Sex, Gender & Culture

Anthropology 202

Fall semester 2006

Dr. Phyllis Chock
T-Th 3:10 - 4:25 p.m.

 


 Lectures and readings for this course will examine sex, gender, and culture in societies around the world that have been brought into the web of the modern world. We will focus on three issues throughout the semester: (1) the creation, maintenance, and change of cultural differences in gender in cultures around the world; (2) the work of culture in sexuality; and (3) equality and inequality between the sexes in different societies.

People's beliefs, institutions, and practices that we call "gender" construct gender differently in different societies, even though all societies are situated somewhere in the modern world. We will look carefully at how "female" and "male" and other genders are defined and practiced in different parts of the world. We will also look at how these notions shape the lives of women and men.
Sexuality is also shaped by culture. How men and women learn sexuality, how they experience desire, and how that desire is formed in social and cultural contexts so that what is desired is as much cultural as physical or psychological are some of the issues with which we will be concerned.
We will look at the preoccupations in social and imaginative life with rank, status, equality, and inequality, like and unlike. How are women and men valued differently in different cultures? In different aspects of the same culture? On what cultural grounds? How do the different values placed on women and men affect their lives?

As we examine gender, sexuality, and status in other cultures, we will also be thinking about our own understandings and practices. Other cultures provide us with different perspectives from which to see ourselves than our own culture gives us. We will look at what we take to be "the way things are," the common sense that tells us that things could not be otherwise, at our beliefs and actions, and at the various critical stances of "feminism."

 

COURSE TEXTS

Brettell, Caroline & Carolyn Sargent. 2005. Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective, 4th ed. Prentice-Hall.

Meneley, Anne. 1996. Tournaments of Value: Sociability & Hierarchy in a Yemeni Town. University of Toronto Press.

Nanda, Serena. 1999. Neither Man Nor Woman: Hijras of India, 2d ed. Wadsworth.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

The class reading assignments given below are required for satisfactory work. Class members are expected to have prepared reading assignments for each class in advance, and are responsible in class and in exams for all this material whether or not it has been covered in lectures.  This includes all material in lectures, readings, maps, videos and films, and discussions.

Two essay exams will be given, one midterm and one final exam during finals week.  Exam essays must be well-written and show mastery of course assignments and careful thought. My practice is to distribute study questions about one week before the exams.  Note:  There will be a short quiz for freshman students on October 3.

A short paper (5-8 double-spaced pages, no smaller than 12 pt. font) is required.  Please see me by November 2 to get your topic approved.  Papers on topics that are not approved will not be accepted.  Scrupulous citation of all sources is expected in footnotes and bibliography.  Papers should be stapled once; no folders or loose pages will be accepted.  The paper is due at the last class meeting on Thursday, December 7.  Late papers will suffer a grade penalty.

Course grades will be based on the midterm exam (30%; for freshmen, 25% midterm, 5% quiz), final exam (30%), term paper (30%), and class preparation and contributions (10%).

My office is 6 Marist, telephone 319-5080, e-mail chock@cua.edu . My office hours are Tuesdays 2-3:00. Other times can be arranged by appointment.

 

Course Topics and Reading Assignments

August 29, 31

Read: Brettell and Sargent, I. Biology, Gender, and Human Evolution, pp. 1-48.
Nanda, Introduction, Ch. 1.

September  5, 7, 12

Read:  Brettell and Sargent, III. Domestic Worlds and Public Worlds, pp. 81-134. Note: This assignment is different from the textbook sequence of readings.
Nanda, Chs. 2 & 3.
Video "Some Women of Marrakech"

September 14   

Read  Brettell and Sargent, II. Gender and Prehistory, pp. 49-80.
Nanda, Ch. 4.

September 19, 21

Read:  Brettell and Sargent, IV. Equality and Inequality: The Sexual Division of Labor and Gender Stratification, pp. 135-184.
Nanda, Chs. 5&6

September 26, 28, October 3

Read:  Brettell and Sargent, V. The Cultural Construction of Gender and Personhood, pp. 185-240.
Nanda, Chs  7&8
Video "Tuareg Boyhood"
October 3 Freshman Quiz

October 5

Discussion: "Neither Man Nor Woman"
 Review for midterm; Study questions distributed
Nanda, Chs. 9&10


October 10  No Class Monday classes are being held.

October 12    MIDTERM EXAM

October 17, 19 

Read: Brettell and Sargent, VI. Culture, Sexuality, and the Body, pp. 241-298.
Meneley, Introduction, Ch. 1

October 24, 26

Read:  Brettell and Sargent, VII. Gender, Property and the State, pp. 299-348.
Meneley, Ch. 2


October 31, November 2

Read:  Brettell and Sargent, VIII. Gender, Household, and Kinship, pp. 349-390.
Meneley, Ch. 3


November 7, 9

Read:  Brettell and Sargent, IX. Gender, Ritual and Religion, pp. 391-442.
Meneley, Ch. 4


November 14, 16

Read: Brettell and Sargent, X. Gender, Politics and Reproduction, pp. 443-494.
Meneley, Ch. 5

November 21, 28

Read:  Brettell and Sargent, XI. Colonialism, Development, and Global Economy, pp. 495-535
Meneley, Ch. 6

November 30, December 5

Read:  Brettell and Sargent, XI. (continued), pp. 536-64.
Meneley, Conclusion


December 7

Discussion of "Tournaments of Value"
Review for final exam
Papers due


FINAL EXAM -- Tuesday December 12, 2-4 p.m.

 

(Revised 09/29/06)