Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
Gender Dynamics
GENDER
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Know the difference between sex and gender
and why gender is a cultural construction
(gender roles vs. gender stereotypes
The nature of gender relations in different
societies
How homosexual intercourse functions and is
sanctioned in particular local social contexts.
How sexualities and gender vary across
cultures.
Understand the relationship between patriarchy
and violence against women
How industrialism has affected gender
The cultural /social construction of
gender
Sex refers to biological differences
(ex. penis, vagina, breasts, etc)
 Gender refers to the cultural
construction of male and female
characteristics.
Bororo Male Dancers
Key Terms
 Gender roles: the tasks and activities that a
culture assigns to the sexes (ex. “man the
hunter and woman the gatherer”)
 Gender stereotypes： oversimplified but
strongly held ideas of the characteristics of
men and women. “Frailty, thy name is woman!”
(Hamlet)
 Gender stratification describes an unequal
distribution of rewards (socially valued
resources, power, prestige, and personal
freedom) between men and women, reflecting
their different positions in social hierarchy.
Recurrent Gender Patterns
 Cross-culturally the subsistence
contributions of men and women are
roughly equal.
 In domestic activities, female labor
dominates, while in extradomestic activities,
male labor dominates.
 Women are the primary caregivers, but men
often play a role.
Sexual Orientation and GENDER
All human activities, including sexual preferences,
are to some extent learned and malleable.
Sexual orientation refers to a person’s habitual
sexual attractions and activities: Heterosexuality
refers to the sexual preference for members of the
opposite sex.
Homosexuality refers to the sexual preference for
members of the same sex. Bisexuality refers to the
sexual preference for members of both sexes.
Asexuality refers to indifference toward or lack of
attraction to either sex.
Cultural Variation of Sexual Norms
 There tends to be greater cross-cultural
acceptance of homosexuality than of
masturbation.
 Flexibility in human sexual expression is
part of our primate heritage. Masturbation
exists among chimpanzee and other
primates. Homosexual behavior exists
among chimpanzee and other primates.
 Sexuality is a matter that culture and
environment determine and limit.
Patriarchy and Violence
 Patriarchal Societies
- The male role in warfare is highly valued.
Violent acts against women are common
and include dowry murders (India), female
infanticide, etc.
- Domestic Violence
Family violence is a worldwide problem.
Abuse of women is more common in
societies where women are separated from
their supportive kin ties (e.g., patrilineal,
patrifocal, and patrilocal societies).
 Gender and Industrialism
- Early American Industrialism
The public-domestic dichotomy as it is manifested in
America ("a woman’s place...") is a relatively
recent development. Initially, women and children
worked in factories, but were supplanted by
immigrant men who were willing to work for low
wages.
This shift coincided with associated beliefs about the
unfitness of women for labor.
 Since World War II, the number of women in the
work force has increased dramatically, driven in
large part by industry’s search for cheap, educated
labor, in combination with technology mitigating
the effect of notions about appropriate work for
women.
Analyzing Gender Inequality
 Functionalist vs.
Feminist
approaches
 Biological
determinism vs.
cultural/social
constructivism
* Feminist
Approaches
Women in pre-revolutionary (traditional) China
- foot-binding
- “Namelessness” and
propertylessness
(Rubie Watson 1986)
- arrange marriage
*commodifcation of
women
- women’s role as
MOTHER (of a male
heir)
- “uterine family”
(Margery Wolf)
Studies of Chinese society commonly
emphasizze men's roles and functions, a
not unreasonable approach to a society
with patrilineal kinship structure. But
this emphasis has left many important
gaps in our knowledge of Chinese life.
This study seeks to fill some of these
gaps by examining the ways rural
Taiwanese women manipulate men and
each other in the pursuit of their
personal goals. The source of a woman's
power, her home in a social structure
dominated by men, is what the author
calls the uterine family, a de facto social
unity consisting of a mother and her
children.
The Named and the Nameless: Gender and Personhood
 What is in a name?
 The cultural significance of naming
practices in China (and the rest of the
world)?
 What does this have to do with gender
difference?
 How relevant is the story for understanding
naming practices in the Chinese-speaking
world?
*The social construction of womanhood
Inequality among Brothers (R. Watson 1985)
 Despite a patrilineal ideology that
extols the virtues of brotherhood
and equality, Dr Watson shows
that the lineage has in fact played a
central role in the formation,
development and maintenance of
an élite class of landlords and
merchants, who, even though their
economic importance has now
declined, continue to exert political
control. Dr Watson examines the
dynamics of interclass relations
within a single lineage and shows
how these relations have been
transformed as a consequence of
the growth of wage labor.
Ancestor Worship in Hong Kong (research by
Harvard anthropologist Watson in the 1970s)
Descendants of Man
lineage 文氏宗族 are
gathered at tomb of
their ancestor. Roast
pigs are presented at
the tomb. The local
school master is
reading a annual
report to the ancestor
(in classical Chinese)
detailing the
accounts of the
founder’s estate
(land and property
祖产)
Pork division 分猪肉
Major lineages in the HK
New Territories share
pork among the male
descendants of key
ancestors. Elders of
the Man lineage
carefully weigh and
divide shares of meat
“paid for” by the
ancestor himself (who
was “alive” socially
through the
mechanism of his
ancestral estate).
Ancestor Worship Among the Man
 The (Chinese) lineage model implies clear and
unambiguous rules of membership, collective
rituals to celebrate illustrious ancestors, and the
construction of elaborate ancestral halls that
hold the carved wooden tablets of individual
(male) ancestors. Strict rules of membership are
necessary because the Man （文）, like their
counterparts in the New Territories, enjoy the
economic benefits conferred by the collective
ownership of property – in San Tin’s case former
paddy fields that have enormous development
potential (hence the secrecy regarding the exact
number of recognized members).
Women’s Emancipation / Liberation
 May 4th Movement (May 1919)
- women’s education
- abolishing footbinding
- resisting arrange marriage
 Experiment under Nationalist Rule (“New
Life Movement”)
 Communist Experiment with Gender
Equality in Jiangxi Soviet (1927-34)
Symbolic Roots of Gender Inequality
Male
Sun (yang)
culture
public
(hunter)
rational
Female
Moon (yin)
nature
domestic
(gatherer)
irrational
“Moving the Mountains Supressing the Chinese Women”
 For Chinese before 1949:
Imperialism, Capitalism,
Feudalism
 For Chinese women in
pre-revolutionary China:
The power of the state, lineage/family, deity,
and the power of the husband
The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the
State ( Engles 1884)
 The emancipation of women will only be
possible when woman can take part in
production on a large, social scale, and
domestic work no longer claims but an
insignificant amount of her time. And now
only now has become possible through modern
large-scale industry, which does not merely
permit the employment of female labor…but
positively demand it, while it also tends toward
ending private domestic labor by changing it …
into a public industry.
“Woman Holding Up
Half the Sky” or
Revolution Postponed?
The unintended
consequences of “the
Single Child Family
Policy”
- Empowerment of
“Chinese daughters”
(Fong 2002)
Revolution Postponed?
Women’s liberation
in post-1949 China:
Discrepancies
between
ideals of gender
equality and local
practices
- 1950 Marriage
Law
- Family Planning
The Mosuo: A Matrilineal Society
 The Mosuo of SW
China are strongly
matrilineal. The
women in the family
are blood relatives of
one another, and the
men are their
brothers. Husbands
live apart from their
wives in the
households of their
sisters.
Kinship terms and concepts
 Affinal kin
 Bride price
 Conjugal family
 Consanguine family
 Descent group
 Dowry
 Incest taboo
 Lineage
 Marriage
 Matrilineal (vs. Patrilineal)
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 Endogamy
 Exogamy
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 Extended family
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 Family (vs. household)
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 Gender (vs. sex)
descent
Matrilocal, patrilocal, and
neolocal residence
patterns
Nuclear family
Monogamy
Polygyny & polyandry