ANTHROPOLOGY of GENDER (5 Credits) 12-Week Module (October-December) Dr
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SF 2013-14 Department of Sociology Senior Freshman GENDER, CULTURE AND SOCIETY (10 credits) ANTHROPOLOGY OF GENDER (5 credits) 12-week module (October-December) Dr. Barbara Bradby INTRODUCTION This course aims to look at the meaning of gender in different cultures. It therefore covers work both on the material division of labour, power and property between the sexes, and on how gender is understood as a symbolic system. A central question posed by feminist anthropologists has been whether patriarchy, or the subordination of women, is a universal feature of social organisation. The debates over this question have gone on to raise issues of structure and agency which will be familiar from sociological debates. We pursue these questions through work on relations between men and women in diverse societies – the Australian Aborigines, the Trobriand Islanders, contemporary Morocco, the Andean peoples of Peru and Bolivia, as well as other case-studies. The course is not one where for ‘gender’ one can read ‘women’, but also looks critically at male roles across different cultures. The question arises, for instance, of whether male violence against women in non-western cultures can or should be read in the same way as such violence in our own society. Such debates have given rise to the recent concern with gender as one of a multiplicity of differences that upset the centrality of cultural difference in traditional anthropology. Anthropologists have at the same time begun to question their own methods of researching and writing as never before, to see themselves as ‘authors’ rather than ‘scientists’, and their works as texts growing out of the relationship between coloniser and colonised. The autobiography of the researcher and the influence of the researcher in the research process have become explicit topics of the ‘reflexive’ movement in ethnography. Whilst some would argue that feminist anthropology had anticipated many of these features of the ‘postmodernist turn’, it is not clear that reflexive anthropology has reciprocated feminism’s interest in gender as a feature of the research process. Some recent writings by men reflecting on the role of gender and sexuality in their fieldwork, while responding in some part to this criticism, also show up the necessity for a more serious discussion of these issues in the teaching and practice of ethnography. Books to buy: A useful overview of many of the issues covered in this course is provided by: Henrietta Moore, Feminism and Anthropology (Polity Press, 1988) A collection of readings, many of which are listed in this handout, is: Brettell, C B. & Sargent, C. F. Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective (Prentice Hall, 2000) Another recent collection, containing several readings from the course is: Helen Lewin, ed. Feminist Anthropology, a Reader (Blackwell Press, 2006) 1 Films/dvd’s. I shall be showing a video of the Trobriand Islanders in week 2 of the course. Copies are also available in the library, at Berkeley Multimedia, LEN MUL A 1176;1. I shall also be showing some of the first series of Tribe, which was put out on BBC2 in 2005. Since then there have been two more series of Tribe, which are collected in a box set, available in the library at Berkeley Multimedia, LEN MUL A 440 Teaching on the course will be by means of two lectures and one seminar per week. The lectures will be given by Dr. Barbara Bradby. If you wish to see me about any matter to do with the course, my office hours are as follows during term time: Wednesdays 10 -11am Room 2.07, 3-4 College Green. My email address is [email protected] The Teaching Assistant on this course is Yaqoub BouAynaya. He will be arranging and facilitating the seminars that will take place weekly for students in groups of around 20. If you wish to make an appointment to see Yaqoub BouAynaya, please contact him by email, at [email protected] NB. No students will be allowed to sign up for presentations after the end of the 4th week of Michaelmas term, i.e Friday, October 19th. This is a strict deadline which will be adhered to. Students who do not sign up for presentations by that date with Yaqoub BouAynaya, Teaching Assistant on the course, will forfeit the 10% of the grade for the module that is allocated to the seminar presentation. Assessment on this half of the course will be by coursework only and will involve three elements: 1) a seminar facilitation in groups of 2 or 3 students (20%) 2) a group project (80%) 3) a negative mark for incomplete seminar attendance (you forfeit 5 marks if you miss more than 3 out of 10 seminars, i.e a 57 becomes a 52, a 69 becomes a 64, and so on.) Group project guidelines will be given out after seminar groups after the final date for registering for seminar and facilitation groups (Oct 19th). Note: The second half of Gender, Culture and Society, entitled Subcultures and Gender, begins in January and will be assessed by examination in May-June. Students taking both halves of Gender, Culture and Society will receive an overall grade which is averaged between the mark for Anthropology of Gender (facilitation + group project) and the mark for the second half of the course (examination mark 80% + seminar facilitation mark 20% ). Visiting students (both Erasmus and International students) who take the second half of the course are expected to stay in Ireland for the whole of the examination period, and to take the exam. in order to get credit for the second half of the course. Learning outcomes. By the end of the course, students should: 1) have an understanding of the variety of gender arrangements in different societies. 2) have a critical understanding of how theories of gender as a social arrangement differ from notions of gender as a natural attribute. 3) have an understanding of structuralist theories of the subordination or exchange of women, as well as being able to assess them critically in the light of evidence of women’s agency. 4) have thought about ways in which researchers influence the field they claim to be studying, and about researcher reflexivity in relation to gender. 2 MICHAELMAS TERM, WEEK ONE 1 Kinship and ‘the Exchange of Women’ Wednesday lecture *** Gayle Rubin, ‘The Traffic in Women’, in Rayna Reiter (ed.), Toward an Anthropology of Women (1975) ** Claude Lévi-Strauss, ‘The Family’ in Harry Schapiro (ed.) Man, Cultue and Society (1971) ** Claude Lévi-Strauss, The Elementary Structures of Kinship (1967) * Marcel Mauss, The Gift 2 Workshop on kinship Friday workshop In this session, you will learn to read kinship diagrams, and to construct your own simple diagram. This is a helpful tool to understanding anthropological books and articles. We will reflect on our own family structures and on ways in which they may be changing. We may also look at examples of ‘famous’ families, or families as we ‘know’ them through popular culture such as soap operas. Reading for this session *** Linda Stone, Kinship and Gender, An Introduction, Ch.1. (Westview Press, 1997) ** Micaela Di Leonardo, “The Female World of Cards and Holidays: Women, Families, and the Work of Kinship.” In Gender in cross-cultural perspective, edited by Caroline B. Brettell and Carolyn F. Sargent. (2001) MICHAELMAS TERM, WEEK TWO 3 Aboriginal Marriage Systems Wednesday lecture *** Diane Bell, ‘Desert Politics: Choices in the Marriage Market’, in M. Etienne and E. Leacock (eds.), Women and Colonization: Anthropological Perspectives (1980) ** Diane Bell, Daughters of the Dreaming (1993) ** C. Hart and A. Pilling, The Tiwi of North Australia (1960) ** Phyllis Kaberry, Aboriginal Women: Sacred and Profane (1939) * E. Hiatt, ‘Gidjingali marriage arrangements’, in R.Lee and I. de Vore, (eds.), Man the Hunter (1968) Further reading on Australian anthropology (available online): The following article reports on recent research among the Warlpiri people of Warrabri, with whom Diane Bell worked in the 1970s/80s: * Yasmine Musharbash, ‘Marriage, Love Magic, and Adultery: Warlpiri Relationships as Seen by Three Generations of Anthropologists’, Oceania, 80, Nov 2010, available through TCD library electronic journals: http://web.ebscohost.com.elib.tcd.ie/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=ef0f035c-1f1c-40a8- 98b7-5d3020aeaabc%40sessionmgr12&vid=4&hid=24 The following is an excellent introduction to work on Australian aboriginal kinship, and contains a clear explanation of what ‘classificatory kinship’ means: * Laurent Dusset. 2002. ‘Introduction to Australian Indigenous Social Organisation: transforming concepts’, http://www.ausanthrop.net/research/kinship/kinship2.php 4 Video Session: Women of the Trobriand Islands Friday video ‘The Trobriand Islanders of Papua New Guinea’ [videorecording] / director, David Wason ; anthropologist, Anette Weiner (DVD/Video) London: Royal Anthropological Institute, 1990. 3 This video was made by Annette Weiner, one of the principal authors on the people of the Trobriand Islands in Melanesia. (see reading list for Week 3}. The Trobriand Islanders have held a special fascination for anthropologists, owing to Bronislaw Malinowski’s colourful descriptions of their way of life nearly a century ago in a series of works including Coral Gardens and their Magic, and Argonauts of the Western Pacific. NB. Please jot down some quick thoughts after seeing the video, to prepare for the class discussion in Week 3. MICHAELMAS TERM, WEEK THREE 5/6 Gender, Kinship and Exchange Wednesday and Friday, workshop/lecture In this session, we will first discuss in groups what we learned from the video shown in Week 4, and have a brief whole-class discussion. The lecture material will be continued in the Friday session. *** Annette Weiner, Women of Value, Men of Renown (1976) ** B. Malinowski, Argonauts of the Western Pacific (1922) * A. Weiner, ‘Stability in Banana Leaves’, in M. Etienne and E.