Anthropology of Gender
ANTH 144
Fall Semester 2016
Instructor: Dr. Anita Hannig Email:
Course Hours: Tues & Fri, 9:30-10:50am Course Location: Olin-Sang 112
Office Hours: Tues 2:00-4:00pm (or by appoint.) Office: Brown 209
Teaching Assistant: Ilana Cohen Email:
Office Hours: Fri 12:45-1:45pm Office: Rabb 326
Course Description
Gender has to do with the ways people define and experience what it is to be male, female, masculine, feminine, androgynous, gender fluid, trans, and/or gender queer. In all societies, people organize social relationships and identities, ideologies, and symbolic systems in terms of gender, but they do so in different ways. Across cultures, two primary genders exist: male and female, and many societies in addition recognize trans, third, or alternative gendered identities. Gender is also intimately connected to forms of sexuality. In this course, we will examine the ways individuals and societies imagine, experience, impose, and challenge gender and sexuality systems in a diversity of social-cultural settings. We will also examine the historical development of anthropological theories of gender, and ways that Western theories can be both useful and problematic in describing non-Western cultures. Specific topics to be considered include the place of the body and biology in theories of sex and gender; the complex relationship between sexual and gendered identities; the vexing question of the universality of women's subordination; the ways gendered difference is produced in relation to other structural inequalities; commonalities in understandings of masculinity around the world; cross-cultural perspectives on same-sex sexualities and transgenders; gendered forms of aging; and the impacts of globalization on gender and sexuality systems. One of the aims throughout the course will be to explore other societies as a means of better understanding and critiquing our own.
This is a writing intensive (wi) class, so some sustained attention to writing, with opportunities for revision and honing writing skills, will take place throughout the course.
readings
The following ethnographies are required texts available for purchase at the Brandeis University bookstore or another provider of your choice. All other readings will be available on LATTE.
§ Kulick, Don. 1998. Travesti: Sex, Gender, and Culture among Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
§ Reddy, Gayatri. 2005. With Respect to Sex: Negotiating Hijra Identity in South India. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
§ Popenoe, Rebecca. 2004. Feeding Desire: Fatness, Beauty, and Sexuality among a Saharan People. New York: Routledge.
§ Wentzell, Emily. 2013. Maturing Masculinities: Aging, Chronic Illness, and Viagra in Mexico. Durham: Duke University Press.
Success in this four-credit course is based on the expectation that students will spend a minimum of 9 hours of study time per week in preparation for class. Readings range between 100-140 pages per week.
COURSE Requirements & Evaluation
I. Class Participation (25%)
This course will be run as a discussion-based seminar, which means that it relies strongly on your informed and active participation, which, in turn, hinges on your completion of the readings prior to each class. We will engage in lots of group work, exercises in pairs, and in-class debates to work through the readings together. If you don’t do the readings, you not only risk shortchanging yourself but also your classmates. In trying to create an academically productive space where everyone feels comfortable speaking up, I will encourage you to listen and respond to each other carefully and with generosity. During class, I will assess the quality of your contributions over their quantity. If you are speaking more than two or three times in a given class session, please hold back to give others room to speak. As we are learning to critically engage these texts together, I expect each of you to come to class having read and thought about the assigned readings and to be able to make a meaningful contribution to our collective conversation. I will sometimes call on students to elicit a variety of viewpoints. Please bring hard copies of the assigned readings with you to class (unless you are using a tablet).
II. Object Essay (10%)
Choose one object from everyday life and write a 3-page (double-spaced, Times New Roman font, 1-inch margins) critical essay on why and in which ways you think this object is gendered. Pay attention to people’s attachments of gendered meanings, values, and definitions of this object. Think about the ways in which the object is used, produced, and consumed by women, men, or LGBTQIA people, and how it circulates in everyday life. Elaborate on your thoughts and ideas by drawing on themes, concepts, discussions, and readings from the course. You are expected to use at least two references from the course materials.
Your first draft of the object essay is due by 9am on September 6th. You will be matched with another student in the class, who will read your work and vice versa. You will comment on your peer’s draft in writing and then also in person (the latter will happen during the last twenty minutes of the next class). Your final object essay is due by 9am on September 16th.
III. Reflections (25%)
Over the course of the semester, you will submit four reading reflections on the four major books assigned during the semester (each response should be 350 words or less; we will discuss the expectations for these reflections in class). The reflections will give you the chance to process the reading more deeply than you might otherwise and will allow us to see what larger points you are taking away from each book. The assignments will be graded on a check plus, check, and check minus scale. They are due on LATTE at 9 am the morning of class. If you post them later than that, your grade will be reduced by one point (for instance, from a check to a check minus). You are free to decide for which day of the book discussions you would like to submit a reflection (please check the calendar carefully), as long as the reflection deals explicitly with the chapters assigned for the class that day.
IV. Final Paper (40%)
This course is geared toward helping you develop your skills in critical thinking, analysis, and writing. Over the course of the semester, you will design and execute an idea for a final paper between 11-12 pages in length (double-spaced, Times New Roman font, 1-inch margins). Students who wish to may incorporate fieldwork and/or interviewing into their final paper (fieldwork and interviews are optional and not required for this paper). Each paper must make careful use of at least three course readings in addition to a minimum of two outside academic readings. You will work up to this final project in three stages: 1) you will submit a 200-word abstract for the paper; 2) you will hand in a preliminary outline with a bibliography and a revised abstract plus title; and 3) you will submit the final paper itself.
All essay-related assignments must be submitted on the dates and times indicated on the schedule below. If you submit your final paper late, we will deduct a third of a letter grade for every day (or fraction of a day) past the deadline. I will only grant an extension for a paper under extraordinary circumstances and if you have approached me at least 24 hours before the due date. PS: The writing center is a great additional on-campus resource to help you hone your writing.
ATTENDaNCE
In order to succeed in the course, your timely presence in the classroom is obligatory. If you are consistently late, your participation grade will take a toll. If, for any reason, you are unable to attend class on a given day, please contact the TA in advance to request an excused absence (otherwise your absence will count as unexcused). Two or more unexcused absences per semester will lower your participation grade by one third of a letter grade. Four or more unexcused absences will lower your participation grade by two thirds of a letter grade.
Computer and Cell Phone Use
In order to focus your full attention on the class and on each other, laptops are not allowed during class time. Flat tablets (such as Ipads) are an exception, but may be used only to pull up the readings and not for typing. The use of cell phones is of course prohibited.
Disabilities
If you are a student with a documented disability on record at Brandeis University and wish to have a reasonable accommodation made for you in this class, please come and see me.
Academic Integrity
In all of your written assignments, please make sure to cite properly any sources that you consulted, whether or not you use direct quotes. You may not simply lift text from any source and incorporate it into your own work, nor can you just change a few words here and there and claim it as your own, even if you do cite the source. You must thoroughly and carefully paraphrase any information that you include. We will go over proper citation style in class.
You are expected to be familiar with and to follow the University’s policies on academic integrity and plagiarism (see http://www.brandeis.edu/studentlife/sdc/ai). Faculty may refer any suspected instances of alleged dishonesty to the Office of Student Development and Conduct. Instances of academic dishonesty may result in sanctions, including but not limited to failing grades being issued, educational programs, and other consequences.
Schedule of Readings
Theoretical Foundations
Week One
8/26 (Fri) Introduction to the course
Padawer, Ruth. 2016. “The Humiliating Practice of Sex-Testing Female Athletes.” The New York Times Magazine, June 28.
Week Two
8/30 (Tues) Scott, Joan W. 1986. “Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis.” The American Historical Review 91(5):1053-1075. ***LATTE***
Fausto-Sterling, Anne. 2000. “Two Sexes are Not Enough.” Excerpt from Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality. Basic Books.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/fausto-sterling.html
9/2 (Fri) Rosaldo, Michelle. 1974. “Woman, Culture and Society: A Theoretical Overview.” In Woman, Culture and Society. [17-42]. ***LATTE***
Ortner, Sherry. 1974. “Is Female to Male as Nature Is to Culture?” In Woman, Culture and Society. [67-87]. ***LATTE***
Week Three
9/6 (Tues) Rubin, Gayle. 1975. “The Traffic in Women: Notes on the ‘Political Economy’ of Sex.” In Toward an Anthropology of Women. [157-210]. ***LATTE***
**Draft object essays due by 9am (9/6)**
Feminism and Anthropology
9/9 (Fri) Strathern, Marilyn. 1987. “An Awkward Relationship: The Case of Feminism and Anthropology.” Signs 12(2):276-292. ***LATTE***
Abu-Lughod. L. 2002. “Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others.” American Anthropologist 104(3):783-790. ***LATTE***
Last twenty minutes of class: consultation with peer reviewer
Week Four
9/13 (Tues) Abu-Lughod, Lila. 1990. “The Romance of Resistance: Tracing Transformations of Power through Bedouin Women.” American Ethnologist 17(1):41-55. ***LATTE***
Mahmood, Saba. 2001. “Feminist Theory, Embodiment, and the Docile Agent: Some Reflections on the Egyptian Islamic Revival.” Cultural Anthropology 16(2):202-236. ***LATTE***
9/16 (Fri) Walley, Christine. 1997. “Searching for Voices: Feminism, Anthropology, and the Global Debate over Female Genital Operations.” Cultural Anthropology 12(3):405-438. ***LATTE***
Ahmadu, Fuambai. 2000. “Rites and Wrongs: An Insider/Outsider Reflects on Power and Excision.” In Female “Circumcision” in Africa. [283-312] ***LATTE***
The WHO site on “female genital mutilation” http://www.who.int/topics/female_genital_mutilation/en/
**Final object essays due by 9am (9/16)**
Gender Identity at the Margins
Week Five
9/20 (Tues) Newton, Ester. 2000. “Of Yams, Grinders and Gays: The Anthropology of Homosexuality.” In Margaret Mead Made Me Gay: Personal Essays, Public Ideas. [229-237]. ***LATTE***
Halberstam, Judith. 2002. “An Introduction to Female Masculinity: Masculinity without Men.” In The Masculinity Studies Reader. [355-373]. ***LATTE***
Lang, Sabine. 1999. “Lesbians, Men-Women, and Two-Spirits: Homosexuality and Gender in Native American Cultures.” In Female Desires: Same-Sex Relations and Transgender Practices across Cultures, Evelyn Blackwood and Saskia Wieringa, eds. [91-116]. ***LATTE***
9/23 (Fri) Kulick, Don. 1998. Travesti: Sex, Gender, and Culture among Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes. Introduction [1-18]; Chapter Two [44-95].
Week Six
9/27 (Tues) Kulick, Don. 1998. Travesti: Sex, Gender, and Culture among Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes. Chapter Four [134-190].
Ward, Jane. 2010. “Gender Labor: Transmen, Femmes, and Collective Work of Transgression.” In Intimate Labors. [78-93]. ***LATTE***
9/30 (Fri) Kulick, Don. 1998. Travesti: Sex, Gender, and Culture among Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes. Chapter Three [96-133]; Chapter Five [191-238].
Week Seven
10/4 (Tues) No class
10/7 (Fri) In-class film: Mala Mala
***200-word final paper abstract due by 9am (10/7)***
Week Eight
10/11 (Tues) Zengin, Asli. 2016. “Mortal Life of Trans/Feminism: Notes on Gender Killings in Turkey.” Transgender Studies Quarterly 3(1-2):266-271. ***LATTE***
Zengin, Asli. 2016. “Violent Intimacies: Tactile State Power, Sex/Gender Transgression and the Politics of Touch in Contemporary Turkey.” Journal of Middle Eastern Women’s Studies 12(2):225-245. ***LATTE***
Asli Zengin in class
The “Third Sex”
10/14 (Fri) Reddy, Gayatri. 2005. With Respect to Sex: Negotiating Hijra Identity in South India. Chapter One [1-16]; Chapter Two [17-43]; Chapter Four [78-98].
Week Nine
10/18 (Tues) Reddy, Gayatri. 2005. With Respect to Sex: Negotiating Hijra Identity in South India. Chapter 3 [44-77]; Chapter Six [121-141].
Weston, Kate. 1993. “Do Clothes Make the Woman? Gender, Performance Theory, and Lesbian Eroticism.” Genders 17:1-17. ***LATTE***
10/21 (Fri) Reddy, Gayatri. 2005. With Respect to Sex: Negotiating Hijra Identity in South India. Chapter 8 [186-210]; Chapter 9 [211-222]; Conclusion [223-232].
Sinha, Mrinalini. 2012. “A Global Perspective on Gender: What’s South Asia Got to Do with It?” In South Asian Feminisms. [356-373] ***LATTE***
Week Ten
10/25 (Tues) No class (Brandeis Monday)
Politics of Purity, Containment, and Transgression
10/28 (Fri) Lamb, Sarah. 2005. “The Politics of Dirt and Gender: Body Techniques in Bengali India.” In Dirt, Undress, and Difference: Critical Perspectives on the Body’s Surface. [213-232] ***LATTE***
Boddy, Janice. 1989. “Enclosures.” Wombs and Alien Spirits: Women, Men, and the Zār Cult in Northern Sudan. [Excerpt: 47-75] ***LATTE***
Week Eleven
11/1 (Tues) Popenoe, Rebecca. 2004. Feeding Desire: Fatness, Beauty, and Sexuality among a Saharan People. Prologue [1-9]; Chapter 1 [13-30]; Chapter 2 [33-50]; Chapter 3 [53-73].
11/4 (Fri) Popenoe, Rebecca. 2004. Feeding Desire: Fatness, Beauty, and Sexuality among a Saharan People. Chapter 6 [135-150]; Chapter 7 [153-167]; Chapter 8 [171-185]; Chapter 9 [187-197].
Week Twelve
11/8 (Tues) Masquelier, Adeline. 2011. “The Bloodstain: Spirit Possession, Menstruation, and Transgression in Niger.” Ethnos 76(2): 157-182. ***LATTE***