IB Anthro Presentation.

1. By: Madie, Aby, and Ethan
ANDROCENTRIC
BIAS

2. WHAT IS
ANDROCENTRIC
BIAS?
Androcentric bias is a male
centered observation of
culture which focuses
solely on male activities
and leads to inaccurate
perceptions of women.

3. WHY HAS IT HISTORICALLY
BEEN PRESENT IN
ETHNOGRAPHIES?
• The large assumption that men did the
most important cultural activities
• The time period
• The anthropologist’s background
• The patriarchy
• Western Beliefs
• Male anthropologists pushing
their norms on the subjects, which results in
“double bias”

4. HOW CAN
ANDROCENTRIC
BIAS BE AVOIDED?
• Obtaining multiple perspectives on a topic or question
• Directly asking the women
• Observing the women unbiasedly
• The involvement of more female anthropologists
to gain a women's perspective

5. EXAMPLE
• When Malinowksi (1915) went
to the Trobriand Islands, he
completely excluded the
women’s gift exchange (a
very important/sacred tradition
to the culture) from his
ethnography. However, when
a female anthropologist went
to the Islands 50 years later,
she wrote pages upon pages
of information about it and
was able to fill in the blanks.
Malinowski & the
Trobriand Islanders