Gender and Sexuality (original) (raw)
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Gender and Sexuality, 2020 version
Perspectives: An Open Invitation to Cultural Anthropology, 2nd Ed., 2020
Anthropologists are fond of pointing out that much of what we take for granted as "natural" in our lives is actually cultural-it is not grounded in the natural world or in biology but invented by humans. 2 Because culture is invented, it takes different forms in different places and changes over time in those places. Living in the twenty-first century, we have witnessed how rapidly and dramatically culture can change, from ways of communicating to the emergence of same-sex marriage. Similarly, many of us live in culturally diverse settings and experience how varied human cultural inventions can be.
Chapter 10: Gender and Sexuality, 2023 updated version
Perspectives: An Open Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, 2nd Edition (Revised 2023) , 2023
Anthropologists are fond of pointing out that much of what we take for granted as “natural” in our lives is actually cultural—it is not grounded in nature or in biology but invented by humans. Because culture is invented, it takes different forms in different places and changes over time. Living in the twenty-first century, we have witnessed how rapidly and dramatically culture can change, from ways of communicating to the emergence of same-sex marriage. Similarly, many of us live in culturally diverse settings and experience how varied human cultural inventions can be. We readily accept that clothing, language, and music are cultural—invented, created, and alterable—but often find it difficult to accept that gender and sexuality are not natural but deeply embedded in culture. We struggle with the idea that the division of humans into two and only two categories, “male” and “female,” is not universal. How can male and female be cultural concepts that take different forms and have different meanings cross-culturally? This chapter, newly revised for 2023, addresses these questions as it explores the anthropology of gender and sexuality. {See https://pressbooks.pub/perspectives/chapter/gender-and-sexuality/ for the online version, or download the chapter here.}
This course examines gender, sex, and sexuality as powerful forces in people's lives that are loaded with cultural significance. In this class, we will explore the construction of gender and sexuality both in the United States and international contexts by asking some of the following questions: How has contemporary anthropological theory shaped the ways we think about gender and sexuality? Why is the regulation of sexuality such an important component for maintaining certain forms of social hierarchy both in the US and abroad? How do international differences and inequalities manifest in understandings of gender and sexuality around the world? and How does sexuality intersect with race, gender and class in various cultural contexts? We will address these questions by looking at both obvious and less visible dimensions of power, culture, gender, and sexuality. Students should leave the course with an increased understanding of the historical development of gender and sexuality, as well as understand these concepts beyond " normative " definitions. Specifically, students should engage with the ways sexuality intersects with gender, race, class, religion, location and other forms of social distinction or exclusion. Course Objectives Students will be able to: 1. identify and explain key terms that are central to an anthropological understanding of sexuality 2. relate sexuality to topics of cultural and social diversity 3. understand relationships between sexuality, gender, class, race, and other forms of difference 4. relate issues in sexuality studies with power relations, ideology, and social institutions 5. apply key themes, theories, and approaches of anthropology to their own analysis
Anthropology of Gender & Sexuality
The cultural and biological categories of sex, gender, and sexuality shape our lives in profound and intimate ways, defining how we know and inhabit our bodies, how we relate to and interact with other people in our societies, even how we understand what it means to be human. Yet although all cultures studied by anthropologists distinguish between male and female and organize social relationships and symbolic systems in terms of gender and sexuality, no two societies make these distinctions in quite the same way. Furthermore, gendered and sexual norms and practices within a single culture or society are not static conceptions but rather exist in a constant state of flux, often related to or reflecting larger processes of cultural and social change and transformation. This course will introduce students to different ways of experiencing, practicing, imagining, and organizing gender and sexuality in a variety of social and cultural contexts, including Melanesia, Africa, the Middle East, and North America. Evaluating how social scientific theories and understandings of gender and sexuality have changed during the twentieth century, we will view gender and sexuality not merely as “natural” or inherent traits but instead as complex and contested fields of expression and representation that are bound up in broader relations of power including notions of race, ethnicity, religion, and class. Throughout the course we will be exploring “other” cultures and societies as a way of better understanding and critiquing “our” own.
Evolving Nature of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
New Directions for Student Services, 2015
This chapter discusses the historical and evolving terminology, constructs, and ideologies that inform the language used by those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and same-gender loving, who may identify as queer, as well as those who are members of trans * communities from multiple and intersectional perspectives.
Other Cultures, Other Sexualities
Drawing on interviews with students and teachers, Helen Sauntson and Kathryn Simpson reflect on the ways in which the English curriculum encourages teaching about race and gender but discourages attention to issues of sexuality.
Perception of gender and sexuality
The Routledge Handbook of Language, Gender, and Sexuality, 2021
and deandre miles-hercules Introduction/definitions Recent work in the third wave of sociolinguistic variation (Eckert 2012) has focused on how speakers use variation to build social constructs, including gender and sexual identity. Speakers can use language features like phonetic cues, lexical choices, or syntactic constructions to invoke contextually constrained concepts like feminine, professional, or friendly (Ochs 1992;
Articulating Sexuality: A Critical History of Gay and Lesbian Anthropology
2012
The purpose of this paper is to explore anthropological discourses regarding sexuality and relate them to the lived experiences of individuals. The paper is divided into two interrelated sections: historical and theoretical. Section one identifies a subfield within anthropology, gay and lesbian anthropology, most prominently represented by The Society of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists (SOLGA), and traces its emergence within the wider discipline of anthropology. It highlights the foundational scholars and theoretical shifts that have been crucial in defining the subfield as it is today and looks at how early anthropologists approached sexuality in general, and same-sex sexuality in particular. Special attention is given to female sexuality, exposing anthropology's long silence regarding women and sex. Section one also traces the historical, political, and intellectual development of social construction theory, the dominant paradigm underlying gay and lesbian anthropology. This exploration highlights how gay and lesbian anthropology engaged intersecting fields, such as French intellectualism, history, sociology, and radical feminist thought. Social construction theory was developed largely in reaction to essentialist approaches that see sexuality as a fixed and innate essence of individuals. In radical opposition, social constructionists argue that sexuality can only be understood and experienced as historical and cultural constructs. Thus this debate is explored in depth. Section two highlights essentialist or biological frameworks within American anthropology, such as sociobiology and evolutionary psychology, as well as contemporary American culture which seek to ground human sexuality primarily in terms of biology and reproduction. It begins by outlining sociobiology and evolutionary psychology, mostly prominently articulated by Edward O. Wilson's 1975 publication, Sociobiology: The New Synthesis. After examining Wilson's, work it explores several well-known studies of the 1990s that purported to have found a biological basis for "homosexuality." Drawing on a recent example from the Human Rights Campaign (the largest American gay rights organization), it then highlights the essentialist tone that much of the contemporary gay rights movement has adopted. By exposing the underlying assumptions of essentialist theories, it argues that these frameworks are not only limiting and dividing but have the potential to invoke greater homophobia. Engaging social construction scholarship and queer theory, it deconstructs rigid essentialist understandings of sexuality, while offering a more inclusive and open-ended framework from which to discuss and understand sexuality. Using queer theory as a reference point, it looks critically at the process of sexual identity formation and proposes a queered paradigm that both allows for identity construction while at the same time acknowledging the fluidity and inherent ambiguity of all identity formations. Fox 3