1. Gender, Ethnicity, and Social Stratification

2. Gender and Anthropology
interest in hierarchical relations between men and women has been a feature of anthropology since its earliest days
anthropology of gender has been key in establishing that sexual inequality is not a biological fact but instead and cultural and historical one
the body is "simultaneously a physical and symbolic artifact, both naturally and culturally produced, anchored in a particular historical moment" (Scheper-Hughes & Lock)

3. development of the study of sex, sexuality and gender in anthropology
Anthropology of Women early 1970's attention to the lack of women in standard ethnographies
Anthropology of Gender challenged the basis for understanding social roles of male and female
Feminist Anthropology challenged the biological basis of sex and sexuality
and the foundations of anthropology as it had been done

4. SEX, SEXUALITY, GENDER not the same thing
all societies distinguish between males and females
a very few societies recognize a third, sexually intermediate category

5. SEX
differences in biology
Socially & culturally marked/constructed

6. SEXUALITY (reproduction)
all societies regulate sexuality
lots of variation cross-culturally
degree of restrictiveness not always consistent through life span
adolescence vs. adulthood
Varieties of “normative” sexual orientation
Heterosexual, homosexual, transexual
Sexuality in societies change over time

7. GENDER
GENDER - the cultural construction of male & female characteristics
vs. the biological nature of men & women
SEX differences are biological - GENDER differences are cultural
behavioral & attitudinal differences from social & cultural rather than biological point of view

8. GENDER ROLES, STEREOTYPES, STRATIFICATION
gender roles - tasks & activities that a culture assigns to sexes
gender stereotypes - oversimplified strongly held ideas about the characteristics of men & women & third sex-third gender
gender stratification - unequal distribution of rewards (socially valued resources, power, prestige, personal freedom) between men & women reflecting their position in the social hierarchy

9. universals versus particulars
universal subordination of women is often cited as one of the true cross-cultural universals, a pan-cultural fact
Engels called it the “world historical defeat of women”
even so the particulars of women’s roles, statuses, power, and value differ tremendously by culture

10. persistence of dualisms in ideologies of gender
a particular view of men and women as opposite kinds of creatures both biologically and culturally
nature/culture
domestic/public
reproduction/production

11. Reproduction and Social Roles
roles - those minimal institutions and modes of activity that are organized immediately around one or more mothers and their children
women everywhere lactate & give birth to children
likely to be associated with child rearing & responsibilities of the home

12. a long running controversy in anthropology
Sherry Ortner’s famous article “Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture”
argument is that across cultures, women are more often associated with nature and the natural and are therefore denigrated
Ortner - in reality women are no further nor closer to nature than men - cultural valuations make women appear closer to nature than men

13. The “Third Gender”
essentialism of western ideas of sexual dimorphism - dichotomized into natural & then moral entities of male & female that are given to all persons, one or the other
committed western view of sex and gender as dichotomous, ascribed, unchanging
other categories - every society including our own is at some time or other faced with people who do not fit into its sex & gender categories

14. The “Third Gender”
a significant number of people are born with genitalia that is neither clearly male or female
Hermaphrodites
persons who change their biological sex
persons who exhibit behavior deemed appropriate for the opposite sex
persons who take on other gender roles other than those indicated by their genitals

15. Third Gender: Western Bias
multiple cultural & historical worlds in which people of divergent gender & sexual desire exist
margins or borders of society
may pass as normal to remain hidden in the official ideology & everyday commerce of social life
when discovered - iconic matter out of place - "monsters of the cultural imagination“
third gender as sexual deviance a common theme in US
evolution & religious doctrine
heterosexuality the highest form, the most moral way of life, its natural

16. Third Gender Cross-Culturally
provokes us to reexamine our own assumptions regarding our gender system
emphasizes gender role alternatives as adaptations to economic and political conditions rather than as "deviant" and idiosyncratic behavior
rigid dichotomozation of genders is a means of perpetuating the domination of females by males and patriarchal institutions.

17. RETHINKING SUBORDINATION
Ardener - muted models that underlie male discourse
diversity of one life or many lives
gender roles, stereotypes, stratification
changes over time
changes with position in lifecycle
status of men & women i.e. in male dominant societies
decision making roles belong to men but as women reach menopause; change with marriage status, virgins, wives, widows (and men)

18. RETHINKING SUBORDINATION
women, like men, are social actors who work in structured ways to achieve desired ends
formal authority structure of a society may declare that women are impotent & irrelevant
but attention to women's strategies & motives, sorts of choices, relationships established, ends achieved indicates women have good deal of power
strategies appear deviant & disruptive
actual components of how social life proceeds

19. Social difference
Basis for recognition of difference within and between social groups
Relationship to political power and inequality
Beyond the face to face community

20. Status & Social Difference
status - ascribed & achieved
ascribed status - social positions that people hold by virtue of birth
sex, age, family relationships, birth into class or caste
achieved status - social positions attained as a result of individual action
shift from homogeneous kin based societies (mechanic) to heterogeneous societies of associations (organic) involves growth in importance of achieved

22. Social Stratification
inequality in society
the unequal distribution of goods and services, rights and obligations, power and prestige
all attributes of positions in society, not attributes of individuals
Stratified society is:
when a society exhibits stratification it means that there are significant breaks in the distribution of goods services, rights obligations power prestige
as a result of which are formed collectivities or groups we call strata

23. race There are no biological human races
up until 14th cent. in Europe cultural & social evolution based on the idea of progress from kin-based societies to civil society through governance & law
after 16th cent. in Europe ideas of blood were used to characterize difference

24. race and social difference
Race as social grouping based on perceived physical differences and cloaked in the language of biology
social races – groups assumed to have a biological basis but social constructed
Racism – systematic social and political bias based on idea of race
Operates as a form of class

25. Social races Race exists as a cultural construct
Racism builds upon idea that personality is linked with hereditary characteristics which differ between races
Race is important for academics studying local discourses on ethnicity
Race relations as a special case of ethnicity
Race as the categorization of people
Operates as an ASCRIBED status of personhood

26. American Anthropological Assoc. statement on race
“Evidence from the analysis of genetics (e.g., DNA) indicates that most physical variation, about 94%, lies within so-called racial groups.
Conventional geographic ‘racial’ groupings differ from one another only in about 6% of their genes….
‘Race’ thus evolved as a world view, a body of prejudgments that distorts our ideas about human differences and group behavior….
The ‘racial’ world view was invented to assign some groups to perpetual low status, while others were permitted access to privilege, power, and wealth”

27. from race to ethnicity
ethnicity forged in the process of historical time
subject to shifts in meaning
shifts in referents or markers of ethnic identity
subject to political manipulations
ethnic identity is not a function of primordial ties, although it may be described as such
always the genesis of specific historical forces that are simultaneously structural & cultural

28. building blocks of ethnicity/ethnic identity
associated with distinctions between language, religion, historical experience, geographic isolation, kinship, notions of race (phenotype)
may include collective name, belief in common descent, sense of solidarity, association with a specific territory, clothing, house types, personal adornment, food, technology, economic activities, general lifestyle

29. cultural markers of difference must be visible to members and non-members
valued markers of difference by insiders may become comic or derided by outsiders
caricature and exaggeration frequently mark outsider depictions of boundary mechanisms
stereotype is one form

30. ethnicity and boundaries
where there is a group there is some sort of boundary
where there are boundaries there are mechanisms for maintaining boundaries
cultural markers of difference that must be visible to members and non-members
Code switching
Marked and unmarked categories

31. Boundary maintenance
Social boundaries that may have territorial counterparts
The ethnic boundary canalizes social life – complex organization of behavior and social relations – playing the same game
Distinctions between us and them criteria for judgement of value and performance and restrictions on interactions
Allows for the persistence of cultural differences
Identities are signaled as well as embraced
All ethnic groups in a poly-ethnic society act to maintain dichotomies and differences

32. ethnogenesis fluidity of ethnic identity
ethnic groups vanish, people move between ethnic groups, new ethnic groups come into existence
ethnogenesis
emergence of new ethnic group, part of existing group splits & forms new ethnic group, members of two or more groups fuse

33. political organization and ethnicity
ethnicity is founded upon structural inequities among dissimilar groups into a single political entity
based on cultural differences & similarities perceived as shared

34. Ethnicity as identity formation and political organization
Ethnic groups – those human groups that entertain a SUBJECTIVE belief in their common descent because of similarities of physical type or of customs or of both, or because of memories of colonization and migration
Belief in group affinity can have important consequences for the formation of a political community
feelings of ethnicity & associated behavior vary in intensity within groups (& persons) over time & space