Bioarchaeology is unique in that it bridges biology and social science to create new theories and ask more meaningful questions. The art of bioarchaeology and why it is important is that it is a heavily question based field. It contextualizes all fields of anthropology that can span into answering specific questions asked by researchers in archaeology, culture studies, and physical anthropology. The questions that bioarchaeologists seek to answer can range from demography, diet, identity, food-ways, and mortuary analysis. In general, the study of gender in anthropology is a relatively recent phenomenon that spans all subfields. Since anthropology is the study of all thing human, it is interesting that study of identity and gender are only …show more content…
This phenomena studied intensively in by Hollimon (1996) brought to light a possible third-gendered male. The study (Hollimon, 1996), centers around the Chumash in the Santa Barbara area and analyzed the skeletal remains of both males and females. The older females showed signs of degenerative joint disease (DJD), most likely attributed to the stress of their gender role of digging graves. The signs of DJD in the older women were found in their spinal cords and knees, possibly from bending downward to dig using digging sticks (Hollimon, 1996). The men however, showed signs of DJD as well but the damage for the men was located in the shoulders, elbows, and hands, possibly from different tasks than the women (Hollimon, 1996). After analyzing the different skeletal remains, some of the male skeletons displayed signs of DJD located in the areas affected usually by women. Hollimon argues that a possible explanation for the few men showing signs of DJD in the spinal cord and knees is that they were performing the gender roles assigned by women, digging graves (1996). For the culture of the Chumash, a male that performs tasks usually undertaken by women is called two-spirits. Two-spirits meaning the biological form of a male but with the gendered role of females (Holliman, 1996). The argument that Holliman produces is that men or two-spirits, that …show more content…
Males and females have different grave goods and ornaments within their burials that do not transcend between the sexes. Hollimon notes that differences in raw materials and placement within the grave display different classes between males, females, and two-spirits (1996). Hollimon successfully bridges the oestological approach between genders as well as an archaeological approach of examining grave goods to produce an argument for two-spirit individuals that are biologically male but perform a different gender role. However, Hollimon fails to elaborate on different ideas as to why some men were preforming female gender roles. The only explanation presented was the two-sprit theory and other explanations would be welcomed. Perhaps the men were not two-spirits, but rather could not fulfill their male gender roles due to illness or other injury. Possibly the men were not fit enough to perform other roles and out of necessity resorted to other roles they could fulfill. In a later study produced again by Hollimon, notes that bioarchaeology has a unique opportunity to identify non-binary genders of past populations (2011). Bioarchaeology has the ability to discover either third genders within a population or fully examine the roles that genders fulfill in the
Since the beginning of time, mankind began to expand on traditions of life out of which family and societal life surfaced. These traditions of life have been passed down over generations and centuries. Some of these kin and their interdependent ways of life have been upheld among particular people, and are known to contain key pieces of some civilizations.
In ancient societies, dual-sexed beings were either “exterminated, considered to be beings of suffering, or regarded as strange phenomena” (Brisson 40). Their roles in society were nonexistent because they were viewed as “threatening deviance from the...
In Machi ritual practices, wholeness or balance is associated with well-being and health, therefore the performative element of gender takes precedence over the concept of gender as associated with sex. In order to achieve wholeness, it is necessary to encompass male and female principles, as well as those of youth and old age. When performing healing rituals, a machi will “assume masculine, feminine and co-gendered identities”, moving between these identities or combining them (Bacigalupo, 2007, p. 45). These co-gendered identities are fundamental to machi ritual practices. Because of the performative aspects associated with the taking on co-gendered identities, male machi will dress in traditional women’s clothing. This allows them to perform and embody the feminine aspects associated with healing and fertility. Altered states of consciousness such as dreaming, visions and trance states are also considered feminine characteristic By the same token, female machi have the ability to on the masculine aspects associated with warfare, aggression and hunting, although they do not dress in male clothing.
Robbins Burling, David F. Armstrong, Ben G. Blount, Catherine A. Callaghan, Mary Lecron Foster, Barbara J. King, Sue Taylor Parker, Osamu Sakura, William C. Stokoe, Ron Wallace, Joel Wallman, A. Whiten, Sherman Wilcox and Thomas Wynn. Current Anthropology, Vol. 34, No. 1 (Feb., 1993), pp. 25-53
Gender Matters is a collection of various essays on feminist linguistic texts analysis, by Sara Mills. Mills develops methods of analyzing literary and non-literary texts, in addition to conversational analysis based on a feminist approach. The author draws on data from her collection of essays gathered over the last two decades on feminism during the 1990s. The essays focus on gender issues, the representation of gender in reading, writing, and in public speaking. Furthermore, it highlights the importance of feminists’ analysis of sexism in literature and the relation between gender and politeness. The article is informative for my research paper, as my topic is going to cover language analysis of the text and who women reading and writing differs according to the discourse analysis within linguistic, psychology, case studies audiences and surveys. The book would be helpful, particularly the last three essays that discusses gender, public speaking, the question of politeness and impoliteness in public speaking. Mills’ analysis is not complete without including the idea of global notions of both women and men, to see whether women and men write and read in the same way globally. Therefore, an update would enrich the book’s discussion section. Although, Mills addresses the class and race theme in language and public speaking, I will only look into the role of language that plays a part in doing or reducing gender in literary, non-literary texts and in conversation.
Introduction The topic of gender differences must understandably be approached with caution in our modern world. Emotionally charged and fraught with ideas about political correctness, gender can be a difficult subject to address, particularly when discussed in correlation to behavior and social behavior. Throughout history, many people have strove to understand what makes men and women different. Until the modern era, this topic was generally left up to religious leaders and philosophers to discuss. However, with the acquisition of more specialized medical knowledge of human physiology and the advent of anthropology, we now know a great deal more about gender differences than at any other point in history.
In this article, gender is identified as a social identity that is constructed and reformed throughout life in order to achieve a true sense of identity. It is not a term or label given from biological sex such as male or female that defines ones’ gender role. The writer claims gender is more than a social settlement, that it is not a binary construction of male or female and involves a matrix of genes, hormones, and social influence.
This article was written to bring attention to the way men and women act because of how they were thought to think of themselves. Shaw and Lee explain how biology determines what sex a person is but a persons cultures determines how that person should act according to their gender(Shaw, Lee 124). The article brings up the point that, “a persons gender is something that a person performs daily, it is what we do rather than what we have” (Shaw, Lee 126). They ...
the story in the Phillip Whitten and David E. K. Hunter anthropology book of No
The presence of gender through this the twenty-first century is no longer black and white (nor was it ever explicitly male or female at anytime). In a time of push towards acceptance of all people, no matter their social standpoint, the time of questionnaires and government documents asking whether one is male or female, has become extremely complex. “Gender” as a concept represented through the body is not simply a configuration of how the body formed. Rather, gender is performed and represented through and using the body – hence referring to Waskul and Vannini’s theory of the body being embodied when they state in their piece Body/ Embodiment: Social Interaction and the Sociology of the Body (2006),
Ember, Carol R., Melvin Ember, and Peter N. Peregrine. Anthropology. Thirteenth ed. Boston, MA: Prentice Hall, 2011. Print.
Archaeologists develop meaningful questions to answer complexities of past societies. These questions can provide information on food ways, kinships, and purposes of artifacts. Social sciences have began to ask questions about the identity of past individuals, that include gender, class, and sexuality. As a member of social sciences, archaeology has also began to ask similar questions of identity. For years, archaeologists have fought the stereotype of "Man the Hunter" to allow for research questions that explore the roles of women. This movement has inspired gender studies within archaeology that analyzes the relationships between men and women in past societies. Feminist archaeology has also emerged from this movement by focusing solely on
Simone de Beauvoir brought about the idea that one is not born a woman, but becomes one. Other thinkers of phenomenology such as Merleau-Ponty frame the body as an historical idea rather than a natural species. In viewing the conception of the body body as different from its physiological form, the social construction of gender can be understood. This social construction is what Judith Butler discusses in her essay: “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution”
Social Construction of Gender Today’s society plays a very important role in the construction of gender. Gender is a type of issue that has raised many questions over the years in defining and debating if both male and female are equal. Today, gender is constructed in four different ways. The The first way gender is defined is by the family in which a child is raised.
However, what many people are unaware of is that the concepts of “femininity” and “masculinity” are not just utilized to describe genders but also play a key role regards to whether an area has a feminine or masculine