ANTH 350 - The Social Life of Gender

Societies differ considerably (over time and through space) in the way that gender is linked to sexuality and how these categories are assigned value, meaning, and power. This course offers a cultural and historical perspective on how gender is linked to sex and is inscribed in hierarchy and inequality. We begin by considering how cultural constructions of gender are deeply embedded, enacted, and contested in family/kinship systems with many variations. Through readings focused on specific historical and ethnographic cases, films, and two short fieldwork assignments we will interrogate assumptions about the evolution of gender inequality, compare cultures that incorporate non-binary sex/gender systems, and examine how the social life of gender implicates sex role identity and performance in public (education, medicine, workplace, political sphere) as well as private (families, networks, community organizations) institutions. Following Foucault, cases of particular interest will be those undergoing rapid, economic, political and technological change.

Prerequisites
ANTH 102 or WGS 101

Credits 1

Notes
Cross-listed with WGS 350

Area
Social Science

Connection
23006

Division
Social Science

Foundation
Beyond the West

Compass Attributes
Global Honors, Social Science, Structure/Power/Inequality, Taylor and Lane Scholars