ANTH 111 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: In Vitro Fertilisation, Population Ageing, Sex Selection
Sexual Identity and Gender Pluralism
Rather than a binary, gender exists along a continuum, with a broad spectrum of
possibilities
-
A gender identity is one's inner sense of belonging to a specific gender regardless of
the physical body that they inhabit
-
Gender, sex, and sexuality are care features of identity in contemporary Western
culture
-
But gender - what it means to be a man, woman, or other identity - is artificially
constructed as any other aspects of culture
-
Many cultures do not even share our basic male/female, man/woman, and
straight/queer dichotomies
-
Gender - culture expectations of how males and females should behave
-
Sex - the reproduction forms and functions of the body
Intersex
○
-
Gender/sex systems - the ideas and social patterns, a society uses to organize males,
females, and those who do not fit either category
-
Ranges of gender options, or gender pluralism
-
Many cultures include third genders, or genders that exist in addition to male or
female
-
In some societies individuals live their lives as neither male nor female w/o social
stigma, and in some cases it is even a prestigious status
-
Gender variance: expressions of sex and gender that diverge from the male and
female norms that dominate in most societies
-
Third gender: situations found in many societies that acknowledge three or more
categories of gender/sex
Nádleehé
○
Hijras
○
Transgender
○
-
Sexual Orientations
Sexual preferences intersect in complex ways with gender variance.
-
In other words, gender variance does not necessarily imply variation in sexuality:
sexual preferences, desires, and practices
-
Emphasize that human sexuality is not a straight/queer dichotomy
-
Rather, individual sexuality is flexible, occurring along a continuum from asexuality
(nonsexuality) to polyamory (love of many)
-
Reject the notion that sexuality is completely genetically determined or just a matter
of personal preferences or choice. Sexuality has biological and psychological bases
but is learned, patterned, and shaped by the cultural context in which one lives.
-
Most feminist anthropologists agreed that cultural ideologies and social relations
played a greater role in gender inequality than biological differences.
-
What is masculinity?
Masculinity: the ideas and practices of manhood
○
Importantly, ideas of masculinity do not inherently promote sexism or male
dominance
○
That masculinity is something to be attained is pervasive in many cultures.
○
-
The notion that women are "born" (nature) and men are "created" (culture) helps
explain the importance of male initiation rites in so many societies
-
Gender and Sexism
Based on perceived difference between those of different genders
-
Patriarchy
Common cross-culturally but not universal
○
Economic, political, social and ideological dominance by males
○
Varies in severity
○
One extreme - women an girls can be killed with no societal response
○
Girls education
○
-
Matriarchies are rare
-
Reproduction and Development
How are Modes of Reproduction related to Modes of Subsistence?
The dominant pattern, in a culture, of population change through the combines
effect of fertility and mortality
○
Foraging Mode of Reproduction
Birth intervals - several years
Long periods of breast feeding □
Low levels of body fat □
§
○
Agricultural Mode of Reproduction
Highest birth rates
§
Attitude of pronatalism
§
Need for large labour force
§
Family planning promotes rather than prevents
§
Examples
§
○
Industrial Mode of Reproduction
Decline (in general)
§
Replacement level fertility
# of births = # of deaths□
§
Below replacement level fertility
# of births < # of deaths□
§
Children less useful
§
Tend to have fewer children invest more resources in each
§
Demographic transition
2 phases □
Mortality declines (improved nutrition and health) □
Fertility also declines □
§
Distinguishing features
Stratified Reproduction
Middle and upper classes - fewer children with high survival
rates
®
Poor have higher fertility and mortality rates
®
□
In Canada,
29.7
◊
Fertility rate is 1.49
◊
Growth depends on immigration
◊
US growth dependent on natural increase (births - deaths), in
Canada it depends in immigration
◊
Fertility rate of immigrant women is 3.1 - but - longer in
Canada, lower the fertility rate
◊
□
Population aging
When the proportion of older people increases relative to
younger people
®
□
In Canada
Life expectancy raised but fertility remains stable
®
Median age is 39 (up from 31) (in 2006)
®
Aging baby boomers (now at or reaching retirement)
®
□
High level of involvement of scientific (medical) technology in all
aspects of pregnancy
Becoming, preventing, and terminating pregnancies
◊
□
§
○
-
How does culture shape fertility in different contexts
Culture and Fertility - Sexual Intercourse
Although biology may define the time span within which a female is
fertile
Menarche
○
Menopause
○
-
It is culture that determines when it is acceptable to begin having
intercourse
Guidelines vary by gender, class, race, and ethnicity
○
Many cultures deem marriage as the acceptable time, especially for
females
○
Frequency of Intercourse and Fertility
○
-
○
Fertility Decision Making
Factors influencing why and when to have a child
-
Family Level
Consider the value and costs of children
○
Four factors:
Labour value 1)
Value as old-age support for parents2)
Infant and mortality rates 3)
Economic costs of children 4)
○
First 3 will increase fertility
○
Direct costs, indirect costs
○
Preference for sons or daughters
○
-
State Level
State governments formulate policies that affect rates of
populations growth within their boundaries
○
Pronatalist or antinatalist
○
Many factors
○
-
Global Level
Global power structures like pharmaceutical companies and
religious leaders influence country and individual level decision
making
○
-
○
Fertility Control
There have always been ways to influence fertility
To increase it, reduce it, and regulate birth spacing
○
Direct
○
Indirect
○
-
Indigenous methods
Known cross-culturally and throughout history
○
Usually herbs taken orally, inhaled as vapors, inserted, rubbed on
woman's stomach
○
-
Induced Abortion
Common cross-culturally
○
Attitudes vary from absolute acceptability to conditional approval,
tolerance, and opposition and punishment for offenders
○
Force, starvation, drugs, jumping, lifting heavy objects
○
Reasons are usually related to economic and social factors
Poverty
§
Social penalties and culturally defined legitimacy
§
○
Some government regulate access
Either promoting or forbidding it
One-child-per-couple policy 1978 China□
Led to abortions, gender selection, infanticide□
§
Illegal abortions more likely to have detrimental effects of
women's health and safety
§
'War in Women'
§
Religion and abortion are often related but no simple
relationship between what a religion teaches and what
people actually do
§
○
-
New Reproductive technologies since 1980s
-
Offer options for childbearing to infertile couples
-
In vitro fertilization
Surrogates
○
-
○
Infanticide
Deliberate killing of offspring
Widely practiced, but not common
○
-
Direct
Death resulting from actions like beating, smothering, poisoning or
drowning
○
-
Indirect
More subtle
○
Food deprivation
○
Failure to take a sick infant to a clinic
○
-
May be viewed as better choice than to risk health of other children,
struggle to keep child alive
-
○
-
How does culture shape personality over the lifecycle?
-
Genderbread person*
Jú/hoansi
March 7th
Reproduction, Human Development, Gender, Sex and
Sexuality
Week 9, Lecture 15
Tuesday, March 7, 2017
2:27 PM
Sexual Identity and Gender Pluralism
Rather than a binary, gender exists along a continuum, with a broad spectrum of
possibilities
-
A gender identity is one's inner sense of belonging to a specific gender regardless of
the physical body that they inhabit
-
Gender, sex, and sexuality are care features of identity in contemporary Western
culture
-
But gender - what it means to be a man, woman, or other identity - is artificially
constructed as any other aspects of culture
-
Many cultures do not even share our basic male/female, man/woman, and
straight/queer dichotomies
-
Gender - culture expectations of how males and females should behave
-
Sex - the reproduction forms and functions of the body
Intersex
○
-
Gender/sex systems - the ideas and social patterns, a society uses to organize males,
females, and those who do not fit either category
-
Ranges of gender options, or gender pluralism
-
Many cultures include third genders, or genders that exist in addition to male or
female
-
In some societies individuals live their lives as neither male nor female w/o social
stigma, and in some cases it is even a prestigious status
-
Gender variance: expressions of sex and gender that diverge from the male and
female norms that dominate in most societies
-
Third gender: situations found in many societies that acknowledge three or more
categories of gender/sex
Nádleehé
○
Hijras
○
Transgender
○
-
Sexual Orientations
Sexual preferences intersect in complex ways with gender variance.
-
In other words, gender variance does not necessarily imply variation in sexuality:
sexual preferences, desires, and practices
-
Emphasize that human sexuality is not a straight/queer dichotomy
-
Rather, individual sexuality is flexible, occurring along a continuum from asexuality
(nonsexuality) to polyamory (love of many)
-
Reject the notion that sexuality is completely genetically determined or just a matter
of personal preferences or choice. Sexuality has biological and psychological bases
but is learned, patterned, and shaped by the cultural context in which one lives.
-
Most feminist anthropologists agreed that cultural ideologies and social relations
played a greater role in gender inequality than biological differences.
-
What is masculinity?
Masculinity: the ideas and practices of manhood
○
Importantly, ideas of masculinity do not inherently promote sexism or male
dominance
○
That masculinity is something to be attained is pervasive in many cultures.
○
-
The notion that women are "born" (nature) and men are "created" (culture) helps
explain the importance of male initiation rites in so many societies
-
Gender and Sexism
Based on perceived difference between those of different genders
-
Patriarchy
Common cross-culturally but not universal
○
Economic, political, social and ideological dominance by males
○
Varies in severity
○
One extreme - women an girls can be killed with no societal response
○
Girls education
○
-
Matriarchies are rare
-
Reproduction and Development
How are Modes of Reproduction related to Modes of Subsistence?
The dominant pattern, in a culture, of population change through the combines
effect of fertility and mortality
○
Foraging Mode of Reproduction
Birth intervals - several years
Long periods of breast feeding
□
Low levels of body fat □
§
○
Agricultural Mode of Reproduction
Highest birth rates
§
Attitude of pronatalism
§
Need for large labour force
§
Family planning promotes rather than prevents
§
Examples
§
○
Industrial Mode of Reproduction
Decline (in general)
§
Replacement level fertility
# of births = # of deaths□
§
Below replacement level fertility
# of births < # of deaths□
§
Children less useful
§
Tend to have fewer children invest more resources in each
§
Demographic transition
2 phases □
Mortality declines (improved nutrition and health) □
Fertility also declines □
§
Distinguishing features
Stratified Reproduction
Middle and upper classes - fewer children with high survival
rates
®
Poor have higher fertility and mortality rates
®
□
In Canada,
29.7
◊
Fertility rate is 1.49
◊
Growth depends on immigration
◊
US growth dependent on natural increase (births - deaths), in
Canada it depends in immigration
◊
Fertility rate of immigrant women is 3.1 - but - longer in
Canada, lower the fertility rate
◊
□
Population aging
When the proportion of older people increases relative to
younger people
®
□
In Canada
Life expectancy raised but fertility remains stable
®
Median age is 39 (up from 31) (in 2006)
®
Aging baby boomers (now at or reaching retirement)
®
□
High level of involvement of scientific (medical) technology in all
aspects of pregnancy
Becoming, preventing, and terminating pregnancies
◊
□
§
○
-
How does culture shape fertility in different contexts
Culture and Fertility - Sexual Intercourse
Although biology may define the time span within which a female is
fertile
Menarche
○
Menopause
○
-
It is culture that determines when it is acceptable to begin having
intercourse
Guidelines vary by gender, class, race, and ethnicity
○
Many cultures deem marriage as the acceptable time, especially for
females
○
Frequency of Intercourse and Fertility
○
-
○
Fertility Decision Making
Factors influencing why and when to have a child
-
Family Level
Consider the value and costs of children
○
Four factors:
Labour value 1)
Value as old-age support for parents2)
Infant and mortality rates 3)
Economic costs of children 4)
○
First 3 will increase fertility
○
Direct costs, indirect costs
○
Preference for sons or daughters
○
-
State Level
State governments formulate policies that affect rates of
populations growth within their boundaries
○
Pronatalist or antinatalist
○
Many factors
○
-
Global Level
Global power structures like pharmaceutical companies and
religious leaders influence country and individual level decision
making
○
-
○
Fertility Control
There have always been ways to influence fertility
To increase it, reduce it, and regulate birth spacing
○
Direct
○
Indirect
○
-
Indigenous methods
Known cross-culturally and throughout history
○
Usually herbs taken orally, inhaled as vapors, inserted, rubbed on
woman's stomach
○
-
Induced Abortion
Common cross-culturally
○
Attitudes vary from absolute acceptability to conditional approval,
tolerance, and opposition and punishment for offenders
○
Force, starvation, drugs, jumping, lifting heavy objects
○
Reasons are usually related to economic and social factors
Poverty
§
Social penalties and culturally defined legitimacy
§
○
Some government regulate access
Either promoting or forbidding it
One-child-per-couple policy 1978 China□
Led to abortions, gender selection, infanticide□
§
Illegal abortions more likely to have detrimental effects of
women's health and safety
§
'War in Women'
§
Religion and abortion are often related but no simple
relationship between what a religion teaches and what
people actually do
§
○
-
New Reproductive technologies since 1980s
-
Offer options for childbearing to infertile couples
-
In vitro fertilization
Surrogates
○
-
○
Infanticide
Deliberate killing of offspring
Widely practiced, but not common
○
-
Direct
Death resulting from actions like beating, smothering, poisoning or
drowning
○
-
Indirect
More subtle
○
Food deprivation
○
Failure to take a sick infant to a clinic
○
-
May be viewed as better choice than to risk health of other children,
struggle to keep child alive
-
○
-
How does culture shape personality over the lifecycle?
-
Genderbread person*
Jú/hoansi
March 7th
Reproduction, Human Development, Gender, Sex and
Sexuality
Week 9, Lecture 15
Tuesday, March 7, 2017 2:27 PM
Document Summary
Rather than a binary, gender exists along a continuum, with a broad spectrum of possibilities. A gender identity is one"s inner sense of belonging to a specific gender regardless of the physical body that they inhabit. Gender, sex, and sexuality are care features of identity in contemporary western culture. But gender - what it means to be a man, woman, or other identity - is artificially constructed as any other aspects of culture. Many cultures do not even share our basic male/female, man/woman, and straight/queer dichotomies. Gender - culture expectations of how males and females should behave. Sex - the reproduction forms and functions of the body. Gender/sex systems - the ideas and social patterns, a society uses to organize males, females, and those who do not fit either category. Many cultures include third genders, or genders that exist in addition to male or female.
