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Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective 4/e

Caroline B. Brettell
Carolyn F. Sargent

Published August 2004 by Prentice Hall
Copyright 2005, 600 pp., Paper
ISBN: 0-13-184971-9
List Price:
$49.00

Inventory Status:
In-Stock
   
Summary

This reader introduces learners to the most significant topics in the field of anthropology of gender—drawing not only from classic sources, but also from the most recent, diverse literature on gender roles and ideology around the world. It features high quality introductions to each section of articles, broad geographical coverage, and the most current research available. KEY TOPICS: An extensive range of topics includes the relationship between biology and culture as it pertains to gender issues; gender and prehistory; the cultural construction of gender and sexuality; women and the state; and the impact of development and the global economy on women. MARKET: For an awareness and understanding of the sociology of women and gender roles.

Features

  • NEW - Eleven new articles.
    • Provides students and instructors with debatable gender issues of immediate importance.

  • NEW - Updated and revised material—Added to many original pieces.
    • Incorporates new research, different issues, and important cases to give students a better and more complete understanding of the topics.

  • NEW - Added coverage—Features three new articles on gender and language; gendered aspects of migration in Thailand; and market women in relation to the domestic/public model.
    • Helps students understand the way that womens lives are affected by processes of globalization.

  • NEW - Reorganized format—Rearranges sections slightly.
    • Allows instructors to move through the text more sequentially.

  • NEW - Expanded feature film list—Now includes region of the world for the film where appropriate, as well as topic.
    • Offers students precise case studies related to particular topics, and supplies them with a video reference resource that compliments text material.

  • Readable articles—Drawn from a wide range of cross-cultural contexts as well as from U.S. society.
    • Allows students to relate aspects of their own culture to those in other countries.

  • Extensive range of topics—Includes the relationship between biology and culture as it pertains to gender issues; gender and prehistory; the cultural construction of gender and sexuality; women and the state; and the impact of development and the global economy on women.
    • Provides instructors and students with both breadth and depth in terms of topics and regions of the world covered.

  • Broad geographical coverage—Features articles dealing with European and American societies.
    • Encourages instructors to draw global comparisons as well as comparisons with aspects of gender that students are more familiar with. Teaches students to compare similarities and differences in the way gender roles and gender ideologies are constructed around the world.

  • A balanced perspective on gender.
    • Shows how gender is constructed, and how instructors can apply what we have learned from feminist theory to an analysis of male gender roles and gender identity.

  • High quality introductions to each of the sections.
    • Introduces the articles, describes the topics, and situates the articles in the book into the larger literature pertaining to that topic.

  • Substantial reference list.
    • Gives instructors and students a valuable resource for additional lecture and term paper material.



Table of Contents

(NOTE: Each new reading is bolded and indicated with an asterisk.)

I. BIOLOGY, GENDER, AND HUMAN EVOLUTION.

Animal Models and Gender, Marlene Zuk.

The Role of Women in Human Evolution, Margaret Ehrenberg.

Gender and War: Are Women Tough Enough for Military Combat? Lucinda J. Peach.

Lifeboat Ethics: Mother Love and Child Death in Northeast Brazil, Nancy Scheper-Hughes.

The Cultural Nexus of Aka Father-Infant Bonding, Barry S. Hewlett.

II. GENDER AND PREHISTORY.

Gender in Prehistory: An Archaeological Challenge, Margaret W. Conkey.

Where Have All the Menstrual Huts Gone? The Invisibility of Menstrual Seclusion in the Late Prehistoric Southeast, Patricia Galloway.

Maya Royal Women: A Lesson in Pre-Columbian History, Davis Freidel and Stanley Guenter.

III. DOMESTIC WORLDS AND PUBLIC WORLDS.

The Domestic Sphere of Women and the Public World of Men: The Strengths and Limitations of an Anthropological Dichotomy, Louise Lamphere.

“It's a Pleasure to Cook for Him”: Food, Mealtimes and Gender in Some South Wales Households, Anne Murcott.

Fatherhood and the Mediating Role of Women, Nicholas W. Townsend.

Cities of Women, Mary Weismantel.

IV. EQUALITY AND INEQUALITY: THE SEXUAL DIVISION OF LABOR AND GENDER STRATIFICATION.

Woman the Hunter: The Agta, Agnes Estioko-Griffin and P. Bion Griffin.

The Sexual Division of Labor on Vanatinai, Maria Lepowsky.

Pastoral Nomadism and Gender: Status and Prestige, Economic Contribution, and Division of Labor among the Tuareg of Niger, Susan Rasmussen.

Women and Work in a Post Revolutionary Society: Urban Cooperatives and the Informal Economy in Nicaragua, Florence Babb.

V. THE CULTURAL CONSTRUCTION OF GENDER AND PERSONHOOD.

Rituals of Manhood: Male Initiation in Papua New Guinea, Gilbert H. Herdt.

The Manhood Puzzle, David D. Gilmore.

The Named and the Nameless: Gender and Person in Chinese Society, Rubie S. Watson.

“The Making and Unmaking of Persons: Gender and Body in Northeast India,” Sarah Lamb.

“Acting Out of Control” as a Form of Control Among Pittsburgh Police Officers, Bonnie McElhinny.

VI. CULTURE AND SEXUALITY AND THE BODY.

Is There a Muslim Sexuality? Changing Constructions of Sexuality in Egyptian Bedouin Weddings, Lila Abu-Lughod.

From Pollution to Love Magic: The New Anthropology of Menstruation, Alma Gottleib.

Women's Intimate Friendships and Other Affairs: An Ethnographic Overview, Evelyn Blackwood.

“Hijras: An «Alternative» Sex/Gender in India,” Gayatri Reddy and Serena Nanda.

“Measuring Up to Barbie: Ideals of the Feminine Body in Popular Culture,” Jacqueline Urla and Alan C. Swedlund.

VII. GENDER, PROPERTY, AND THE STATE.

Thinking about Women and the Origin of the State, Rayna Rapp.

Dowry, Bride Burning and Female Power in India, Linda Stone and Caroline James.

Encountering the State: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Women's Political Experience, Josephine Caldwell Ryan.

Japanese Mothers and Obentos: The Lunch Box as Ideological State Apparatus, Anne Allison.

VIII. GENDER, HOUSEHOLD, AND KINSHIP.

Male Authority and Female Autonomy: A Study of the Matrilineal Nayers of Kerala, South India, Shanti Menon.

Domestic Networks: “Those You Count On,” Carol Stack.

Matrifocality, Power, and Gender Relations in Jamaica, Marsha Prior.

The Female World of Cards and Holidays: Women, Families, and the Work of Kinship, Micaela di Leonardo.

IX. GENDER, RITUAL, AND RELIGION.

Spirit Possession and Gender Complementarity: Zar in Northern Sudan, Janice Boddy.

“Tradition” and Threat: Women's Obscenity in Giriama Funerary Rituals, Janet McIntosh.

Mama Lola and the Ezilis: Themes of Mothering and Loving in Haitian Vodou, Karen McCarthy Brown.

Shamans, Bodies and Sex: Misreading a Korean Ritual, Lauren Kendall.

X. GENDER, POLITICS, AND REPRODUCTION.

Gender and Ritual: Giving Birth the American Way, Robbie Davis-Floyd.

The Politics of Reproduction in a Mexican Village, Carole H. Browner.

Surrogate Motherhood: Rethinking Biological Models, Kinship, and Family, Heléna Ragoné.

Female Genital Cutting: Cultre and Controversy, Ellen Gruenbaum.

XI. COLONIALISM, DEVELOPMENT, AND THE GLOBAL ECONOMY.

The Impact of Development on Women: The Interplay of Material Conditions and Gender Ideology, Victoria Lockwood.

Doing Their Homework: The Dilemma of Planning Women's Garden Programs in Bangladesh, Margot Wilson-Moore.

Factory as Home and Family: Female Workers in the Moroccan Garment Industry, M. Laetitia Cairoli.

“Wild Pigs and Dog Men”: Rape and Domestic Violence as Women's Issues in Papua New Guinea, Laura Zimmer-Tamakoshi.

Consuming Desires, Contested Selvs: Rural Women and Labor Migration in Thailand, Mary Beth Mills.

FILM LIST.




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