Anthropology Exam #2 comprehensive
Questions and Answers with Verified
Solutions
Question 1:
Gender
Answer:
Cultural. The fundamental form of stratification in most human culture and
is the primary criterion for assigning social/cultural norms "Gender is any
way of assigning prerogatives (rights) and tasks to one sex or the other
and of understanding and institutionalizing the similarities and differences
between males and females."
Question 2:
Sex
Answer:
Biological and physical characteristics of male or female "Which category
physiologically/genetically we belong in"
Question 3:
Gender Norms
Answer:
Society's expectations or standards concerning what males and females
should be like
,Question 4:
READING: "Strange Country This: An Introduction to North American
Gender"
Answer:
Study that shows Native American Berdaches (neutral 3rd gender) and
how they can be considered respectable figures in the Native American
Community. Some are chiefs, wives, warriors, etc. Two-spirit people, or
berdaches, are people who fulfill mixed gender roles Two-spirit
represents people whose societies respectfully understand them as both
male and female They typically specialized in the work of the opposite
sex
Question 5:
READING: "Feminine Knowledge and Skill Reconsidered: Women and
Flaked Stone Tools"
Answer:
19th/20th century: scientific racism and sexism were at height and
ethnographic accounts of women's stone-tool technology served only to
reinforce women's low status During the late 19th century and early 20th
centuries, ethnographers described women as skillful stone toolmakers.
However, during this period, scientific racism and sexism were at their
height and ethnographic accounts of women's stone-tool tech-
, Question 6:
Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies
Answer:
Written by Margaret Mead in 1955 in New Guinea, and still cited by
feminists and others as showing that definitions of masculinity and
femininity are not biological givens, but are instead created by cultures
and learned by their members along with other cultural norms, which
makes them subject to change. Mead argued that the categories of man
and woman (male or female) are not naturally given, but imbued by
culture: "The personalities of the two sexes are socially produced"
Question 7:
Focused on the question of male dominance. Is it really universal? What
happens in remote areas? How do we explain it? It wasn't until the 1970's
that feminist anthropology was recognized as a subdiscipline of
anthropology The anthropology of women attempted to recuperate
women as distinct cultural actors otherwise erased by male
anthropologists' focus on men's lives as the universal character of a
society
Answer:
Feminist Anthropology
Question 8:
Biological Determinism
Answer:
Biological determinism refers to the idea that all human behavior is
innate, determined by genes, brain size, or other biological attributes.
This theory stands in contrast to the notion that human behavior is
determined by culture or other social forces. The idea that an individual's
personality or behaviour is caused by their particular genetic endowment,
rather than by social or cultural factors—by nature rather than nurture
Questions and Answers with Verified
Solutions
Question 1:
Gender
Answer:
Cultural. The fundamental form of stratification in most human culture and
is the primary criterion for assigning social/cultural norms "Gender is any
way of assigning prerogatives (rights) and tasks to one sex or the other
and of understanding and institutionalizing the similarities and differences
between males and females."
Question 2:
Sex
Answer:
Biological and physical characteristics of male or female "Which category
physiologically/genetically we belong in"
Question 3:
Gender Norms
Answer:
Society's expectations or standards concerning what males and females
should be like
,Question 4:
READING: "Strange Country This: An Introduction to North American
Gender"
Answer:
Study that shows Native American Berdaches (neutral 3rd gender) and
how they can be considered respectable figures in the Native American
Community. Some are chiefs, wives, warriors, etc. Two-spirit people, or
berdaches, are people who fulfill mixed gender roles Two-spirit
represents people whose societies respectfully understand them as both
male and female They typically specialized in the work of the opposite
sex
Question 5:
READING: "Feminine Knowledge and Skill Reconsidered: Women and
Flaked Stone Tools"
Answer:
19th/20th century: scientific racism and sexism were at height and
ethnographic accounts of women's stone-tool technology served only to
reinforce women's low status During the late 19th century and early 20th
centuries, ethnographers described women as skillful stone toolmakers.
However, during this period, scientific racism and sexism were at their
height and ethnographic accounts of women's stone-tool tech-
, Question 6:
Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies
Answer:
Written by Margaret Mead in 1955 in New Guinea, and still cited by
feminists and others as showing that definitions of masculinity and
femininity are not biological givens, but are instead created by cultures
and learned by their members along with other cultural norms, which
makes them subject to change. Mead argued that the categories of man
and woman (male or female) are not naturally given, but imbued by
culture: "The personalities of the two sexes are socially produced"
Question 7:
Focused on the question of male dominance. Is it really universal? What
happens in remote areas? How do we explain it? It wasn't until the 1970's
that feminist anthropology was recognized as a subdiscipline of
anthropology The anthropology of women attempted to recuperate
women as distinct cultural actors otherwise erased by male
anthropologists' focus on men's lives as the universal character of a
society
Answer:
Feminist Anthropology
Question 8:
Biological Determinism
Answer:
Biological determinism refers to the idea that all human behavior is
innate, determined by genes, brain size, or other biological attributes.
This theory stands in contrast to the notion that human behavior is
determined by culture or other social forces. The idea that an individual's
personality or behaviour is caused by their particular genetic endowment,
rather than by social or cultural factors—by nature rather than nurture
