Gender and Sexuality

Term Paper # 118261

Anthropology > Cultural
Gender and Sexuality > Gender Studies

A discussion on anthropological approaches to gender and sexuality.

1,600 words () | 7 sources | MLA | 2009 Australia

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how anthropology challenges the traditional acceptance of gender roles as a necessary consequence of biological differences. It looks at how anthropological approaches to gender have participated in showing that gender roles are a social construction rather than a natural given and have also challenged the conventional ideas in regards to what is acceptable or not in terms of sexual behaviors and customs.

From the Paper:

"Far from being confined to the academic sphere of the anthropological discipline, those revelations provoked major shifts in terms of power. Indeed, the reason why feminists have been so interested in anthropology is that they immediately realised the political implications of such a change in Western thinking (Nugent 2008, pp.122). For most feminist scholars, who were convinced that most societies were showing at least some degree of patriarchy - i.e. the dominance of females by male in significant spheres of life - the anthropological revelation that gender inequalities were rooted in cultural practises rather that in biological determinism was of enormous political importance, as it proved that male dominance was not inevitable (Robertson 2007, p.16). "

Sample of Sources Used:

Gottlieb, A. 2002, 'Interpreting gender and sexuality: Approaches from cultural anthropology', in J, MacClancy, Exotic no more: Anthropology on the front lines, pp. 167-189, University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London.
Hyland Eriksen, T. 2004, What is anthropology, 'The key concepts', pp.19-41, Pluto Press, London.
Hyland Eriksen, T. 2004, What is anthropology, 'Identification', pp.156-173, Pluto Press, London.
Nugent, D. 2008, A companion to the anthropology of politics, John Wiley and Sons, Chichester.
Roberston, J. 2007, Same-Sex Cultures and Sexualities: An Anthropoligical Reader, John Wiley and Sons, Chichester.