Gender and Sex

1. Gender and Sex The Biological and Cultural Foundations of Kinship

2. Unspoken Intent:Nature or Nurture? Accurate, or not?

3. Gender and Sex • Sex: Refers to all the physical attributes separating women and men • Gender: Refers to the cultural attributes derived from sex differences. • This section will • Elaborate on these differences • Discuss restrictions on sexual activity, especially the incest tabu • Describe gender roles • Look at gender status

4. Where It All Begins: Sex Characteristics • Sex: physical characteristics of sexes • Primary sex characteristics: reproductive organs • Secondary sex characteristics: the body attributes of each sex

5. Secondary Sex Characteristics: Mammals • Sexual Dimorphism: Differences in secondary characteristics • Gibbons: Females and males are indistinguishable (top) • Peacocks: Males have showy feathers • Females are neutrally colored • Here, a peacock woos a peahen (bottom)

6. Secondary Sex Characteristics: Human • Censored • Human sexual dimorphism falls somewhere in between gibbons and peacocks • Women: • Pendulous breasts for lactation • Wide pelvis for childbirth • Men: • Facial hair • Greater grip strength • Larger hearts and lungs • Narrow pelvis • (Censorship courtesy of Ethnocentrity, Inc. )

7. Gender characteristics • Gender: the cultural attributes arising from sex differences • Haviland: “Cultural elaboration and meanings assigned to the biological differentiation between the sexes” • Examples • Gender roles: bread winning, child rearing • Behavior: emotional expression, assertiveness • Clothing; ornamentation; make-up (50s North America, Moroccan caftans, veil)

8. Rules Governing Sexual Behavior • All societies restrict sexual behavior in some way • Only 5% confine sexual behavior to marriage (including us) • Severity of punishment is one case of control (honor homicides) • Clitoridectomy removes source of sexual pleasure • Incest tabus are de facto restrictions, such as village-level tabus

9. Enforcing Sexual Prohibitions: Honor Homicides • Honor homicides occur across the Middle East • Offense: adultery, even in rape cases • Upper left: Scene from threat to stone Mary Magdalen for adultery • Both men and women could be stoned to death, as in Afghanistan (lower left) • A question of ethical relativism

10. Clitoricectomy and Circumcision • Africa, Middle East: Clitoridectomyremoves sexual pleasure in women • Above: Kipsigis girls preparing for clitoridectomy • Often, parts of vulva are sewn afterward to ensure virginity • Circumcision is questionable as well • As suggested in this political cartoon from Australia

11. Incest Tabu • Definition: A rule that forbids copulation between two persons of defined relationships • Incest is often confused with marriage • Exogamy: a rule that forbid marriage between persons of defined relationships

12. The Emotional Power of the Incest Tabu: Lot’s Daughters • Story of Lot’s departure from Sodom/Gomorrah • Wife looks back and turns into pillar of salt • Believing they are the only humans alive, • Lot’s daughters induce him (with wine) to impregnate them • Older daughter founds Moab • Younger daughter founds the Ammonites • Incest is one justification for Israelites to exterminate both peoples • Could this be a patriarchal interpretation? Perhaps

13. Incest Tabu: Primary Kin • Primary kin: parent-child, siblings • Father-daughter • Mother-son • Brother sister • Exceptions: Egyptian, Inca, Hawaiian • Allowed only in royal line: “purity”

14. Incest Tabu: Secondary Kin • Definition: All kin other than immediate family • Tabu varies by culture • Anglo-Americans: first cousins • Scene from Ararat: Step-siblings (upper left) are in gray area • Navajo: all people of the same clan • Yanomamo: one’s own lineage • However, cross-cousin marriage is prescribed (lower right)

15. Incest Tabu and Exogamy: Differences • Incest tabu: prohibits sexual relations between persons of defined relations • Exogamy: prohibits marriage between persons of defined relations • Arunta of Australia: • Marriage to mother mother’s brother’s daughter’s daughter • Marriage exogamous: involved 2 patrilineages • Sexuality: allowed outside primary kin

16. Incest Tabu and Exogamy: Significance • Reasons for incest tabu tend to be biological or psychological • Inbreeding theory • Lack-of-interest/revulsion theory • Sexual competition theory • Reasons for exogamy: sociological/political • Marriage creates alliances • Marriage cements intergroup ties

17. Why Incest Tabus? • Short answer: • No one really knows • All explanations have some defect • Other animals species also avoid inbreeding those that are large, slow to mature, long-lived, and intelligent • Counterexamples: brother-sister marriage in Roman Egypt

18. Biological (Genetic) Explanations: Background • Background to explanation • Mating: each parent contribute half of genes • Variation of a gene: alleles. • Alleles are dominant or recessive

19. Biological (Genetic) Explanations • Dominant gene appears in phenotype • Deleterious alleles • Definition: those alleles that are harmful, even fatal • When 2 recessive deleterious genes come together • The deleterious allele appears in lifeform

20. Biological (Genetic) Explanation • Fears of inbreeding deters incest • Birth defects: Mental and physical disabilities (Charles II of Spain) • Lower intelligence (e.g. Down syndrome) • Anomalous characteristics (Mohammed Kalid, Lebanese) • Parallel Cousin Marriage common in Middle East • Assumptions: • Individuals have facts of life straight • Defect attributed to inbreeding • No close marriages

21. Biological (Genetic): Shortcomings • Connection between copulation and childbirth often not made • Rapan (Easter) Islanders: woman is fertile during menstruation • Other explanation may explain childbirth (witchcraft, evil spirit in womb) • Tarahumara women avoided this man, a shaman thought to prevent births • Defect may not show up for generations • Widespread cross-cousin marriage also entail inbreeding: evidence is mixed

22. Lack-of-Interest Explanation • Close kin do not mate for lack of interest or revulsion against idea • Familiarity breeds contempt--or boredom • Example: Israeli kibbutz (collective farm) • Spiro: observed marriage rarely occurs in kibbutz • Attribution: lack of interest in long-familiar cohorts (e.g. these children in 1936)

23. Lack of Interest Explanation: Shortcomings • Counterexample: Israeli kibbutz • Most late teenagers leave kibbutz to join army--both males and females are drafted (left) • Marriage occurs when they have left kibbutz • Exceptions need explanation: brother-sister marriage in Roman Egypt • Logic: Why a tabu for something that no one would engage in anyway?

24. Sexual Competition Explanations • Sexual jealousy disrupts family relations • Freud: Oedipus/Electra complex • Rivalry between child and same-sex parent • Can assume jealousy without Freudian baggage • Shortcomings • Multiple marriage: polygyny (upper left) and polyandry • Fraternal polyandry (lower left) and sororal polygyny mitigate tension

25. Sexuality: Some Conclusions • Kinship Starts with the facts of life themselves • Sexual behavior has limitations everywhere • Examples of sanctions: honor homicide, clitoridectomy • Incest tabus and their explanations

26. Gender Division of Labor: Definitions • Definition: An arrangement whereby men perform some tasks and women others. • Three basic questions • Does every society have different work for males and females? Yes. • Do they divide work in similar ways? Depends • What explains these differences?

27. Gender Division of Labor: Gender-Exclusive Tasks • Men generally • Handle heavier tasks • Handle dangerous tasks • Engage in warfare • Exercise political leadership • Women generally • Handle domestic duties • Rear children • Fetch water

28. Gender Division of Labor: Shared Tasks • Either or both genders • Perform handicrafts: weaving, leatherworks, pottery, basketry • Milk Plant, tend, and harvest crops • animals • Preserve meat or fish

29. Gender Division of Labor: Explanations • Main explanations • Strength Explanations • Compatibility-with-Child-Care Explanations • Male Expendability Explanations • All do not apply to all places

30. Strength Explanations • Ability to mobilize strength in quick bursts of energy • Matches most task done by males (slash and burn) • However, women handle tasks involving heavy labor (!Kung) • Fishing (Yahgan) • Herd large animals (Maasai) • Clear land • Carry heavy loads while cultivating (Nepal)

31. Compatibility-with-Child Care Explanations • Women handle tasks compatible with child care (especially at breast-feeding) • Tasks are interruptible to tend to child • Tasks do not take them away for long • Tasks do not place children in danger • However, main marketers are women, who spend long time away from home (below) • Child care is often exchanged with others

32. Male Expenditure Explanations • Men usually engage in dangerous work (or warfare) • Loss of men less disadvantageous to society’s survival • Than loss of women, who have reproductive power • Shortcomings: Women also take on dangerous tasks • Atga (Philippines): Women hunt (lower left) • Yahgan: fish in rough seas

33. Status of Women • Warfare tends to maximize male dominance • Maasai: warlike until British invasion; residence patrilocal • Where women own property, tend to dominate, though indirectly • Iroquois were cultivators, owned property, had much influence in tribal affairs • Foraging: !Kung women contribute most of food, have greater say in band.

34. Conclusion • Sex is the first organizer of human society • This is filtered culturally through gender • Gender labor and status depends on cultural factors • Explanations for these differences continue to be advanced