Chapter 11

Gender in Comparative Perspective

Chapter Outline

Cultural Construction of Gender

Gender Crossing and Multiple Gender
Identities
The Sexual Division of Labor
Gender Stratification

Cultural Construction of
Gender

Sex is biologically determined.

Gender is culturally determined.
Different cultures have distinctive ideas
about males and females.
These ideas define manhood/masculinity
and womanhood/femininity.

Hua of Papua New Guinea

Patrilineal, horticultural people who live in

villages of 100 to 300 people.
Gender is constructed based on femalemale differences that are not recognized
by people outside of Papua, New Guinea.
The Hua believe that later in life each
gender can become like the other in
certain respects.

Hua of Papua New Guinea

Bodies contain a life-giving substance, nu.

Females have an excess of nu - grow faster,
age more slowly and are unattractively
moist.
Men contain a smaller amount of nu - have
difficulty with growth and maintenance of
vitality later in life, but are attractively dry.

Hua of Papua New Guinea

During intercourse:
A woman transfers nu to her husband which
pollutes and debilitates him.
The man contributes his nu to a woman so she
gains strength and vitality at his expense.
The greater difference in nu between them, the
more dangerous a woman is to a man.

Nu Gender Classifications
In addition to male and female:
Figapa - Their bodies contain substances
symbolically considered feminine.
Kakora - Eligible to live in the men's
houses and to obtain the secret "male"
knowledge gained during initiation
ceremonies.

Figapa

Children of both sexes - been in recent

intimate contact with their mother.
Women in their child-bearing years.
Post menopausal women who have not
had at least 3 children.
Elderly men -female nu has been
transferred to them throughout their life.

Kakora

Males in their early teens through the

prime years who have been imitated.
Postmenopausal women with more than
two children.

Multiple Gender Identities

Many societies have more than two

gender identities.
A third or fourth gender of "man-woman"
or 'woman-man" or "not woman - not
man.
Well documented among Native American
peoples.

Gender Crossing

The adoption of social roles and

behaviors normatively appropriate for the
opposite biological sex from one's own.

Multiple Gender Identities

The recognition, present in some

cultures, of more than two sexes, with the
third and fourth identities often called by
such terms as man-woman or womanman.

Native Americans and

Multiple Gender Identities

More than 150 Native American cultures

had multiple gender identities for males,
females, or both sexes.
Males adopted dress, tasks, family roles
and other aspects of womanhood.
Females took on activities associated with
manhood.

Characteristics of Third- and

Fourth- Gender Identities

A preference for the work of the opposite

sex and/or work set aside for the third- or
fourth- gender identity.
Cross dressing, or dressing in a
combination of male and female
garments.

Characteristics of Third- and

Fourth- Gender Identities

Associations with spiritual power or a

spiritual sanction.
Formation of sexual and emotional bonds
with members of the same sex, were not
not men-women or women-men.

The Sexual Division of Labor

The patterned ways in which tasks are

allocated to men and women.
Division of labor on the basis of sex is
found in all cultures, although the specific
tasks performed vary.

Gender (or Sex) Roles

The rights, duties, and expectations one

acquires by virtue of ones sex.

Factors in Sexual Division of

Labor

Physical strength - Work tasks requiring

greater strength are performed by males.
Fertility maintenance - Prolonged physical
exercise can depress female fertility, so most
strenuous tasks are done by males.
Child care - Women tend to perform tasks that
can be combined efficiently with child care.

Gender Stratification

The degree of inequality between males

and females based on culturally defined
differences between the sexes.
May be based on social status, and/or on
access to resources, wealth, power or
influence.

Components
of Gender Stratification

The social roles men and women

perform.
The cultural value attached to women's
and men's contributions to their families
and other groups.
Access to positions of power and
influence.

Components
of Gender Stratification

Control over personal decision making.

Female deference to males.
General beliefs and ideas about the
sexes.

Influences on
Gender Stratification

The greater the contributions women

make to the welfare of a group, the higher
their status.
Ownership of resources and the control
women have over the distribution of
products of labor influences their status.
Women have higher status in matrilineal
and/or matrilocal societies.

Quick Quiz

1. Gender:
a)
b)
c)
d)

and sex mean different things

refers to the roles maleness and
femaleness have in a culture
is not fixed by your chromosomes
all of the above

Answer: d

All of the statements about sex are

true. Gender and sex mean different
things. Gender refers to the roles
maleness and femaleness have in a
culture. Gender is not fixed by your
chromosomes.

2. Multiple gender identities, according to

some anthropologists, include:
a)
b)
c)
d)

man-woman and woman-man genders

biological mutations of sex
chromosomes
hermaphrodites
neuters

Answer: a

Multiple gender identities, according to

some anthropologists, include manwoman and woman-man genders.

3. The sexual division of labor:

a)
b)
c)
d)

is changing in modern North America

is a cultural universal
of man the breadwinner and woman the
homemaker is not a cultural universal
all of the above

Answer: d

All of the above statements about the

sexual division of labor are true.