Anthropology of Gender

ANTHROPOLOGY OF GENDER BY DESLEY GARDNER  WHAT IS GENDER? Gender is a status designation derived from the physiological aspects link to males and females to allow individuals to function within particular social contexts. Learned maleness or...

ANTHROPOLOGY OF GENDER BY DESLEY GARDNER  WHAT IS GENDER? Gender is a status designation derived from the physiological aspects link to males and females to allow individuals to function within particular social contexts. Learned maleness or femaleness The characteristics or traits that differentiate men and women; behavioural or aesthetic Gender differences are socially and culturally constructed Things other than people can be ‘gendered’- clothing, sports or colours. CONCEPTS WITHIN GENDER Sex Sex Status This is biologically determined but socially The biological aspects of an individual, constructed. All human societies make distinctions differences between males and females by based on ascribed characteristics of sex, the chromosomal, anatomical, reproductive and physiological distinctions based on biology and hormonal characteristics. reproductive anatomy that distinguishes male from female. ❖ Gender affects behaviour based on socially MEN: constructed characteristics/ traits: Have no developed uterus and cannot become pregnant or give birth to children Feminine Have a penis Submissive Have under-developed breasts Emotional Grow a beard Quiet Gentle WOMEN: Have a developed uterus and can become Masculine pregnant and give birth to children Dominant Have a vagina Aggressive Have developed breasts Talkative Do not grow a beard Not Emotional  SEXUALITY Sexual Desire, as an aspect of human nature (hormones, bodies as well as feelings) Sexual Acts- practices, behaviour – What people do sexually- within social relations, relations that may be characterised by hierarchy, inequality etc… Sexual Orientation- personal identity (gay, straight, bi) based on the Sexuality considers how desire, gender of one’s generalised object practice and identity are bundled of desire. together, in various ways.  HOW ARE GENDER NORMS TRANSMITTED? Through the process of SOCIALISATION Socialisation refers to the process through which people develop culturally patterned understandings, behaviours, values, and emotional orientations. (Chapin et al , 2016) Through forms of social control; positive and negative sanctions. Why is gender a important issue in society? Its part of a person’s core identity, informing aspects of self. They define social, economic and political expectations for men and women.  GENDER IN SOCITY The analytical concept of ‘gender’ was introduced in the 1970s to indicate the Gender is SOCIAL , not natural, not social roles, characteristics and values fixed in nature- biological or assigned to males and females in a given cosmological IMPORTANT IMPLICATION: society; gender understood as historically and cross-culturally particular. Gender Hierarchy In today’s society, gender Patriarchy differentiation is critical in understanding the differential distribution of: Roles Tasks Resources Privileges and Disadvantages Thus defining your role in society….. CULTURE, SOCIETY & GENDER  GENDER ROLES The concept of ‘gender roles,’ refers to the activities ascribed to women and men on the basis of their perceived differences. Gender roles are socially determined, change over time and space and are influenced by social, cultural and environmental factors characterizing a certain society, community or historical period.  AIMS OF GENDER ROLES Gender roles aim at setting boundaries between what is perceived as appropriate for women and for men in the society with regards both to the public and private domains. Such roles are accepted as ‘natural’ and internalized by girls and boys from a very early age, through the gender models they learn through their social environment. In most societies, individuals are strongly pressured to abide by such models, not only directly by the family or the community, but also indirectly by the role models underlying Both women and men perform multiple roles in their the social fabric – the labour market, public lives, in the productive domain and in the reproductive policy, the taxation system etc., which often domain Nevertheless, in most societies, men’s roles in the productive domain is prominent, whereas their reproductive – act as deterrents to social change. or domestic – role is just subsid.  Gender is a dynamic concept. Gender roles for men and women vary greatly from one culture to another, and from one social group to another within the same culture. Race, class, economic circumstances, age - all of these influence what is considered appropriate for men and women. Culture Culture dictates and reproduces social norms. Defining What are some gender norms or roles in your Gender society?? Norms/ Roles As culture is dynamic, and socio-economic conditions change over time, so gender patterns change with them. Sudden crisis, like war or famine, can radically and rapidly change what men and women do. Sometimes, however, the old attitudes return after the crisis (as women ex-combatants in liberation struggles have found). Sometimes, the changes have a permanent impact. SAMBIANS OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA  THE SAMBIANS The Sambians are a mountain people inhabiting isolated river valleys of the remote Eastern Highlands. They number some 2,000 people dispersed in clusters of small hamlets over a wide region. ❖ Warfare was endemic and destructive among Sambia. It had two forms: the stylized bow-fight among neighbouring hamlets and the inter-hamlet war party sent to raid and kill neighbouring tribes. Gender Norms: Patriarchal Society Men hunt and both sexes garden. Descent is patrilineal based; residence is patrilocal (settle in husband’s home or community). Marriage is arranged through infant betrothal or sister exchange. And every three or four years they joined together in building a great collective cult house to stage bachelorhood initiation.  GENDER RELATIONS AMONG THE SAMBIANS According to Herdt (1982), relationships between the sexes are sharply polarized along the lines of a misogynist male belief system: Women are polluting. They are inferiors and a man should distrust them and keep distant. Sexually mature women are regarded as potentially contaminating, relative to their menstrual and vaginal fluids. (These beliefs shift according to individuals and situations. For example: men fear contaminations from their wives not their sisters.) Men are fully in charge. Women are relegated to heavy, dirty garden work and the “polluting business” of childbearing.  GENDER RELATIONS AMONG THE SAMBIANS Women and Children are heavily suppressed within this society. Infants are exclusively cared for by their mothers or female caretakers. Fathers remain distant from family in fear of contamination. Boys and Girls Boys and girls remain closely attached to their mothers until ages 2/3. Girls become their mothers’ companions and the continue residing with their parents until marriage, usually around the time of the menarche (about 15-17 years of age). There- after, the young women reside with their husbands or parents-in- law, which often removes them to another hamlet.  GENDER RELATIONS AMONG THE SAMBIANS Male Initiation Boys spend more time with their mothers and playmates than they do with their fathers. This style of maternal attachment continues relatively un- changed until first-stage initiation. But boy-initiates are thereafter sanctioned for any contact (e.g., talking, looking at, or eating) with women, including their mothers. They reside exclusively in the men's clubhouses with other unmarried initiates and bachelors. Not until ten years and more later, after marriage and the strict deritualization of these avoidance taboos, may youths begin interacting with women again.  GENDER RELATIONS AMONG THE SAMBIANS Maleness Maleness is thought to depend on the acquisition of semen--the stuff of "biological" maleness--for precipitating male anatomic traits and masculine behavioural capacities (e.g., prowess) In boys, however, two obstacles block male growth: Femaleness their mother's pollution, food, and overall caretaking, Femaleness rests on the creation and circulation which at first nurtures but then stifles growth; and of blood, which is held, in turn, to stimulate the their innate lack of semen, since the semen organ production. (Menstrual Cycle signifies the (kereku-kereku) can only store, not manufacture, development of reproductive organs) sperm--the key precipitant of manly reproductive Femaleness is a natural development leading competence. into feminine adulthood. Maleness is not a naturally driven process but rather a personal achievement of which men wrest control through ritual initiations to ensure that boys attain adult masculine competence. SEMEN DRINKING & BLOODLETTING RITUAL TO ATTAIN MANHOOD BUGIS of Indonesia  THE FIVE GENDERS OF THE BUGIS Bugis society recognises five genders: Makkunrai- Female Oroané- Male Bissu For one to be considered bissu, all aspects of gender must be combined to form a whole. It is believed that you are born with the propensity to become a Bissu, revealed in a baby whose genitalia are ambiguous. Ambiguous genitalia alone cannot ensure that you become a bissu. Moreover, these ambiguous genitalia need not be visible; a normative male who becomes a bissu is believed to be female on the inside.This combination of sexes enables a 'meta-gender' identity to emerge. Calabai- Male at birth, lives as a woman. Calalai- Female at birth, lives as a man BUGIS Bugis Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9V mLJ3niVo Sources Sambians Nose Bleeding Rites and Male Proximity to Women by Gilbert H. Herdt (1982) Five Genders Among the Bugis in Indonesia by Sharyn Graham Davies THANK YOU! BY DESLEY GARDNER