COURSE DESCRIPTION

This upper-level course will analyze the socio-cultural construction of gender identity. Beginning with a historical look at the relationship between feminism and anthropology, the class then explores a series of subjects, including the domestic/ public dichotomy, kinship, religion, globalization, and sexuality as they relate to women and men in society. Readings, lectures, presentations, films, and class discussion will provide both formal and informal avenues for exploring issues that arise in the cross-cultural study of gender.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

By the end of the quarter, students will be able to

· Explain and discuss the cultural construction of gender and sexuality

· Identify and critically assess the role of gender in the family and the household, the realm of religion, the world of work, and the global economy

· Identify disciplinary approaches to doing ethnographic research and performing data analysis on ethnographic information related to gender

· Understand the tensions between researchers, advocates, and activists with respect to feminist initiatives

· Develop writing skills at the senior/ graduate student level

· Present the results of independent and group projects to classmates

COURSE PREREQUISITES

Strongly recommended: Upper division standing and at least one core course in sociocultural anthropology (Anth 103, 304, or 305), or previous junior/senior-level course work in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies or a related social science.

READINGS

Required

Brettell and Sargent, eds.

2009 Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective, fifth edition. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Brown, Karen McCarthy

2001 Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn, (updated and expanded edition). Berkeley: University of California Press.

Lynch, Caitrin

2007 Juki Girls, Good Girls: Gender and Cultural Politics in Sri Lanka’s Global Garment Industry. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Materials on D2L (explained below).

Recommended

Hacker, Diana

2009 A Pocket Style Manual, Fifth Edition. Boston: St. Martin’s Press.

Strunk, William and E.B. White

1999 The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

(If you already own a style guide, there is no reason to purchase another one, but the instructor will assume that you have access to such a resource.)

D2L

Class readings, the course syllabus, the plagiarism document, assignment sheets, and discussion questions will be available on D2L. You may read the materials online or print copies for use during class discussions.

All students can access D2L with their Odin account. Use your Odin username and password to login to D2L at https://d2l.pdx.edu. Use of D2L will be demonstrated on the first day of class. Please contact the instructor if you encounter difficulties in accessing this resource.

CLASS REQUIREMENTS

Students taking this course pass-no-pass are required to earn at least a 'C-' to pass the class. For undergraduates, completion of two 4-5 page essays (30% each), taking part in a group presentation (15%), writing one reflection essay (15%), and class participation and discussion leadership (10%) will form the basis for evaluating performance. Graduate students will complete all assignments required of undergraduates (70%) and will write a 20 page term paper on a topic of their choice (30%).

Two 4-5 page essays (30% each)

All students will write two essays, one on one on Brown’s book Mama Lola and one on Lynch’s book Juki Girls, Good Girls. Assignment instructions and essay question choices will be posted on D2L. Essays will due a week after we finish covering the section material; the Brown essay will be due Tuesday May 15^th and the Lynch essay will be due Tuesday May 29th.

Group presentation (15%) and 3-page reflection essay (15%)

7 ethnographies related to topics covered in class are listed on the syllabus. In groups of 3-4, students will read the material, consult with the instructor, and lead a class-period-long discussion. Student duties will include creatively presenting the information to their classmates and crafting class activities to spur discussion and interaction. (Classmates will have read a book chapter or article related to the ethnographies.) A week after their presentation, students will turn in a 3-page reflection on key point(s) they learned from the material and their presentation experience. Due dates are listed on the class schedule (last page of this syllabus). Further instructions will be posted on D2L.

Discussion leadership and class participation (10%)

Students will be assigned responsibility for facilitating discussion on particular articles throughout the course. Articles will be designated ahead of time.

Class participation forms an important aspect of the learning experience in this upper-level class, and is therefore both expected and required. Participation points will be assessed through short in-class free-writes on specific articles. These informal, hand-written thought-pieces will be evaluated on a check/ check-plus/ check-minus basis. Students who do the reading and pay attention in class will easily achieve a passing grade on these assessments.

Students with more than 3 unexcused absences will receive no points for class participation. Legitimate reasons to miss class are few and dire, and should if at all possible be reported to the instructor before the start of the class period.

Graduate student term paper (graduate students only) due Thursday, 14 June (turn in at the Anthropology Dept, CH 141, by noon).

Each graduate student will write a 20 page research paper on a topic of his or her choice. Further instructions will be posted on D2L and discussed separately.

Policies

Please retain for your own records a copy of all the work you submit. All written work must be completed to receive a passing grade in this class. Late papers will lose one letter grade for each day past due except in the event of severe illness or emergency; the clock stops ticking when the student contacts the instructor to arrange a new deadline. Requests for extensions on deadlines should be made in writing ahead of the due date.

Plagiarism (intellectual theft) is a very serious academic offense. You are responsible for reading the department handout on plagiarism, which is posted on D2L. Please ask the instructor or contact the Writing Center if you have any questions about plagiarism.

Students with a documented disability needing accommodations in this course should immediately inform the instructor.

Anthropology majors should seek advising at least twice a year from faculty members in the Anthropology Department for advice related to meeting graduation requirements and achieving career goals.

COURSE OUTLINE

SECTION 1: A Historical Introduction

D2L

Di Leonardo, Micaela

1991 Introduction: Gender, Culture, and Political Economy: Feminist Anthropology in Historical Perspective. In Gender at the Crossroads of Knowledge: Feminist Anthropology in the Postmodern Era. Micaela di Leonardo, ed. Pp. 1-48. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Lorber, Judith

1994 “Night to his Day:” The Social Construction of Gender. In Paradoxes of Gender. Pp. 13-36. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Said, Edward

1979 Latent and Manifest Orientalism. In Orientalism. Pp. 201-225. New York: Vintage.

SECTION 2: Domestic Worlds and Public Worlds

GCCP

¨ Introductory essay for section III (85)

¨ Lamphere, Louise “The Domestic Sphere of Women and the Public Sphere of Men: The Strengths and Limitations of an Anthropological Dichotomy” (90)

¨ Watson, Rubie “The Named and the Nameless: Gender and Person in Chinese Society” (215)

¨ Weismantel, Mary “Cities of Women” (123)

D2L

Ortner, Sherry

1996 [1974] Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture? In Making Gender: The Politics and Erotics of Culture. Pp. 21-42. Boston: Beacon Press.

1996 So, Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture? In Making Gender: The Politics and Erotics of Culture. Pp. 173-180. Boston: Beacon Press.

2006 Power and Projects: Reflections on Agency. In Anthropology and Social Theory, pp. 129-153. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press.

SECTION 3: Family, Household, and Kinship

GCCP

¨ Introductory essay for section VIII (347)

¨ Prior, Marsha “Matrifocality, Power, and Gender Relations in Jamaica” (377)

¨ di Leonardo, Micaela “The Female World of Cards and Holidays: Women, Families, and the Work of Kinship” (385)

¨ Townsend, Nicholas “Fatherhood and the Mediating Role of Women” (109)

D2L

Ahearn, Laura

2004 Literacy, Power, and Agency: Love Letters and Development in Nepal. Language and Education 18 (4): 305-316.

Borovoy, Amy

2005 Conclusion: Home as a Feminist Dilemma. In The Too-Good Wife: Alcohol, Codependency, and the Politics of Nurturance in Postwar Japan. Pp. 161-176. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Constable, Nicole

2003 Introduction. In Romance on a Global Stage: Pen Pals, Virtual Ethnography, and “Mail Order” Marriages. Pp. 1-12. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Group presentation – ethnography choices for Sections 2-3:

Ahearn, Laura

2001 Invitations to Love: Literacy, Love Letters and Social Change in Nepal. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Borovoy, Amy

2005 The Too-Good Wife: Alcohol, Codependency, and the Politics of Nurturance in Postwar Japan. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Constable, Nicole

2003 Romance on a Global Stage: Pen Pals, Virtual Ethnography, and “Mail Order” Marriages. Berkeley: University of California Press.

SECTION 4: Ritual and Religion

Read the introductory essay and three of the following four: Boddy, McIntosh, Kendall, Makley

GCCP

¨ Introductory essay for section IX (395)

¨ Boddy, Janice “Spirit Possession and Gender Complementarity: Zar in Rural Northern Sudan” (401)

¨ McIntosh, Janet “’Tradition’ and Threat: Women’s Obscenity in Giriama Funerary Rituals” (412)

¨ Kendall, Laurel “Shamans, Bodies, and Sex: Misreading a Korean Ritual” (425)

D2L

Makley, Charlene

2003 Gendered Boundaries in Motion: Space and Identity on the Sino-Tibetan Frontier. American Ethnologist 30 (4): 597-619.

Book: Karen McCarthy Brown: Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn.

SECTION 5: Globalization

GCCP

¨ Introduction to Section XI (505)

D2L

Freeman, Carla

2001 Is Local: Global as Feminine: Masculine? Rethinking the Gender of Globalization. Signs 26 (4): 1007-37.

Read 3 of the following 4 options:

GCCP

¨ Cairoli, M. Laetitia “Factory as Home and Family: Female Workers in the Moroccan Garment Industry” (522)

D2L

Gamburd, Michele

2008 Milk Teeth and Jet Planes: Kin Relations in Families of Sri Lanka’s Transnational Domestic Servants. City and Society 20(1):5-31.

Hondagneu-Sotelo, Pierrette

2010 New World Domestic Order. In Global Perspectives on Gender and Work, Jacqueline Goodman, ed. pp. 311-324, 562-564. New York: Rowman and Littlefield.

Magazine, Roger and Martha Areli Ramirez Sanchez

2007 Continuity and Change in San Pedro Tlalcuapan, Mexico: Childhood, Social Reproduction, and Transnational Migration. In Generations and Globalization: Youth, Age, and Family in the New World Economy. Jennifer Cole and Deborah Durham, eds. Pp. 52-73. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Book: Lynch: Juki Girls, Good Girls

SECTION 6: The Cultural Construction of Gender and Sexuality

Read two of the following four: Herdt, Urla & Swedlund, Constable, Zimmer-Tamakoshi

GCCP

¨ Introductory essays for sections V (191) and VI (249)

¨ Herdt, Gilbert “Ritual of Manhood: Male Initiation in Papua New Guinea” (211)

¨ Urla, Jacqueline and Alan Swedlund: “Measuring Up to Barbie: Ideals of the Feminine Body in Popular Culture” (282)

¨ Constable, Nicole: “Sexuality and Discipline among Filipina Domestic Workers in Hong Kong” (545)

¨ Zimmer-Tamakoshi, Laura: “’Wild Pigs and Dog Men’: Rape and Domestic Violence as ‘Women’s Issues’ in Papua New Guinea” (564)

D2L

Blackwood, Evelyn

2007 Transnational Sexualities in One Place: Indonesian Readings. In Women’s Sexualities and Masculinities in a Globalizing Asia, Wieringa, Saskia E., Evelyn Blackwood, and Abha Bhaiya, eds. Pp. 181-199. New York: Palgrave/ Macmillan.

Decena, Carlos

2011 Chapter 1: Tacit Subjects. In Tacit Subjects: Belonging and Same-Sex Desire among Dominican Immigrant Men. Pp. 17-38. Durham: Duke University Press.

Gamburd, Michele

2008 Chapter 3: We Don’t Say No: Drinking and Identity. In Breaking the Ashes: The Culture of Illicit Liquor in Sri Lanka. Pp. 68-86. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Seizer, Susan

2010 Roadwork: Offstage with Special Drama Artists in Tamil Nadu, South India. In Everyday Life in South Asia, 2^nd edition, Diane P. Mines and Sarah Lamb, eds. Pp. 94-109, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Group presentation – ethnography choices for Section 6

Blackwood, Evelyn

2010 Falling into the Lesbi World: Desire and Difference in Indonesia. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.

Decena, Carlos

2011 Tacit Subjects: Belonging and Same-Sex Desire among Dominican Immigrant Men. Durham: Duke University Press.

Gamburd, Michele

2008 Breaking the Ashes: The Culture of Illicit Liquor in Sri Lanka. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Seizer, Susan

2005 Stigmas of the Tamil Stage: An Ethnography of Special Drama Artists in South India. Durham: Duke University Press.

CLASS SCHEDULE:

Articles by authors whose names appear in boldface appear in the text book Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective.

Note: schedule is subject to change, but assignment due-dates will not be moved earlier.

Week	Day	Date	Month	Readings to be discussed, assignments due
1	T	3	April	Syllabus, introductions
	R	5		Read: Di Leonardo, Lorber, Said
2	T	10		Read: Intro III, Ortner, Ortner, Ortner
	R	12		Read: Lamphere, Weismantel, Watson
3	T	17		Read: Intro VIII, Prior, di Leonardo, Townsend
	R	19		Read: Ahearn; Student Group: Ahearn
4	T	24		Read: Borovoy; Student Group: Borovoy
	R	26		Read: Constable; Student Group: Constable Due: Ahearn reflections
5	T	1	May	Read: Intro IX Read 3 of 4: Makley, Brody, MacIntosh, Kendall Due: Borovoy reflections
	R	3		Read: Brown I (through end of chapter 6) Due: Constable reflections
6	T	8		Read: Brown II (finish the book)
	R	10		Read: Intro XI, Freeman
7	T	15		Read 3 of 4: Cairoli, Gamburd, Hondagneu-Sotelo, Magazine & Sanchez Due: Brown essay
	R	17		Read: Lynch I (through end of chapter 3)
8	T	22		Read: Lynch II (finish the book)
	R	24		Read: Intro V, VI Read 2 of 4: Herdt, Urla & Swedlund, Constable, Zimmer-Tamakoshi
9	T	29		Read: Blackwood; Student Group: Blackwood Due: Lynch essay
	R	31		Read: Decena; Student Group: Decena
10	T	5	June	Read: Seizer; Student Group: Seizer Due: Blackwood reflections
	R	7		Read: Gamburd; Student Group: Gamburd Due: Decena reflections
11	R	14		Due: Seizer and Gamburd reflections, by noon, Anthropology Dept Office, 141 Cramer Hall