Gender In Cross Cultural Perspective

This is the eBook of the printed book and may not include any media, website access codes, or print supplements that may come packaged with the bound book. Introduces students to the most significant topics in anthropology of gender. Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective is a one-volume reader built on classic contributions to gender and anthropology, incorporating recent literature on gender roles and ideology around the world. It combines theoretically and ethnographically-based essays and is appropriate for undergraduate and beginning graduate students. Learning Goals Upon completing this book readers will be able to: Name the most significant topics in anthropology of gender Discuss the questions raised by the authors in each section Understand issues of gender in industrial society and developing societies Note: MySearchLab does not come automatically packaged with this text. To purchase MySearchLab, please visit: www.mysearchlab.com or you can purchase a ValuePack of the text + MySearchlab (at no additional cost).

"The past fifteen years have been a time of intense scholarly interest in women, resulting in an explosion of literature that has begun to reveal the overriding effects of gender on other cultural domains. Affecting all aspects of culture, issues of sexuality, gender-related behaviors, and inter-gender relations also have profound implications for music performance. This volume represents an introduction to the field of women, music, and culture and in no way attempts to be comprehensive in its coverage nor conclusive in its implications. For example, Western classical music is not discussed here, many large world areas are not covered, nor does this volume present a comprehensive survey of all recent developments in feminist-oriented anthropology. What these essays do share is a focus on women's culture identity and musical activity, either in socially isolated performance environments or within the public arenas shared by their male counterparts."--From the preface

Issues of sexuality and gender are hotly contested in both religious communities and national cultures around the world. In the social sciences, religious traditions are often depicted as inherently conservative or even reactionary in their commitments to powerful patriarchal and pronatalist sexual norms and gender categories. In illuminating the practices of religious traditions in various cultures, these essays expose the diversity of religious rituals and mythologies pertaining to sexuality. In the process the contributors challenge conventional notions of what is normative in our sexual lives.

Responding to a growing interest in the nature and place of family in society, this text looks at gender, families, family relationships and the role of larger kin groups from a cross-cultural perspective. It draws upon ethnographic accounts and cross-cultural studies to determine and illustrate possible characteristics and outcomes, highlight options that occur more or less frequently, and--where possible--to account for choices made.

Until today, Western, European sociology contributes to the social reality of colonial modernity, and gender knowledge is a paradigmatic example of it. Multiple Gender Cultures, Sociology, and Plural Modernities critically engages with these ‘Western eyes’ and shifts the focus towards the global variety of gendered socialities and hierarchically entangled social histories. This is conceptualised as multiple gender cultures within plural modernities. The authors examine the multifaceted realities of gendered life in varying contexts across the globe. Bringing together different perspectives, the volume provides a rereading of the social fabric of gender in contrast to androcentrist-modernist as well as orientalist representations of ‘the’ gendered Other. The key questions explored by this volume are: which social mechanisms lead to conflicting or shifting gender dynamics against the backdrop of global entanglements and interdependencies, and to what extent are neocolonial gender regimes at work in this regard? How are varying gender cultures sociohistorically and culturally structured, and how are they connected within (global) power relations? How can established hierarchies and asymmetries become an object of criticism? How can historical, cultural, social, and political specificities be analysed without gendered and other reifications? That way, the volume aims to promote border thinking in sociological understanding of social reality towards multiple gender cultures and plural modernities.

Global Issues is a pedagogically rich book that addresses prominent issues of contemporary concern.