Grouping by Sex, Age, and Common Interest

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Grouping by Sex, Age, and Common Interest
Sex and Gender Cultures with More Than Two
Genders Factors Affecting Gender
Roles Kinship Economic Resources Ideology P
erspectives on Human Sexual Behavior Sexual
Attraction and Behavior Sexual
Prohibitions Sexual Orientation Age Grouping
Institutions of Age Grouping Common-Interest
Associations types of
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What Principles, Besides Kinship and Marriage, do
People use to Organize Societies?
People group themselves by sex, age, common
interest, and position with a ranked hierarchy
(class stratification) to deal with problems not
conveniently handled by marriage, the family
and/or household, descent group, or kindred.
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What is Age Grading?
Age grading for formation of groups on a age
basis is a widely used means of organizing
people in societies, including those of Europe
and North American. In industrial societies, or
non-industrial societies with relatively large
populations, age grades may be broken down into
age sets groups of people of approximately the
same age who move as groups through the series of
age grades.
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What are Common-Interest Associations?
Common-interest associations, formed to deal with
specific problems, acquire members as individuals
act to join them. Such acts may range all the
way from fully voluntary to compulsory.
Common-interest associations have been a feature
of human societies since the advent of the first
farming villages several thousand years ago, but
have become especially prominent in modern
industrial or industrializing societies.
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Gender
Gender refers of the socially and culturally
prescribed and perceived ways that makes and
females are expected to behave (culturally
assigned roles). From the moment of our birth,
we are taught gender related issues.
Biological Programming Margaret Mead- Sex and
Temperament in Three Primitive Societies.
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Sex and Gender
Most people are assigned sex at birth based on
the appearance of external genitalia.
Physiologically, sex is determined my X and
Y chromosomes. XX for Female XY for
Male However, nature is not always kind and some
individuals are born with an extra chromosome
XXY, XXX, XYY, or a chromosome may be absent X
alone.
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Human Variation and Sexual Dimorphism
Biological anthropologist have and maintain
extensive data on biological variation and
sexual dimorphism among humans. Sexual
dimorphism refers to the biological and
behavioral differences between males and
females. Different areas of the population
will contain within it variation with regards to
sexual dimorphism with obvious overlapping. Ex.
Muscle mass in Native American women.
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Gender Roles
Gender roles refers to the assigned role of an
individual within a society. Gender
encompasses the behavioral, psychological, and
social cultural aspects of being female or male.
What are some of the gender roles assigned in
the United States?
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Cultures with More that Two Genders
Third-gender roles are common in many societies
mabu- in Tahiti berdache- Zuni hijras-
India These individuals adopt the dress, speech,
and silent language of the opposite sex. These
people are not shunned by the society but are
included and have within the society special
societal roles.
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Factors Affecting Gender Roles
Kinship- rules of descent and their associated
residence affects gender as it is perceived and
constructed by a society. Economic resources
and division of labor- Nandi- female
husbands. Ideology- a cultures value system is
founded in its belief system, which contributes
in major ways to the enculturation of gender
role expectations. Ex Yanomamö men and women
have separate origin myths reinforcing the
role of men and women.
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Perspectives on Human Sexual Behavior
Sexuality refers to erotic desires and sexual
practices as well as sexual orientation.
Attitudes with regards to sexual behavior is
usually based on our cultural (ethnocentric)
values. Mead in Samoa Malinowski in the
Trobriands
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Sexual Attraction
There is no universal standard for sexual
attractiveness
Sexual Prohibitions
Sexual Prohibitions is an extremely diversified
topic.
Sexual Orientation
Heterosexuality Homosexuality
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Age Grouping
Age grouping is so familiar and so important that
it and sex sometimes have been called the only
universal factors that determine a persons
position. Role in non-Western societies-
distinction between immature, mature, and older
people.
What are some age grouping here in the United
States?
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Institutions of Age Grouping
Age grade- an organized class of people with
membership on the basis of age. Age sets- groups
of persons simultaneously initiated into age
grades at the same time and who move through the
series of categories together.
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Common-Interest Associations
The proliferation of common-interest associations
is a phenomenon intimately associated with the
rise of urban industrialized societies in which
individuals are commonly separated from their
kin. They help to solve problems such as
learning to cope with life in a new environment,
or learning a new language, or mannerisms
necessary for the change from village to city or
one country to another. Often referred to
voluntary associations. Association is not based
on sex, age, kinship, marriage, or territory.