Anthropology 308 Women, Sex Roles and Culture

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Anthropology 308Women, Sex Roles and Culture

• Dr. Siemens
• Office-Sierra Hall 240B
• Office Telephone [phone]
• Office Hours
• Monday, Wednesday 11-1230
• Tuesday, Thursday 11-1130 through November 8
• and by appointment
• Email stephen.siemens_at_csun.edu

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3x5 Card

• Name
• Reason for Class
• Previous Anthropology
• Email Address
• Anything else you want Dr. Siemens to know about
  you and your interests.

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THE SCOPE OF ANTHROPOLOGYWhat anthropologists
have you heard of?What did they study?
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Harrison Ford as fictional Indiana Jones
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Mary Leakey Discovered Oldest Footprints
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Louis Leakey found fossil humans
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Jane Goodall was first to study chimpanzees in
the wild.
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Jane Goodall still works for Chimpanzee
conservation.
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Dian Fossey was first to study gorillas in the
wild.
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Sigourney Weaver as Dian Fossey
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Margaret Mead with Samoan Girls
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Deborah Tannen
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David Maybury-Lewis(right) Host of PBS series
MilleniumAlso founder of the human rights group
Cultural Survival
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Anthropologists You may have Heard of

• Indiana Jones
• Mary Leakey
• Louis Leakey
• Jane Goodall
• Dian Fossey
• Margaret Mead
• Deborah Tannen
• David Maybury-Lewis

• Explore Ruins (fictional)
• Fossil Hunter
• Fossil Hunter
• Chimpanzees
• Gorillas
• Samoan Girls
• Women and Men Talking
• Xavante Rights

Fictitious anthropologist
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Anthropologists in the News

• Anthropologists contribute to American society as
  well as to the international community of scholars

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Helen Fisher Studies Brains in Love

• Considers three types of love
• Romantic
• Lust
• Attachment
• Antidepresents may inhibit love
• LA Times, July 30, 2007

• Neurotransmitters
• Serotonin (low)
• Norepinephrine (maybe)
• Testosterone (lust)
• Dopamine (novelty)
• Vasopressin (Male attachment)
• Oxytocin (Female attachment)

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Jeanne Arnold Studies Middle Class Los Angeles
Residents

• Middle Class spend a lot on yards and dont use
  them
• Two wage earners dont have leisure time
• LA Times August 19, 2007

• Arnold is also an expert on Chumash.

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Frederick Kyalo Manthi discovered the most recent
habiline 1.5 mya

• Habilines must not be ancestral to our species
  since ancestral erectines appear 1.8 mya
• LA Times 8-9-07

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Kuhn Stiner say Neandertals lacked sexual
division of labor

• That would establish sexual division of labor as
  distinctive of our recent evolutionary grouping
• Philadelphia Inquirer April 2, 2007

• Neander-tals were coed hunters

Steven L. Kuhn Mary C. Steiner
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Sam Dunn used anthropological training in heavy
metal documentary

• Takes holistic view religion, gender, social,
  global and historical perspectives.
• Main obstacle was convincing artists he was
  sympathetic.
• Metal artists gave thoughtful responses.
• Some appeared hostile on camera but friendly off
  camera.
• Anthropological approach was not first choice.

Chicago Tribune 4-14-06
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Anthropologists in the News

• Helen Fisher
• Jeanne Arnold
• Frederick Kyalo Manthi
• Sam Dunn

• Brain Biochemistry of Love
• Los Angeles Middle Class Homes
• Fossil human-like species of a couple million
  years ago
• Heavy metal music

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Other Prominent and Notable Anthropologists
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Franz Boas (Father of American Anthropology)
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Marjorie Shostak and star informant,
Nisa!Kung people
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Elinor Ochs Madagascar and Samoa languagesUCLA
Center on Everyday Lives of Families
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William Rathje Garbology
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Claude Lévi-Strauss Kinship and Myth
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Jomo Kenyatta Kikuyu and Kenyas First President
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Birute Galdikas Orangutans
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Other Prominent Anthropologists

• Franz Boas
• Marjorie Shostak
• Eleanor Ochs
• William Rathje
• Claude Levi-Strauss
• Jomo Kenyatta
• Birute Galdikas

• Kwakiutl and Race
• !Kung (Bushmen)
• Madagascar and Samoa UCLA C.E.L.F.
• U.S. Garbology
• Kinship and Myth
• Gikuyu
• Oranguatans

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Anthropologists we will read in Anthropology 308
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Mary Womack

• Symbolic Anthropologist
• Fieldwork among Dodgers baseball team
• Co-Editor of The Other Fifty Percent

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Johanna (Joan) Barker
Symbolic Anthropologist

• Studied the L.A.P.D.1977 to 1997
• Field work in Ghana 1977

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Peggy Reeves Sanday

• Feminist Theorist turned Minangkabau Ethnographer
• Co-Editor of Beyond the Second Sex

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Stephen Siemens (center)

• Ethnography of the Azande of Southern Sudan
• Symbolic Anthropologist

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Why are all of these called anthropologists?
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Anthropology Defined

• Anthropology is the study of human beings in a
  holistic manner.
• Holism means appreciating totalities as more than
  mere combinations of parts.
• There are two ways anthropology is holistic.
• 1) Comprehensiveness. Because anthropology is
  holistic its study includes all humans of all
  places and all times.
• 2) Interrelatedness. Because anthropology is
  holistic any human group should be studied in its
  entirety, finding connections among economics,
  politics, religion, language, etc.

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Nature and Nurture

• A hundred years ago anthropology was the same as
  racial studies.
• Biological determinism was the prevailing view.
• Eugenics was popular.
• Eugenics seeks to improve a population by
  identifying those with good genes and promoting
  their reproduction. Those with bad genes are
  prevented from reproducing.
• Nazi extermination of Jews was eugenics.
• Eugenics is inhumane and mistaken about genetics.

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Cultural Determinism

• Franz Boas argued that the important sources of
  behavioral differences between societies were
  learned rather than inherited.
• Boas changed the prevailing view to cultural
  determinism.
• Boas decreased the importance of biology to
  anthropology and increased the importance of
  learned culture.
• Margaret Mead extended Boas argument to women and
  men.
• The significant differences between women and men
  are learned rather than inherited

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Gender vs. Sex

• Sex refers to biological reproduction.
• Sex is a result of nature
• Gender refers to language categories.
• Gender is learned, a result of nurture
• Indian women build road and Indian men wash
  clothes.
• Gender roles are learned

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Anthropological SubfieldsSubfields are results
of differences in methods.

• Physical (or Biological) Anthropology
• Archeology
• Linguistic Anthropology
• Cultural Anthropology

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Physical Anthropology

• Physical Anthropology uses biological methods.

Physical anthropology studies human origin,
related species variation.
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Archeology

• Archeology uses excavation methods and sampling.
• Archeology studies artifacts.

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Linguistic Anthropology

• Linguistic Anthropology uses linguistic methods.

• Linguistic anthropology studies language in use.

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Cultural Anthropology

• Cultural Anthropology uses participant
  observation.
• Cultural anthropology studies cultures of living
  people.
• This class is about cultural anthropology.

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Tylors Definition of Culture

• Culture ...taken in its widest... sense, is that
  complex whole which includes knowledge, belief,
  arts, morals, law, and custom, and any other
  capabilities and habits acquired by man as a
  member of society.

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Features of Culture

• Definition stresses that culture is
• 1) a whole complex with many interdependent
  parts.
• 2) acquired not inborn (distinct from race)
  capacity for culture is inborn (large brain,
  speech mechanism).
• 3) culture depends on an ongoing society for
  existence.

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Additional points not in definition

• Culture includes behavior as well as ideas.
  Practices are significant even if not conscious
  and not explained. People can not explain all of
  their own culture (Like language)
• Culture is symbolic. Culture is a system of
  meanings. Meaning results from relations between
  different areas of experience, e.g., religion and
  subsistence.

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Consequences of the Features of Culture

• The social aspect of culture is linked to its
  function as an adaptive strategy
• Culture as a systemic whole is shown in the
  relation of subsistence and politics.
• Since culture is acquired, cultures vary.

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Culture is Social

• Living in social groups that transmit culture is
  the adaptive strategy of humans.
• All humans have learned transmitted skills for
  acquiring food called subsistence techniques.

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Cultures are complex wholes

• Parts of a culture are interrelated.
• E.g., subsistence limits or enables politics.
• Without a surplus there are no full time leaders.

A Yanomamö warrior line-up is a
political accomplishment of the headman.
However, he must still grow all his food in his
garden. Yanomamö horticulture provides no surplus.
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Culture is Acquired and Varies by Group

• Since culture is acquired it varies.
• Even biological needs are met in different ways.
• Shelter is a biological necessity but it shows
  cultural identity.
• Eating

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Anthropological Axioms

• Culture determines much of our attitudes, rules
  and action. (Cultural determinism)
• Cultures are diverse, evidenced by the wide
  variety of ways doing things and reactions to
  situations.
• Cultures provide evaluative frames that are not
  appropriately applied to each other. (Cultural
  Relativism)

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Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism

• Ethnocentrism is usually defined as a belief in
  the superiority of ones own culture.
• Evident superiority is based on culture bound
  values, applied unconsciously
• Cultural Relativism is usually defined as a
  belief in the inherent worth of all cultures.
• A culturally relative person does not believe in
  superiority of his or her own own culture.

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Ethnocentrism vs.Cultural Relativism in
Methodology

• All humans are inherently ethnocentric.
• Culture supplies us with values which we need.
• The basis of ethnocentrism is application of
  values to people who do not share them.
• Applying outsiders values usually leads to
  conclusion of outsider superiority.
• Cultural relativism avoids applying outsider
  values.
• Suspending judgment is necessary for
  understanding.
• Evaluation of cultural practices should be in
  terms of values of the actors.
• Values are relative but truth need not be.
• Science seeks explanations through observation
• Observations are made intersubjective by careful
  procedures.

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Ethnocentrist vs. Relativist

• Masai culture is inferior to American culture
  since a Masai man may have several wives.
• Bena Bena culture is inferior to American culture
  because people touch genitals in greeting.

• Masai value multiple wives.
• Bena Bena value touching genitals.