Gender and Anthropology

151 Pages·2017·2.595 MB·English

by  Frances E. Mascia-Lees, Nancy Johnson Black

Gender
and
Anthropology
Second Edition

Gender and
Anthropology
Second Edition
Frances E. Mascia-Lees
Rutgers University
Nancy Johnson Black
Metropolitan State University
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10-digit ISBN 1-4786-3416-2
13-digit ISBN 978-1-4786-3416-4
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Printed in the United States of America
7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For the men in my life for their loving support:
my husband, Francis C. Lees,
my father, Anthony C. Mascia,
and my sons, Matthew and Alexander Lees.
FEM-L
For Thomas A. Weist,
who showed me there is more to life than work.
NJB

Contents
Preface xi
1 The History of the Study of Gender 1
in Anthropology
Gender as a Cultural Construct 1
The Nature/Nurture Controversy 3
Roots of the North American
Women’s Movement 5
The Women’s Movement
and the Study of Gender 6
The Rise of Feminist Anthropology 7
Conclusions 10
2 Analyzing Theories 13
Theoretical Orientations 13
Challenging Essentialism 15
Variation or Universal Subordination? 15
Negotiation and Resistance 16
Cultural Context 17
Similarities or Differences? 18
Ethical Choices: What Is Oppression? 19
Conclusions 20
Vll
Vlll Contents
3 The Evolutionary Orientation 21
Social Evolutionism 22
The Feminist Critique of Social Evolutionism 25
Functionalist Explanations of Gender Roles 26
The Feminist Critique of Functionalism 27
Twentieth-Century Evolutionary Arguments 28
Sociobiology and Selfish Genes 32
Critique of Sociobiology 34
Evolutionary Psychology 36
Critique of Evolutionary Psychology 37
The Gene as Cultural Icon 37
An Alternative View 39
Conclusions 39
4 The Materialist Orientation 41
Gendered Labor 41
Foundations of Materialist
Explanations of Gender 42
Engels’ Evolutionary Account 44
Matriarchies 47
Matrilineality 49
Patrilineality and Women’s Negotiations 51
Women-Centered Kinship Networks 51
Modes of Food Production
and the Sexual Division of Labor 52
Private Property 56
Public/Private Spheres in State Societies 56
Critique of the Public/Private Dichotomy 57
Capitalism 58
Conclusions 59
5 The Psychological Orientation 61
Freud’s Psychoanalytic Approach 62
Margaret Mead and
the Culture and Personality School 63
Chodorow’s Psychoanalytic Model 64
Critique of Freudian Assumptions 65
Social Learning Theory 66
Gender Identity 66
Subjectivity 68
Judith Butler’s Performative Subjectivity 69
Conclusions 69
Contents IX
6 Structuralist Approaches 71
Ideational Approaches to Gender 71
Levi-Strauss’ Structuralist Model 73
Critique of Levi-Strauss 76
Ortner’s Structuralist Model
of Women’s Oppression 77
Critique of Ortner 80
Ortner’s Later Work: Practice Theory
and the Structure-Agency Debate 80
Conclusions 81
7 Discourse Analysis: Poststructural and 83
Sociolinguistic Orientations
Foucault’s Poststructuralism 84
The Feminist Critique of Foucault 87
Discourses of the Female Body 87
Sociolinguistic Approaches:
Gender and Language 92
Conclusions 95
8 The Self-Reflexive Approach and the 97
Postcolonial Critique
The Roots of the Self-Reflexive Approach 98
Can There Be a Feminist Ethnography? 100
The Problem of Objectivity 101
Alternative Ways of Thinking about Culture 105
Critique of Alternatives 106
Conclusions 107
9 Gender and Anthropology in a Global World 109
Gender Identity in a Global World 110
Uneven Effects of Globalization 111
Gender in the Globalized Economy 112
Gendered Violence 115
Anthropology and Globalization 116
Deterritorialization 116
Conclusions 117
References 119
Index 127