Anthropological perspectives on gender roles, gender identity, and sexuality across cultures.
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- In anthropology, what is the key distinction between sex and gender?
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Sex refers to biological characteristics; gender refers to culturally constructed roles and identities.- What are gender roles?
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Culturally specific behaviors, responsibilities, and expectations assigned to individuals based on their gender.- Define patriarchy from an anthropological perspective.
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A social system in which men hold primary power and authority in family, government, and society.- Define matriarchy in anthropological context.
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A theoretical social system in which women hold primary authority (rarely documented as a dominant pattern).- What is a matrilineal society?
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A society in which kinship and inheritance are traced through the female line.- What are two-spirit people?
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Native American individuals who have a gender identity that does not fit the binary male-female categories.- What anthropological concept refers to culturally recognized gender categories beyond man and woman?
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Third gender or multiple gender systems.- In Samoa, what term describes individuals who take on some female gender roles?
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Fa'afafine.- Who was Margaret Mead and what did she contribute to gender anthropology?
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A pioneering anthropologist whose work on gender in Samoa and Papua New Guinea challenged Western assumptions about gender roles.- What does the term heteronormativity mean?
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The cultural assumption that heterosexuality and binary gender are the normal or default orientations.- What is the anthropological concept of gender performativity?
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The idea that gender is not an inherent identity but something we actively perform and construct through repeated behaviors.- What term describes the devaluation of women and femininity in societies?
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Sexism or gender discrimination.- Define the public-private sphere distinction in gender anthropology.
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The division between public (government, economics, typically male-associated) and private (domestic, family, typically female-associated) spheres of activity.- In many foraging societies, what is the primary gendered division of labor?
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Men typically hunt large animals; women typically gather plants and small game.- What does sexual dimorphism refer to?
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The physical differences in size, appearance, and other characteristics between males and females of the same species.
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