Gender and Anthropology - Softcover

Frances E. Mascia-Lee; Nancy Johnson Black

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1577660668 ISBN 13: 9781577660668

Publisher: Waveland Pr Inc, 1999

Synopsis

A major accomplishment of synthesis and distillation! Is the difference in men's and women's behavior the result of the human species' long evolutionary struggle for survival, or is it due to society's child-rearing practices and cultural mythologies? Is the exclusion of women from the highest positions of power and authority a universal trait of human societies, or does women's access to such positions depend on how a society is organized? Gender and Anthropology focuses on the central questions that have concerned anthropologists interested in the nature and determinants of gender roles and gender inequality. This concise treatment clearly traces how anthropologists have used different theoretical orientations to examine such questions and how these approaches have changed over time in relation to changing social and political conditions. Ranging from work in the nineteenth century to contemporary anthropological studies, this work analyzes evolutionary, psychological, materialist, Foucauldian, structuralist, sociolinguistic, and reflexive approaches to understanding gender behavior and gender stratification. Gender and Anthropology explores how anthropological data from around the world are crucial for questioning unproven but widely held assumptions about men and women in contemporary societies. A major accomplishment a succinct presentation that unfolds our culture's view of women!

Titles of related interest from Waveland Press: Burton, Culture and the Human Body: An Anthropological Perspective (ISBN 9781577661801); Mascia-Lees, Gender and Difference in a Globalizing World: Twenty-First-Century Anthropology (ISBN 9781577665984) and Nanda, Gender Diversity: Crosscultural Variations, Second Edition (ISBN 9781478611264).

About this title

From the Publisher

Titles of related interest from Waveland Press: Endicott-Endicott, The Headman Was a Woman: The Gender Egalitarian Batek of Malaysia (ISBN 9781577665267); Mascia-Lees, Gender and Difference in a Globalizing World: Twenty-first-Century Anthropology (ISBN 9781577665984); and Nanda, Gender Diversity: Crosscultural Variations (ISBN 9781577660743).

From the Back Cover

"This little book is one of the clearest, most concise statements on social theory in general, let alone on gender, that I have ever read. Kudos!" -- R. O. Havenlandt, University of Great Falls

"I have waited years for a simple, student-accessible theory book . . . the feminist oriented literature has become so sophisticated, involuted (or should I say poorly written), and dominated by post-colonial critique, that it totally alienates my students. This, at last, presents us with a comprehensive overview of analytic and theoretical approaches in the anthropology of gender studies that is easy for students to read and critique." -- Dona Davis, University of South Dakota

". . . an exceptionally clear introduction to the topic." -- Leland Searles, University of Minnesota

"I found this volume to be an excellent, concise overview . . . the authors identify historical events, intellectual trends, and political issues that have shaped research and theory on gender in anthropology." -- Jean N. Scandlyn, University of Colorado, Denver

". . . a much-needed approach in teaching of gender issues and perspectives." -- Lioba Moshi, University of Georgia

Edition details

• Publisher: Waveland Pr Inc
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 1577660668
• ISBN 13: 9781577660668
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 128