Gender Sex and Gender Recurrent Gender Patterns Gender Among Foragers Gender Among Horticulturalists Gender Among Agriculturalists Patriarchy and Violence Gender and Industrialism Sexual Orientation

Gender How are biology and culture expressed in human sex/gender systems? How do gender, gender roles, and gender stratification correlate with other social, economic, and political variables? What is sexual orientation, and how do sexual practices vary cross-culturally?

Sex and Gender Women and men differ genetically. Sexual dimorphism: marked differences in male and female biology besides the primary and secondary sexual features Sex differences are biological. Gender is a cultural construction of male and female characteristics.

The biological nature of men and women (should be seen) not as a narrow enclosure limiting the human organism, but rather as a broad base upon which a variety of structures can be built. (Friedl 1975) Fluidity of sex and gender!! (Judith Butler)

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 Gender stratification: unequal distribution of rewards between men and women, reflecting their different positions in a social hierarchy

Recurrent Gender Patterns The subsistence contributions of men and women are roughly equal cross-culturally. In domestic activities, female labor dominates. In extradomestic activities, male labor dominates. Women are the 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 restrict women more than men and illustrate gender stratification. Gender stratification is lower when men and women make roughly equal contributions to subsistence.

Table 18.1: Generalities in the Division of Labor by Gender, Based on Data from 185 Societies

Table 18.2: Time and Effort Expended on Subsistence Activities by Men and Women

Table 18.3: Who Does the Domestic Work?

Table 18.4: Who Has Final Authority over the Care, Handling, and Discipline of Infant Children (Under Four Years Old)?

Table 18.5: Does the Society Allow Multiple Spouses?

Table 18.6: Is There a Double Standard with Respect to Premarital Sex?

Table 18.7: Is There a Double Standard with Respect to Extramarital Sex?

Gender Among Foragers The Domestic–Public Dichotomy The strong differentiation between home and the outside world is called the domestic–public dichotomy, or the private–public contrast. Activities of the domestic sphere tend to be performed by women. Activities of the public sphere tend to be restricted to men. Gender stratification is less developed among foragers.

Gender Among Foragers 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 primary hunters in foraging societies. The Agta (women hunt small animals) The Ju/’hoansi San (gender equality)

Gender Among Horticulturalists Gender roles and stratification among cultivators vary widely (economy, social structure). Matrilineal descent: people join mother’s group at birth Patrilineal descent: people have membership in the father’s group

Gender Among Horticulturalists Patrilocality: couple lives in husband’s community Matrilocality: couple lives in wife’s community 19

Gender Among Horticulturalists Martin and Voorhies: women main producers in horticultural societies Dominate horticulture in 64 percent of matrilineal societies and 50 percent of patrilineal societies

Gender Among Horticulturalists Reduced Gender Stratification—Matrilineal, Matrilocal Societies Matrilineal-matrilocal systems tend to occur in societies where population pressure on strategic resources is minimal and warfare infrequent. Women tend to have high status (status, social identity). For example, the Iroquois (women manage production and distribution, control alliances, make political decisions)

Table 18.8: Male and Female Contributions to Production in Cultivating Societies

Figure 18.2: Historic Territory of the Iroquois 23

Gender Among Horticulturalists Reduced Gender Stratification—Matrilocal Societies Tanner: A combination of male travel and a prominent female economic role reduced gender stratification and promoted high female status. Igbo of eastern Nigeria

Gender Among Horticulturalists Matriarchy Sanday: Matriarchies exist in that society, but not as mirror images of patriarchies. Among the Minangkabau, despite the special position of women, the matriarchy is not the equivalent of female rule.

Gender Among Horticulturalists Increased Gender Stratification—Patrilineal-Patrifocal Societies Patrilineal-patrifocal complex: male supremacy is based on patrilineality, patrilocality, and warfare Martin and Voorhies: The decline of matrilineality and spread of the patrilineal- patrifocal can be linked to pressure on resources.

Gender Among Horticulturalists The patrilineal-patrilocal tends to have a sharp domestic-public dichotomy; men tend to dominate the prestige hierarchy. 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

Table 18.8: Male and Female Contributions to Production in Cultivating Societies

Gender Among Agriculturalists Women typically lose roles as primary cultivators in an agriculture economy. Women are main workers in 50 percent of horticultural societies but only in 15 percent of agricultural societies. The advent of agriculture cut women off from production. Belief systems started contrasting men’s valuable extradomestic (outside the home) with women’s domestic role.

Patriarchy and Violence Patriarchy: a political system ruled by men in which women have inferior social and political status Societies that feature a full-fledged patriarchy, with warfare and intervillage raiding, adopt such practices as dowry murders, female infanticide, and clitoridectomy. Isolated families and patrilineal social forms spread at expense of matrilineality

Patriarchy and Violence With the spread of the women’s rights and human rights movements, attention to domestic violence and the abuse of women increased. Patriarchal institutions persist in what should be a more enlightened world.

Gender and Industrialism The domestic–public dichotomy has affected gender stratification in industrial societies. Gender roles are changing rapidly in North America. The traditional idea that a woman’s place is in the home developed among middle- and upper-class Americans as industrialism spread after 1900.

Gender and Industrialism Margolis: gendered work, attitudes, and beliefs have varied in response to U.S. economic needs. Attitudes about gendered work have varied with class and region. Woman’s role in the home is stressed during periods of high unemployment. Today’s jobs are not especially demanding in terms of physical labor.

Gender and Industrialism The Feminization of Poverty There is an increasing representation of women and their children among America’s poorest people. Globally, households headed by women tend to be poorer than those headed by men. It is widely believed that one way to improve the situation of poor women is to encourage them to organize.

Table 18. 9: Cash Employment of U. S Table 18.9: Cash Employment of U.S. Mothers, Wives, and Husbands, 1960–2007

Table 18. 10: Earnings in the U. S Table 18.10: Earnings in the U.S. by Gender and Job Type for Year-Round Full-Time Workers, 2006

Table 18. 11: Median Annual Income of U. S Table 18.11: Median Annual Income of U.S. Households by Household Type, 2006

Sexual Orientation Sexual orientation: a person’s habitual sexual attraction to, and sexual activities with Persons of opposite sex (heterosexuality) Persons of same sex (homosexuality) Both sexes (bisexuality) Asexuality: indifference toward or lack of attraction to members of either sex

Sexual Orientation Recently in U.S., the 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 percent of 76 societies studied by Ford and Beach

Sexual Orientation Various forms of same-sex sexual activity are considered normal and acceptable in some societies. Sudanese Azande Etoro Flexibility in sexual expression seems to be an aspect of our primate heritage.

Figure 18.3: The Location of the Etoro, Kaluli, and Sambia in Papua New Guinea