Exam 13: What Can Anthropology Teach Us About Sex, Gender, and Sexuality

Comparative information on human sexual practices worldwide suggests that expectations of an active and satisfying sexual life are found everywhere.

Anthropologists agree that male dominance is a historical and contemporary feature of all human societies.

The berdache of many indigenous North American societies is an example

What term describes the process in which humans would surrender some of their individual liberty in order to create a shared government that would protect the weak from the strong?

Marcia Inhorn's work among Egyptian men challenges what she describes as an "essentializing and deeply vilifying" stereotype of Middle Eastern men by describing how men in her study remained in childless marriages with wives whom they loved and who loved them.

Based on the ethnographic accounts of sexuality in Nicaragua provided through Lancaster's and Howe's research, compare forms of sexuality in that society with forms of sexuality in the United States. What explains these similarities and/or differences? What are the implications of these different cultural explanations?

Based on the discussion in the textbook, does it appear that there any universals about gender roles across all societies? Use examples from your reading to support your position.

Beginning in the 1970s, anthropologists began to examine closely the ethnographic record to determine whether male dominance is a feature of all human societies.

Anthropologists perceive human bodies as massive, inert matter that is malleable and shaped by sociocultural conditions.

Define the concepts of sex and gender. Why do anthropologists find it useful to differentiate between the categories of sex and gender? What importance might this distinction have in modern society?

Analyze how sex, gender, and sexuality related to each other. What are the differences among these three analytical concepts? How are they operationalized in anthropological research (identify examples from the text).

What does Foucault call modern states that depend on statistical information about their populations in order to devise ways of regulating those populations?

According to Gill Shepherd, Swahili women in Mombasa may only choose other women as sexual partners after they have been married.

Intersectionality suggests that gender may become intertwined with forms of identity such as race.

Identify several examples of how American society may be characterized as heteronormative. How is heteronormativity challenged by changing social sentiments regarding sexuality?

According to the textbook author's discussion of the term, transgender may be described as dissatisfaction with the sex and gender assignments they had received at birth need to wear clothing of the opposite sex.

Donna Haraway has supported human alliances with machines in the contemporary world.

In Nicaragua, Roger Lancaster discovered that "manly men" are expected to be aroused by the idea of sex with a cochón.

Starting with the concept of the public/private dichotomy, describe the correlation between women's roles in the public sphere of life and patterns of patriarchy and male dominance. Identify examples to support your discussion. How are patterns of public versus private roles inscribed in policies and cultural practices? What variables would be necessary for there to be equality between women and men?