Kimmel, Chapter Three
• Cross-cultural Construction of Gender
– Anthropologists, like biologists, come to their
work with their own biases and will try to
support their beliefs or will unconsciously
reaffirm their beliefs just as the biologists do.
– Great variety of masculinities and femininities,
more than can be accounted for from an
essentialist biological perspective
Margaret Mead
– Most important legacy: her insistence that
Anthropology, through its probing of human
similarities, differences and connections, should
educate us all; and her insistence that it is
personally and politically important to challenge
the commonplace understandings of everyday
life—to lead lives that are culturally thoughtthrough.
Margaret Mead
• New Guinea cultures
– Two with very little gender distinctions
• Arapesh: Utopian, cooperative; individualism was absent;
men and women shared in domestic responsibilities
• Mundugamor: Cannibals and headhunters; both sexes were
violent, neither seemed to like children (high infanticide—
especially of males—and abuse), vengeful, and wealthy
(conquest and population control)
– One with pronounce gender distinctions
• Tchambuli: Patrilineal and polygynous
Men
Women
– One sex who gossiped, shopped, dressed up, and nurtured the kids
– One sex who were unadorned, worked to support the family, and
held the power
Margaret Mead
– Tchambuli: Men and women were seen as
opposites; patrilineal polygynous. One sex (the
men) liked to dress up and go shopping and
gossip. One sex (the women) were the
dominant economic providers
• Each sex thought biology determined their
personalities and behavior
Margaret Mead
• All three cultures believed they were
structured this way naturally, that their
behaviors were based on the biologicallydetermined way that people of these sexes
behaved
Division of Labor
• Most societies have a gender-based division
of labor
– Functionalism—at one time this gender-based
division was necessary for the survival of the
species
• As times change, the behaviors stay, in spite of need
or reason
• As reasons for the difference change, they seem
more ideologically necessary
What occupations are biologically dependent upon one’s sex?
Theories of Gender Differentiation
(and Male Domination)
• Marxist theories:
– Marx and Engels
– Capitalism creates the need or desire for private
property, which leads to the importance of
legitimacy and inheritance, which leads for
strong government with rules and laws
dedicated to that inheritance
• Leacock
• Sachs
• Warfare theories
– Harris
– War and territory acquisition and protection
lead to a culture where warriors are necessary
and valued. To compel men to behave in this
tradition, women and their work are devalued
and held as rewards for ideal male behavior
• Descent theories
– Tiger and Fox
– These theorists see the mother-child bond as
natural and as excluding men. Men, then, they
argue, must bond outside of areas where
women function. Hunting, then, is not just for
securing resources but for providing men with a
female-free domain, which will encourage
monogamy and male solidarity.
• Alliance theories
– Levi-Strauss
– As men turn women into sex objects they bond
socially, and the women’s fulfillment of their
duties as wives cements the males’ relationships
with each other
Determinants of Women’s Status
• Generally, the higher the gender
differentiation, the higher the inequity
– Child care: the more men participate, the higher
the women’s status tends to be
• The more time men spend with children, the higher
women’s status
– Parent/child relationship: The closer the
relationship between father and son, the higher
the women’s status tends to be
• Control of property: the more women
retained control of property after marriage,
the higher their status
• Male bonding: the more elaborate the malebonding ritual, the lower the women’s status
– Spatial segregation also follows this. The more
separate the areas that women and men inhabit
or work within, the lower the status of the
women
• The two central determinants are the man’s
involvement with children and the woman’s
retention of property after marriage
• Violence against women also decreases as
these variable increase
Conclusions
• Male dominance is lower when men and women
work together and labor is not sexually segregated
• Male dominance is higher when men control the
resources: physical and ideological
• Capitalism and industrialization reduce women’s
status and increase male dominance
• Demographically, the more men in relation to
women (of marriageable ages), the lesser the
women’s status
Gender Rituals
• Genital mutilations
– Circumcision: male and female
– Hemi-castration
Gender Diversity
• Several cultures have more than one gender
• Likewise, several cultures have different
sexual practices
• Conclusion: It is likely that gender is not
biologically-based