The Catholic University of America

 
Sex and Culture in Modern World
Anthropology 202
 
Tuesday & Thursday, 3:35 - 4:50 p.m.
Fall 2009 / Aquinas Hall 102
 
Dr. María-Amelia Viteri
viteri@cua.edu
 
Office Hours: Tuesday 2-3:30 p.m. or by appointment, Marist Hall 3
 
Course Description
The course will examine sex, gender, and culture in societies around the world. We will focus on three issues throughout the semester: (1) the creation, maintenance and change of cultural differences in gender; (2) the work of culture in gender and sexuality; and (3) the production of ‘equality’ and ‘inequality’ in different societies. Specifically:
 
(1) We will look carefully at the meanings around "female", "male" as they are defined and practiced in different parts of the world. We will also look at how gender informs the lives of women and men and the implications around these representations.
 
(2) Sexuality and gender as shaped by culture. We will explore how desire, sex, gender, sexuality are constructed in various social contexts.
 
(3) We will examine preoccupations with rank, status, equality and inequality in social life. How are women and men valued differently in different cultures? In different aspects of the same culture? On what cultural grounds? How do the different values placed on women and men affect their lives?
 
As we examine gender, sexuality and status in other cultures, we will be re-thinking our own understandings and practices. We will take a critical look at what we take to be "the way things are" (the common sense that tells us that things could not be otherwise), our beliefs and actions, and the various critical stances of "feminism."
 
Goals of the course are to provide tools that will help students critically analyze sex, gender and culture as meaning-making practices. Students will learn how these practices affect the way we live and understand ourselves and our environment and the implications of a ‘gendered’ world; that is to say, a world mostly divided in male/female and men/women. 
 
Course Texts
Brettell, Caroline & Carolyn Sargent. 2000. Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective, 4th Edition. Pearson: Prentice-Hall.
 
Meneley, Anne. 1996. Tournaments of Value: Sociability and Hierarchy in a YemeniTown.University of Toronto Press.
 
Nanda, Serena. 1999. Neither Man Nor Woman: Hijras of India, 2nd Edition.  Wadsworth Publishing Company.
 
Articles (to be posted on blackboard)
 
Ginsberg, Faye and Rayna Rapp. 1991. The Politics of Reproduction. Annual Review of
Anthropology (20): 311-343.
 
Hayden, Robert M. 2000. Rape and Rape Avoidance in Ethno-National Conflicts:
Sexual Violence in Liminalized States. American Anthropologist 102 (1): 27-41.
 
Ortner, Sherry. 1974. “Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture?” In Michelle Z.
Rosaldo and Louise Lamphere, eds. Woman, Culture and Society, pp. 66-87. Stanford: StanfordUniversity Press. 
 
D’Arcangelis, Gwen. 2009. Surveillance and Policing in U.S. Bioscience: Producing
Transnational Others, in Shifting Positionalities, The Local and International Geo-Politics of Surveillance and Policing. Viteri, Maria Amelia and Tobler, Aaron (eds.). Cambridge Scholars Publishing: UK. pp. 38-48.
 
Lancaster, Roger. 1997. Guto’s Performance, Notes on the Transvestism of Everyday
Life. in The Gender/Sexuality Reader. (Lancaster, Roger; Di Leonardo, Micaela eds.)
 
Course Requirements
The reading assignments given below are required for satisfactory work. Class members are expected to have prepared reading assignments for each class and are responsible in class and in exams for all this material whether or not it has been covered in lectures.  This includes all material in lectures, readings, maps, videos and films, and discussions.
 
Two exams will be given, one mid-term and one take-home exam. The mid-term exam will include short answer questions.
 
The take-home exam will begin at 9 a.m. on Friday, December the 11th and finish at 5 p.m. on Monday, December the 14th. Three essay questions will be distributed via e-mail shortly before 9 a.m. on 12/11 and students will be asked to respond to two questions. Answers to each question should not exceed 8 double-spaced pages (12 point font). Students will be asked to send their take-home exams to Dr. Viteri via e-mail as Word attachments (make sure you receive a confirmation email).  Take-home exams that are turned in after 5p.m. on 12/14 will not be accepted. 
 
Finally, a short paper (6-8 double-spaced pages, 12 point font) is required.  Please see me by November 10 to discuss and have your topic approved. Papers on topics that are not approved will not be accepted.  The paper is due on Thursday, December 3 where students are also encouraged to briefly discuss with the class the main findings of their short paper. There will be a grade penalty for students who do not submit their papers on time.
 
Grades: Mid-term exam: 30%; take-home exam: 30%; term paper: 30%; and class participation: 10%
 
Course Outline
 
Week One: Biology and Human Evolution
Tuesday, Sept 1:  Course Introduction: Sex and Gender
 
Thursday, Sept 3: Biology, Gender and Human Evolution
 
Brettell & Sargent, I: pp.1-21
Nanda: Introduction
 
 DOCUMENTARY: Wishing for Seven Sons and One Daughter /
 Azerbaijan
 
Week Two: Nature Versus Culture
Tuesday, Sept 8: Questioning Dualisms
 
Sherry Ortner, “Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture?”
 
Lancaster, Roger. 1997. Guto’s Performance, Notes on the Transvestism of Everyday Life. in The Gender/Sexuality Reader. (Lancaster, Roger; Di Leonardo, Micaela eds.)
 
Thursday, Sept 10: Women and “Female” Roles
 
Brettell & Sargent, I: pp. 21-48
Nanda: Chapter 1
 DOCUMENTARY: Juchitan queer paradise
 
Week Three: Prehistory, Gender and Ritual 
Tuesday, Sept 15: Prehistory and Gender
 
Brettell and Sargent, II: pp. 49-80
 
Thursday, Sept 17: Gender and Ritual
 
Nanda: Chapters 2 and 3
 
Week Four: Domestic and Public Worlds
Tuesday, Sept 22: Women’s and Men’s Spaces
 
Brettell and Sargent, III: pp. 81-133
DOCUMENTARY: Eunuchs, India's third gender
 
Thursday, Sept 24: Equality and Gender
 
Brettell and Sargent, IV: pp. 141-169
Nanda: Chapter 4
 
Week Five: The Cultural Construction of Gender
Tuesday, Sept 29: Gender and Personhood
 
Brettell and Sargent, V: pp. 185-240
 
Thursday, Oct 1: Constructing Masculinity 
Prepare for Midterm: Work Study Questions
 
Nanda: Chapters 5 and 6
DOCUMENTARY: Sisters in Law
 
Week Six: Gender and Sexuality
Tuesday, Oct 6: Sexuality and Culture
 
                                    Brettell and Sargent, VI: pp. 241-298
                                    DOCUMENTARY: Middle Sexes: Re-defining he and she
 
Thursday, Oct 8: I MIDTERM
 
Week Seven: Gender Variations
Tuesday, Oct 13:    Gender and Social Place
 
    Nanda: Chapters 7 and 8
 
Thursday, Oct 15: Gender Identities and Roles
 
                            Nanda: Chapters 9, 10 and Epilogue
 
Week Eight: Gender, Bodies and the State
Tuesday, Oct 20: Women and the Global Economy
 
Brettell and Sargent, XI: pp. 536-564
DOCUMENTARY: NO LOGO OR ASSEMBLY LINES
 
Thursday, Oct 22: Gender and Political Experience
 
Brettell and Sargent, VII: pp. 299-319
             Meneley: Introduction
 
Guest Speakers: to be confirmed
 
Week Nine: Political Ideologies and Gender
Tuesday, Oct 27: Nations, Ideology and Gender
 
Brettell and Sargent, VII: pp. 320-348
Meneley: Chapter One
 
Men Can Stop Rape Campaign, http://www.mencanstoprape.org/
 
Thursday, Oct 29: Nations, Kinship and Gender Violence
 
Hayden, Robert M. “Rape and Rape Avoidance in Ethno-National Conflicts: Sexual Violence in Liminalized States”
 
DOCUMENTARY: The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo
 
Week Ten: Gender, Kinship and Household
Tuesday, Nov 3: Family and Gender
 
Meneley: Chapters 2 and 3
Brettell and Sargent, VIII: 349-372
 
Thursday, Nov 5: Marriage and Gender
 
Brettell and Sargent, VIII: pp. 372-389
Meneley: Chapters 4 and 5 
 
 DOCUMENTARY: MONDAY GIRLS
 
 Week Eleven: Gender, Ritual and Religion 
Tuesday, Nov 10: Gender and Rituals I
 
Brettell and Sargent, IX: pp. 391- 421
Meneley: Chapter 6
 
Guest Speaker: to be confirmed
 
Last day to decide the topic of your term paper
 
Thursday, Nov 12: Gender and Rituals II
 
Brettell and Sargent, IX: pp. 421-442
Meneley: Chapter 7 and 8
DOCUMENTARY: “A World without Fathers or Husbands”
 
Week Twelve: The Politics of Reproduction
Tuesday, Nov 17: Reproductive Behaviors
Brettell and Sargent, X: pp. 443-470
 
Thursday, Nov 19: Surrogate Motherhood and Female Circumcision 
 
Brettell and Sargent, X: pp.471-494
Ginsberg, Faye and Rayna Rapp, “The Politics of
Reproduction”
 
Week Thirteen: Islam and Gender
Tuesday, Nov 24: Gender and Human Rights
 
Abu- Lughod, Lila, “Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving?”
DOCUMENTARY: “Not Without My Veil Among the Women of Oman”
 
Thursday, Nov 26: NO CLASS, Thanksgiving Break
 
Week Fourteen: Development and Gender
Tuesday, Dec 1: Women and Development
 
Brettell and Sargent, XI: pp. 495-535
D’Arcangelis, Gwen. Surveillance and Policing in U.S. Bioscience: Producing Transnational Others
 
Bring your own material for discussion and analysis (example you tube, advertisements, favorite series, phrases, article, videogames, websites, blogs, facebook, music, movies, images, magazines)
 
Thursday December 3: TERM PAPER DUE AND SHORT ORAL PRESENTATIONS
 
Week Fifteen: FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE
 
Tuesday Dec 8: NO CLASS (Patronal Feast of the Immaculate Conception)
 
Thursday Dec 10:  From Theory to Practice
 
Review for Take Home Exam (please bring your questions)
 
Art/Action Projects: Transtango and “Drag Project”/Ecuador
 
TAKE HOME EXAM:9a.m. Friday , Dec 11 – 5p.m. Mon, Dec 14
 
FURTHER RECOMMENDED READINGS
 
Stone, Linda, and Nancy P. McKee. 2002. "Gender on the College Campus." Ch. 6 In Gender and Culture in America, 2nd ed. Prentice Hall. 
 
Canaan, Joyce. 1990. "Passing Notes and Telling Jokes: Gendered Strategies Among AmericanMiddle School Teenagers." In Uncertain Terms, ed. F. Ginsburg & A. Tsing.
 
Luibhéid, Eithne. 2002. Entry Denied:   A History of U.S. Immigration Control: 1-29. in Entry Denied: Controlling Sexuality at the Border. Minneapolist and London: University of Minnesota
Lutz, Catherine and Jane Collins. 1993. "A World Brightly Different." In Reading National Geographic. ChicagoIL: University of Chicago Press.
Frankenberg, Ruth. 1993. The Social Construction of Whiteness: White Women, Race Matters. Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press.
Gutiérrez, Ramón. The Erotic Zone: Sexual Transgression on the U.S.-Mexican Border. In Mapping Multiculturalism. Gordon, Avery F.; Newfiled, Christopher (eds.). University of Minnesota Press: Minneapolis. pp. 253-262.
 
Decena, Carlos Ulises; “Los Hombres no Mandan Aquí” Narrating Immigrant Genders and Sexualities in New York: 35-54. Social Text, Fall 2006. Duke University Press
 
 
FURTHER RECOMMENDED FILMS
 
Daughter from Danang
Paris is Burning
Gender matters
Secrets of women
Inconscientes / Unconscious
Judith Butler, Philosophical encounters of the third kind
Discovering Dominga
 
 
Expectations and policies
 
Academic honesty:
Academic honesty is expected of all CUA students. Faculty are required to initiate the imposition of sanctions when they find violations of academic honesty, such as plagiarism, improper use of a student’s own work, cheating, and fabrication. 
The following sanctions are presented in the University procedures related to Student Academic Dishonesty (from https://mail.cua.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://policies.cua.edu/academicundergrad/integrityprocedures.cfm): “The presumed sanction for undergraduate students for academic dishonesty will be failure for the course. There may be circumstances, however, where, perhaps because of an undergraduate student’s past record, a more serious sanction, such as suspension or expulsion, would be appropriate. In the context of graduate studies, the expectations for academic honesty are greater, and therefore the presumed sanction for dishonesty is likely to be more severe, e.g., expulsion. ...In the more unusual case, mitigating circumstances may exist that would warrant a lesser sanction than the presumed sanction.”
 
Please review the complete texts of the University policy and procedures regarding Student Academic Dishonesty, including requirements for appeals, at http://policies.cua.edu/academicundergrad/integrity.cfm and http://policies.cua.edu/academicundergrad/integrity.cfm.
 
Timely completion of assignments:
Assignments are due on the dates and in the formats indicated, either on paper at the beginning of class or as email attachments (DOC, RTF, or PDF only, please) before class. These are assists for discussion, for your orientation, and not notes after discussion or other afterthoughts. Late assignments, without University-recognised excuse, will be graded down one-half letter grade for the first day, one letter grade thereafter.
 
In classroom etiquette:
The Anthropology Department has an established policy regarding behavior in class. Barring emergency, students will remain seated during class, not getting up to walk out and return. Bathrooms are available for use before and after class. The use of cell phones or other electronic devices such as iPods, Playstations, Palm Pilots, Blackberries or Trios is prohibited during class. Kindly turn these off.
Accommodations for students with disabilities:
Any student who feels s/he may need an accommodation based on the impact of a disability should contact the instructor privately to discuss specific needs. Please contact Disability Support Services (at 202 319-5211, room 207 Pryzbyla Center) to coordinate reasonable accommodations for students with documented disabilities. To read about the services and policies, please visit the website: http://disabilitysupport.cua.edu.