Exam 7: Gender

According to the text, increased participation in the global economy means that many women can do what?

What did much of the early feminist anthropological studies focus on identifying in regard to gender and society?

What are we talking about when we refer to observable physical and biological differences between the male and female human reproduction systems?

How might we refer to an individual who dresses and identifies as a woman but was designated male at birth due to biological characteristics?

In one gender study, what was one of the ways that the game of co-ed T-ball reinforced gender ideals in U.S. children?

Explain how feminist research on gender stratification and gender roles has changed since Margaret Mead's pioneering research, paying particular attention to the approaches and findings of Sherri Ortner, Michelle Rosaldo, and Annette Weiner. What do we understand about how gender should be studied today?

Define the concept of intersex, and explain how physicians' attitudes toward children born intersex have changed in recent decades in parallel with changes in attitudes toward sexuality.

The notion of appropriate male behavior in Mexico is changing, in part because more women are entering the paid workforce. Thinking like an anthropologist, consider how you would structure your fieldwork to explore this phenomenon. Be scientific and explain whether your research will be qualitative or quantitative and why, how you will prepare, what your hypothesis will be, and what strategies you will use.

Evaluate the merits of the "man the hunter, woman the gatherer" debate. What are two of the specific cultural debates used to support the notion that there is a biological basis for the behaviors reported in this model? Provide two examples from the text that do not support the biological argument in favor of a gendered division of labor in foraging societies. Conclude by discussing the accuracy of the evolutionary model for understanding the idealized model of the sexual division of labor.

Describe why anthropologists have shifted their focus from looking at gender roles to gender performance. What is the difference between the two? What role do gender ideologies and gender stereotypes play in gender performance?

What groups of people might anthropologists study if they want to learn more about what it means to be transgender in different religious communities?

The growing issues around women serving in leadership and combat roles in the U.S. military serve to highlight the deep tensions between what?

Female bodybuilders go to a great deal of effort to shape their physiques in a manner that is highly similar to their male bodybuilder counterparts. What do these female bodybuilders demonstrate about sexual dimorphism?

On average, how much more do men weigh than women?

Who formed the group CO-MADRES during El Salvador's civil war (1977-1992)?

How must individuals living in cultures with a binary gender system (such as the United States) be classified in order to gain certain legal recognition?

Home is often considered the domain of women, while men go to work. Although this idea has changed dramatically in many places in the past several decades, it remains a common theme. How does anthropologist Michelle Rosaldo see male and female gender roles?

Why are cross-cultural studies important for our understanding of sex and gender?

Define gender stratification. Using one specific example from the text, identify and analyze ways that women resist patriarchy or gender stratification in their societies. Specifically, how do women use organizing for political action to express their displeasure with the systems under which they live? Provide the context for their actions in different settings. Ultimately, does women's resistance to these structures result in change?

What is the growing field, particularly within anthropology, that focuses on research into masculinity and femininity as cultural constructs?