Ant 295-02
Anthropological
Perspectives on Gender
Professor: Maria Tapias (tapias@grinnell.edu)
MW 2:30-4:05
Goodnow Hall 203 Fine Arts 242
Phone:
269-3137
Office Hours: MW 4:15-5:00 and Tues.
11-1. During office hours, please feel
free to stop by without an appointment.
If you don’t want to have to wait during office hours please email me
and we’ll set up a definite time. Of
course, if you have a conflict with the office hours please email me and we’ll
find a suitable time to meet!
Course Description: This class will examine the cultural constructions of
femininities and masculinities from a cross-cultural perspective. Our discussions will examine how individuals
and societies imagine, negotiate, perform and contest dominant gender
ideologies, roles, relations and identities.
Required Readings:
Res: Readings marked Res are on reserve in the
library. Books may be borrowed for two
hours at a time and photocopying machines are available in the library.
OLRes: On line reserve readings can be down loaded directly
from the library’s home page.
Books (available at the
bookstore):
Abu-Lughod,
Lila:
Writing Women’s Worlds (WWW)
Gutmann,
Matthew: The Meanings of Macho (MM)
Lamphere,
Louise et al. : Situated
Lives (SL)
Lamb,
Sarah:
White Saris and Sweet
Mangoes (WSSM)
Course Organization and
Requirements:
The
class will be structured as a seminar.
I will occasionally lecture or lead a group activity but for the most
part the class will rely heavily on active discussion of the articles, themes
and books that we cover. I have very
high expectations of your performance and active participation in class. The reading load is heavy so please make every
effort to keep up with the readings and come willing to participate and engage
with the issues!!
A
note on discussions: Discussions
provide a forum for a collective reflection of the texts. As we read the texts we will often engage
with them and interpret them along our own experiences and personal
backgrounds. The reading one makes of a
text will naturally vary across the class and that is what makes a discussion
exciting! Please come prepared to share
your experiences and respect the experiences and readings of others. You are here not only to learn from the
professor and the readings but also from each other. Your failure to participate is a loss to all of us!
I
would like to encourage students with documented disabilities, including
non-visible disabilities such as chronic diseases, learning disabilities, head
injury, attention deficit/hyperactive
disorder, psychiatric disabilities, to discuss with me, after class or during
my office hours, appropriate accommodations.
You will need to provide documentation of your disability to the
Associate Dean and Director of Academic Advising, Joyce Stern, located in the
lower level of the Forum (x3702)
1.
Class attendance (10%) and participation.
(10%) You are expected to attend
all classes and regularly participate in class. Active participation means keeping up to date on the readings,
participating in discussions or debates, as well as contributing to group
work. I will often ask for volunteers
to do web searches, bring in examples that reflect the issues raised in the readings. In addition, 2-3 students will meet in
advance of class to discuss the assigned texts and will be responsible for
posing questions to the class to foster discussion. I will take attendance at every class. Each student is allowed 2 absences without suffering
penalty. Missing more than 2 classes
will result in a significant decrease in the attendance and participation
grade. Any assignment that is missed
because of an UNEXCUSED absence will receive a zero. Excused absences will still count towards your two, but you will
be allowed to make up the assignments.
An excused absence is given only in the case of medical emergencies or a
death in the family. Notice must be
provided through academic affairs. You
are responsible for viewing missed films and/or obtaining missed notes from one
of your peers.
2.
Short reaction papers. (40%) You will
write four reaction papers during the semester. These short papers are an opportunity for you to critically
engage with readings that particularly excite you or make you think of
something in a new way. The paper may
be written in standard format or if you wish you can write the paper in the
form of a letter to the author or to someone else. These short 3-4 page papers will give you an opportunity to
informally reflect upon some of the themes of the course. Please note that a reaction paper is NOT a
summary of the author’s argument.
Rather it is a response to the ideas he/she poses in the paper.
3. Final proposal and project (10% and 30% respectively). You will write one final research paper for
this class. A brief 2-3 page proposal
with an annotated bibliography of the books or articles you intend to utilize
is due on Nov 4th. You should plan to meet with me individually
during the weeks of October 23rd and October 30th. The final paper will be due on Dec.
11th .
1.
Introductions
“My
Life in Pink”
Res: Ruth Hubbard
“Gender and Genitals: Constructs of Sex and Gender” in Social Text
46/47 Vol. 14 No. 1 and 2 Spring/Summer
1996 pp.157-165
SL: Emily Martin,
“The Egg and the Sperm: How
Science has Constructed a Romance based on Stereotypical Male-Female
Roles” pp. 85-98
2. In Search of Universals
Res: *Michelle Rosaldo “Woman, Culture and Society: A Theoretical Overview” in Woman,
culture, and society.
Edited by Michelle Zimbalist Rosaldo and Louise Lamphere.
*Sherry Ortner “Is Female to Male as Nature is to
Culture?” in Woman, culture, and society. Edited by Michelle Zimbalist Rosaldo and Louise
Lamphere.
3.
Fragmenting “woman” to
“women”
OLRes Chandre Mohanty
“Under Western Eyes: Feminist
Scholarship and Colonial Discourses”
Res. *Aihwa Ong
“Colonialism and Modernity:
Feminist Representations of Women in Non-Western Societies” in Feminism and 'race' / edited by Kum-Kum Bhavnani
*Audre Lourde “The Master's
Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House” in Feminism and 'race' / edited by Kum-Kum Bhavnani OR in This
bridge called my back : writings by radical women of color editors, Cherrie Moraga, Gloria Anzaldua
; foreword, Toni Cade Bambara
4.
Feminist Anthropology,
Post-modernism and Reflexivity
OLRes *James Clifford
“Introduction: Partial Truths”
in James Clifford and George Marcus ed.
Writing Culture: The Poetics
and Politics of Ethnography
Res * Frances Mascia Lees, Patricia Sharpe and Colleen Cohen “The Postmodernist Turn in
Anthropology: Cautions from a Feminist
Perspective” in Signs Vol 14. no.
1 pp. 7-33
SL: Kirin Narayan
“How Native is a “Native” Anthropologist?”
Wed. Sept 18
WWW Preface, Introduction and Chapter 1
5. Honor and Shame
WWW Chapter 3 and 5
Res *Nancy Lindisfarne “Variant Masculinities, variant
Virginities: Rethinking ‘Honor and
Shame’” in Dislocating Masculinities
6.
Gender and Sexuality
OLRes *Wyatt MacGaffey,
“Husbands and Wives” in Transition #71
Res * Gill Shepherd “Rank, Gender
and Homosexuality: Mombasa as a key to
Understanding Sexual Options” in The
Cultural Construction of Sexuality
Ed. Pat Caplan
Res *Gilbert Herdt “Rituals of Manhood:
Male Initiation in Papua New Guinea” in
Gender
in Cross Cultural Perspective ed.
Caroline Brettell and Carolyn Sargent
OLRes *Richard Parker “Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome in Urban
Brazil”
7.
Denaturalizing Gender
Categories
Wed. Oct. 2
Res *Collier, Rosaldo and
Yanagisako “Is There a Family?” in Rethinking the family: Some Feminist Questions / edited by Barrie Thorne with Marilyn Yalom
SL *Ellen
Lewin “This Permanent Roommate”
*Beatriz
Pesquera “In the Beginning He Wouldn’t
Lift Even a Spoon”
8. Reproducing the Body
SL *Sarah Franklin “Making Sense
of Missed Conceptions”
*Helena Ragone “Chasing the Blood Tie”
*Rayna Rapp “Constructing
Amniocentesis”
**
IN THE NEXT TWO WEEKS YOU SHOULD COME SEE ME TO DISCUSS POSSIBLE RESEARCH
TOPICS FOR YOUR FINAL PAPER.
9.
Naturalizing Nurturance and
the Construction of the “Anti-Mother”
Wed. Oct 9
CL *Chapter 1, 4,
Res *Tsing “Monster Stories” in Uncertain terms : negotiating gender in American
culture ed. Faye
Ginsburg & Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing
CL * Chapters 5-10
CL *Chapters 11, 12, and Introduction to Updated Edition (pp
ix-xxix)
OCTOBER BREAK (Oct 19-27)
Mon. Oct 28-30
Class cancelled.
During
this week you should begin your research for your final paper and write a
proposal to submit to me on Monday Nov. 4th. You should have a well developed research question
and also submit a tentative annotated
bibliography of at least 15 sources.
The citation style should be that followed by the journal American
Ethnologist.
10. Masculinities
Mon. Nov 4
Paper Proposal due.
MM: *
Introduction and Chapters 1-4
Wed. Nov 6
MM: *
Chapters 5-6
MM: *Chapters 7-10
11. Performing Gender
SL: * Mary Moran “ Warriors or
Soldiers? Masculinity and Ritual
Transvestism in the Liberian Civil War”
Res: *Andrea Cornwall “Gendered Identities and Gender Ambiguity
Among Travestis in Salvador, Brazil”
12.
Resistance and Gender
Mon. Nov 18
Res. *Lila Abu-Lughod “The Romance of Resistance: Tracing Transformations of Power Through
Bedouin Women” in Beyond the Second Sex: new directions in the anthropology of gender ed. Peggy
Reeves Sanday and Ruth Gallagher Goodenough
SL *Iris
Lopez “Agency and Constraint: Sterilization and Reproductive Freedom Among
Puerto Rican Women in New York City”
*Aihwa
Ong “Spirits of Resistance”
SL: *Leslie Salzinger “A
Maid by Any Other Name”
*Denise Segura “Chicanas in
White-Collar Jobs: ‘You Have to Prove
Yourself More’”
WSSM *Introduction, Chapter
1-2
WSSM Chapters 3-5
WSSM Chapters 6-7
General
Wrap up
Individual
Presentations of projects. Each person
will have 10 minutes to present their papers to the rest of the class.
Individual
Presentations continued.