ANT 3302 (Honors)
HUMAN SEX (GENDER) ROLES: A CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE
Spring Term 2001
Tues. 9, Thurs. 9-10
Section 7096
Little 221
Approach to the course:
Dr. Anita Spring
392-7102, 451 Grinter
Office Hours: Tues. 7, Thurs. 6-7 periods & by appointment
This course combines lectures, discussions, films and videos with class discussions. Students will be expected to have read the materials before coming to class, so that they can follow the discussion in class. The course will look at societies in cross-cultural perspective, as well as at our own society.
Topics include:
 The nature-nurture arguments (i.e., the biological versus the cultural determinants of gender roles);
 The differences between temperaments, traits, and tasks;
 The sexual/gender division of labor in society;
 Gender roles by type of society (i.e., foragers, horticulturalists, agriculturalists, pastoralists, pre-industrialists, and industrialists);
 Gender equalities and inequalities in social organization, kinship, economics, politics, and religion;
 Gender differences in verbal and non-verbal behavior.
Requirements (no other materials than those listed here are needed for the papers)
1. Two papers about 6-7 pages in length (30% each)
2. A take-home final examination, about 6-7 pages in length (30%)
3. Class attendance and participation (10%)
Books
1. Margaret Mead, Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies. 1963.
2. Nancy Bonvillain, Women and Men: Cultural Constructs of Gender. 3 rd edition. 2000.
3. Jan Brogger, Nazare: Women and Men in a Pre-bureaucratic Portuguese
Fishing Village. 1992.

4. Serena Nanda. Gender Diversity: Crosscultural Variations. 2000.
5. Reader: Available from Custom Copies. (R)

ANT 3302
(R) = reading in the Reader from Custom Copies)
Jan. 9-11: Introduction; Anthropologists Doing Fieldwork: Data Collection and
Gender Neutrality
Video: Woman Who is Me. ANSWER QUESTIONS ON THE HANDOUT
The Secret of the Sexes. ANSWER QUESTIONS ON THE HANDOUT
Readings: Mead: Sex and Temperament, Part 1
Angier: Cell-Phone or Pheromone (R-25)
Angrosino: Son and Lover: the Anthropologist as Nonthreatening Male (R-21)
Krieger: Negotiating Gender Role Expectations in Cairo (R-22)
Faithhorn: Gender Bias and Sex Bias: Removing our Cultural Blinders (R-23)
Jan. 16-18: The Nature Nurture Controversy
Readings: Mead: Sex and Temperament, Parts 2 and 3
Doyle: The Historical Perspective: (R-3)
Gladwell: Listening to Khakis (R-28)
Jan. 23-25: Traits and Socialization
TUESDAY: BE PREPARED TO ACT OUT THE GENDER ROLE
CHARACTERISTICS OF YOUR “TRIBE”
Readings: Mead, Sex and Temperament, Part 4
Doyle: The Social Roles Perspective (R-4)
Jan. 30-Feb. 1: Status: Public and Private
Video: Kypseli: A Divided Reality
Readings: Ortner: Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture? (R-1)
Nielsen: Gender and Status in Preindustrial Society (R-2)
Lamphere: The Domestic Sphere of Women and the Public World of Men (R-6)
Nanda: Gender Diversities: Chapter 1
Feb. 6-8: The Evolutionary and Archaeological Record
Matriarchy and Patriarchy, Kinship
Readings: Zihlman: Woman the Gatherer: The Role of Women in Early Hominid
Evolution (R-7)
Dommasnes: Women, Kinship and the Basis of Power in the Norwegian Viking
Age (R-8)
Doyle: The Anthropological Perspective (R-5)
Ortner: The Virgin and the State (R-10)
Feb. 13-15: Material Conditions and Gender Roles
Readings: Bonvillain: Women and Men, pp. 1-15
Hewlett: Husband-Wife Reciprocity and the Father-Infant Relationship (R-9)
Nanda: Gender Diversities: Chapter 7

Paper #1 Due: Feb. 15 at the beginning of class
Feb. 20--22 Foragers
Video: The Pygmies
Readings: Albers: From Illusion to illumination: Anthropological Studies of
American Indian Women (R-11)
Bonvillain, Women and Men, pp. 16-50
Nanda: Gender Diversities: Chapter 2
Feb. 27-Mar.1: Tribal Societies: Pastoralists, Horticulturalists
Videos: Boran Women; slides of the Luvale of Zambia
Readings: Bonvillain: Women and Men pp. 51-95
Nanda: Gender Diversities: Chapter 4
Mar.13-15: Chiefdoms and Agricultural States
Videos: Afghan Women; Andean Women
Readings: Bonvillain: Women and Men pp. 96-153
Harkness and Super: The Cultural Foundation of Father’s Roles: Evidence from
Kenya and the United States (R-12)
Nanda: Gender Diversities: Chapter 3
Mar. 20-22: Pre-Industrialists; Developing Societies
Readings: Jan Brogger: Nazare entire book
Mar. 27-29: Industrial Societies
Video: TBA
Readings: Anagnost: Transformation of Gender in Modern China (R-13)
Gelber: Do-It-Yourself… (R-26)
Bonvillain: Women and Men, pp. 154-184
Jankowink: Father-Child Relationships in Urban China (R-15)
Weems: Consumerism and the Construction of Black Female Identity (R-27)
Nanda: Gender Diversities: Chapter 6
Apr. 3-5: Religion, Ritual and Symbol:
Video: Women and Christianity, Part 1
Readings: Hoch-Smith and Spring: Introduction (R-16)
Spring: Epidemiology of Spirit Possession among the Luvale of Zambia (R-17)
Herdt: Rituals of Manhood: Male Initiation in Papua...” (R-18)
Galloway: Where have all the Menstrual Huts Gone? (R-19)
Bonvillain: Women and Men, 221-248
Paper #2 Due: April 5 at the beginning of class

Apr. 100-12: Gender and the Body
Video: Beauty and the Beach
Readings: Bonvillain: Women and Men, pp. 185-220
Nanda: Gender Diversities: Chapter 3, 5
April 17-19: Language and Gender
Readings: Bonvillain: Women and Men pp. 249-293
Apr. 24: Women in Development/Gender and Development—WID and GAD
Readings: Sigot: Discourse on Gender and Natural Resource Management (R-20)
Spring: Introduction to the Issues: Women, Development & Agriculture (R-24)
Final Assignment Due: Wednesday May2, 3:00 PM in
1112 Turlington, the Anthropology Office.
Please have the secretary initial the time turned in.

Woman Who is Me?
What symbols, images, roles, occupations, jobs, are depicted for women and men after each use + if positively evaluated and - if negatively evaluated
Women Men