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Module 4 Review Questions The Cultural Construction of Gender and Personhood NOTE: These review questions are not graded but rather are designed to help you pull out the pertinent information in each reading and to reinforce your learning.

Review Questions: Introduction to “The cultural construction of gender and personhood” Please read the assigned reading and complete the review questions.

In Brettell, C. B., & Sargent, C. F. (Eds.). (2013). Gender in cross-cultural perspective (6th ed.). Toronto, ON: Pearson Education. Brettell, C. B., & Sargent, C. F. (2013). Introduction to “The cultural construction of gender and personhood.” (pp. 159-163).

1. a) Define symbol and stereotype. Symbol – Something verbal or non-verbal that arbitrarily and by convention stands for something else with which it has no natural connection Stereotype – Overly simplified but strongly held ideas about the characteristics of males and females.

b) How do these concepts assign meaning and value to the categories of male and female? The nature–culture dichotomy is a useful explanatory model in the United States where, according to Martin (1987: 17), “Women are intrinsically closely involved with the family where so many ‘natural,’ ‘bodily’ (and therefore lower) functions occur, whereas men are intrinsically closely involved with the world of work where (at least for some) ‘cultural,’ ‘mental,’ and therefore higher functions occur c) How is this seen in the media and in toys for children? In children’s cartoons, women are still the helpless victims that the fearless male hero must rescue. Toys are targeted either for little boys or little girls and are packaged appropriately in colors and materials culturally defined as either masculine or feminine. 2. a) Describe the Nature-Culture dichotomy.

The nature–culture dichotomy is a useful explanatory model in the United States where, according to Martin (1987: 17), “Women are intrinsically closely involved with the family where so many ‘natural,’ ‘bodily’ (and therefore lower) functions occur, whereas men are intrinsically closely involved with the world of work where (at least for some) ‘cultural,’ ‘mental,’ and therefore higher functions occur. An explanatory model that associates women with nature through the association with the family where many “natural” or bodily functions occur, and men with culture through the association with the world of work where “cultural”, “mental”, and therefore, higher functions occur. b) What are the three main criticisms of this dichotomy? The critique of the concepts of universal subordination and of the nature–culture dichotomy has stimulated significant research on how gender identity and gender roles are constructed in particular cultural contexts.

3. a) What does the cultural construction of gender involve? The cultural construction of gender in a particular society involves definitions of what it means to be masculine or feminine, and these definitions vary cross culturally 4. a) How do initiation rituals differ for males and females? The rites, ceremonies, ideas, or instructions with which ones is made a member of a particular community or group.

b) Among the Mende of Sierra Leone, what is the act of boys being seized from their homes by the force of spirits considered to signify? Among the Mende of Sierra leone (little 1951), for example, boy initiates are seized from their homes by the force of spirits—men wearing masks and long raffia skirts. In this act, they are dramatically and suddenly separated from their childhood, and carried into the bush, where they will spend several weeks in seclusion and transition before they reemerge as men. Gilmore (1990: 11) sums up the importance of these rituals to construct manhood by identifying a recurring cross-cultural notion: that “real manhood is different from simple anatomical maleness, that it is not a natural condition that comes about spontaneously

through biological maturation but rather is a precarious or artificial state that boys must win against powerful odds”

c) What is usually involved with the transition to womanhood? Initiation rituals that prepare girls for their roles as women and instruct them in what it means to be a woman in a particular cultural context can also be found in various societies around the world. however, the transition to womanhood is often part of a more subtle and continuous process of enculturation and socialization. In a description of hausa socialization, Callaway (1987) demonstrates how girls in this society learn how to behave in culturally appropriate ways d) Among the Hausa of northern Nigeria, when do girls marry? hausa girls marry young, generally upon reaching puberty. At that time they enter kulle, or seclusion. In seclusion, the social roles of women are specifically defined and their sexual activities are limited. e) What is the purpose of going into seclusion? Although a hausa woman becomes part of her husband’s family, her place is secured only by bearing sons, and all her children belong to her husband. hausa women are taught the expected life course from early childhood.

5. a) What attributes may be considered to constitute personhood? b) Conceptions of the self or personhood are, as henrietta Moore (1988: 39; see also Moore 1994) has observed, “cross-culturally as variable as the concepts of ‘woman’ and ‘man.’” Personhood is constituted by a variety of attributes. In addition to gender, it may comprise age, status in the family and in the community, and physical appearance or impairment. c) How may naming construct personhood? In many cultures, naming is also an important mechanism for constructing personhood. In the United States, for instance, the use of Ms. to replace Mrs. and Miss is an acceptable option. It is now quite common for married women to retain the name that they were born with rather than replace it with one that only gives them an identity in relation to someone else—their husband. “these names both reflect and affect the transactions which constitute a person’s fundamental social relationships and identity. . . . Totemic names allow both men and women to pursue

respectively their culturally defined preoccupations of political competition and the bearing of children. The totemic names available to men, however, convey different sorts of power and resources than do those available to women. . . . Men seek to augment their own power through gaining control of the names of others. . . . The power conveyed by [women’s] names cannot shape social relationships as does the power of names men hold, but, instead, ensures reproduction.” d) How may personhood be encoded in the language men and women use? In many cultures around the world, speech styles differ between men and women, whereas in others there are no distinctions (Keenan 1974; Sherzer 1987). Sometimes these differences are associated with the relative equality/inequality between the sexes, and hence with power. As Susan Gal (1991: 177) has written, “some linguistic strategies and genres are more highly valued and carry more authority than others.” Bonnie Mcelhinny (in this book) takes up the topic of gendered language and its relation to authority and personhood in her research on the Pittsburgh police department.

Review Questions: Rituals of manhood Please read the assigned reading and complete the review questions.

In Brettell, C. B., & Sargent, C. F. (Eds.). (2013). Gender in cross-cultural perspective (6th ed.). Toronto, ON: Pearson Education. Herdt, G. H. (2013). Rituals of manhood: Male initiation in Papua New Guinea. (pp. 175-178).

1. a) According to the Sambia, maleness is not biologically given but must be induced. warfare, marriage, and initiation were interlocking institutions; the effect of this political instability was to reinforce tough, strident masculine performance in most arenas of social life. “Strength” (jerundu) was—and is—a pivotal idea in this male ethos. Indeed, strength, which has both ethnobiological and behavioral aspects, could be aptly translated as “maleness” and “manliness.” Strength has come to be virtually synonymous with idealized conformity to male ritual routine. b) What is the basis of maleness for the Sambia?

Men fear not only pollution from contact with women’s vaginal fluids and menstrual blood but also the depletion of their semen, the vital spark of maleness, which women (and boys, too) inevitably extract, sapping a man’s substance. These are among the main themes of male belief underlying initiation c) How does this translate into initiation rites? There are six intermittent initiations from the ages of seven to ten and onward. They are, however, constituted and conceptualized as two distinct cultural systems within the male life cycle. first-stage (moku, at seven to ten years of age), second-stage (imbutu, at ten to thirteen years), and third-stage (ipmangwi, at thirteen to sixteen years) initiations— bachelorhood rites—are collectively performed for regional groups of boys as age-mates. The initiations are held in sequence, as age-graded advancements; the entire sequel takes months to perform.

d) Is it the same for females? The solution is also different for the two sexes: men believe that a girl is born with all of the vital organs and fluids necessary for her to attain reproductive competence through “natural” maturation. This conviction is embodied in cultural perceptions of the girl’s development beginning with the sex assignment at birth. What distinguishes a girl (tai) from a boy (kwulai’u) is obvious: 2. a) How do the Sambia view the bond between a mother and her son? All infants are closely bonded to their mothers. Out of a woman’s contaminating, life-giving womb pours the baby, who thereafter remains tied to the woman’s body, breast milk, and many ministrations. This latter contact only reinforces the femininity and female contamination in which birth involves the infant. b) What is the belief underlying this view? the father, both because of postpartum taboos and by personal choice, tends to avoid being present at the breast- feedings. Mother thus becomes the unalterable primary influence; father is a weak second. Sambia say this does not place girls at a “risk”—they simply succumb to the drives of their “natural” biology. This maternal attachment and paternal distance clearly jeopardize the boys’ growth, however, since nothing innate within male maturation seems to resist the inhibiting effects of mothers’ femininity. hence boys must be traumatically separated—wiped clean of their female contaminants—so that their masculinity may develop. c) How does this translate into initiation rituals? Is it the same for mothers and daughters? No it is not the same for mothers and daughters

The accumulating semen, injected time and again for years, is believed crucial for the formation of biological maleness and masculine comportment. This native perspective is sufficiently novel to justify our using a special concept for aiding description and analysis of the data: masculinization (herdt 1981: 255294). hence I shall refer to the overall process that involves separating a boy from his mother, initiating him, ritually treating his body, administering homosexual inseminations, his biological attainment of puberty, and his eventual reproductive competence, as masculinization. The achievement of puberty for boys requires semen. Breast milk “nurtures the boy”, and sweet potatoes or other “female” foods provide “stomach nourishment”, but these substances become only feces, not semen. Women’s own bodies internally produce te menarche, the hallmark of reproductive maturity. There is no comparable mechanism active in a boy, nothing that can stimulate his secondary sex traits. Only semen can do that; only men have semen; boys have none.

Review Questions: The named and the nameless: Gender and person in Chinese society Please read the assigned reading and complete the review questions.

In Brettell, C. B., & Sargent, C. F. (Eds.). (2013). Gender in cross-cultural perspective (6th ed.). Toronto, ON: Pearson Education. Watson, R. S. (2013). The named and the nameless: Gender and person in Chinese society. (pp. 178-187).

1. a) In the villages of rural Hong Kong, what are some of the ideas behind the various names a man may acquire throughout life? In Chinese society names classify and individuate, they have transformative powers, and they are an important form of selfexpression. Some names are private, some are chosen for their public effect. Many people have a confusing array of names while others are nameless. The theory and practice of personal naming in Chinese society is extremely complex and unfortunately little studied. -

Naming marks important social transitions: the more names a man has the more “socialized” and also, in a sense the more “indivudated” he becomes.

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To attain social adulthood a man must have atleast two names, but most have more.

b) Do women acquire the same names? Village women, by contrast, are essentially nameless. like boys, infant girls are named when they are one month old, but unlike boys they lose this name when they marry. Adult women are known (in reference and address) by kinship terms, teknonyms, or category terms such as “old woman.”

2. a) What is involved in naming an infant? Among the Cantonese a child’s soul is not thought to be firmly attached until at least 30 days after its birth. During the first month of life the child and mother are secluded from all but the immediate family. The infant is given a name by his or her father or grandfather at a ceremony called “full month” (man yueh). If the child is a son, the “full month” festivities will be as elaborate as the family can afford; if, on the other hand, a girl is born, there may be little or no celebration (except, perhaps, a special meal for family members). b) Are there any differences between naming a boy or a girl? The naming ceremony for a boy normally involves a banquet for neighbors and village elders, along with the distribution of red eggs to members of the community. The first name a child is given is referred to as his or he ‘ming’. In the past girl babies might be named nai (“To endure”). This name was given to infant girls who survived an attempted infanticide. One way of killing an infant was to expose it to the elements. If a girl survived this ordeal, she might be allowed to live. In these cases the name nai commemorated the child’s feat of survival.

3. a) Who are the “No Name” women? At one month a ha Tsuen girl is given a name (ming); when she marries this name ceases to be used. Marriage is a critical rite of passage for both men and women, but the effect of this rite on the two sexes is very different. b) What event occurs causing a woman to lose her name? When the young bride crosses her husband’s threshold, what distinctiveness she had as a girl is thrust aside. It is at this point that she loses her name and becomes the “inner person” (nei jen), a term Chinese husbands use to refer to their wives. While the

groom is receiving his marriage name on the first day of marriage rites, his bride is being given an intensive course in kinship terminology by the elderly women of ha Tsuen. c) Without a name, how is she addressed? after marriage she exists only as someone’s eBW or yBW or as Sing’s mother, and so on. eventually even these terms will be used with decreasing frequency; as she approaches old age, she will be addressed simply as “old woman” (ah po) by all but her close kin.

Review Questions: Surgical transformations in the pursuit of gender Please read the assigned reading and complete the review questions.

In Brettell, C. B., & Sargent, C. F. (Eds.). (2013). Gender in cross-cultural perspective (6th ed.). Toronto, ON: Pearson Education. Gulbas, L. E. (2013). Surgical transformations in the pursuit of gender. (pp. 196-202).

1. a) In terms of “selling the body-as-self”, briefly outline how the meaning and purpose of “bodywork” has changed over the decades. Throughout history, the cultivation of appearance has been a widespread practice in many societies. from make-up to corsets and cosmetic surgery, individuals use the body as a site for modification, actively crafting it to fit personal and social ideals of beauty. The practices individuals engage in to alter the body and its appearance vary across time and space, pointing to the importance of examining bodily practices as a means to uncover cultural meaning Over the past decades, the meaning and purpose of bodywork has changed dramatically. Once a site to realize cultural ideals for beauty, the body has now become a vehicle through which individuals display the self b) Briefly describe how the body-as-self paradigm relates to the global consumer industry. This body-as-self paradigm both shapes and is shaped by an everincreasing consumer-oriented society. Appearance-driven consumer markets promote the purchase of specific identities by encouraging individuals to buy products intended to transform the body.

Consumption of these products is motivated by a global consumer industry that uses images of bodies to suggest how a given product enhances physical appearance. These images are constructed for a specific purpose: to enable an individual to develop a sense of what counts as “looking good” c) How has cosmetic surgery capitalized on this? Cosmetic surgery has capitalized on this perceived link between looking good and feeling good. In part, this reflects cosmetic surgery’s relation to commercialism. It has, after all, turned the process of “looking good” into a multibillion-dollar industry. Yet for cosmetic surgery to be regarded as a legitimate medical practice, the field has had to demonstrate that modifying physical appearance can lead to improvements in overall patient health d) How have surgeons justified the practice of invasive surgery for aesthetic reasons? Surgeons justify the practice of invasive surgery for aesthetic reasons by asserting the importance of the body-as-self paradigm: cosmetic surgery can improve a patient’s image of self, promoting an enhanced sense of emotional and psychological wellbeing 2. a) In terms of “the evolution of an ideal”, how does the Miss Venezuela pageant become a symbol of modernizing discourse? The Venezuelan Society of Plastic Surgery describes cosmetic surgery as “absolutely necessary to maintain mental equilibrium and improve one’s self-esteem. This has not always been the case, and the local practice of cosmetic surgery in Venezuela can best be understood by considering the history of a growing symbiosis between cosmetic surgery and the ultimate symbol of female beauty: the beauty pageant contestant. The Miss Venezuela pageant, initiated in 1952, operated as a symbol of this modernizing discourse. Venezuela would export the world’s most beautiful women, evidence of its fulfillment of the qualities of an educated, cultured, and enlightened nation b) How has the construction of “plastic” Misses produced a fundamental shift in cultural ideals of beauty? The construction of “plastic” Misses through cosmetic surgery has produced a fundamental shift in cultural ideals of beauty: tall, extremely thin, with delicately curvaceous chest-waist-hip measurements. Although the average weight for Miss Venezuela has hovered around 123 pounds since the competition’s inception, the height of contestant winners has increased dramatically over time.v

c) Briefly describe how cosmetic surgery resolves the paradox of a declared preference for curvy bodies and the documented decline in BMI. The extreme thinness of Miss Venezuela makes the natural accomplishment of a lean, yet curvy, body more difficult, if not impossible. As contestant BMI has dropped, the aesthetic expectations for pageant winners have continued to focus on a curvy form that is unlikely to occur naturally on a body that has been stripped of its fat. According to the Miss Venezuela Organization, the ideal feminine body should possess chest-waist-hip measu...