Gender and Sex
The Biological and Cultural
Foundations of Kinship
Unspoken Intent:
Nature or Nurture? Accurate, or not?
Gender and Sex
• Sex: Refers to all the physical attributes
separating women and men
• Gender: Refers to the cultural attributes
derived from sex differences.
• This section will
• Elaborate on these differences
• Discuss restrictions on sexual activity,
especially the incest tabu
• Describe gender roles
• Look at gender status
Where It All Begins: Sex
Characteristics
• Sex: physical characteristics of
sexes
• Primary sex characteristics:
reproductive organs
• Secondary sex characteristics:
the body attributes of each sex
Secondary Sex
Characteristics: Mammals
• Sexual Dimorphism:
Differences in secondary
characteristics
• Gibbons: Females and males
are indistinguishable (top)
• Peacocks: Males have
showy feathers
• Females are neutrally
colored
• Here, a peacock woos a
peahen (bottom)
Secondary Sex
Characteristics: Human
– Ce
ns
ore
d
• Human sexual
dimorphism falls
somewhere in between
gibbons and peacocks
• Women:
• Pendulous breasts for lactation
• Wide pelvis for childbirth
• Men:
•
•
•
•
•
Facial hair
Greater grip strength
Larger hearts and lungs
Narrow pelvis
(Censorship courtesy of Ethnocentrity, Inc. )
Gender characteristics
• Gender: the cultural
attributes arising from sex
differences
• Haviland: “Cultural
elaboration and meanings
assigned to the biological
differentiation between the
sexes”
• Examples
• Gender roles: bread winning, child
rearing
• Behavior: emotional expression,
assertiveness
• Clothing; ornamentation; make-up
(50s North America, Moroccan
caftans, veil)
Rules Governing Sexual
Behavior
• All societies restrict sexual behavior in
some way
• Only 5% confine sexual behavior to
marriage (including us)
• Severity of punishment is one case of
control (honor homicides)
• Clitoridectomy removes source of sexual
pleasure
• Incest tabus are de facto restrictions, such
as village-level tabus
Enforcing Sexual Prohibitions:
Honor Homicides
• Honor homicides occur
across the Middle East
• Offense: adultery, even in
rape cases
• Upper left: Scene from
threat to stone Mary
Magdalen for adultery
• Both men and women
could be stoned to death,
as in Afghanistan (lower
left)
• A question of ethical
relativism
Clitoricectomy and
Circumcision
• Africa, Middle East:
•
•
•
•
Clitoridectomy removes sexual
pleasure in women
Above: Kipsigis girls preparing
for clitoridectomy
Often, parts of vulva are sewn
afterward to ensure virginity
Circumcision is questionable as
well
As suggested in this political
cartoon from Australia
Incest Tabu
• Definition: A rule that forbids copulation
between two persons of defined
relationships
• Incest is often confused with marriage
• Exogamy: a rule that forbid marriage
between persons of defined relationships
The Emotional Power of the
Incest Tabu: Lot’s Daughters
• Story of Lot’s departure from
Sodom/Gomorrah
• Wife looks back and turns into
pillar of salt
• Believing they are the only
humans alive,
• Lot’s daughters induce him (with
wine) to impregnate them
• Older daughter founds Moab
• Younger daughter founds the
Ammonites
• Incest is one justification for
Israelites to exterminate both
peoples
• Could this be a patriarchal
interpretation? Perhaps
Incest Tabu: Primary Kin
• Primary kin: parentchild, siblings
• Father-daughter
• Mother-son
• Brother sister
• Exceptions: Egyptian,
Inca, Hawaiian
• Allowed only in royal
line: “purity”
Incest Tabu: Secondary
Kin
• Definition: All kin other than
immediate family
• Tabu varies by culture
• Anglo-Americans: first cousins
• Scene from Ararat: Step-siblings
(upper left) are in gray area
• Navajo: all people of the same
clan
• Yanomamo: one’s own lineage
• However, cross-cousin marriage is
prescribed (lower right)
Incest Tabu and
Exogamy: Differences
• Incest tabu: prohibits sexual relations
between persons of defined relations
• Exogamy: prohibits marriage between
persons of defined relations
• Arunta of Australia:
• Marriage to mother mother’s brother’s
daughter’s daughter
• Marriage exogamous: involved 2 patrilineages
• Sexuality: allowed outside primary kin
Incest Tabu and
Exogamy: Significance
• Reasons for incest tabu tend to be
biological or psychological
• Inbreeding theory
• Lack-of-interest/revulsion theory
• Sexual competition theory
• Reasons for exogamy:
sociological/political
• Marriage creates alliances
• Marriage cements intergroup ties
Why Incest Tabus?
•
•
•
•
Short answer:
No one really knows
All explanations have some defect
Other animals species also avoid
inbreeding those that are large,
slow to mature, long-lived, and
intelligent
• Counterexamples: brother-sister
marriage in Roman Egypt
Biological (Genetic)
Explanations:
Background
• Background to explanation
• Mating: each parent contribute
half of genes
• Variation of a gene: alleles.
• Alleles are dominant or
recessive
Biological (Genetic)
Explanations
• Dominant gene appears in
phenotype
• Deleterious alleles
• Definition: those alleles that are
harmful, even fatal
• When 2 recessive deleterious
genes come together
• The deleterious allele appears
in lifeform
Biological (Genetic)
Explanation
• Fears of inbreeding deters incest
• Birth defects: Mental and physical
disabilities (Charles II of Spain)
•
Lower intelligence (e.g. Down
syndrome)
• Anomalous characteristics
(Mohammed Kalid, Lebanese)
• Parallel Cousin Marriage common
in Middle East
• Assumptions:
• Individuals have facts of life straight
• Defect attributed to inbreeding
• No close marriages
Biological (Genetic):
Shortcomings
• Connection between copulation
and childbirth often not made
• Rapan (Easter) Islanders: woman is
fertile during menstruation
• Other explanation may explain
childbirth (witchcraft, evil spirit in
womb)
• Tarahumara women avoided this man, a
shaman thought to prevent births
• Defect may not show up for
generations
• Widespread cross-cousin marriage
also entail inbreeding: evidence is
mixed
Lack-of-Interest
Explanation
• Close kin do not mate for
lack of interest or revulsion
against idea
• Familiarity breeds
contempt--or boredom
• Example: Israeli kibbutz
(collective farm)
• Spiro: observed marriage rarely
occurs in kibbutz
• Attribution: lack of interest in
long-familiar cohorts (e.g.
these children in 1936)
Lack of Interest
Explanation:
Shortcomings
• Counterexample: Israeli kibbutz
• Most late teenagers leave kibbutz
to join army--both males and
females are drafted (left)
• Marriage occurs when they have
left kibbutz
• Exceptions need explanation:
brother-sister marriage in Roman
Egypt
• Logic: Why a tabu for something
that no one would engage in
anyway?
Sexual Competition
Explanations
• Sexual jealousy disrupts family
relations
• Freud: Oedipus/Electra complex
• Rivalry between child and samesex parent
• Can assume jealousy without
Freudian baggage
• Shortcomings
• Multiple marriage: polygyny
(upper left) and polyandry
• Fraternal polyandry (lower left)
and sororal polygyny mitigate
tension
Sexuality: Some
Conclusions
• Kinship Starts with the facts of
life themselves
• Sexual behavior has limitations
everywhere
• Examples of sanctions: honor
homicide, clitoridectomy
• Incest tabus and their
explanations
Gender Division of
Labor: Definitions
• Definition: An arrangement whereby
men perform some tasks and women
others.
• Three basic questions
• Does every society have different
work for males and females? Yes.
• Do they divide work in similar ways?
Depends
• What explains these differences?
Gender Division of Labor:
Gender-Exclusive Tasks
• Men generally
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•
•
•
Handle heavier tasks
Handle dangerous tasks
Engage in warfare
Exercise political leadership
• Women generally
• Handle domestic duties
• Rear children
• Fetch water
Gender Division of
Labor: Shared Tasks
• Either or both genders
• Perform handicrafts: weaving,
leatherworks, pottery, basketry
• Milk Plant, tend, and harvest
crops
• animals
• Preserve meat or fish
Gender Division of
Labor: Explanations
• Main explanations
• Strength Explanations
• Compatibility-with-Child-Care
Explanations
• Male Expendability
Explanations
• All do not apply to all places
Strength Explanations
• Ability to mobilize strength in
quick bursts of energy
• Matches most task done by
males (slash and burn)
• However, women handle tasks
involving heavy labor (!Kung)
• Fishing (Yahgan)
• Herd large animals (Maasai)
• Clear land
• Carry heavy loads while
cultivating (Nepal)
Compatibility-with-Child
Care Explanations
• Women handle tasks
compatible with child care
(especially at breast-feeding)
• Tasks are interruptible to
tend to child
• Tasks do not take them away
for long
• Tasks do not place children
in danger
• However, main marketers
are women, who spend long
time away from home (below)
• Child care is often
exchanged with others
Male Expenditure
Explanations
• Men usually engage in
dangerous work (or warfare)
• Loss of men less
disadvantageous to society’s
survival
• Than loss of women, who have
reproductive power
• Shortcomings: Women also
take on dangerous tasks
• Atga (Philippines): Women
hunt (lower left)
• Yahgan: fish in rough seas
Status of Women
• Warfare tends to maximize male
dominance
• Maasai: warlike until British
invasion; residence patrilocal
• Where women own property,
tend to dominate, though
indirectly
• Iroquois were cultivators,
owned property, had much
influence in tribal affairs
• Foraging: !Kung women
contribute most of food, have
greater say in band.
Conclusion
• Sex is the first organizer of human
society
• This is filtered culturally through
gender
• Gender labor and status depends on
cultural factors
• Explanations for these differences
continue to be advanced
