Seminar on Sex Gender And
Culture
January 07, 2014
UM TEC 206
11:00-12:00
Objectives:
• to know what is the difference between the Sex and
Gender.
Speaker
Graduate of BEED
Generalist Program at
the University Of
Mindanao main
Full time professor
BEED Program Head
Speaker
Graduate of BEED
Generalist Program at
the University of
Mindanao-Tagum
Ethnographer
Part Time teacher
Speaker
a
Graduate of BEED
Generalist Program at
the University Of
Mindanao main
President in the
Association of Filipino
Ethnographers
Full time teacher at USEP
What is SEX and GENDER?

SEX – Either of the two categories (male
or female) into which most organisms
are divided.
- Biological differences

GENDER- cultural construction of male
and female characteristics.
What is their differences?

Sexual dimorphism – marked differences in
male and female biology besides the primary and
secondary sexual features
Sex and Gender
• Gender roles – tasks and activities that
a culture assigns to the sexes

Gender stereotypes – oversimplified,
strongly held ideas of characteristics of men
and women
Sex and Gender
• Gender stratification – unequal
distribution of rewards (socially valued
resources, power, prestige, and personal
freedom) between men and women
◦ Reflects different positions in social hierarchy
Recurrent Gender Patterns
• Subsistence contributions of men and
women are roughly equal crossculturally
◦ In domestic activities, female labor dominates
◦ In extra domestic activities, male labor
dominates
◦ Women are primary caregivers, but men often
play a role
Recurrent Gender Patterns
• Differences in male and female
reproductive strategies
◦ Men mate, within and outside marriage, more
than women do
◦ Double standards that restrict women more
than men illustrate gender stratification
◦ Gender stratification lower when domestic and
public spheres not clearly distinguished
Gender Among Foragers
• The Public-Domestic Dichotomy
◦ Strong differentiation between the
home and the outside world is called
the domestic-public dichotomy, or
the private-public contrast
 The activities of the domestic sphere
tend to be performed by women
 The activities of the public sphere tend
to be restricted to men
 Public
activities tend to have greater
prestige than domestic ones, which
promotes gender stratification
• Sex-Linked Activities
– All cultures have a division of labor
based on gender, but the particular
tasks assigned to men and women
vary from culture to culture.
• Almost universally, the greater size,
strength, and mobility of men have led
to their exclusive service in the roles of
hunters and warriors
◦ Lactation and pregnancy also tend to preclude
the possibility of women being the primary
hunters in foraging societies
◦ !Kung San
Gender Among
Horticulturalist
• Reduced Gender Stratification –
Matrifocal Societies
◦ Survey of matrifocal (mother-centered, often
with no resident husband-father) societies
indicates male travel combined with a
prominent female economic role reduced
gender stratification
◦ Igbo (Nigeria) demonstrated that gender roles
might be filled by members of either sex
• Increased Gender StratificationPatrilineal-Patrilocal Societies
◦ Spread of patrilineal-patrilocal societies has
been associated with pressure on resources and
increased local warfare
◦ Patrilineal-patrilocal complex concentrates
related males in villages, which solidifies their
alliances for warfare
Patrilineal-patrilocal tends to enhance
male prestige opportunities
◦ Results in relatively high gender stratification
(e.g., highland Papua-New Guinea)
◦ Women do most of the cultivation, cooking, and
raising children, but are isolated from the public
domain
◦ Males dominate the public domain (politics,
feasts, warfare)
◦ Women dominated horticulture in 64% of
the matrilineal societies and in 50% of the
patrilineal societies
Gender Among
Agriculturalist
• When economy based on agriculture,
women typically lose role as primary
cultivators
◦ Women were main workers in 50% of
horticultural societies but only 15% in
agricultural societies
◦ Gender stratification associated with plow
agriculture rather than with intensive cultivation
Patriarchy and Violence
• Patriarchy – political system ruled by
men in which women have inferior
social and political status
– Societies that feature a full-fledged
patriarchy, replete with warfare and
intervillage raiding, adopt such practices as
dowry murders, female infanticide, and
clitoridectomy
• Family violence and domestic abuse of
women worldwide problems
◦ With spread of women’s rights movement and
human rights movement, attention to domestic
violence and abuse of women increased
◦ Patriarchal institutions persist in what should be
a more enlightened world
Gender and Industrialism
• Gender roles changing rapidly in
North America
◦ “Traditional” idea that “a woman’s place is in the
home” developed among middle- and upperclass Americans as industrialism spread after
1900
◦ Attitudes about gendered work varied with
class and region
◦ Woman’s role in the home stressed during
periods of high unemployment

Both men and women constrained by their
cultural training, stereotypes, and expectations
• The Feminization of Poverty
– Increasing representation of women and
their children among America’s poorest
people
• Consequences in regard to living standards
and health are widespread
• The Feminization of Poverty
◦ Contributing Factors






Male migration
Civil strife
Divorce
Abandonment
Widowhood
Unwed adolescent parenthood
Sexual Orientation
Sexual Orientation
• Person’s habitual sexual attraction to,
and sexual activities with
◦ Persons of the opposite sex, heterosexuality
◦ Persons of the same sex, homosexuality
◦ Both sexes, bisexuality
Sexual Orientation

Recently in U.S., tendency has been to see
sexual orientation as fixed and biologically
based
– Culture always plays a role in molding
individual sexual urges to a collective norm
– Sex acts involving people of the same sex
were absent, rare, or secret in only 37% of
76 societies studied by Ford and Beach
Sexual Orientation
• Various forms of same-sex sexual
activity considered normal and
acceptable
◦ Sudanese Azande males shifted from sex with
older men (as male brides), to sex with younger
men (as warriors), to sex with women (as
husbands)
◦ Etoro in Papua New Guinea believed limited
lifetime supply of semen that boys had to
acquire orally from older men
The Location of the Etoro, Kaluli and Sambia in
Papua New Guinea
The western part
of the Island of
New Guinea is
part of Indonesia.
The eastern part
of the island is the
independent
nation of Papua
New Guinea,
home of the
Etoro, Kaluli, and
Sambia
Seminar on Sex Gender And
Culture
January 07, 2014
UM TEC 206
11:00-12:00