Anthropology Study Guide Notes Fall 2013 Week of Identities Personhood I Race Class Caste Identities religion race ethnicity language nation gender sexuality class caste indigenous Each one of those is a cultural construction designed to create categories around one or another imagined community o None maps onto distinct biological divisions although they are used to invoke nature to reaffirm their legitimacy Social identity interact o Social statuses are the categories of different kinds of people who o Social roles are the rules for action associated with particular statuses The American public tends to combine status and role under one term role There is a distinction between status the position and role the appropriate behavior related to the position Social stratification is any form of inequality characterized by regularly experienced unequal access to valued economic resources and or prestige o Caste is a system of stratification that ranks people on the basis on their birth People are born into a caste system at birth and cannot move to a higher rank o Class is a kind of social stratification that restricts individuals access to valued resources and prestige within a partially flexible system In class systems social mobility is possible although usually difficult Position in society is defined primarily by economic terms o Stratified societies are marked by unequal access both to prestige and valued economic resources Stratified societies are defined by the presence of class and or caste inequality o Gender inequality assigns unequal access to prestige and economic resources on the basis of sexual identity It usually confers a lower rank on women o Social stigmatization is the assignment of low rank to individuals who are associated by members of society with things that are considered polluting Anthropology of race race is not real or objective category but a social construct Race is a modern concept o This does not mean that race does not exist Belief in racial difference can o The media re present out reality to us Representation is therefore a shape perception version of reality o Race representation in the media has been criticized on stereotyping under representation of minorities on prime time TV few racial role models depicted Identities media representations of American Indians as primitive or savage Edward Curtis images ideas about ethnicity 1491 s comedy making fun of perceptions of Indians Week of Identities Personhood II Gender Sexualities Sex refers to biological characteristics that refer to men and women Gender refers to socially constructed roles behaviors and activities that society deems appropriate for men and women Bodies composed of genes hormones and of culture and history Some cultural historians argue that in Western culture the two sex system is relatively new before that there was just MALE Intersex describes congenital conditions where development of chromosomal gonadal or anatomical sex is atypical Historically referred to as hermaphrodite that often had corrective surgery at birth and parents expected to treat them as that gender Alternative gender cross culturally o Hijra India neither man nor woman most known for musical performances at weddings o Travesti Brazil female like physical features often associated with male sex work Not transsexuals they do not perceive themselves as women o Kathoey or lady boy Thailand males who exhibit varying degrees of femininity Gender as Performance gender as identity created through performance including language clothing actions etc In our society gender is now marked in the womb through fetal sexing and gendering of infants Anthropology of women gender as category of analysis Submergence of racial and cultural differences in women Colonizing gender gendered experiences are not universal Structural violence in Dopefiend political economic organization of society harms vulnerable people women Institutionalized forms of racism classism sexism ethnocentrism nationalism heteronormativity Intersectionality various social and cultural categories interact on multiple and simultaneous levels Categories of oppression do no operate independently instead intersect and reflect multiple forms of discrimination Engendering anthropology Studying men as men Studying men in relation to women and other men Masculinity Masculinity male gender identity just as culturally defined as female Masculinity is what men think or do to be men Cross culturally men are often made while women are born Week of Kinship Families Kinship diverse ways people arrange into family groups and assign groups both tasks and meaning Can also structure such things as wealth property inheritance residence identity reproduction and alliances A kinship system is a culture s rules about who are kin and the expected behavior of kin Based on 3 interconnected principles marriage residence and descent Formal kinship analysis is based on finding out who was to related to whom and in what way A kinship diagram shows this genealogy Marriage There is an incest taboo Preference rules of endogamy exogamy hypergyny and hypogyny o Gifts Bride wealth or bride price gifts from groom s family to the bride s family o Bride service groom service for bride s family o Dowry gift from bride s family to groom s family Polygamy monogamy union between two people polygamy more than 2 partners polygyny 1 husband and many wives polyandry 1 wife but many husbands Outlawed in America but it is still practiced Residence Who makes up a household o Patrilocal husband s parents 70 o Matrilocal wife s parents less than 15 o Avunculocal near maternal uncle 4 o Ambiolocal both or neither 9 o Neolocal totally separate 5 Unilineal descent only recognizes descent through 1 parent Patrilineal or Matrilineal Bilineal Descent traces kinship from both parents equally to the child This is one third of all cultures and mainly hunter gatherer or industrialized societies Clans groups of people that united by actual or perceived kinship and descent The founding ancestor can be a person mythical spirit or animal In some cases clan membership loyalty can supersede tribal identity Belonging The placenta cross culturally many ritual associations with placenta It is often buried in ceremony to protect the health of child and mother Placentophagy has become trendy in the United States for health reasons Week of Economic Anthropology Economic systems o Production raw materials into human social or