ANTH 1170 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Gender Role
Document Summary
Gender as a culturally produced and constructed idea and practice. Biologically, sex is determined (which plays a role in the construction of gender) (within the global perspective, this commonly has a certain degree of unchangeability) Anthropologically, gender is culturally produced with a slight basis in biology. Sex as the biological aspect of gender"s cultural construction (kottak) Culturally associated features (ie. clothes, makeup, hair) as determination of gender. Binary gender is just as much of a social construction as gender itself. Sexual dimorphism - physical differences between male and female biology that are not reproductively related (ie. weight, height, size, strength, voice, facial hair, hip shape, maternal instinct - generally common) Easy to leap from maternal instinct (biology/physiology) to misogyny (cultural practices/assumptions of the role of women as mothers etc. ) Gender inherently challenged by biology; we are often ignorant of culture"s role in the process. Gender roles - activities and roles a culture assigns to the sexes (think biologically presumed jobs.