Anth%20324%20Anthropology%20of%20Gender,%203%20March%202009%20GENDER,%20PROPERTY%20AND%20THE%20STATE

1
Anth 324 Anthropology of Gender, 3 March
2009GENDER, PROPERTY AND THE STATE
2

• What is a state?
• A working definition a state is a central
  political structure in which leaders have the
  ability to enact law and use force the essential
  purpose of the state is to organize and defend
  its members and its resources.

3

• THUS, a state has to
• - define who is a member (legally, in terms of
  ideology, etc.)
• - are only men, propertied people, members of
  specific ethnic or religious groups considered to
  be members?
• - promote this sense of itself and who is a
  member (i.e. ideology)
• - may need to count people, thus engage in some
  sort of census
• - who is counted? How?
• - define what resources it needs to regulate and
  how members get access to those resources
• - impose taxes (again, defining who is taxed and
  how)
• - enact laws about who legitimately can own
  property (kinship may be involved here through
  inheritance rights, or other decisions about who
  controls property when a person loses this state
  right)
• - may have a police force or military in order to
  defend state borders and laws

4

• How does this relate to gender?
• How have your gendered lives been structured by
  these elements of the state? Do any readings in
  particular alert you to how the state structures
  gender?

5
Rapp

• - deals largely with prehistoric and historical
  information on the origin of states
• - updates Engels examines more varied and
  nuanced ways in which kinship, property and state
  formation are linked
• - also notes change in cosmologies toward more
  androcentric gods as states develop
• - re warfare, notes mixed effects on women
• - were women involved in trade?
• - must not assume the subordination of women in
  state societies
• - must examine how expansion of Western
  capitalism affects gender relations in Global
  South

6
Caldwell Ryan

• - focuses on contemporary period
• - examines how women have interacted with state
  structures
• - resisting unfair inheritance laws
• - women may vote (but do they do so freely?) can
  they hold political office?
• - how do various forms of religion, including
  fundamentalism, affect gender status?
• - how does nationalism affect gender status?
• - how have global economic forces affected gender
  roles?
• - how have women acted to affect state policy?
  (practical and strategic gender interests)
• - notes gap between rhetoric and reality in many
  cases

7
Stone and James

• - link form of kinship and practice of dowry to a
  specific form of social organization in state
  society that is, they are linked to
  stratification in societies in which there was
  intensive cultivation leading to wealth for
  certain families. The resulting classes wished to
  protect their wealth through endogamy, leading to
  arranged marriages and controls on womens
  sexuality. Dowry allowed women to marry,
  including to marry up.
• - dowry murders occur in context of societal
  pressure on women to marry, decline of value of
  fertility and rise of commodity culture.
• - note decline in value of fertility itself
  could have been part of a feminist agenda to
  allow women to control their fertility
• - role of state while dowry (and murder) are
  outlawed, there is little effective enforcement.
  Why? How might the state actively intervene to
  protect women?

8
Allison

• - examines how state requirements, educational
  requirements and social pressure delineate
  mothers roles and childrens discipline
• - clear essay structure with basic context and
  methodology given in introduction along with
  argument theory section outlining Althusserian
  marxism evidence section split into sequential
  parts (food ideology in Japan, school structure
  in Japan, role of obento in enculturating nursery
  schoolchildren, role of obento in enculturating
  mothers) conclusion flows from final
  evidence/analysis section

9

• Think about how states influence gender roles in
  your society
• Identify a law in your society that governs the
  construction of either mens or womens (or both)
  gender roles. It might help to focus on property,
  in particular.
• Explain how it does this.
• Explain how your gender identity has been
  affected by it.

10

• Think about how mens and womens gender roles in
  your society have influenced the organization of
  the state Brettell and Sargent (2009 302) end
  their introduction to this section with
  Silverblatts claim that women have contributed
  to the definition of the state.
• Identify a way in which men or women (or both) as
  gendered subjects have influenced the definition
  of the state in which you live.
• Explain how this worked.
• Explain how your gender identity has been
  affected by this
• Next course website