Anth 25 Mar 2002

[adric]

Less sick. Still producing a little phlegm. Wheee.



Gender:

• gender:some cultures hold that children are born (physically) androgynous and ritualized into gender, usually by physical changes


• reinforce ideas about status of males and females


• help shape individual into culture's ideal male or female


• Establish links between peers and elders


• provide practical instruction for adult roles


• provide instruction about belief system, values, rules of behaviour

Types of Gender Rituals:

• birth, rebirth : male children ritually reborn of males


• naming after relatives


• birthdays and age holidays


• circumcision (excision, infibulation), subincision
  
  
  
  • all known cultures which c. females c. males
  
  
  • many cultures c. males but not females
  
  
  • excision: part or all of clitoris is removed (becasue clitoris is seem as similar to a penis)
  
  
  • feminist agrument: reduces woman's enjoyment of sex
  
  
  • infibulation: lips of vulva are stitched closed, leaving a small opening (drinking straw sized)
  
  
  • upon marriage, scar tissue is cut away
  
  
  • some cultures may re-in. during nursing or after birth
  
  
  • a few times infib. was practiced in war to discourage rape
  
  
  • infib. causes many health problems
  
  
  • chart in CP (p 111) of common views on female/male circumcision
  
  
  • uncleanliness -> marriagability
  
  
  • approx 20% of male population is circumscised worldwide
  
  
  
  


• coming of age

video clips narrated by zoologist Desmond Morris of Oxford

Yemen

• male birth celebrated, female birth basically ignored


• small sums of cash donated (tucked in blanket)


• male dominated society


• defines social importance of male gender

Kameroon

• infant is purified by oils applied by shaman


• reborn by male healer


• def. social importance of male gender

Greece (Orthodox)

• christening with holy oil


• symbolic rebirth


• male name


• immersion


• purifies baby from animalistic birth


• hair cut is form of cross


• boys taken into sancutary, girls not allowed inside


• women unclean, cannot enter santuary until menopause


• differntiates genders

Malta

• oochia?: one year birthday


• minor divination: comb (hair dresser), rosary (nun), needle thread (seamstress)


• establish gender


• define gender roles (career)

US co-ed primary school

• gender separation -> incest avoidance


• opposite sex will be re-met after puberty


• siblings will retain non-sexual identity

Turkey

• boys' shared ordeal: circumcision


• from Egyptian immortality fixation / snake shedding skin


• snake worship forgotten, but "spurious medical reasons were invented to keep the practice going"


• enforces social order and rules(class)


• differentiates from parents

Thailand

• in youth, every boy must spend a year as a monk


• rise at dawn, pray to Buddha, beg for food


• rites seperate boys from girls and from their families


• "Women during menstration should not enter the temple."


• enforce difference between genders

Wyuu

• girls isolated in a hut for up to 3 years to weave hammocks


• instructed by female family members


• uncleanliness, secrecy, social rules, gender dominance

trad. Islam

• girls: veils from puberty on


• first veil marks great change in life


• gender dominance

Yemen

• boy wears large dagger (jambir)


• replaces child sized dagger


• gender differentiantaion

Latin American

• 300 y old ceromony ("") false wedding


• vows of chastity until marriage


• switches children shoes for adult ones


• dances with her father

Britain

• ettiquette and social conduct


• entering and leaving rooms


• sports cars

Bundu

• settles elders and peer groups

Nigerian

• settles elder and peer groups