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Chapter 11 Gender in Comparative Perspective

Chapter 11 Gender in Comparative Perspective. Cultural Construction of Gender Gender Crossing and Multiple Gender Identities The Sexual Division of Labor Gender Stratification.  Cultural Construction of Gender. Sex is biologically determined. Gender is culturally determined.

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Chapter 11 Gender in Comparative Perspective

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  1. Chapter 11Gender in Comparative Perspective • Cultural Construction of Gender • Gender Crossing and Multiple Gender Identities • The Sexual Division of Labor • Gender Stratification

  2.  Cultural Construction of Gender • Sex is biologically determined. • Gender is culturally determined. • Different cultures have distinctive ideas about males and females. • These ideas define manhood/masculinity and womanhood/femininity.

  3. Hua of Papua New Guinea • Patrilineal, horticultural people who live in villages of 100 to 300 people. • Gender is constructed based on female-male differences that are not recognized by people outside of Papua, New Guinea. • The Hua believe that later in life each gender can become like the other in certain respects.  

  4. Hua of Papua New Guinea • Bodies contain a life-giving substance, nu. • Females have an excess of nu - grow faster, age more slowly and are unattractively moist. • Men contain a smaller amount of nu - have difficulty with growth and maintenance of vitality later in life, but are attractively dry.

  5. Hua of Papua New Guinea During intercourse: • A woman transfers nu to her husband which pollutes and debilitates him. • The man contributes his nu to a woman so she gains strength and vitality at his expense. • The greater difference in nu between them, the more dangerous a woman is to a man.

  6. Nu Gender Classifications In addition to male and female: • Figapa - Their bodies contain substances symbolically considered feminine. • Kakora - Eligible to live in the men's houses and to obtain the secret "male" knowledge gained during initiation ceremonies.

  7. Figapa • Children of both sexes - been in recent intimate contact with their mother. • Women in their child-bearing years. • Post menopausal women who have not had at least 3 children. • Elderly men -female nu has been transferred to them throughout their life.

  8.  Kakora • Males in their early teens through the prime years who have been imitated. • Postmenopausal women with more than two children.

  9. Multiple Gender Identities • Many societies have more than two gender identities. • A third or fourth gender of "man-woman" or 'woman-man" or "not woman - not man“. • Well documented among Native American peoples. 

  10. Native Americans and Multiple Gender Identities • More than 150 Native American cultures had multiple gender identities for males, females, or both sexes. • Males adopted dress, tasks, family roles and other aspects of womanhood. • Females took on activities associated with manhood.

  11. Characteristics of Third- and Fourth- Gender Identities • A preference for the work of the opposite sex and/or work set aside for the third- or fourth- gender identity. • Cross dressing, or dressing in a combination of male and female garments.

  12. Characteristics of Third- and Fourth- Gender Identities • Associations with spiritual power or a spiritual sanction. • Formation of sexual and emotional bonds with members of the same sex, were not not men-women or women-men.

  13. The Sexual Division of Labor • The patterned ways in which tasks are allocated to men and women. • Division of labor on the basis of sex is found in all cultures, although the specific tasks performed vary.

  14. Factors in Sexual Division of Labor • Physical strength - Work tasks requiring greater strength are performed by males. • Fertility maintenance - Prolonged physical exercise can depress female fertility, so most strenuous tasks are done by males. • Child care -Women tend to perform tasks that can be combined efficiently with child care.

  15. Componentsof Gender Stratification • The social roles men and women perform. • The cultural value attached to women's and men's contributions to their families and other groups. • Access to positions of power and influence.

  16. Componentsof Gender Stratification • Control over personal decision making. • Female deference to males. • General beliefs and ideas about the sexes.

  17. Influences on Gender Stratification • The greater the contributions women make to the welfare of a group, the higher their status. • Ownership of resources and the control women have over the distribution of products of labor influences their status. • Women have higher status in matrilineal and/or matrilocal societies.

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