ANTC15H3 Chapter : Sex and Society.docx
Document Summary
Biological fact does not just exist, but must be interpreted. This does not mean we"re understanding contexts better. We"re merely studying the catalogues of sexual behavior (i. e. puberty ceremonies) or asserting that is a learned social behavior. R&r argue that we don"t need a psychoanalytic theory that takes the personal (between individuals) and generalizes to the conflicts visible within society. The relationship between sex and society is two- way: it both creates wider social relations and is created through society. Sexual appearance needs to be understood as cogs in a machine, where different sized cogs have a different scale effect (i. e. migration may limit sexual partners, so is actually relevant to sex). The onion by geertz is an even better metaphor, in that peeling it doesn"t lead to an all- powerful core the whole is what is. The metaphor that best represents the social embeddedness of sexuality must contain at least the following contexts: 1.
