a category for people who identify as a different gender than the one that was assigned to them at birth . This may entail a social transition or a physical one , using a number of methods . Anthropologist David Valentine explored how the concept of transgender became in the United States and found that many people who were identified by others as transgender did not embrace the label themselves . This label , too , has undergone a profound shift in usage , and the transition by Caitlyn in the has further shifted how people think about those who identify as By 2011 , an estimated million people in the United States identified as lesbian , gay , bisexual , or These communities represent a vibrant , growing , and increasingly politically and economically powerful segment of the population . While people who identify as gay , lesbian , bisexual , and any of a number of other sexual and gender existed out the United States history , it is only since the Stonewall uprisings of 1969 that the modern movement has been a key force in Some activists , community members , and scholars argue that ( lesbian , gay , bisexual , or transgender ) is a better choice of labels than since it puts lesbian identity in the key issue because the term gay is often used as an umbrella term and can erase recognition of individuals who are not gay males . Recently , the acronym has been expanded to include ( queer or questioning ) both queer and questioning ) questioning , intersex , or asexual ) and ( adding allies as well ) Like the population overall , the community is extremely diverse . Some prefer the term loving because the other terms are seen as developed by and for white Emphasizing the importance and power of words , Allen explains that loving was coined by the black queer activist Cleo around 1995 to mark a tinction between gay and lesbian culture and identification , and black men and women who have sex with members of the same 130 While scholars continue to use gay , lesbian , and queer and the Centers for Disease Control uses ( men who have sex with men ) loving resonates in some urban communities . Not everyone who might fit one of the designations consciously identifies with a group defined by sexual orientation . Some people highlight their other identities , as , for ple , or their ethnicity , religion , profession , or they consider central and important in their lives . Some scholars argue that allows people who as the luxury of not being defined by their sexual orientation . They suggest that those who identify with the sex and gender they were assigned at birth be referred to as Only when labels are universal rather than used only for groups , they argue , will people become aware of discrimination based on differences in sexual preference . Though people are urging adoption of sexual identity labels , not everyone is embracing the move to in a specific category . Thus , a man who is attracted to both men and women might identify as bisexual and join activist communities while another might prefer not to be incorporated into any politics . Some people prefer to eliminate acronyms altogether , instead embracing terms such as and that recognize a spectrum instead of a static . This freedom to or avoid categories altogether is important . Most of all , these shifts and debates demonstrate that , like the terms themselves , communities in the United States are diverse and dynamic with priorities and makeup .

264 PERSPECTIVES AN OPEN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL Changing Attitudes toward People in the United States In the last two decades , attitudes toward lesbian , gay and have changed dramatically . The most sweeping change is the extension of marriage rights to lesbian , gay , and bisexual people . The first state to extend marriage rights was Massachusetts in 2003 . By 2014 , more than half of Americans said they believed couples should have the right to marry , and on June 26 , 2015 , in Hodges , the supreme court declared that couples had the legal right to Few civil rights movements have seen such progress in such a short period of time . While many factors have influenced the shift in attitudes , sociologists and have identified increased awareness of and exposure to people through the media and personal interactions as playing key Legalization of marriage also helped normalize parenting . Sarah , whose three young a set of mothered by Sarah and her partner , was active in for marriage equality in Minnesota and ecstatic when the campaign succeeded in 2013 ( see Text Box ) However , legalization of marriage has not been welcomed everywhere in the United States . Anthropologist Jessica ethnographic work profiling a from 2006 through 2008 initially explored their efforts to oppose marriage . Later , she shifted her focus to the rhetoric of gender , masculinity , and sexuality used by the church and its church communications dismissed homosexuality as aberrant and mobilized members to advocate against marriage . The church efforts were not successful . Interestingly , activists and gender studies scholars express concern over incorporating heteronormative institution some consider queer spaces not previously governed by state authority . These concerns may be overshadowed by a desire for normative lives and legal , but as sociologist Tamara and others have argued , legally intertwining passion , romance , sexual intimacy , and economic rights and responsibilities is not necessarily a move in the right As Miriam Smith has written , We must move beyond thinking of marriage and recognition as struggles that pit allegedly normalized or assimilated couples against queer politics and sensibilities and , rather , recognize the increasingly complex gender politics of sex marriage and relationship recognition , a politics that implicates groups beyond the 135 While culture on the whole has become more supportive and accepting of people , they still face challenges . Sexual orientation and gender identity are not federally protected statuses . Thus , in 32 states ( as of 2016 ) employers can legally refuse to hire and can fire someone simply for being Even in states where queer people have legal protection , transgender and other diverse people do not . people can be legally denied housing and other important resources people take for granted . youth made up 40 percent of homeless young people in the United States in 2012 and are often thrust into homelessness by family Transgender ple are the most vulnerable and experience high levels of violence , including homicide . See Activity Bathroom Transgression . Text Box Moving Toward Marriage Equality in Minnesota Sarah Letter In 2013 , the Minnesota state legislature voted on whether to approve marriage . Before the vote , a woman named Sarah made the difficult decision to advocate publicly for the bill approval . In the process , she wrote the following letter . Dear Minnesota Senator ,

265 This is an open letter to you in support of the marriage equality bill . I may not be your constituent , and you may already know how you are planning to vote , but I ask you to read this letter with an open mind and heart nonetheless . I want marriage for the same reasons as many others . My partner Abby and I met in the first days of 2004 and have created a ing home together with kids and two cats . We had a commitment ceremony in 2007 in and were legally married in during our honeymoon . We want our marriage to be recognized because our kids deserve to have married parents , and because we constantly face increased stress as a result of having our relationship not recognized . But that not why I writing . I writing because there is one conversation I have over and over again with my son that puts a pit in my stomach each time , and I ready for that pit to go away . Abby and I both wear wedding hands . We designed them prior to our ceremony and spent more time on that decision than we did on the ers , dresses , and music combined . Our son is now three and a half and , like other kids his age , he asks about everything . All the time . When I get him dressed , change his diaper ( please let him be soon ) or wipe his nose , he sees my ring . And he always asks Mama , what that ring on your finger ?

my wedding band . Why you wear a wedding band ?

Because when Ima and I got married , we picked out wedding bands and now we wear them every day . It shows that we love each other . I want wear wedding band . Someday when you all grown up , you fall in love and get married . And you get to wear a wedding band , too . grow up and get married ?

And then I get a wedding band ?

And then he goes about his day . This conversation may seem silly and harmless to you , but read it again . Look at how many times the issue of marriage comes up . We call it a wedding band , but every time we say that , we know it not completely true because we were not legally wed in Minnesota . When I tell my son about our marriage or our wedding , I know I hiding a secret from him , but am I really supposed to explain that it was a commitment ceremony and we are committed , but not married ?

He too young to be saddled with the pain that comes from being left out . He looks at our pictures and sees that his parents made a commitment to each other because of love . He does understand his grandfather speech recognizing how bittersweet the day was because the state we call home refused to bless our union as it blesses the unions of our friends . And he does understand that , when I tell him he will grow up and get married , his marriage will ( most likely ) be part of a tradition from which his parents are excluded . I am grateful that he is blissfully unaware right now . Imagine having the conversation with your children . Imagine the pain you would feel if innocent conversations with your child reminded you constantly that your love is not valued by your community . Do get me wrong our friends and family treated our ceremony as they would a legal wedding . We had a phenomenal time with good food , music , laughter , and joy . If our in had been enough , though , we would have bothered to get legally married in Vancouver . There is something so powerful and intangible about walking into a government office and walking out with a marriage license . We are grateful we had the opportunity there , and simply wish our state would recognize our commitment as the marriage that it is . Take a look at the picture of my family . It outdated , primarily because we ca get our kids to sit still long enough for a photo . I on the right , Abby on the left . Our son is now and our girls ( twins ) are almost . We can appreciate that this is a difficult vote for many of you and we would be honored if you think of our family and the impact this vote will have on us . We know many people outside of the Twin Cities never have a chance to meet families like ours . Tell them about us , if it helps . We are happy to answer any questions you may have . Thank you for reading . Sincerely , Sarah , Minnesota April 2013 Note Minnesota legalized marriage in 2013 .

266 PERSPECTIVES AN OPEN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY Figure is Sarah family photo Sexuality Outside the United States sexual and romantic relationships probably exist in every society , but concepts like gay , lesbian , and bisexual are cultural products that , in many ways , a culturally specific gender ideology and a set of beliefs about how sexual preferences develop . In many cultures ( such as the discussed above ) sex is a behavior , not an identity . Some individuals in India identify as practicing sexuality or The film Fire by Mira Nair aroused tremendous controversy in India partly because it depicted a relationship between two women somewhat graphically and because it suggested alternatives available to women stuck in unhappy and abusive patriarchal Whether one is homosexual or heterosexual may not be linked simply to engaging in sexual behavior . Instead , as among some Brazilian males , your status in the sexual relationship , literally and symbolically , depends on ( or determines ! whether you are the inserter or the Which would you expect involves higher status ?

Even anthropologists who are sensitive to variations in the terms and understandings that accompany sexual and romantic relationships can still unconsciously project their own meanings onto other cultures . Evelyn Blackwood , an American , described how surprised she was to realize that her lover , who called herself a , had a different conception of what a lesbian identity and lesbian relationship than she We must be careful not to assume that other cultures share identities as they are understood in the United States and many pean countries . Furthermore , each country has its own approach to sexuality and marriage , and reproduction often plays a central role . In Israel , an embrace of policies for Jewish Israelis has meant that expensive reproductive technologies such as in vitro fertilization are provided to women at no cost or are heavily subsidized . An Israeli gay activist described how surprised queer activists from other tries were when they found that nearly all Israeli female couples were raising children . This embrace of parenting did not extend to male couples , for whom the state did not provide assisted reproductive support . The policies can be traced in part to Israel emergence as a state founded in the aftermath of persecution and systematic genocide of Jewish residents of Europe

267 from 1937 through 1945 , Israel initially promoted policies that encouraged births at least in part as resistance to Nazi attempts to destroy the Jewish people . The may be less dramatic elsewhere , but local and national histories often inform policies and practices . In Thailand , Ara Wilson has explored how biological women embrace identities as toms and . Although these terms seem to be derived from concepts ( is etymologically related to ladies ) suggesting international , the ubiquity and acceptance of toms and in Thailand does diverge from patterns in the United In China ( as elsewhere ) the experiences of those involved in sexuality and those involved in sexuality can differ . In her book Shanghai Female Communities and Politics in Urban China , Yip Lo Kam discusses how lesbians in China note their lack of public social spaces compared with gay Even the words lulu and index different categories from the English terms lala encompasses lesbian , bisexual , and transgendered people while is a gloss term that usually refers to gay men but has been expanded in the last two decades to other uses . is a of the term for comrade . Language makes a difference in how individuals and communities articulate their identities . such as Kam have commented on how sharing their own backgrounds with those with whom they work can be instrumental in gaining trust and building rapport . Her identity as a queer anthropologist and activist from Hong Kong helped women in Shanghai feel comfortable ing with her and willing to include her in their From these examples , we see that approaches to sexuality in different parts of the world are evolving , just as gender norms in the United States are undergoing tremendous shifts . Anthropologists often cross boundaries to research these changes , and their contributions will continue to shape ings of the broad range of approaches to sexuality . Anthropology of the Body Another important topic for anthropologists interested in gender and sexuality is the anthropology of the body , sometimes referred to as embodied anthropology . Viewing the human body as an analytic category offers exciting new theoretical Topics that have attracted particular attention include popular and scientific representations of the body ( dis ) ability the anthropology of obesity the politics of reproduction coercion complex issues associated with genital modifications such as female circumcision and the relationship between bodies and Who can cross which lines cally ( think about national borders ) emotionally , psychologically , and socially ?

Embodied anthropology these questions . Anthropologists increasingly write about their own experiences using an mode . For example , Pamela examined how her time as a patient in maternity ward her understanding of the importance of carefully crafted meals and nutrition for In subsequent research on AIDS in Japan , she probed more deeply into how patients nourishment inside and outside clinical settings affected their perceptions of health . Anthropology of the body overlaps with work on gender and sexuality , including the discourse rounding women bodies and reproductive functions . Emily pioneering book , The Woman in the Body , critically examined lay women and medical descriptions of menstruation , and menopause in the United States . She identified a scientific ideology of reproduction that is infused with traditional binary gender stereotypes similar to those in origin stories . In her sic essay about what she calls a scientific fairy tale , Martin describes how biology texts

268 PERSPECTIVES AN OPEN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL the egg and sperm as romantic partners whose actions are described with passive or active verbs according to I realized that the picture of egg and sperm drawn in popular as well as scientific accounts of biology relies on stereotypes central to our cultural definitions of male and female . The types imply not only that female biological processes are less worthy than their male counterparts but also that women are less worthy than men . Part of my goal in writing this article is to shine a bright light on the gender stereotypes hidden within the scientific language of Subsequent work has Challenged the sperm penetrates egg model of fertilization , noting that it is medically inaccurate and reinforces , penetrated ) gender models . In reality , the egg and sperm fuse , but the egg activates the sperm by releasing molecules that are crucial for it to find and adhere to the Old videos like The Miracle of Life offer , in their narration and background music , striking examples of the cultural ideology of reproduction in the United States that Martin and others have In another classic essay , Corinne Hayden explored interactions between biology , family , and gender among lesbian couples . Even though both members of the lesbian couples she studied did not ily contribute biologically to their offspring , the women and their families found ways to embrace these biological differences and develop a new formulation of family that involved biological connection but was not limited to Some research analyzes the body , especially the female body , as a site of coercion and expression of power relations by individuals ( partner rape and domestic violence ) but collective acts also occur , such as using women as sex slaves ( Comfort Women during World War II ) and using civilian rape as a form of psychological warfare . Anthropologists document other ways in which states exert power over family planning policies ( China planned birth policy ) legislation that bans ( or permits ) artificial forms of contraception and abortion , and ment programs to promote fertility , including subsidized infertility For example , ish anthropologists have described how state policies in Turkey have appropriated , for state purposes , sexual issues of concern to Turkish families , such as assisted reproduction for disabled war veterans and treatment of vaginismus , a condition that prevents women from engaging in sexual intercourse . Power relationships are also associated with new reproductive technologies . For example , the availability of amniocentesis often contributes to shifts in the ratio of male and female babies born . Unequal power relations are also in play between surrogate mothers ( often poor women ) and wealthier surrogate desiring Women in Anthropology As seen earlier in this chapter , female anthropologists have always played a key role in anthropology . societies , they have had unique access to women worlds . Recently , they have how gender might affect styles of authorship and authority in . Social tics , including gender , race , class , sexuality , and religion , also how an anthropologist engages in fieldwork and how she and her colleagues relate to one Sometimes the identity of an anthropologist creates new opportunities for deeper understanding and connection , but at other times one personal identity can create professional challenges . Fieldwork Women face particular challenges when conducting fieldwork regardless of the culture but in and patriarchal societies . Sometimes women are perceived as more vulnerable

269 than men to sexual harassment , and their romantic choices in fieldwork situations are subject to greater scrutiny than choices made by men in similar Women may be more likely to juggle family responsibilities and professional projects and bring children with them for fieldwork . At first glance , this practice may raise eyebrows because of the risks it brings to accompanying children and because of potential negative impacts on the anthropologists planned work , but many female anthropologists have found fieldwork undertaken with their families to be a transformative experience both professionally and personally . Whereas appearing as a single fieldworker can arouse suspicion , ing at a field site with the recognizable identities of parent , daughter , or spouse can help people the anthropologist as someone with a role beyond interviewer and observer . At the same time , arriving as a group also complicates called sion One child is often less aware of delicate matters and less sensitive in ing preferences to hosts , causing potentially embarrassing situations but also creating levity that might otherwise be slow to develop . Fieldwork as a family unit also allows for a different rhythm to the elusive balance many families have reported cherishing time spent together during fieldwork since they rarely had so much time together in their home More anthropologists now conduct fieldwork in their home communities . Some wish to explore and empirical questions best examined in local field sites . Others are reluctant or unable to relocate their families or partners temporarily . Conducting fieldwork close to home can also be a less expensive option than going abroad ! But the boundaries of field and home can become quite porous . In their writings , women anthropologists reveal how the realms of public and private and political and personal are connected in the home . Innovative , activist , and studies address sections that other scholars treat Academic Anthropology in the United States Though the representation of women in academic anthropology is now proportional to their numbers in the pool , discrepancies remain between male and female anthropology professors in rank and publication rates . A 2008 report on the status of women in anthropology , for example , found evidence of continuity of the old boys network tendency for men in positions of power to develop relationships with other men , which creates pooled resources , positive performance , and promotions for those men but not for women . Furthermore , since women in the United States are usually socialized to avoid making demands , they often accept lower salary offers than could have been negotiated , which can have significant financial Women are also among anthropology faculty members who are often paid relatively small and whose teaching leaves little time for research and publishing . Some married women prioritize their partners careers , limiting their own geographic and job ( and fieldwork ) opportunities . Left with few academic job options in a given area , they may leave academia On a positive note , women have an increasingly prominent place in the highest ranks of , including as president of the American Anthropological Association . Nonetheless , systemic gender inequality continues to affect the careers of female anthropologists . Given what we know about gender systems , we should not be surprised . Masculinity Studies Students in gender studies and anthropology courses on gender are often surprised to find that they will be learning about men as well as women . Early women studies initially employed what has been

270 AN OPEN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY called an add women and stir approach , which led to examinations of gender as a social construct and of women issues in contemporary society . In the , women studies expanded to become gender studies , incorporating the study of other genders , sexuality , and issues of gender and social Gender was recognized as being fundamentally relational femaleness is linked to maleness , femininity to masculinity . One outgrowth of that work is the field of masculinity 162 Masculinity studies goes beyond men and their roles to explore the relational aspects of gender . One focus is the processes through which boys learn about and learn to perform Many studies ( and several excellent videos , such as Tough Guise by Jackson ) have examined the role of popular culture in teaching boys our cultures key concepts of masculinity , such as being tough and strong , and shown how this tough guise stance affects men relationships with women , with other men , and with societal institutions , reinforcing a culture of violent masculinity . Sociologist Michael has further suggested that boys are taught that they live in a perilous world he terms 53 Anthropologists began exploring concepts of masculinity as early as the , resulting in several key publications in 1981 , including first book on the of New Guinea and and Whitehead volume , Sexual Meanings . In 1990 , Gilmore analyzed graphic data in his Manhood in the Making Cultural Concepts in Other work followed , including a provocative video on the , Guardians of the Flutes . But the growth of studies of men and masculinity in the United States also stimulated new research approaches , such as performative aspects of masculinity and how gender functions in wealthier , societies and ties with access to new technologies and mass Anthropologists sometimes turn to unconventional information sources as they explore culture , including popular television commercials . Interestingly , the 2015 Super Bowl commercials produced for the Always feminine product brand also focused on gender themes in its , which probed the damaging connotations of the phrases throw like a girl and run like a girl by first asking boys and girls to act out running and throwing , and then asking them to act out a girl running and throwing . A companion clip further explored the negative impacts of messages , provoking dialogue among Super Bowl viewers and in social media spaces ( though , ironically , that was intended to promote consumption of feminine products ) As the clips remind us , while boys and men play major roles in perceptions related to gender , so do the women who raise them , often forcing expectations for play and aspiration . Of course , women , like men , are into their cultures gender Both girls and profoundly by popular culture . Though scholars from many disciplines publish important work on masculinity , anthropologists , with their research and perspectives , have significantly deepened and enriched disciplinary understandings . Anthropologists have made strong contributions not only by providing nuanced portrayals ( of , for example , men in prison , heroin users , migrant laborers , college students , and athletes in the United States ) but also through offering vivid accounts of expectations of men in other societies , including the relationship between those expectations and warfare . This can include in expectations based on a persons age , other variations , and transformation of roles as a result of Not all societies expect men to be tough , and those that do go about it in different ways and result in different impacts on men and For example , in Sichuan Province in China , young men must prove their maturity through risky behavior such as theft . In recent years , theft has been supplanted for many by heroin use , particularly as young men have left their home for urban areas ( where they are often feared by city residents and attract suspicion )

while , in the Middle East , technologies such as assisted reproduction are challenging and reshaping ideas about masculinity among some Arab men , particularly men who acknowledge and struggle with infertility . There and elsewhere , conceptions of fatherhood are considered crucial components of . for example , a man who has not fathered a child is not considered to be fully Elsewhere , as we saw in the first part of this chapter , men are expected to be gentle of young children and to behave in ways that do not fit typical stereotypes . In Na communities , men dote on babies and small children , often rushing to pick them up when they enter a room . In South Korea , men in wildly popular singing groups wear eyeliner and elaborate clothing that would be unusual for groups , and throughout China and India , as in many other parts of the world , heterosexual men walk down the street holding hands or without causing raised eyebrows . Physical tact between men , especially in societies , is probably far more common than contact between men and women ! Touch is a human form of intimacy that need not have sexual implications . So if relations are the most intimate in a society , physical expressions of those relations are normal overall unless there is a cultural fear of male physical intimacy . There is much more nuance in actual behavior than initial appearances lead people to believe . Anthropologists are also applying approaches taken in American studies to other cultures . They are engaging in discussions of males , dilemmas , and challenges and have not hesitated to intercede , carefully , in the communities in which they work . Visual anthropologist Gill , conducting research in the Punjab region of India , began asking men about pressures they faced and found that the conversations prompted unexpected reflection . Gill titled his film ti ( and shepherded the film through television broadcasts and viewings to encourage wide discussion in India of the issues he For a related activity , see Activity Analyzing Stereotypes and Masculinity in Music Videos . CONCLUSION In 1968 , a cigarette company in the United States decided to target women as tobacco consumers and used a clever marketing campaign to entice them to take up smoking . You ve come a long way , baby ! billboards proclaimed . Women , according to the carefully constructed rhetoric , had moved away from their historic oppressed status and enjoy the full complement of consumer pleasures . Like men , they deserved to enjoy themselves and relax with a . The campaigns were extremely successful within several years , smoking rates among women had increased dramatically . But had women really come a long way ?

We now know that tobacco ( ing in vaporized form ) is a highly addictive substance and that its use is correlated with a host of ous health conditions . In responding to the marketing rhetoric , women moved into a new sphere of bodily pleasure and possibly enjoyed increased independence , but they did so at a huge cost to their health . They also succumbed to a financial relationship with tobacco companies who relied on addicting individuals in order to profit . Knowing about the structures at work behind the scenes and the risks they took , few people today would agree that women embrace of tobacco represented a huge step forward . Perhaps saying You ve come a long way , baby ! with the cynical interpretation with which we read it today can serve as an analogy for our contemporary explorations of gender and culture . Certainly , many women in the United States today enjoy heightened freedoms . We can travel to previously den spaces , study disciplines long considered the domain of men , shape our families to meet our own needs , work in whatever field we choose , and , we believe , live according to our own wishes . But we would be naive to ignore how gender continues to shape , constrain , and inform our lives . The research

272 PERSPECTIVES AN OPEN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL and methods of anthropology can help us become more aware of the ongoing consequences of our heritage and the ways in which we are all complicit in maintaining gender ideologies that limit and restrict people possibilities . By committing to speak out against subtle , discrimination and to support those along difficult paths , today anthropologists can emulate pioneers such as Franz Boas and Mead , who sought to fuse research and action . May we all be kinder to those who differ from the norm , whatever that norm may be . Only then will we , men and those who identify with neither truly come a long way . But we will leave the baby to those tobacco companies ! Discussion Questions i . What is natural about how you experience gender and human sexuality ?

What aspects are at least partially shaped by culture ?

How do other cultures beliefs and practices regarding gender and sexuality differ from those commonly found in the United States ?

Are there any parallels ?

Does it depend on which community we are talking about ?

What about your own beliefs and practices ?

Reflect on the various ways you have learned about gender and sexuality throughout your life . Which influences do you think had the biggest impact ?

How important is your gender to how you think about yourself , to your identity or , to your everyday life ?

Reflect on what it would be like to be a different gender . How important is your sexuality and sexual orientation to how you think about yourself , to your identity or ?

Reflect on what it would be like if you altered your sexual identity or practices . In what ways have your school settings been shaped by and around gender norms ?

How are anthropologists influenced by gender norms ?

How has this affected the discipline of anthropology ?

GLOSSARY Androgyny cultural definitions of gender that recognize some gender differentiation , but also accept gender bending and according to individual capacities and preferences . Binary model of gender cultural definitions of gender that include only two and female . Biologic sex refers to male and female identity based on internal and external sex organs and . While male and female are the most common biologic sexes , a percentage of the human tion is intersex with ambiguous or mixed biological sex characteristics . Biological determinism a theory that biological differences between males and females leads to different capacities , preferences , and behaviors . This scientifically unsupported view suggests that gender roles are rooted in biology , not culture . a term used to describe those who identify with the sex and gender they were assigned at birth two people in a socially approved pairing . One example is a married couple . Gender the set of culturally and historically invented beliefs and expectations about gender that one learns and performs . Gender is an identity one can choose in some societies , but there is pressure in all societies to conform to expected gender roles and identities . Gender ideology a complex set of beliefs about gender and capacities ,

273 , identities and socially expected behaviors and interactions that apply to males , females , and other gender categories . Gender ideology can differ among cultures and is acquired through . Also known as a cultural model of gender . a term coined by French philosopher Michel to refer to the system of rights and privileges that accompany normative sexual choices and family formation . Legitimizing ideologies a set of complex belief systems , often developed by those in power , to , explain , and perpetuate systems of inequality . groups of related females ( offspring ) form the core of the ily and constitute the most central and enduring social and emotional ties . Matrilineal societies where descent or kinship group membership is transmitted through women , from mothers to their children ( male and female ) and then through daughters , to their children , and so forth . Matrilocal a kinship group where living arrangements after marriage often center around households containing related women . Patriarchy describes a society with a political and authority structure and an ideology that privileges males over females in domestic and public spheres . groups of related males ( a brothers ) and their male offspring form the core of the family and constitute the family most central and enduring social and emotional ties . Patrilineal societies where descent or kinship group membership is transmitted through men , from men to their children ( male and female ) and then through sons , to their children , and so forth . Patrilocal a kinship group where living arrangements after marriage often center around households containing related men . Third gender a gender identity that exists in gender systems offering one or more gender roles separate from male or female . Transgender a category for people who or people who identify as a different gender than the one that was assigned to them at birth . This may entail a social transition or a physical one , using a number of methods . Learning Activities and Additional Resources There is a set of learning activities designed to complement the material in this chapter available in the Teaching Resources section of the Perspectives website . You can also find a guide to additional resources for exploring the issues raised in this chapter .

274 PERSPECTIVES AN OPEN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY ABOUT THE AUTHORS II specializes in gender , sexuality , ethnicity , and , with research in the USA and India on families , politics , and . In graduate school she one of the earliest courses . She has developed numerous gender classes and taught , for 20 years , a popular anthropology and , section Human Sexuality course . publications include Cognitive Anthropology Through a Lens ( 2011 ) How are Western Theories of Science ?

2009 ) A Feminist Anthropology The Case of Women and Mathematics ( 2004 ) Women , Education and Family Structure in India ( 1994 , with Seymour ) She an early Annual Review of Anthropology article on gender ( 1988 ) and is in the Association for Feminist Anthropology . In other work , she served as a Key Advisor for the RACE project How Real is Race A on Race , Culture and Biology , Edition , 2014 ) and promotes active learning approaches to teaching about culture ( ami is a faculty member in the School of Ethnology and ology at University and was a 2016 Scholar affiliated with University . Since 2001 , she has been engaged in a ethnographic fieldwork project in northwest Province , studying changes in education , social life , and ecology in Na communities . is the of Cultural Heritage Politics in China , with ( 2013 ) and of Doing Fieldwork in China With Kids ! with Candice Cornet ( 2016 ) also produced Some Na Ceremonies , a ley Media film by and . holds a in Sociocultural from the University of Washington .

275 Susan Harper , is an educator , activist , and advocate in Dallas , Texas . She holds a in Cultural Anthropology from Southern Methodist University and a Graduate in Women Studies from Texas Woman University . Her ethnographic research focuses on New Religious Movements , primarily NeoPaganism , in the American South the intersection of gender , sexuality , and religious identity and ses , sexuality , and sex education . Her work has been published in the journal of Bisexuality . Susan is passionate about a variety of social justice causes , including domestic and intimate partner violence prevention and recovery , sexual assault prevention and recovery , equality and inclusion , and educational justice . She has given presentations on equality and inclusion to a variety of audiences , including the North Texas Society of Human Resource Managers , The Turning Point Rape Crisis Center , and various religious organizations . She teaches courses in anthropology , sociology , and Womens and Gender Studies at various universities and colleges in the area . She also serves as Graduate Editor for Texas Woman University . She is currently working on an about burlesque and visual anthropology project exploring the use of by practitioners of NeoPaganism . is a candidate in Global and Studies ( majoring in ) at Florida International University in Miami , Florida . She defended her dissertation proposal in April 2016 . Her project , Jewish Women , disciplinary and Transnational Social Science Networks , uses social network analysis and grounded theory methodology to understand the relationships between the and economic justice stance taken by Jewish female social scientists and their Jewish . Further information about her work is available from and . The authors wish to thank the many people who supported this writing project . We especially ate the editorial guidance of Nina Brown and the constructive feedback from two anonymous ers . We are grateful to our students as well , particularly those in Gender in East Asia at University who read a draft version of this chapter in 2016 and shared feedback that helped us improve the chapter , and to students at California State University Chico and at San

276 PERSPECTIVES AN OPEN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL Jose State University . We also thank the many individuals who shared their lives with us and with other anthropologists , enabling us to understand and appreciate the breadth , depth , and richness of human cultural diversity . Finally , Carol extends her thanks to Nina Brown and Tami field , and to Susan Seymour , on many levels , for help on the 2016 Gender and the Presidential Election text box . Notes . The Introduction and much of the material in the Foundations segment draws upon and decades of research , writing , and teaching courses on culture , gender , and human sexuality . Some of it has been published . Other material comes from lecture notes . See . We use quotation marks here and elsewhere in the chapter to alert readers to a culturally specific , culturally invented concept in the United States . We need to approach cultural inventions the same way we would a concept we encountered in a foreign , exotic culture . See Carolyn and Carolyn Sargent , Gender in Perspective ( New York , 2005 ) Also , Anne , Myths of Gender . Biological Theories About Women and Men ( New York Basic Books , 1991 ) For some examples of these nineteenth century Views , see article at . For a list of descriptive terms , see , For an example of a textbook , see , Fundamentals ofHuman Sexuality ( Fort Worth , Holt , and Winston , 1989 ) See also Linda Stone , Kinship and Gender An Introduction ( Boulder , CO view Press , 2013 ) Material in the following paragraphs comes from , unpublished Human Sexuality lecture notes . Fundamentals ofHuman Sexuality , 365 . Phyllis , Women of the . A Study of the Economic Position of Women in , British ( Colonial Research publication 14 . London Her Majesty Stationery ) The image comes from the cover of her book , which is also available online . See Barry , Intimate Fathers The Nature and Context Pygmy Paternal Infant Care ( Ann Arbor of Michigan Press , 1991 ) and personal communication with . Masters and , Human Sexual Response ( New York Bantam Books , 1966 ) Some feminist scholars have also questioned the naturalness of the biological categories male and female . See for example , Judith Butler , Gender Trouble Feminism and the Subversion ( New York , 1999 1990 ) For genital similarities , Hyde , Understanding Human Sexuality ( Hill , 2014 ) For more parallels , see online Human Sexuality course materials , at . For some idea of the enormous variability in human physical characteristics , see Chapter and Chapter in , and Moses , How Real is Race Race , Culture and Biology ( and , 2014 ) Information about alternative gender roles in Native American communities can be found in Martha Ward and Monica , A World Full of Women ( Boston Pearson , 2013 ) Also , see the 2011 pendent Lens film Two Spirits for an account of the role of ideology in Navajo communities , including the story of a Navajo teenager who was the victim of a hate crime because of his identity . Martha Ward and Monica , A World Full of Women . Serena Nanda , Neither Man nor Woman the ( Boston , MA , 1999 ) Serena Nanda , Gender Diversity Variations ( Prospect Heights , IL 2000 ) and Gayatri Reddy and Serena Nanda , An Alternative in India , in Gender in Perspective , ed . and gent , Upper Saddle River Pearson , 2005 ) Janet Hyde , Understanding Human Sexuality , 99 Martha Ward and Monica , A

17 . 18 . 19 . 20 . 21 . 22 . 23 . 24 . 25 . 26 . 27 . 28 . 29 . 30 . 31 . 32 . 33 . 34 . 35 . 36 . 37 . 277 World Full of Women . Beverly , personal communication with . See also her writings on Isthmus women such as Beverly , The Isthmus A Culture ( New York Brace College Publishers 1997 ) For a film on this culture , see Maureen Gosling and Ellen Osborne , Blossoms , Film ( San Francisco Film Arts Foundation , 2001 ) Gilbert , The ( New York Holt and Winston , 2006 ) For an excellent film see Gilbert , Guardians of the Flutes ( London UK , 1994 ) More information about the Nu shu writing system can be found in the film by Yang , Nu Shu A den Language of Women in China ( New York Women Make Movies , 1999 ) Women and Men An Anthropologist View ( New York Holt , and Winston , 1975 ) See Audrey Richards , A Girl Initiation Ceremony among the ( London , 1956 ) and Richards , Land , Labour and Diet in Northern , An Economic Study of the Tribe ( London Oxford , 1939 ) See for example , Ian , The Island Men Religion in , New Guinea ( Scranton , PA Publishing Company , 1970 ) Susannah Hoffman , Richard A and Paul , Men and Women Apart A Divided Reality ( Berkeley CA Berkeley Media , 1976 ) Denise Lawrence , Menstrual Politics Women and Pigs in Rural Portugal , in Blood Magic The Anthropology of Menstruation , ed . Thomas Buckley and Alma , Berkeley University of California Press . 1988 . See . Some women are posing with photos of menstrual pads and . See the film by Michael and Rina Gill , Family ( MA DER , 1981 ) Cynthia Nelson , Public and Private Politics Women in the Middle Eastern World American Ethnologist no . 1974 ) Carol , Family Structure and Indian Women Participation in Science and Engineering , in Women , Education and Family Structure in India , ed . Carol and Susan Seymour , der Press , 1994 ) Elizabeth , Guests of the Ethnography ofan Iraqi Village ( New York Anchor Books , 1965 ) Susan Seymour , Cora Du Bois Anthropologist , Diplomat , Agent ( Lincoln , NE University of Nebraska Press , 2015 ) Carol , Women in Science Is the Glass Ceiling Disappearing ?

Proceedings of conference organized by the National Institute of Science and Technology Development Studies , the Department of Science and Technology , Government of India Indian Council of Social Science Research and the Science and Technology Forum . March , 2004 . New Delhi , India . See for instance , and . For more details , see the film by , India Daughter ( Italy Film ) The Wikipedia article about the film notes the reluctance of the Indian government to air the film in India , Daughter . For a critique of the myth of the medieval chastity belt , see . See for example , the film by , Silent Waters ( Mumbai , India Film ) While this is not a , the film reflects the tumultuous history of the partition into two countries . For the ! Kung San , see Marjorie , Life and Words ofa Kung Woman ( New York Vintage , 1983 ) For , see Annette Weiner , The New Guinea ( New York Holt and , 1987 ) Du , Chopsticks Only Work in Pairs Gender Unity and Gender Equality Among the China ( New York Columbia University Press , 1999 ) Zhou , Zhong nu bu de de ?

Matrilineal , Valuing Women without Men A Society without Fathers or Husbands ?

Beijing , 2009 2001 ) 278 38 39 40 . 41 . 42 . 43 . 44 . 45 . 46 . 47 . 48 . 49 . 50 . 51 . 52 . 53 . 54 . 55 . 56 . 57 . 58 . 59 . 60 . 61 . PERSPECTIVES AN OPEN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY . Women and Men An Anthropologists View ( Holt , and Winston , 1975 ) Carol , Sati or Shakti Women , Culture and Politics in India , in Perspectives on Power Women in Asia , Africa and Latin America , ed . jean , Center for International Studies , Duke 1982 ) Lila , Writing Women Worlds Bedouin Stories ( Berkeley University of California Press , 2008 ) and Seymour use the term to describe households that consist of related males , ally brothers , and their sons , and the spouses and children of those males . See and , Introduction in Women , Family , and Education in India ( Boulder Press , 1994 ) For powerful documentaries see , the film by , Gang ( Norway Kudos Family , 2012 ) and the film by Kim , Pink Saris ( New York Women Make Movies , 2011 ) Lionel Tiger , Men in Groups ( New Brunswick , Transaction Publishers , 2005 1969 ) 45 . Carol , The Sexual Division in the Family , Dissertation , University of California , Riverside , 1980 , 192 . Carol , India and , The Cultural Context of Science The Case , 2001 , For example , the major symposium on Man the Hunter sponsored by Foundation for logical Research included only four women among more than sixty listed participants . See Richard Lee and DeVore , Man the Hunter ( Chicago Aldine , 1972 1968 ) Lecture Notes , Human Sexuality , Gender and Culture . and . Lancaster , The Evolution of Hunting . in Man the Hunter , 299 . 303 . Jackson , Tough Guise Violence , Manhood and American Culture ( MA Media Education dation , 2013 ) Abigail Disney and Kathleen Hughes , The Armor ( New York Fork Films , 2015 ) Lionel Tiger and Robin Fox , The Imperial Animal ( New York Transaction Publishers , 1997 1971 ) 101 . Some useful reviews include the following Linda , The Changing Role of Women in Models of Human Evolution Annual Review 16 ( 1986 ) Linda , Primate Paradigms Sex Roles and Social Bonds ( Chicago University of Chicago Press , 1992 ) Pamela and Miranda . Feminist Anthropology Past , Present , and Future ( Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania Press 2006 ) Joan and Margaret , Archeology Women and Prehistory ( MA Publishers , 1991 ) Shirley Strum and Linda Primate Encounters Models of Science , Gender and Society . Chicago University of Chicago Press , 2000 ) Meredith Small , What Love Got to Do with It ?

The Evolution ofHuman Mating ( New York , 1995 ) Nancy Tanner , On Becoming Human ( Cambridge Cambridge University Press , 1981 ) For a readable short article , see Meredith Small , What Love Got to Do with It , Discover Magazine , June 1991 , DeVore , ed . Primate Behavior ( New York Holt , and Winston , 1965 ) Ibid . Also , for primate politics in particular , see Sarah , The Woman That Never Evolved ( Cambridge , MA Harvard University Press , 1999 1981 ) See also website . Thelma . Social Behaviour ( New York Penguin Books , 1972 ) For an excellent online article on work with additional references , read , Culture and Gender Do Not Dissolve into How Scientists Read Nature Thelma In Rebels ofLife . Iconoclastic Biologists in the Twentieth Century , edited by and Friedrich ( New Haven Yale University Press , 2008 ) See Richard Lee and DeVore , Man the Hunter ( Chicago Aldine , 1972 1968 ) See , Agnes Daughters of the Forest . Natural History 95 ( May 1986 ) Richard Lee , The San . Men , Women and Work in a Foraging Society ( Cambridge , UK Cambridge University Press , 1979 ) Martha Ward and Monica , A World Full of Women , 26 . Susan Seymour , Multiple Caretaking of Infants and Young Children An Area in Critical Need of a Feminist Psychological Anthropology , Ethos 32 no . 2004 )

62 . 63 . 64 . 65 66 . 67 . 68 . 69 . 70 . 71 . 72 . 73 . 74 . 75 . 76 . 77 . 78 . 79 . 80 . 81 . 82 . 83 . 84 . 85 . 86 . 279 Serena Nanda and Richard Warms , Cultural Anthropology ( Belmont , CA , 2006 ) 274 . Ester , Women Role in Economic Development ( New York Martin Press , 1970 ) Barbara Miller , Cultural Anthropology ( and Bacon , 2012 ) and Christina , Florida Farm Wives They Help the Family Farm Survive ( Food and Resource Economics Department , University of Florida , 1981 ) Judith Brown , A Note on the Division of Labor by Sex , American Anthropologist 72 ( 1970 ) See for some contemporary examples of the challenges and obstacles workplaces pose for working mothers , as well as efforts to advocate for improved accommodation of parenting and working . Conrad , Appreciating Cultural ( New York Hill , 2013 ) See , Human Sexuality Lecture notes , for the following analysis , available from . See also , Part II , Culture Creates Race , especially chapter and , in Carol , and Moses How Real is ?

A on Race , Culture and Biology ( 2014 ) Ibid . This and subsequent material comes from , Part , especially chapter , and , in Carol , and Moses . How Real is ?

A on Race , Culture and Biology , tion ( 2014 ) Carol , Yolanda Moses and Rosemary , How Real is ?

Chapter . Annette Weiner , The New Guinea ( New York Holt and Winston , 1987 ) Lu Hui , Preferential Marriage among the in , in Perspectives on the Yi of Southwest China , ed . Berkeley , CA University of California Press , 2001 ) Elizabeth , Guests of the Sheik . See the film Women , 1980 . An excellent documentary on two alternative paths some women take in contemporary India the Miss India path and the fundamentalist Hindu path . Filmed in India , The World Before Her , See and for background and links to detailed information . Material in this text box was adapted from What Can We Learn from the Na ?

Shattering Ideas about Family and Relationships , a presentation by Tami . See also Tami , Chinese Tour Groups in Europe , Chinese Tour Groups in Narrating a Nation in the World The China , Siobhan , Brooke , and Tami , Paternal Investment and the Positive Effects of Fathers among the Matrilineal ( Na ) of Southwest China American Anthropologist 16 no . 2014 ) Tami , Resilience in Mountainous west China Adopting a Approach to Community Change , in Worlds in the Making ity and the Processes of Generating Meaning in Southwestern China , 23 ( 2014 ) See reviews in Naomi Quinn , Anthropological Studies of Women Status , Annual Review ( 1977 ) Carol and Patricia Higgins , Anthropological Studies of the Status of Women Revisited Annual Review 17 ( 1988 ) Michelle and Louise , ed . Woman , Culture and Society ( Stanford Stanford University Press , 1974 ) Rayna Reiter , ed . Toward an Anthropology of Women ( New York Monthly Review Press , 1975 ) Karen Sacks , Sisters and Wives . The Past and Future Equality ( Greenwood , 1979 ) Peggy , Female Power and Male Dominance On the Origins of Sexual Inequality ( Cambridge Cambridge Press , 1981 ) For an alternative ethnographic , research based video see The Story ofa ! Kung Woman . 1980 . Carol and Patricia Higgins , Anthropological Studies of the Status of Women Revisited , Annual Review 17 ( 1988 ) 462 . Ibid . See for example , Evelyn Blackwood . Webs . Women , Kin , and Community in a Village (

280 87 88 . 89 . 90 . 91 . 92 . 93 . 94 . 95 . 96 . 97 . 98 . 99 . 100 . 101 . 102 . 103 . 104 . PERSPECTIVES AN OPEN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY and . 2000 ) Marcia , Infertility and Patriarchy The Cultural Politics of Gender and Family Life in Egypt ( Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania Press , 1996 ) Thomas Buckley and Alma , ed . Blood Magic . The Anthropology . Berkeley University of California Press , 1988 ) Marcia , and Frank Van , Infertility around the Globe New Thinking on Childlessness , Gender and tive Technologies ( Berkeley University of California Press , 2002 ) Cole , ed . All American Women Lines That Divide , Ties That Bind ( New York Free Press , 1986 ) Helena and Patricia , Situated Lives Gender and Culture in Everyday Life . New York , 1997 ) See for example , Faye . Contested Lives The Abortion Debate in an American Community ( Berkeley of California Press , 1989 ) Dorothy Holland and Margaret . Educated in Romance . Chicago of Chicago , 1990 ) Peggy , Fraternity Gang Rape Sex , Brotherhood , and Privilege on Campus . New York New York University Press , 2007 ) Peggy , The Context of Rape A Study of Social Issues 37 no . 1981 ) See also Conrad , Cultural Anthropology . Appreciating Cultural Diversity ( New York Hill , 2013 ) Das , Violence , Gender and Subjectivity , Annual Reviews 37 ( 2008 ) Tulsi Patel , ed . Abortion in India . Gender , Society and New Reproductive Technologies ( New Delhi , India Sage Publications , 2007 ) Eleanor and Helen , Women Work Development and the Division by Gender ( South , MA Bergin Garvey , 1986 ) Nandini and Ann , The Gender of tion Women Navigating Cultural and Economic ( Santa Fe , School for Advanced Research Press , 2008 ) Kay and Susan , Women , Technology , and Development Ideologies . and Findings , in Sandra Morgen , ed . Critical Research and Teaching ( American Anthropological Association Publication , 1989 ) Carol and Susan Seymour , ed . Women , Education and Family Structure in India ( Boulder view Press , 1994 ) Ellen , Lesbian Mothers Accounts of Gender in American Culture ( NY Cornell University Press . 1993 ) and Margaret , ed . Archeology . Women and Prehistory ( Oxford Oxford Press , 1991 ) Sarah Nelson , Worlds of Gender . The Archeology of Women Lives Around the Globe . 2007 ) See also earlier volumes . Rosemary A , Ancient Bodies , Ancient Lives Sex , Gender and Archeology ( New York Thames and Hudson , 2008 ) Barbara Voss , Sexuality Studies in Archeology , Annual Review 37 ( 2008 ) The following analysis was developed by in scholarly papers and in lecture notes . Mary , Days Political Unrest in an Iranian Village ( Stanford , CA Stanford University Press , 2015 ) This analysis was developed by in scholarly papers and in lecture notes . An example of this tern from Iran is Mary , Days . Conrad , Appreciating Cultural ed . Hill , 2013 ) Women and Men An Anthropologists View and Patricia Higgins , Anthropological Studies of the Status of Women Revisited Annual Review 17 ( 1988 ) One male pilot , when asked about why there were no women pilots , said , without thinking , Because women are strong enough to fly the plane ! He then realized what he said and laughed . From , field notes , 1980 . Ann , Making Empire Respectable . The Politics of Race and Sexual Morality in Cultures , in Situated Lives . Gender and Culture in Everyday Life , ed . Louise , and , New York , 1997 ) Peggy , Women at the Center Life in a Modern Matriarchy ( Cornell Cornell University Press , 2002 ) lecture notes , Gender and Culture . See for instance Annette Weiner , The New Guinea Martha Ward and Monica , A World Full of Women Carolyn and Carolyn Sargent , Gender in Perspective . Kirsten Marie Ernst , Rios , Pontes Northeastern Regionalism in a Globalized Brazil ( Berkeley of California Press , 2007 ) Collins , BUT WHAT IF I SHOULD NEED TO DEFECATE IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD , MADAME ?

Empire , Redemption , and the Tradition of the Oppressed in a Brazilian World Heritage Site , 23 no . 2012 ) an , Analysis Brazil Racial 11 115 . 116 . 117 . 118 . 119 . 05 . 06 . 07 . 08 . 09 . 10 . 12 . 13 . 14 . 281 Democracy News , April 19 , 2000 Allan Charles Dawson , Food and Spirits Religion , Gender , and Identity in the African Cuisine of Northeast Brazil , African and Black ( 2012 ) Alan Marcus , Sex , Color and Geography Relations in Brazil and Its Predicaments Annals of the Association ofAmerican 103 ( Ruth , The Gig ) of Women ( New York The MacMillan Company , 1947 ) 92 , 106 . Franklin , The Negro Family in , Brazil American Sociological Review no . 1942 ) Franklin , The Negro Family in the United States ( Chicago University of Chicago , 1939 ) 125 . For the opposing view , see Mark Alan , The Sweet Matriarchy of Ruth Ethnography of Race and Disposition The Cultural Practice 23 no . 50 ( 1998 ) 101 . See . The Negro in , Brazil A Problem in Method American Sociological Review no . 1943 ) Edison , Letters from Edison to Ruth Dating from September 28 , 1938 to March 14 , 1946 ( Box Ruth Papers , National Anthropological Archives , Smithsonian Institution , 1938 ) Ruth , The City of Women ( New York MacMillan Company , 1947 ) Ruth , Fetish Worship in Brazil ofAmerican Folklore 53 no . 210 ( 1940 ) 261 . Ruth , The City of Women ( New York MacMillan Company , 1947 ) 37 . Ruth , Negro Slavery and Female Status African Affairs 52 no . 206 ( 1953 ) 55 . Also , Ruth , A Cult Matriarchate and Male Homosexuality The and Social Psychology 35 no . 1940 ) Ruth , Negro Slavery and Female Status , African Affairs 52 no . 206 ( 1953 ) Agendas The Secrets Scholars Keep about Religion , Gender 64 History 15 no . 2003 ) 413 . Cheryl Sterling , Power , and the Sacred in Culture , The Global South no . 2010 ) Nandini and Ann , The Gender of Globalization Women Navigating Cultural and Economic ( Santa Fe , School for Advanced Research Press , 2008 ) Women political power , when exerted , may go unnoticed by the global media . For an example , see the mentary Pray the Devil to Hell on women role in forcing Liberian President Charles Taylor from office and ing to the election of as President . For an excellent documentary on some of the alternative paths contemporary women in India are taking , see The World before Her . For more on changes in womens cation in India , see Carol . 2001 . The Cultural Context of Science The Case of Available at See the excellent film The Purity Myth The Virginity Movement Women . Available through Media Education Foundation . Carol . 1982 . Sati or Shakti Women , Culture and Politics in In Perspectives on Power Women in Asia , Africa and Latin America , edited , Center for International Studies , Duke University Carol . 2008 . Sati or Shakti An Update in Light of Contemporary Presidential Paper presented at Gender and a Feminist Anthropological Perspective . November 2008 , San Francisco . On the 2016 Election , see Carol Gender and Trump , Social justice blog , january 19 , 2017 , For more information on the initial Trump video , see impact . For coverage of the women accusing Trump and his response , see . For coverage of Trumps response to the allegations , see . Carly Wayne , Nicholas Valentino and . 2016 . How Sexism Drives Support for Donald Trump . Washington Post , October . Also see Libby Nelson . 2016 . Hostility toward Women Is One of the Strongest of Trump Support . Vox . November . For an article that also covers research by psychologists , see Emily . 2016 . Why Misogyny Vox . November . For examples of rhetoric , see article and associated video at , Figures for numbers of witches killed range from thousands to millions , with most suggesting at least and probably far more . Regardless , it is estimated that percent were women . See for example Douglas Linder . 2005 . A Brief History of Witchcraft Persecutions before Salem

282 20 . 21 . 22 . 23 . 24 . 25 . 26 . 27 . 28 . 29 . 30 . 31 . 32 . 33 . 34 . 35 . 36 . 37 . 38 . 39 . 40 . PERSPECTIVES AN OPEN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY and . Mark of the Field Poll suggested one reason polls were wrong is that female Trump voters hid their actual voting preferences from pollsters . is quoted in . Saunders . 2016 . How Herd Mentality Blinded Pollsters to Trump Potential . San Francisco Chronicle . November 13 , For a critique of those who blame ( white ) women for Hillary Clinton defeat , see the article by Kelly . 2016 . No , Women Did Abandon Clinton , Nor Did She Fail to Win Their Support . Magazine . November . See Women in the World . 2016 . Donald Trump Victory Threatens to Upend Progressive Notions of ity . November . For a powerful video reaction and interpretation of this election , see . There is a huge body of research on these ( and other ) topics that we simply have not been able to cover in one chapter of a book . We hope the material and references we have provided will give readers a starting point for further investigation ! Many gender studies scholars have moved away from labeling people biologically female or biologically male , shifting instead to terms like assigned female at birth and assigned male at birth . Terms that foreground assignment help recognize the of gender identity and the existence of intersex people who do not fit neatly into those categories . Carol , A Feminist Cognitive Anthropology The Case of Women and Mathematics Ethos 32 no . 2004 ) David Valentine , Imagining Transgender An Ethnography ofa Category ( Duke University Press , 2007 ) See also Jessi , My Brothers Pregnancy and the Making of a New American Family TIME Gary Gates , How Many People are Lesbian , Gay , Bisexual and Transgender ?

University of California , Los Angeles Williams Institute , David Carter , Stonewall The Riots that a Gay Revolution ( Martin Griffin , 2010 ) Eric Marcus , Making Gay History The Lesbian and Gay Equal Rights ( New York Harper Collins , 2002 ) Allen , In the Life In Autonomy Desire Community , in Handbook , Health and Rights , ed . Peter and Richard Parker ( New York , 2010 ) 459 . Kristen and Laurel , Doing Gender , Doing Gender Normals , Transgender People , and the Social Maintenance of Heterosexuality Gender and Society 23 no . 2009 ) Justin McCarthy , Marriage Support Reaches New High at 55 . Ellen and William Leap , Out in Theory The Emergence and Gay Anthropology ( University of Illinois Press , 2002 ) William Leap and Ellen , Out in the Field Reflections and Gay gist ( University of Illinois Press , 1996 ) The Masculinity , War , and Sacrifice at an Emerging Church in Seattle , Political and Legal Anthropology Review 33 no . 2010 ) Tamara , Untying the Knot Marriage , the State , and the Their Divorce ( Princeton Princeton University Press , 2010 ) Miriam Smith , Gender Politics and the Marriage Debate in the United States , Social Politics 17 no . 2010 ) Quote is on Luke Malone , Here Are The 32 States Where You Can Be Fired For Being , February 12 , The Williams Institute . 2012 . America Shame 40 of Homeless Youth are Kids . San Diego Gay and Lesbian News , 13 July . Fire , film by Mira Nair . Don , The Gender of Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes American Anthropologist 99 no . 1997 )

141 . 142 . 143 . 144 . 145 . 146 . 155 . 156 . 157 . 47 . 48 . 49 . 50 . 51 . 52 . 53 . 54 . 283 Evelyn Blackwood , in West Sumatra Constructing Masculinity and Erotic Desire , in Feminist A Reader , ed . Ellen , MA Publishing , 2006 ) Ara Wilson , The Intimate Economies , Tycoons , and Ladies in the Global City ( Berkeley of California Press , 2004 ) Yip Lo , Shanghai Female Communities and Politics in Urban China . Hong Kong Hong Kong University Press , 2012 ) Ibid . Frances , A Companion to the Anthropology of the Body and Embodiment ( MA , 2011 ) Don , Loneliness and Its Opposite Sex , Disability , and the Ethics ( Duke University Press , 2015 ) Susan , Nation The Human Costs ofAmerica War on Fat ( NY Cornell University Press , 2015 ) Ellen , The Female Circumcision Controversy An Anthropological Perspective ( Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania Press , 2001 ) Seth Holmes , Fresh Fruit , Broken Bodies Migrant in the United States ( Berkeley University of California Press , 2013 ) Entry Denied Controlling Sexuality at the Border ( University of Minnesota Press , 2002 ) Pamela , The Medical Anthropologist as the Patient Developing Research Questions on Hospital Food through , Exchange 23 no . 2016 ) Emily Martin , The Woman in the Body ( New York Martin Press , 1987 ) Emily Martin , The Egg and the Sperm How Science Has Constructed a Romance Based on Stereotypical Roles Signs 16 no . 1991 ) Emily Martin , The Egg and the Sperm , 485 . David Freedman , The Aggressive Egg , Discover , June , 1992 , The Miracle ofLife , 1983 . There was a sequel in 2001 . Corinne Hayden , Gender , Genetics and Generation Biology in Lesbian Kinship , Cultural Anthropology 10 no . 1995 ) For some of the positive results for women , see Vanessa Fong , China Policy and the Empowerment of Urban Daughters , American Anthropologist 104 no . 2002 ) The examples from Turkey come from The of the Family in Turkey , sexuality and reproduction . Session at 2015 American Anthropological Association meetings , Denver and from a paper given by Sen in session , Development , Gender , and the Social Imaginary , at the 2015 ican Anthropological Association meetings , Denver . There is a huge body of research on these topics ( and ers ) that we simply could not cover in one chapter . We hope the references we have provided will give readers a starting point for further investigation ! Ruth , Introduction Out of Exile , in Women Writing Culture , ed . Ruth and Deborah Gordon ( ley University of California Press , 1995 ) Peggy , Women in the Field Anthropological Experiences ( Chicago , IL Aldine Publishing Company , 1970 ) Nancy . Hidden Scholars Women Anthropologists and the Native American Southwest ( Albuquerque University of New Mexico Press , 1993 ) Helen , Sex Suggested and Power Play Notes on Harassment in the Field , in China New Faces of Ethnography , ed . Pal , and Fong ( 2005 ) Fran and Michael , Sex , Sexuality , and the Anthropologist ( Chicago University of Chicago Press , 1999 ) See Candice Cornet and Tami , Anthropological Fieldwork and Families in China and Beyond , in Doing Fieldwork in China with Kids ! The Dynamics Fieldwork in the Peoples Republic , ed . Candice Cornet and Tami ( Copenhagen Press , 2006 ) Tami , Blurred Boundaries of Learning and Ethnography in an Era of Constant Connectedness Lessons from Fieldwork with Children in Southwest China , ibid , Additional perspectives from a duo and a pair in the same volume are those by . and Patrick III , Opening the Door ( Doing Fieldwork with Children in Rural China , and Shea , Clean Your Plate and Don Be Polite An American Mother Education in Early Childhood Parenting and Family Life in Shanghai , China . For another discussion of how children perceptions of a parent , Family and Other Impression Management in Accompanied Fieldwork , in Fieldwork and Families New Ethnographic Research , Leslie Marshall , Armstrong (

284 158 . 159 . 160 . 161 . 162 . 163 . 164 . 165 . 166 . 167 . 168 169 . 170 . PERSPECTIVES AN OPEN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY Hawaii University Press , 1998 ) Lynn , Telling the Story Straight Black Feminist Thought in Anthropology Transforming Anthropology journal of the Association ofBlack Anthropologists 21 no . 2013 ) See Christina et , We Come a Long Way , Maybe Academic Climate Report of the Committee on the Status of Women in Anthropology , 2008 , Available from ( and Elizabeth Rudd , Morrison , and , Social Science Years Out Anthropology Report . Report , Ibid . See Agatha Kennedy , Women the Future Foundations , Interrogations , Politics ( Rutgers , Rutgers University Press , 2005 ) Florence Howe and Buhl , The Politics of Women Studies the 30 Founding Mothers ( New York The Feminist Press , 2000 ) Marilyn . Boxer and Caroline , When Women Ask the Questions Creating Women Studies in America ( Baltimore Hopkins Press , 2001 ) Susan Shaw Lee , Women Voices , Feminist Visions ( New York Hill , 2014 ) Rachel Adams and Michael , The Masculinity Studies Reader ( New York , 2002 ) Judith gan , Masculinity Studies and Feminist Theory ( New York Columbia University Press , 2002 ) Matthew , Trafficking in Men The Anthropology of Masculinity , Annual Review 26 no . 2007 ) There were a number of earlier explorations of masculinity , several focused on males . See for example Michelle Wallace , Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman ( New York Warner Books , 1980 ) See especially numerous films available through Media Education Foundation and Women Make Movies . See also Susan , The Male Body A New Look at Men in Public and in Private ( New York and , 1999 ) Rebecca , Men Explain Things to Me ( Chicago Haymarket Books , 2014 ) Also , Jackson ' film Tough Guise Violence , Media , and the Crisis in Masculinity ( 2013 ) and the website have other books , articles , and workshops on gender violence prevention . See also Michael , The World Where Boys Become Men ( New York Harper Perennial , 2009 ) Thomas Grego , The Drama Life in a Brazilian Indian Village ( Chicago University of Chicago Press , 1977 ) See also Paula Brown and , Man and Woman in the New Guinea Highlands ( Washington American Anthropological Association , 1976 ) Gilbert , Guardians of the Flutes ( film ) Stanley , Metaphors Sex and Status in Andalusian Folklore ( Philadelphia University of Press , 1980 ) Sherry and Harriet Whitehead , Sexual Meanings ( Cambridge Cambridge Press , 1981 ) David Gilmore , Manhood in the Making Cultural Concepts ( New Haven Yale University Press , 1990 ) See article by Matthew , Trafficking in Men The Anthropology of Masculinity , Annual Review of Anthropology 26 ( 2007 ) See several excellent videos through Media Education Foundation including , Killing Us Softly , The Purity Myth as well as those addressing masculinity such as Tough Guise , joystick Warriors , and Hip Hop Beyond Beats and Rhymes . Philippe and Jeffrey , Righteous ( Berkeley University of California Press , 2009 ) Seth Holmes , Fresh Fruit , Broken Bodies Migrant in the United States ( Berkeley University of Press , 2013 ) Mary Moran , Warriors or Soldiers ?

Masculinity and Ritual Transvestism in the Liberian Civil War , in Situated Lives , ed . Louise , Helena , and Patricia , New York , 1997 ) Kimberly , Reconstructing The Disarmament , Demobilization , and Reintegration of Former Combatants in Colombia , in The Gender , Culture , and Power Reader , ed . Dorothy son , New York Oxford University Press , 2016 ) Casey High , Warriors , Hunters , and Bruce Lee Agency and the Transformation of Amazonian Masculinity American Ethnologist 37 no . 2010 ) James , in the Making From the Local to the Global ( field , 2015 ) Liu , Passage to Manhood Youth , Masculinity , and Migration in Southwest China ( Stanford , CA Stanford University Press , 2010 ) See Marcia , The New Arab Man Emergent , Technologies , and Islam in the Middle East ( ton , Princeton University Press , 2012 ) Marcia , Wendy , and Navarro , Fatherhood . New York . For discussion , see Mark . 2005 . Doing Queer Gay Men and the Heterosexual Public Sphere , in Genders , and in japan ,

285 edited by and , 10 ( New York , 2014 ) Four Men Talk about Masculinity in Gill Film , The Indian Express , August 25 , The film is available online ?

171 .