...Alternate Gender Roles in Native American and Hindu Societies Sara Boater Anthropology 101: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology Cal Overton January 09, 2014 While many cultures have defined societal gender roles that are specifically male or female, there are some cultures that also recognize that some individuals belong to an alternate gender role. Individuals that may participate in alternate gender roles are those that are born as male of female, but identify themselves as being the opposite of their biological sex. These individuals may also be only sexually attracted to members of the same sex as well. Some cultures recognize this alternate gender role, and even consider them to be holy, others may be more judgmental and may even harbor prejudice and hatred. While the reasons that people might identify themselves as a gender that is opposite of their own may be mostly the same from culture to culture, they way that they are viewed is usually quite different. It can also be said that many cultures choose not to even recognize alternate gender roles within their societies,which is usually because these individuals are highly misunderstood. Though many cultures end up fearing what they don't understand, there are two that have at one time embraced and celebrated the people that identified with the alternate gender roles. The Native Americans have their Two Spirits, and Indians have their Hijra. These two cultures may share many similar traits...
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...1) Gender roles, have been around since the beginning of mankind civilization. The most memorable time for standard American gender roles and stereotypes, was in the 20s to the 80s. Men were always seen as the stronger, provider of the family, while the woman was always the caregiver and the house-keeper. It has been said lately that gender roles are a thing of the past, and that the no longer truly exist. Most people are sitting back and asking if the roles are irrelevant or not. Through a poll taken, and I can see why people are starting to have this kind of mindset. So the question is, are these roles still relevant in today’s society? 2) In support of there no longer being gender roles, many believe it could help with men be more generous and chivalrous. This is due to more freedom in relationships and not feeling like you’re are trapped to do a certain role. You can be more in your comfort zone of what your skillset is. This can also lead to more or less responsibilities within the relationships, whichever one is better. With more freedom, this can allow for more trust to be within the family, because when you’re stuck or forced to do something, humans get a sense to rebel....
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...Gender Equality Women have faced major discrimination when it comes to work and sometimes in education. Women decades ago had a wide range of opportunities denied to them due to their sex. Women have always been looked upon as the weaker sex and men as stronger and as the rulers. Women years ago were not seen as individuals, they were basically their husband’s slaves. Women were the ones to stay home, make dinner for their cranky and tired husband, look after their children, clean the house and answer to their husband. It was pretty safe to say that women were never the ones that over ruled this society, but “there have been huge changes…” (182) in gender equality. Gender equality has changed dramatically over the years and the shift toward gender equality will continue over the next years to come. It all started in the 19th century something important was born and it was the birth of the women's rights movement. Women were tired of being the “caregiver[s]” (Gender Roles Within American Marriage) while the men were the “breadwinners” (Gender Roles Within American Marriage). Women had to do change things around because they could not live the same life they were living. Many of the “women were suffering under the dominance of men in their lives” (Gender Roles Within American Marriage). It was time for women to fight for “gender equality in family and society economics, social, cultural, and educational fields” (Gender Roles Within American Marriage). It was not easy for...
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...It is undeniable that societies and cultures have structures and roles that are intended to apply to men and women. These gender roles and structures also seem to transcend into the literature of that society and time period respectively. There is a particularly stark contrast in the roles of women between cultures in specific stories. European-centric stories tend to have inverted roles of women in comparison to Native American stories. For example, Theseus, a tale of greek mythology, has strikingly contrastive roles of women when juxtaposed to a book such as Land of the Spotted Eagle that emphasizes women’s roles in Native American stories and culture. These examples, among others highlight differences and make note of similarities. The...
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...Children learn from their parents and society the conception of "feminine" and "masculine." Much about these conceptions is not biological at all but cultural. The way we tend to think about men and women and their gender roles in society constitute the prevailing paradigm that influences out thinking. Riane Eisler points out that the prevailing paradigm makes it difficult for us to analyze properly the roles of men and women in prehistory "we have a cultural bias that we bring to the effort and that colors our decision-making processes." Sexism is the result of that bias imposed by our process of acculturation.Gender roles in Western societies have been changing rapidly in recent years, with the changes created both by evolutionary changes in society, including economic shifts which have altered the way people work and indeed which people work as more and more women enter the workforce, and by perhaps pressure brought to make changes because of the perception that the traditional social structure was inequitable. Gender relations are a part of the socialization process, the initiation given the young by society, teaching them certain values and creating in them certain behavior patterns acceptable to their social roles. These roles have been in a state of flux in American society in recent years, and men and women today can be seen as having expanded their roles in society, with women entering formerly male dominions and men finding new ways to relate to and function in the family...
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...Alternative Gender Roles Richard Taylor Introduction to Cultural Anthropology ANT 101 Debbie Cassetta July 14th, 2014 Although alternative gender is largely looked down upon in western culture, this is not a new trend in the world. Around the globe alternative gender has been held in high regards throughout history. Individuals of the third gender are typical known seen as males taking on more feminine roles within their society. It is true that more males adhere to the title of alternative gender, but females also transition to more masculine roles as well. These types of individuals are typically considered special among the people within society. They are usually healers, medicine men or women, or even individuals who have the power to curse others. Two spirits are among some of the more famous alternative gender individuals of the western world. Two spirits are engrained into many Native American cultures. The Zuni of central New Mexico are one of the tribes that hold two spirits in very high regard. Two spirits are even a part of their religious lore and are often used in their religious ceremonies to reenact the legends of the two spirit deity. In Evolution’s Rainbow Joan Roughgarden (2004) states: Among the Zuni, for example, legend tells of a battle between agricultural and hunting spirits in which a two-spirited deity brought peace to the warring parties. Zunis reenacted this event ceremonially every four years, with a two-spirited person playing the role of the...
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...Nickisher White December 4, 2013 Professor Fischer Gender Inequality in a Global Perspective What is Gender Inequality? Like others, a social problem that is widespread in American society is Gender inequality. It is a problem that has had a negative impact on American society. Gender inequality can be found in many sub-systems of America. It is important to understand what gender inequality is in order to identify and correct the problem. Two sub-systems that gender inequality can be found are in the family and in the workplace. Gender inequality, in my definition, is the unequal and biased treatment between the two sexes. I strongly believe that the unequal treatment of women is something that should have stayed in original times. We are in the present now and we are far more advanced than we ever were and yet we are old school in our thinking of how men and women should be treated. I can strongly identify with gender inequality because many of my closest friends have faced it or still face it. Materialist theories define gender inequality as a result of how men and women are tied to the economic structure of society. They believe that women’s role as a mother and wife are devalued by society and deny access to highly respected public opportunities. Gender stratification refers to the ranking of the sexes in such a way that women are unequal in power, resources, prestige, or worth. Materialist theories indicate that gender stratification is increased where women’s work...
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...Vasconcellos Fabiana Vasconcellos ENG 201 – 526 Apr. 20, 2010 Prof. J. Wynter Societies can be stratified in various ways, such as religion, social class, language, race, ethnicity, gender and sex. These distinctions are either socially constructed or born within the individual. Sex; for example, is based on the ascribed status since it is “imposed by nature” (Renzetti and Curran 137) and biologically determined. In contrast, gender is socially constructed since it “refers to the constellation of traits and behaviors that compose the categories masculine and feminine” (Renzetti and Curran 252). These gender distinctions are reinforced by stereotypes that contribute to social inequality and discrimination in the western societies. Throughout history, our society has always complied with gender roles, however today we are walking through a path to reverse them. Having been conformed to mother’s role for 40 years, Sarah Pen the main character in Mary E. Wilkins Freeman’ “The Revolt of the Mother” gains self-confidence to challenge traditional gender roles and reverses them in order to live in a better home. Our society has always characterized men and women in different ways and expected different behaviors from them. “[M]en have generally been the dominant sex and women have been subordinate to them” (Robertson 217). Men are also “strong”, “rational” and “aggressive” while women are “weak”, “emotional”, and “submissive” (Basow 1). These masculine and feminine traits show...
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...Ekke Kanda English 112 Vocal Performances in American Stand-Up Comedy In “Sounding Gendered: Vocal Performances”, Tom Delph-Janiurek argues that peoples voices are mediated by discourse (Giltrow 277). He explains that voices are interpreted through attribution to recognizable performances of roles and gendered and sexualized performances (Giltrow 276). According to Delph-Janiurek, voices are limited within the confines of certain societal hegemonic norms. He explains that the relationship between voices and bodies is not necessarily physiological; voices are vocal “performances”. There exists a pre-established gender duality within society, in which masculinity and the “male” voice is associated with the male body, and femininity and the “female” voice is associated with the female body. Thus, what is considered to be a “natural” voice is merely a choice made by an individual as to which of the two sides of duality they identify with more (Gamson). This choice is a representation of a gendered and sexualized identity that is influenced by discourse. Gender norms dictate that males identify with the more masculine voice, with a lower pitch and only slight increases in intonation. The stereotypical female voice, on the other hand, is more high pitched, with more variation in intonation (Bonds-Raacke). With this in consideration, Delph Janiurek’s thesis is that voices have a “geography”, and that they can be authored in a certain way within certain societal “spaces” (Giltrow...
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...Gender Roles in American Society Femininity and masculinity are topics that have been debated over in our society extensively, through psychological research and day to day interaction with people. Children learn from their parents as well as society the concept of “feminine” and “masculine.” The majority of people tend to believe that these conceptions are biological but I believe it is more cultural and it affects the society that we all live in . From birth, female children are shaped by society as being sweet, caring, loving, and delicate and usually associated with the color pink. While male children are shaped by being tough, aggressive, and competitive and associated with the color blue. As these children grow, the boy is given a football to play with and the girl a Barbie. All of these aspects illustrate how gender socialization takes place early in children’s lives and how society has made it a norm to accept these stereotypes. Although the women's suffrage movement paved the way for great successes in women's history, research shows that women will always be seen as unequal to men. Gender role is a commonly discussed subject in society. Gender role simply defined is a person's inner sense of how a male or female should feel and behave. Society and culture are also very important in relation to this subject. This means different societies and cultures may produce children and later, grown men and women, who have different views of a man or a woman's place...
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...Gender roles are the stereotypical attributes, that made men believe- as well as portray that they are and will be, the stronger sex. Women have been deemed “hysterical” and “weak”, but they are far from those words. Women have undergone different gender stereotypes, while men take them for granted and see them as theirs. Judeth Butler made it known that gender roles were fictional. Spanish, African American, post-colonial women and Native American women faced horrendous obstacles throughout their life with gender roles and unjust events – and those obstacles are still being faced in today’s culture. Gender roles and gender stereotypes are what men have based their whole life existence around. “All gendered behavior in our society is an act.”...
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...Third Genders in Cultural Societies M’Tisha Garnett ANT 101 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology Instructor: Larissa Begley February 3, 2014 In society today should the Hijra and Two Spirit be recognized as gay men in their culture rather than Third Gender? Studies have shown that these Third Gender groups choose not to label themselves as male or female, but prefer a female appearance and male companionship. This way of life has resulted in a high rate of HIV/AIDS in their communities. There are many Third Gender groups in different cultures such as the Fa’afafine in Polynesia, Sworn Virgins from the Balkins and the Hijra’s from South Asia. Hijra who of the Third Gender have since the late 90’s been recognized as a third gender by their county but they are still dealing with acceptance in their society. Although a lot of these Third Gender groups been around for centuries and some hold a spiritual meaning, that is not much of the case today. Third Genders such as Hijra and Two-Spirits are not seen in society as spiritual beings anymore, they are being labeled transsexual, transgender, or gay. Because of their status and lack of money and education they have been forced into prostitution with the same sex, exposing them to HIV and AIDS which is plaguing their community. The hijras are a religious community of men who dress and act like women and whose culture centers on the worship of Bahuchara Mata, one of the many versions of the Mother Goddess worshipped throughout...
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...Female Roles in American Society. “How would society look like without women?” With reference to societies psychological understanding of gender and their roles, a gender role can be explained as the behavior or image expected to be portrayed according to a person sex or identity in the society. It’s generally assumed that society place little or no demand on females. The societies view the above gender from different perspectives and angles of life. This leads led to the discussing, the roles of female in American society. The roles of the females have shifted from the both cultural and traditional view. No particular profession/field can be ascribed to a particular gender again. Most cultures tend to believe that women were at the back of...
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...Gender Role Analysis Mindy Brown SOC/333 February 17, 2014 Erica Lloyd Gender Role Analysis Gender roles and stereotypes are often intertwined. Stereotypes can be positive or negative, and are speculations about the roles of each gender. The stereotypical female role is to marry, have children, and take care of the household duties. Stereotype of the male role is to be the family provider financially. Children learn these from adults as stereotypes and gender roles are passed from one generation to another. This paper will analyze gender roles shaped by education, norms of the government, its laws and its policies, and in the workplace. Gender Shaped by Education Gender roles and stereotypes are often reinforced in the classroom setting. Children learn these gender biases from their teachers and the materials used for learning. Some teachers have an unconscious bias toward a gender and make assumptions based on the gender's behavior and actions. Girls are expected to be polite and studious while boys are rational, unruly, and boisterous. Bias may also be social as well. Teachers may socially categorize children by race, class, and religion. For example, they may perceive African American girls to be more outspoken and louder than Caucasian girls. Teacher typically targeted boys of the Caucasian race as they asked and answered most questions (Scantlebury, 2009). Teachers may ask them more complicated questions than the girls. If they are unable to answer the question...
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...performing tasks that has been predetermined as something of the opposite sex. Gender roles are socially constructed. It is what society has designed to be of the norm. Marriage is a legally recognized union between two people, usually man and woman. Gender is the expectations that one forms of others based upon them being females or males. When we think about gender roles in marriages, we think about a specific tasks that a husband and wife must perform. In earlier...
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