Prof. Abigail E. Adams, 832-2616
Spring 1997
VAX Username: Adamsa
Webpage: http://wwwas.ccsu.ctstateu.edu/depts/anth/faculty/adamsa
Anthropology
350: Women and Men in Different Cultures
CENTRAL CONNECTICUT STATE UNIVERSITY
Class Meetings: Tuesdays 4-6:40 p.m. Place: FD
(DiLoreto) 307
Office Hours: MW 2-5, 110E DiLoreto Hall
COURSE DESCRIPTION: In this course, we study the cultural construction of gender, and of women's and men's roles in society. Using the perspectives of anthropology, history and linguistics, we will study gender around the world--and "back home" again, including the 19th and 20th centuries in the U.S.
We are going to work hard in this class--de-naturalizing power takes a lot of effort! The course's readings touch, confuse and sometimes challenge personal positions we care very deeply about. Do not get discouraged; confusion and discomfort are good signs. Anthropology's gift is making the exotic seem familiar and the familiar seem exotic, as you will discover in the class's readings, films and research. What you experience is shared by the anthropologists and scholars who study gender; the diversity of ideas and practices concerning gender has led them to reevaluate the very premise of their own societies, and their own ideas about gender.
Course Goals:
a) a thorough grounding in the concept of gender as the cultural construction of sexual difference;
b) an exploration of the diverse theories about gender and men's and women's roles;
c) a critical and scholarly reflection of our societies' and our own constructions of gender;
d) a culturally relative understanding of women's and men's experiences in different societies.
Class Format: includes lecture, films, class discussion and --as you can see in the topics schedule--exercises. Students will take responsibility for bringing each week's reading to life through leading discussion and exercises.
REQUIREMENTS:
1) Attendance, participation, and leadership 45%
This class will work only through active participation, which means keeping up with reading!
2) Research, Essay and Peer Review 35%,
Final essay due first day of finals week
3) Midterm and Final Exam 20%:
Final scheduled for FD 307, Tuesday, May 20, 4-6 p.m.
Please see back of syllabus for further information on requirements and grading policies
TEXTS IN BOOKSTORE AND ON RESERVE:
Brettell and Sargent, Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective (the Reader)
Barnes, Aman
Bratenberg, Egalia's Daughters
Rosaldo and Lamphere, Woman, Culture and Society
Readings on reserve at Burritt library:
Adams, "Gringas, Ghouls and Guatemala" AND "Dyke to Dyke"
Anzaldua, selections, Borderlands
Barker-Benfield, "The Spermatic Economy"
Berger, "Ways of Seeing"
Bordo, selections
Bly, selections, Iron John
Boddy, "Womb as Oasis"
Freed and Freed, "Taraka's Ghost"
Gilligan, First Chapter In a Different Voice AND "Confident at 11, Confused at 16"
Harding, "The Science Question in Feminism"
Haraway, "Situated Knowledges"
Herdt, "Mistaken Gender"
hooks, "Talking Back" and "marginality as site of resistance"
Lancaster, selections, Life is Hard AND "Subject Honor, Object Shame"
Lugones and Spelman, "Have we got a theory for you!"
Martin, "The Egg and the Sperm" AND selections from The Woman in the Body
Moore, "The Secret of the Men"
Narayan, "The Project of Feminist Epistemology"
O'Brian, "Female Husbands in Southern Bantu Societies"
Ong, "Spirit Possession in a Malaysian Factory"
Rich, "Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence"
Roberts, "The Exquisite Slave"
Stevens, "Marianismo"
Tannen, "Conversational Styles..."
Tsing, "Monster Stories"
Welter, "The Cult of True Womanhood"
Weston, "Production as Means, Production as Metaphor"
"Do Clothes Make the Woman?"
Whitehead, "The Bow and the Burden-Strap"
Wood, "Fashionable Diseases"
READINGS AND TOPICS SCHEDULE:
BIOLOGY AS DESTINY?
January 28 Introduction to Class and Gender Concept: Nature, Nurture, OR...?
Exercise: Defining gender, masculinity and femininity
Movie: "Margaret Mead: Taking Note"
February 4: Structures of Personhood: Nature vs. Culture vs. Maternal Instinct
Reading: Chodorow, "Family Structure and Feminine Personality" (WCS)
Ortner, "Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture?" (WCS)
Reader: Etienne, "The Case for Social Maternity"
Scheper-Hughes, "Lifeboat Ethics"
Hewlett, "The Cultural Nexus of Aka Father-Infant Bonding"
Gottlieb and Buckley, "A Critical Appraisal of Theories of Menstrual Symbolism"
Browner, "The Politics of Reproduction in a Mexican Village"
Reserve: Tsing, "Monster Stories"
Movie: "Discovering Psychology: Sex and Gender"
Exercise: Day Care Kids: Observing and Observing Observing..:Taking Research Notes
February 11: Homo Economicus
Reading: Sacks, "Engels Revisited" (WCS)
Reader, pages 214 to 218
Shostak, "Women and Men in !Kung Society"
Griffin and Griffin, "Woman the Hunter: The Agta"
Murphy and Murphy, "Woman's Day among the Mundurucu"
Bernstein, "Haruko's Work"
Cole, "Maria, a Portuguese Fisherwoman"
Stone and James, "Dowry, Bride-burning, and Female Power in India"
Reserve: Weston, "Production as Means, Production as Metaphor"
Movie: "Rosie the Riveteer"
Exercise: Leading the Revolution...
Interview techniques
February 18: Public/Domestic: Production/Reproduction OR
Reading: Rosaldo, "Women, Culture and Society" (WCS: 17-42)
Hoffer, "Madam Yoko" (WCS)
Reader, pages 79-82, pages 259-263
Lamphere, "The Domestic Sphere of Women and the Public World..."
Murcott, "It's a Pleasure to Cook for Him"
Rapp, "Thinking about Women and the Origin of the State"
Starr, "The Legal and Social Transformation of Rural Woman in Aegean Turkey"
Allison, "Japanese Mothers and Obentos"
Freidel and Schele, "Maya Royal Women"
Reserve, Stevens, "Marianismo"
Movie: "In Women's Hands"
Exercise: Women and Men and Gender in the News
Name a site in which to do research
OUR BODIES, OUR CATEGORIES: A STORY OF WESTERN GENDER
February 25: Hearth, Hysteric, Fountain and Drain
Reading: Reserve: Martin, selections from The Woman in the Body
Welter, "The Cult of True Womanhood"
Roberts, "The Exquisite Slave"
Wood, "Fashionable Diseases"
Barker-Benfield, "The Spermatic Economy"
Reader: pages 398 to 402
Davis-Floyd, "Gender and Ritual: Giving Birth the American Way"
Movie: Selections from "Splendor in the Grass"
March 4: Objective is to West is to Male as Situated is to Other is to Female
Reading: Reserve: Harding, "The Science Question in Feminism"
Haraway, "Situated Knowledges"
Emily Martin, "The Egg and the Sperm"
Selections from The Woman in the Body
Berger, "Ways of Seeing"
Reader: Conkey, "Men and Women in Prehistory"
Nelson, "Diversity of the Upper Paleolithic 'Venus' Figurines and Archaeological Mythology"
Leibowitz, "Perspectives on the Evolution of Sex Differences"
Ehrenberg, "Role of Women in Human Evolution"
Movie: "Evelyn Fox Keller, on Bill Moyers' World of Ideas"
"Rate It X"
Exercise: Share the notes on your first research experience with class--and me!
March 11: In a Different Voice
Reading: Reader: Watson, "The Named and the Nameless"
Ginsburg, "Procreation Stories"
Reserve: Tannen, "Conversational Styles..."
Gilligan, First Chapter In a Different Voice
Narayan, "The Project of Feminist Epistemology: Perspectives from a Non-Western Feminist"
hooks, "Talking Back" and "marginality as site of resistance"
Lugones and Spelman, "Have we got a theory for you!"
Begin reading Aman
Exercise: Hearing Each Others' Voices
AROUND THE WORLD: DIVERSITY AND DISSIDENCE
March 18: Lessons Learned in Our Own Voice
Reading: Aman
Midterm during first hour of class
Movie: "Rigoberta Menchu"
SPRING BREAK--conduct informal research on gendered behavior at beaches
April 1: Shamans, Housewives and other Restless Spirits (thanks, Laurel Kendall): Gender and Religion
Reading: Reserve: Freed and Freed, "Taraka's Ghost,"
Ong, "Spirit Possession in a Malaysian Factory"
Reader, pages 351 to 355
Kendall, "Divine Connections: The Mansin and Her Clients"
Huber, "The Recruitment of Nahua Curers"
Brown, "Mama Lola and the Ezilis"
Procter-Smith, "Blessed Mother Ann, Holy Mother Wisdom"
April 8: All Our Kin: Women and Men and a Sense of Family
Reading: Reader, pages 315 to 318
Stack, "Domestic Networks: 'Those You Count On'"
Prior,"Matrifocality, Power, and Gender Relations in Jamaica"
di Leonardo "The Female World of Cards and Holidays"
Abu-Lughod, "Is There a Muslim Sexuality?"
Dupire, "The Position of Women in Pastoral Society"
Movie: "Masai Women"
Exercise: Share first and second research experience in written narrative
BREAKING BEYOND THE BORDERS AND BINARIES
April 15: Colonialism and Its Discontents
Reading: Reserve: Lancaster, selections, Life is Hard
Adams, "Gringas, Ghouls and Guatemala"
Anzaldua, selections, Borderlands
Reader, pages 466 to 470
Grimshaw, "New England Missionary Wives, Hawaiian Women and 'The Cult of True Womanhood'"
Van Allen, "'Aba Riots' or Igbo 'Women's War'"
Lockwood, "The Impact of Development on Women: The Interplay...."
Wilson-Moore, "Doing Their Homework"
Fernandez-Kelly, "Maquiladoras: The View from the Inside"
Zimmer-Tamakoshi, "'Wild Pigs and Dog Men'"
Movie: "The Earth is Our Mother"
Exercise: UN Conference on gender and development
Apr 22: Incorporating and Incarnating Men and Women: The Construction of Gender
Reading: Reader: pages 124 to 128
Herdt, "Rituals of Manhood: Male Initiation in Papua New Guinea"
Gilmore, "The Manhood Puzzle"
Peach, "Gender and War"
Driessen, "Male Sociability and Rituals of Masculinity..." Gruenbaum, "Movement against Cliterodectomy and Infibulation..."
Reserve: Moore, "The Secret of the Men"
Gilligan, "Confident at 11, Confused at 16"
Bordo, selections
Bly, selections, Iron John
Boddy, "Womb as Oasis"
Adams, "Dyke to Dyke"
Movie: "Break Out"
Apr 29: Third, Fourth....Fifth Genders?
Reading: Reserve: Rich, "Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence"
Weston, "Do Clothes Make the Woman?"
O'Brian, "Female Husbands in Southern Bantu Societies"
Evans-Pritchard, "Sexual Inversion among the Azande"
Whitehead, "The Bow and the Burden-Strap"
Lancaster, "Subject Honor, Object Shame"
Herdt, "Mistaken Gender"
Reader: Nanda, "Neither Man nor Woman: The Hijras of India"
Williams, "Amazons of America: Female Gender Variance"
Exercise: Swap rough drafts for peer review
May 6: Conclusion: Gender Utopias and Dystopias
Reading: Bratenberg, Egalia's Daughters
Movie: Class chooses a fabulous sci-fi flick
Exercise: Create a new gender system!
Food!
Develop final essay questions from news clips
May 20: Final scheduled for FD 307, Tuesday, May 20, 4-6 p.m.
Grading Policies:
1) Class participation 15-20% consists of three "measurables":
A) Attendance: Regular attendance and punctuality are important for the success of the class and the student. Whether or not you attend the session, you will be responsible for the material presented in class, and I will not reteach class during office hours. Students are responsible for documenting their attendance by signing the attendance sheet. As much of the course material will be presented in lecture, attendance is critical. More than three absences will hurt a student's grade. Perfect attendance will help the final grade. Excused absences for health or family emergencies will be taken into consideration, if officially documented. Athletes should talk with me about their schedules. When notice of an upcoming absence is given me, I am happy to help a student work ahead. You are responsible for obtaining a VAX account and for informing me of your username. Please print it in BLOCK letters on the attendance list promptly.
B) Participation: As part of this class, you are responsible for active listening, discussion participation, supporting each other in sharing, risk-taking and feedback. In order to accomplish this, you must keep up with the reading! Beware of pop quizzes....
C) Leading Class Discussion and Exercises: Depending on the class size and dynamics, I will ask you with one or two other people will lead class discussion or the exercises on the week's writings. You will meet with your co-facilitators at least once before class and with the professor as well. You are free to promote discussion as you wish: methods that have worked include offering your thoughts and feelings about the material, creating a class exercise or role play, designing a visual or graph for the class to elaborate upon, presenting the different readings or positions that you facilitators have reached. Your goal is to find creative ways to elicit peoples' ideas and understanding of the material.
D) Class Exercises and Women and Men in the News 25-30%: Over the course of the semester, you will bring in seven news articles, clips or photos concerning gender, or men's and women's roles. That day, you will also develop two class discussion questions about that week's readings, and the connections with the other readings and course materials. The questions cannot come from questions I ask in class or class discussion: these are to be your OWN. Please include the date on each set of questions. Unclear and/or poorly worded questions will be returned for rewriting.
I will choose from your questions for discussion in the class session and for the essay questions on the midterm and final; even if you choose not to write questions for that film, you will be quizzed on it by your classmates! Late questions will not be accepted, and those returned for re-writing are due the next class session. Note: you must hand in three sets by the week before the midterm! Also note, one of your question sets is due on the last day of class when we develop two of the essay/short answer questions in class.
The class exercises are designed to help you work through course concepts and prepare for the quizzes. Handing in the exercises on time, with reasonable length and content counts as an automatic B! Failure to hand the exercise in on time will earn a Fail; demonstrating competence, insight, good readings and/or thoughtfulness earns more than a B.
2) Research Project 25% and Peer Review 10%:
You will conduct a research project with a U.S. man or woman whose life moves in social areas "other" than yours. There are a few steps to this project: choosing an informant, contacting them and introducing yourself, visiting a minimum of three times over the course of the semester, keeping a research journal, writing up descriptions of your experiences (ethnography) and then composing the final paper. MORE LATER! The final paper is due during the last class session.
Drafts of papers are due April 29, as noted on syllabus: Bring two copies, one for me and one for a peer reviewer. I will assign a number to everyone to use instead of your name. Peer review of the rough draft of another student=s paper shall consist of a two-page evaluation of the paper, drawing on knowledge gained from the course to offer constructive--and specific--comments and suggestions regarding content, organization and style. All reviews and any comments made directly on the draft will be due May 6 so that authors may use these in revising their papers. If these are received Wednesday, partial credit might be arranged. AFTER THIS, no credit will be given.
3) Midterm and Final Exam 20%: The test questions are drawn from lecture, media, readings, exercises and discussion. The format includes key terms identifications, short answers/mini-essays. There will be NO MAKEUP exams given, unless the professor is informed well in advance of an unavoidable reason for missing the exam. All reasons must be officially documented. The make-up will take place within one week of the missed exam, and will be more difficult.
4) Incomplete Grades: I allow incomplete grades for students who have passed the first half of the course, who have a legitimate reason for not completing the semester's work and who speak with me before the final class.
5) Grading Criteria: I grade the written or diagramed homework assignments as follows:
a) The exercise is handed in on time: in class and on due date
b) The exercise demonstrates clarity of communication: correct grammar, punctuation, spelling and sentence structure. Assignment has been proofread and corrected for typos.
c) The writing is responsive to the assignment: instructions and format were followed.
d) The level of thinking demonstrates: an understanding of course concepts; that facts have been distinguished from opinion; that the concepts are applied creatively or originally.