This document provides information about an anthropology of gender course taught in fall 2005. The 2-credit course examines how gender ideologies, discourses and practices are constructed across cultures. It begins with a historical look at women and gender issues in anthropology and focuses on key debates. Readings and discussions explore topics like essentialism/constructivism, power/resistance and gendered bodies in different societies. Students are evaluated based on 30% class participation and a 70% final paper of 4,000-5,000 words on a topic approved by the instructor. The course is divided into sections on pioneering texts in feminist anthropology, methodological issues, and contemporary concerns like gender and religion, nationalism, and representations of

1. Anthropology of Gender
Fall 2005
David Berliner
2 credits
The dramatic development of women and gender studies over the past decades has
profound implications for anthropological research. The course begins with a historical
look at the emergence of women and gender issues in the field of anthropology and
focuses on the relationship between feminism and anthropology. We shall then explore
the myriad of ways in which gender ideologies, discourses and practices are constructed
in different cultural environments. Emphasis will be put on current sensitive debates that
concern anthropologists of gender (religion as masculine domination, gender and
nationalism, pornography, prostitution and FMG). Readings and discussions will provide
avenues for exploring key issues such as essentialism/constructivism,
universalism/relativism, power/resistance, differences/identities, sexualities, gendered
bodies, and the masculine domination as they relate to men and women in different
societies.
Requirements:
Class Participation: 30%
Final paper: 70% (4,000-5,000 words essay – topic to be decided in consultation with me)
Week 1
Starting Points
- Scott, Joan. 1988. Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis. In Scott, J.
Gender and the Politics of History. Pp. 28-50. Columbia: Columbia University
Press.
- West, Candace and Don Zimmerman. 1987. Doing Gender. Gender and Society
1(2): 125-151.
Additional readings
- Beauvoir, Simone (de). 1989. Introduction. In: The Second Sex. Pp. xiii-xxix.
N.Y: Vintage Books.
- Bourdieu, Pierre. 2001. Masculine Domination. Stanford: Stanford University
Press. Read Introduction and Chapter 1.
- Goffman, Erving. 1977. The arrangement between the sexes. Theory and society
4: 301-31.
- Harding, Sandra, 1987. Introduction: Is There a Feminist Method? In: Feminism
and Methodology: Social Science Issues. Pp. 1-14. Bloomington: Indiana
University Press.

2. I. Pioneering Texts: Feminist Anthropology and the Anthropology of
Gender
Week 2
Pioneering Texts (I): Elsie Clews Parsons and Margaret Mead
- Lamphere, Louise. 1995. Feminist Anthropology: The Legacy of Elsie Clews
Parsons. In: Behar, Ruth and Deborah Gordon (eds). Women Writing Culture. Pp.
85-104. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- Mead, Margaret. 1959. Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies. New
York: New American Library. Read Introduction, Chapters 14 to 18 and
Conclusion (Pp. 165-218).
Additional readings
- Lutkehaus, Nancy. 1995. Margaret Mead and the “Rustling-of-the-Wind-in-the-
Palm-Trees School” of Ethnographic Writing. In: Behar, Ruth and Deborah
Gordon (eds). Women Writing Culture. Pp. 186-207. Berkeley: University of
California Press.
- Sanday, Peggy. 1980. Margaret Mead's View of Sex Roles in Her Own and Other
Societies. American Anthropologist 82(2):340-348.
Week 3
Pioneering Texts (II): The Emergence of a Feminist Anthropology
- Leacock, Eleonor. 1978. Women’s Status in Egalitarian Society: Implications for
Social Evolution. Current Anthropology 19: 247-255, 268-275.
- Ortner, Sherry. 1974. Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture? In: Rosaldo, M.
and L. Lamphere (eds). Woman, Culture and Society. Pp. 67-89. Stanford:
Stanford University Press.
Additional readings
- Rogers, Susan. 1978. Women’s Place: a Critical Review of Anthropological
Theory.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 20: 123-162.
- Rosaldo, Michelle. 1974. Women, Culture and Society: a Theoretical Overview.
In: Rosaldo, M. and L. Lamphere (eds). Woman, Culture and Society. Pp. 17-43.
Stanford: Stanford University Press.
- Quinn, N. 1977. Anthropological Studies of Women’s Status. Annual Review of
Anthropology 6: 181-225.

3. Week 4
Contemporary Approaches: Postmodernists, non-Western Feminists and the
Critique of Universalism
- Oyéwumi. Oyéronké. 2003. The White Woman’s Burden: African Women in
Western Feminist Discourse. In: Oyeronke Oyewumi (ed). African Women and
Feminism: Reflecting on the Politics of Sisterhood. Pp. 25-43. Trenton: AWP.
- Strathern Marylin. 1987. An Awkward Relationship: the Case of Feminism and
Anthropology.” Signs 12: 276-292.
Additional readings
- Mascia-Lees F., Sharpe P. and Cohen C. 1989. The Postmodern Turn in
Anthropology: Cautions from a Feminist Perspective. Signs 15(1): 7-33.
- Mohanty, Chandra Talpade. 1991. Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and
Colonial Discourses. In: Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism.
Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Ann Russo and Lourdes Torres (eds). Pp. 51-80.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
- Moore, Henrietta. 1988. Feminism and Anthropology: The Story of a
Relationship. In: Feminism and Anthropology. Pp. 1-11. Minneapolis: University
of Minnesota Press.
- Rosaldo, Michelle. 1980. The Use and Abuse of Anthropology: Reflections on
Feminism and Cross-Cultural Understandings. Signs 5: 389-417.
- Stacey, Judith. 1988. Can There Be a Feminist Ethnography? Women’s Studies
International Forum 11(1): 21-27.
- Wittrup, Inge. 1993. Feminist Anthropology. Another Form of Cultural
Imperialism? Folk 35: 111-125.
II. Methodological Issues
Week 5
Is the sex/gender of the anthropologist epistemo/methodologically significant?
- Golde, Peggy. 1986. Introduction. In: Golde, Peggy (ed). Women in the Field.
Anthropological Experiences. Pp. 1-15. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- Gregory, James. 1984. The Myth of the Male Ethnographer and the Woman’s
World. American Anthropologist 86(2): 316-327.
Additional readings
- Bell, Caplan and Karim (ed). Gendered Fields. Women, Men and Ethnography.
London and New York: Routledge. Read Introductions 1 and 2.
- Brandes, Stanley. 1987. Sex Roles and Anthropological Research in Rural
Andalousia. Women’s Studies 13: 357-372.
- Kulick Don and Margaret Wilson. 1995. Introduction. The Sexual Life of
Anthropologists: Erotic Subjectivity and Ethnographic Work. In: Kulick Don and
Margaret Wilson (eds). Taboo. Sex, Identity and Erotic Subjectivity in
Anthropological Fieldwork. Pp. 1-28. London/N.Y.: Routledge.

4. - Markowitz, Fran. 1999. Sexing the Anthropologist: Implications for Ethnography.
In: Markowitz Fran and Michael Ashkenazi (eds). Sex, Sexuality and the
Anthropologist. Pp. 161-174. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
- Whitehead Tony and Mary Conaway. 1986. Introduction. In: Self, Sex and
Gender in Cross-Cultural Fieldwork. Whitehead Tony and Mary Conaway (eds).
Pp. 1-14. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
III. Contemporary Concerns
Week 6
Men and Women: Issues in Power and Resistance
- Abu-Lughod, Lila. 1990. The Romance of Resistance: Tracing Transformations
of Power through Bedouin Women. American Ethnologist 17(1): 41-55.
- Hodgson, Dorothy and Sheryl McCurdy, 2001. « Wicked women » and the
Reconfiguration of Gender in Africa. Oxford/Porthsmouth/Cape Town: James
Currey/Heinemann/David Philip. Read Introduction and Chapter 4 (Pp. 67-84).
Additional readings
- Gilmore, David. 1990. Men and Women in Southern Spain: “Domestic Power”
Revisited. American Anthropologist 92(4): 953-970.
- Gutmann, Matthew. 1997. The Ethnographic (G)Ambit: Women and the
Negotiation of Masculinity in Mexico City. American Ethnologist 24(4): 833-855.
- Harvey, Penny. 1994. Domestic Violence in the Peruvian Andes. In: Harvey
Penelope and Peter Gow. Sex and Violence. Issues in Representation and
Experience. Pp. 66-90. London and N.Y: Routledge.
Week 7
Gendered Nationalisms: Men and Women as Political Actors
- Geiger, Susan. 1987. Women in Nationalist Struggle: TANU Activists in Dar es
Salaam. International Journal of African Historical Studies 20(1): 1-26.
- Schmidt, Elizabeth. 2002. “Emancipate Your Husbands!” Women and
Nationalism in Guinea, 1953-58. In: Allman Jean, Susan Geiger and Nakanyike
Musisi. Women in African Colonial Histories. Pp. 282-304. Bloomington: Indiana
University Press.
Additional readings
- Lyons, Tanya. 2002. Guerilla Girls and Women in the Zimbabwean National
Struggle Liberation. In: Allman Jean, Susan Geiger and Nakanyike Musisi.
Women in African Colonial Histories. Pp. 305-326. Bloomington: Indiana
University Press.
- MERIP (Middle East Report). 1986. Women and Politics in the Middle East.
16(1). Read Introduction (by Joseph) and texts by Hale, Peteet and Hegland.

5. Week 8
Gender and Religion
- Hegland, Mary Elaine. 2003. Shi’a women’s rituals in Northwest Pakistan: The
Shortcomings and Significance of Resistance. Anthropological Quarterly 76(3):
411-442.
- Kenyon, Susan. 1999. The Case of the Butcher’s Wife. Illness, Possession and
Power in Central Sudan. In: Berhend, Heike and Ute Luig (eds). Spirit
Possession. Modernity and Power in Africa. Pp. 89-108. Oxford: James Currey.
Additional readings
- Bernal, Victoria. 2005. Gender, Culture and Capitalism. Women and the
Remaking of Islamic Tradition in a Sudanese Village. In: Cornwall Andrea (ed).
Readings in Gender in Africa. Pp. 164-177. London: The International African
Institute.
- Hale, Sondra. 1996. Ideology and Identity. Islamism, Gender, and the State in
Sudan. In: Brink Judy and Joan Mencher (eds). Mixed Blessings: Gender and
Religious Fundamentalism Cross-Culturally. Pp. 117-142. London/N.Y:
Routledge.
- Ong, Aihwa. 1987. Spirits of Resistance and Capitalist Discipline: Factory
Women in Malysia. Albany: State University of New York. Read Chapter 9.
Week 9
Gendered Bodies: How representations of various sorts (scientific, medical, media
and academic) affect body politics?
- Laqueur, Thomas. 1997. Orgasm, Generation, and the Politics of Reproductive
Biology. In: Lancaster Roger and Micaela di Leonardo (eds). The
Gender/Sexuality Reader. Pp. 219-243. N.Y and London: Routledge.
- Martin, Emily. 1991. The Egg and the Sperm: How Science Has Constructed a
Romance Based on Stereotypical Male-Female Roles. Signs 16(3): 485-501.
Additional readings
- Bordo, Susan. 1993. Anorexia Nervosa: Psychopathology as the Crystallization of
Culture. In: Bordo, Susan. Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and
the Body. Pp. 139-64. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- Bordo, Susan. 1997. “Material Girl”. The Effacements of Postmodern Culture. In:
Lancaster Roger and Micaela di Leonardo (eds). The Gender/Sexuality Reader.
Pp. 333-358. N.Y and London: Routledge.
- Fausto-Sterling, Anne. 1997. How to Build a Man. In: Lancaster Roger and
Micaela di Leonardo (eds). The Gender/Sexuality Reader. Pp. 244-248. N.Y and
London: Routledge.
- Martin, Emily. 1990. The Ideology of Reproduction and the Reproduction of
Ideology. In: Ginzburg Faye and Anna Tsing (eds). Uncertain Terms. Negotiating
Gender in American Culture. Pp. 300-314. Boston: Beacon Press.

6. - Rapp, Rayna. 1990. Constructing Amniocentesis: Maternal and Medical
Discourses. In: Ginzburg Faye and Anna Tsing (eds). Uncertain Terms.
Negotiating Gender in American Culture. Pp. 28-42. Boston: Beacon Press.
Week 10
Pornography and Prostitution in Cross-Cultural Settings
- Kempadoo, Kamala and Jo Doezema. 1998. Global Sex Workers: Rights,
Resistance, Redefinition. New York: Routledge. Read Introduction (Pp. 1-28).
- Liechty, Mark. 2001. Women and Pornography in Kathmandu: Negotiating the
“Modern Woman” in a Consumer Society. In: Shoma Munshi (ed). Images of the
“Modern Woman” in Asia: Global Media/Local Meanings. Pp. 34-54. London:
Curzon Press.
Further readings
- Allison, Anne. 2002. Permitted and Prohibited Desires: Mothers, Comics,
Censors. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- Bujra, Janet. 2005. Women “Entrepreneurs” of Early Nairobi. In: Cornwall
Andrea (ed). Readings in Gender in Africa. Pp. 123-132. London: The
International African Institute.
- Kulick, Don. 2005. Porn. In: Kulick, Don and Anne Meneley (eds). Fat. The
Anthropology of an Obsession. Pp 77-92. N.Y: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin.
- Rubin, Gayle, 1993. Misguided, Dangerous and Wrong: an Analysis of Anthi-
Pornographic Politics. In Assiter, Alison and Avedon Carol. Bad Girls and Dirty
Pictures. The Challenge to Reclaim Feminism. Pp. 18-40. London: Pluto Press.
Week 11
Gender and Development: The Female Genital Mutilation Debate
- Shell-Duncan, B. 2000. Female “Circumcision” in Africa: Dimensions of the
Problem and the Debates. In: Shell-Duncan, B. and Y. Hernlund (eds). Female
“Circumcision” in Africa: Culture, Change and Controversy. Pp. 1-40. Boulder:
Lynne Meyer.
- Shweder, Richard. 2003. “What about Female Genital Mutilation?” And Why
Understanding Culture Matters. In: Why Do Men Barbecue? Recipes for Cultural
Psychology. Pp. 168-216. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Additional readings
- Ahmadu, Fuambai. 2000. Rites and Wrongs: An Insider/Outsider Reflects on
Power and Excision. In: Shell-Duncan, B. and Y. Hernlund (eds). Female
“Circumcision” in Africa: Culture, Change, and Controversy. Pp. 283-312.
Boulder: Lynne Meyer.
- Boddy, Janice. 1982. Womb as Oasis: The Symbolic Context of Pharaonic
Circumcision in Rural Northern Sudan. American Ethnologist 9: 682-698.

7. - Grunenbaum, E. 1996. The Cultural Debate over Female Circumcision: The
Sudanese Are Arguing This One Out for Themselves. Medical Anthropology
Quarterly 10: 455-475.
- Walley, Christine. 1997. Searching for “Voices”: Feminism, Anthropology, and
the Global Debate over Female Genital Operations. Cultural Anthropology 12(3):
405-438.
Week 12
Queering Anthropology?
- Butler, Judith. 1997. Excerpt from “Introduction” to Bodies That Matter. In:
Lancaster Roger and Micaela di Leonardo (eds). The Gender/Sexuality Reader.
Pp. 531-542. N.Y and London: Routledge.
- Longman, Chia. 2002. Dynamics of Sex, Gender and Culture: Native American
Berdache or “Two-Spirit People” in Discourse and Context. In: Saunders Barbara
and Marie-Claire Foblets. Changing Genders in Intercultural Perspectives. Pp.
121-153. Leuven: Leuven University Press.
Additional readings
- Besnier, Nico. 2002. Transgenderism, Locality, and the Miss Galaxy Beauty
Pageant in Tonga. American Ethnologist 29: 534-566.
- Evans-Pritchard, E. 1970. Sexual Inversion among the Azande. American
Anthropologist 72: 1428-1434.
- Kulick, Don. 1997. The Gender of Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes. American
Anthropologist 99(3): 574-585.
- Morris, R. 1995. All Made Up: Performance Theory and the New Anthropology
of Sex and Gender. Annual Review of Anthropology 24: 567-592.
- Wikan, Unni. 1977. Man Becomes Woman: Transsexualism in Oman as Key to
Gender Roles. Man 12: 304-319.