Essay Culture & Humanity EXAM 2: ANTH 152 LCC Wai`anae Moku: Fall 2020
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ANTH152Week8Gender2020FallLCCw.pptx
GENDER & CULTURE
Anthropology 2000: Culture & Humanity
Week 8: Fall 2020
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Overview
Ethnology
Gender and Culture Basics
Gender Case Studies
Culture Theory:
Power Vs. Semiotic Approaches
Key Terms and Points
ETHNOLOGY vs ethnography
Ethnography
Description of a particular cultural world
Course Materials:
Rapa Nui, Vanuatu, Japan, etc.
Ethnology
Comparative Analysis of Different Cultures
Implications of Comparisons
Human realities as culturally constructed when you disclose variation. Food is an easy context to think about these issues.
Gender & Culture
We are engaging ethological analysis of gender; that is, cross cultural analysis of masculinity, femininity, transgender, etc.
First, what is the difference between Sex and Gender for social science basically?
Sex as biological
While there is some variation that complicates the classifications, generally there are biological markers that classify a person as male or female at birth:
Genetic Identity
XX, XY
Does not change with a “sex change/Gender Reassignment” operation
Reproductive Biology
Biology for Giving Birth
Uterus, etc.
Does not change with a “sex change/Gender Reassignment” operation
Biology for Contributing to Pregnancy
Sperm, etc.
Does not change with a “sex change/Gender Reassignment” operation
While these distinctions can be and are challenged, they remain foundational to introduce the anthropology of gender
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Gender
Gender is constituted by the LEARNED knowledge, behaviors, values, and social roles that define different genders of a society
Masculinity
Femininity
Transgender
Queer Gender
“Other 3rd Genders”
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Thus while one may be biologically male at birth, one learns one’s own cultural ways of being “masculine”, or learns ways of alternative genders (feminine, transgender, etc.)
Stereotypically, for example, male babies may start to wear “blue” while female babies wear “pink” clothes. One’s parents, in this case, are constructing our gender by selecting the clothes that masculinize or feminize us.
Gender
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Two Kinds of Evidence showing gender is culturally constructed
1. Historical
2. Cross-cultural Variation
If gender were biologically determined, then it would NOT Change historically or cross-culturally, but be expressed UNIVERSALLY in the same way worldwide
All masculinity, femininity, third and additional genders would be the same everywhere at all times like all humans have a heart, lungs, etc. (minus complications of birth).
While there are some regularities, there is considerable diversity in human gender norms.
Gender As Culturally Constructed
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Gender & Culture
What are ways that gender is distinguished?
Or Constructed?
Think yourself before moving on
Gender & Culture
Some ways masculinity, femininity, and transgenders are constructed variably in different cultures:
Behavior
Clothing
Language
Personal Appearance
Social Roles
Marital, kinship, everyday life
Social opportunities/inequalities
Sexuality
Jobs
In the 1950s USA, this was marked by language categories
Nurses, Stewardess, Waitress, etc.—women
Doctors, Pilots, Chefs—Men
Rapa Nui Masculinity
Let me give you some Rapa Nui examples.
Being a Rapa Nui Man
Involves learning Carving Knowledge & Practice
It is part of Rapa Nui masculinity to carve;
Guys sit around and talk carving like men in the US culture sit around and talk sports stereotypically.
in the U.S. masculinity is not defined in these terms.
Below is my culture teacher Ioni Tuki who was introduced to you in my language story with Piru (his aunt).
Beside me is Ioni’s grand daughter assisting me.
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Rapa Nui Masculinity
While living in Rapa Nui I learned to be a “man” by developing knowledge of Carving
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RAPA NUI Gender
Being a Rapa Nui Man
Part of Rapa Nui masculinity involves learning to know how to fish;
Knowledge of fishing life is “normal” for defining masculinity in Rapa Nui.
Women occasionally fish, but not “normally”.
Here Ioni is fishing with his son.
RAPA NUI Gender
Rapa Nui women instead learn how to collect shell fish
Part of the “local knowledge” of Rapa Nui girls and women is to know how to go to the shore and gather shell fish
Pictured here is my teacher Piru who is on the cover of the At Home and in the Field Book
RAPA NUI Gender
Funny story:
One day, I went with the guys above fishing
There were two poles and three of us.
I decided to collect shell fish to make myself useful.
The guys in the above photo (father/son) started to tease me and call me a “woman” because I was doing “women’s” work and not being a REAL MAN!
RAPA NUI Gender
Hatuke
You are looking at the inside of a Sea Urchin that I collected with the women.
Generally, men do not collect shellfish;
it is the job of women to get shellfish.
Gendered Division of Labor
If you eat Hatuke in Rapa Nui, then you probably acquired it through the work of women while fish you get from the work of men
Gender and Ceremony/Ritual
Often masculinity, femininity, and additional genders are produced, in part, through coming of age rituals/ceremonies or specific cultural practices
Two cases studies to consider
Vanuatu and Nagol
Moso and the Skirt Ceremony.
VANUATU Masculinity
Take a look at the following quick youtube
Land Divers | National Geographic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0Mq6rCfYtU
NAGOL: Land Diving
A Traditional custom (Kastom) of a the southern part of Pentacost Island, Vanuatu
NAGOL, Vanuatu
Gender Symbolism
Nagol is a masculinity ritual
Traditionally a ritual that was part of becoming
A warrior
A sexually attractive man
Growing up, I sometimes see my playing sports like football as similarly constructing my masculinity—displaying my “tuffness” as a young man
Moso Cultural world
The collection of Chapters assigned on the Moso come from the book on the right by Namu and Mathieu.
Yang Erche Namu
Is a Moso woman who left the Moso world to become a famous international singer of China
The book is a story of Namu’s life
Christine Mathieu
Is an anthropologist of the Moso people
Moso people
Moso people
Live primarily around Lake Lugo in the Yunnan province of China
The Moso number about 30,000 and are one of 56 recognized ethnic groups of China
Naxi (pronounced Na-shi) peoples number about 300,000 and are the predominant ethnic group of Yunnan province.
Though sometimes called Naxi, the Moso distinguish themselves from the Naxi
Next slide provides more “mapping” of their world
Lake Lugo YunnAn province, China
Moso History
There are no definitive histories of the ancient origins of Moso though they are known to have existed over a thousand years around Lake Lugo
Mathieu notes that there is an ancient “country of Women” referenced in Chinese history that had female rulers and ministers and a matrilineal family structure.
She wonders if some of them founded Moso society as their world was attacked in the 9th century and ceased to exist in Chinese history.
Moso Cultural WOrld
While Moso communities vary,
“All Moso speak and understand the same language, worship common gods, eat the same foods, sing the same songs, and wear similar traditional dress, and all Moso, even the patrilineal people of Labei share the belief that the true Moso family, that essential, founding unit of society, is the extended maternal household” (LML, pg. 274)
Mother Lake
Lake Lugu, also called “Xienami” or Mother Lake by the Moso
The lake is at about 10,000 feet.
THe higher mountain pictured is called Gamu and is known as the home of the Moso Goddess
Gamu Mountain Home of Segge Gamu Goddess
Daba Reilgion
The Indigenous religion of Moso is called Daba
Segge Gamu, the Goddess of Gamu Mountain is a center of the worldview.
Segge Gamu
According to Namu,
Segge Gamu means “White Lioness”
Segge Gamu is a Mountain Goddess
“Gamu is not only a lioness,
she is also a woman and the mother of the Moso people” (LML, pg. 101).
Segge Gamu
According to Namu,
Segge Gamu is “very beautiful and has many lovers, as well as a special companion whose name is Azhapula, who is the mountain god of Qiansuo”
Namu tells stories of Segge Gamu that link her spiritual encounters to landscapes (LML, pages 101-102).
Today, Moso conduct festivals in her honor and sing songs that express gratitude for her protection, and care in providing food and resources for Moso life (LML, pages 102-103)
Moso Social Structure
“Seen from the Moso perspective…free visiting relationships strengthen and support the stability of the family. Because sexual relationships are assumed to be limited in time, because they take place outside working hours, and because they do not engage partners economically, love affairs don't intrude on the family's economic life or compete with the brother-sister and mother-children bonds that are at the affective core of the family” (LML, 276).
Matrilineal Society
“the ideal family is a large group of people, all related through the women of the house-grandmothers, maternal great-uncles, mothers, sisters, maternal undes, daughters, sons, grandchildren, nephews, and nieces. At the core of this family, there may be no husband, no wife, and no father, but, instead, brothers, sisters, mothers, and maternal uncles…
Ideally,-Moso families should never divide, wealth should be held communally and shared equally for the benefit of all family members, and there should be no need for inheritance rules because property may simply pass on, down the generations, as children succeed their mothers. and uncles in the ancestral home (LML, p. 274-275).
BabaHuago
While the Moso uphold this ideal of an indivisible family, however, they also keep sexual relations strictly out of the family-a rule of conduct that finds its most concrete expression in the fact that in a Moso house, only women have their own bedrooms, evocatively called babahuago, or "flower rooms." Old people and children under thirteen sleep in the main room, near the fireplace or in wooden alcove beds alongside the walls. Adult men are expected to sleep at their lovers', or if they don't have lovers, in one of the outhouses or guest rooms if the family hasthose
Moso Femininity
Girls become women through completing a Skirt Ceremony.
Book: Leaving Mother Lake “My Skirt Ceremony” (on Laulima)
Watch “Free Love | National Geographic” on youtube
You will see the skirt ceremony toward the end though without some features described in the book (nudity).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg9Lv224580
Moso Femininity
Book: Leaving Mother Lake “My Skirt Ceremony”
Please read details of the ceremony in the book
This is a great example of showing how “femininity” is produced through the ceremonial practice of the skirt ceremony rather than “naturally” given by biology.
Moso girls are born of course with the biological properties of a female; but “becoming a woman” or “womanhood” is culturally constructed by the ceremony.
BabaHuago
After completing the Skirt Ceremony, young women form their room into a babahuago:
“While the Moso uphold this ideal of an indivisible family, however, they also keep sexual relations strictly out of the family-a rule of conduct that finds its most concrete expression in the fact that in a Moso house, only women have their own bedrooms, evocatively called babahuago, or "flower rooms." Old people and children under thirteen sleep in the main room, near the fireplace or in wooden alcove beds alongside the walls. Adult men are expected to sleep at their lovers', or if they don't have lovers, in one of the outhouses or guest rooms if the family has those” (LML,
Sese
“Because the Moso arrange sexual relations as men's visits to their lovers' houses, the custom is sometimes call visiting marriage, or also walking marriage. The latter, which is the term preferred by Chinese anthropologists, is derived from the Moso's own terminology; who refer to sexual relationships as sese, meaning "walking." By any stretch of the imagination, however, sese are not marriages. Sese are of two types - they are entirely private and usually short-lived, or they are more stable and publicly acknowledged, but all sese are of the visiting kind, and none involves the exchange of vows, property; the care of children, or expectations of fidelity” (LML, 275-276) .
“Visiting relationships, they say, keep relations between men and women pure and joyful, and people who live in large maternal houses do not fight like married people do” (LML, 280)
Gender Changes Historically Within a Cultural World
U.S. Femininity
What is normative Femininity has changed radically since the 1960s.
Changed because of the International Women’s Movement—POLITICAL Activism of Women throughout the world.
Thailand Case Study
Shows femininity changing as women challenge some of their subordinate status to men.
For example they are changing their perspectives on men having extra-marital relations; becoming less tolerant of husband promiscuity and the double standard for women (to be faithful despite male promiscuity)
Prostitutes, Menstrual Blood, Minor Wives and Feeding the Ducks LeeRay Costa
Costa’s Chapter discusses three genders in Thailand while noting others:
Femininity, Transgendered, Masculinity
She describes the following features of Femininity
Riproi
Proper Women are “riproi” (neat, orderly, quiet)
They are Homemakers, Caregivers
Have Sex within Monogamous relation with Husband
Sophenee
They consciously distinguish themselves from Prostitutes (sophenee, garee)
Prostitutes have Sex outside marriage while riproi women do not.
Prostitutes, Menstrual Blood, Minor Wives and Feeding the Ducks
Costa characterizes some features of Thai masculinity as follows:
Men work outside the home
Have to avoid contact with dangerous “menstrual blood of women”
Women must keep undergarments away from men
Women kept away from many Buddhist temples due to “defiling” blood.
Mia Noi
Sex outside of Marriage is okay with “mia noi” unless excessive; wives are supposed to tolerate it.
It shows the virility of men and is positively valued within “reason”.
Prostitutes, Menstrual Blood, Minor Wives and Feeding the Ducks
Thai Masculinity
Feeding the Ducks
Now Thai women threaten overly promiscuous men that they may feed the ducks if they are too promiscuous
This means cutting off a man’s penis and feeding it to the ducks
Costa notes similarities to the Lorena Bobbitt story of the US a few decades ago (pictured)
Prostitutes, Menstrual Blood, Minor Wives and Feeding the Ducks
Thus, Thai gender norms are entangled in power relations between men and women (as well as other Thai genders)
Like Western women, Thai women are
Beginning to contest the norms that create different standards for men and women
Beginning to work outside their home and pursue more equitable relations with men.
The Politics of Normality and Gender
Often many of us aspire to normality
If one is not normal in gender or other social practices one risks becoming ridiculed, pathologized, marginalized, etc.
Normality in gender or any social practice however should ultimately be studied POLITICALLY
Any given norm works often Against alternatives
In noting the “normal” by no means then does anthropology aim to “validate” the norm; in fact by nothing it as “normative” we aim to expose its contingency in culture that can be contested, revised, eliminated, etc.
Gender and the Politics of Norms
IN our Thai case study it is clear Costa is providing ethnography that contests the norms of Thai culture
Gender & Power
While all issues of culture are entangled in power relations and struggles, gender issues are particularly important of late to study entanglements of power as some genders are subordinated to others or in perpetual struggle for legitimacy in relation to others.
To address these issues of power I want to engage other conceptions and theory of culture.
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Culture Theory
Semiotic Approaches
To some extent, in learning about how different cultural domains vary in meaning and value worldwide, we have been approaching culture in terms of semiotics (roughly a fancy word for meaning and value)
Power Approaches
I want to now begin to introduce more power-based approaches in light of our Thai Case
Culture & Power
Michel Foucault
In the Monaghan and Just text, the philosopher Michel Foucault (left) is introduced to discuss the relation of power to culture (on his right by the way is another philosopher—Jean Paul Sartre)
Foucault is famous for many philosophical ideas and has influenced anthropology and social sciences in many ways.
Culture & Power
While Foucault would not deny culture gives meaning and value to human being, he would complicate this semiotic view of culture by highlighting how any cultural formation of meaning and value works against alternative formations of meaning and value that could alternatively be present but are absent because of the history of power articulating in a social formation.
Culture & Power
Foucault’s books analyze how Cultural Knowledge formations (local or global) reflect a history of power relations and struggles.
For Foucault, the history of power underlying cultural formations is not only repressive (subjugates alternatives), but productive
it creates and legitimates particular kinds of societies and social identities
Those legitimated are validated in ways that marginalize alternatives.
Culture & Power
Consider the 1950s American feminine identity centered in being a “HOUSEWIFE”.
This gender norm produced femininity in ways that subjugated alternative roles for women.
Instead of producing women as equal to men in the public world, it confined their role to the home.
Feminists in this period, notably in the book The Feminine Mystique, challenged this gender role… what Foucault would call a “subject position”.
KEY EXAM ANALYTICAL STUDY POINTS
Gender norms, are not given by one’s biological sex determined at birth; one learns them.
They are culturally constructed in the sense that the social roles, values, behaviors, knowledge, etc. that constitute masculinity/femininity/3rd genders are learned as a member of a social group by enculturation with the cultural categories, values, social institutions, etc. of that group.
The practices that constitute masculinity and femininity and 3rd genders are relative to culture on some level, and NOT UNIVERSAL. Nagol constitutes masculinity in Vanuatu but not in Hawaii.
This can be recognized by noting Gender norms change historically within cultural groups.
And noting that what is normative in one culture, may not be in another (just like food)
KEY EXAM ANALYTICAL STUDY POINTS
Gender norms, and any norms, are importantly questioned to create alternative expression of gender that can be a source of liberation, social change, empowerment, etc. important for social equality, progress, justice, etc.
We begin cultural analysis, by first developing tools for understanding how meaning and value (of things, relations, people, etc. ) is culturally constructed. A second step involves seeing how that cultural meaning is political and thus contestable. By exposing the politics of cultural norms, alternatives can be realized that enable social changes, hopefully, progressive in form and substance. Also exposing the politics of cultural norms reveals the political history behind their emergence which “de-naturalizes” their necessity.
Possible ID TERms
Hatuke
Nagol
Sese
Babahuago
Riproi
Mia Noi
Segge Gamu
Hatuke Exam Example
Hatuke is the Rapa Nui name for what we call “sea urchin” in the USA. While enjoyed as food by all on Rapa Nui generally, it is a food collected traditionally by women. Eating Hatuke in Rapa Nui depends upon the work of women. Eating fish in Rapa Nui, instead, depends on the work of men. There is a relatively strong gender division of labor for Rapa Nui and it is reflected in the food one eats. There is not only “culture” in food, but gender is IN food too.
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