chapter 9 anthro – Flashcards
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With the term "sex," anthropologists are referring to biological differences. In contrast, they define gender as
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the cultural construction of whether one if female, male, or something else.
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The tasks and activities that a culture assigns to each sex are known as
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gender roles
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According to anthropologist Ann Stoler, the economic determinants of gender status include
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freedom or autonomy (in disposing of one's labor and its fruits) and social power (control over the lives, labor, and produce of others).
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Ethnographic evidence has revealed that traditionally, Pawnee women worked wood, and among the Hidatsa, women made boats. Cases such as these suggest that
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patterns of division of labor by gender are culturally general—not universal.
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In his discussion on recurrent gender patterns, Kottak stresses that
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exceptions to cross-cultural generalizations may involve societies or individuals.
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What makes Patricia Draper's fieldwork among the Ju/'hoansi so insightful regarding the relationships between economy, gender roles, and stratification?
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Because she studied both foragers and a group of former foragers who had become sedentary, she could draw comparisons between the two (she found that in the sedentary group, gender roles became more rigidly defined and that eventually women's status declined).
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When compared to other kinds of societies, all of the following are true about foragers except
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sexual promiscuity is most common and routinely punished.
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Research among horticultural societies has found
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women to be their main producers.
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If a patriarchy is a political system ruled by men, what would a matriarchy be? A political system ruled by women? Anthropologist Peggy Sanday investigated these questions among the Minangkabau of West Sumatra and found that
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although matriarchies do exist, they are not mirror images of patriarchies because, at least for the Minangkabau, both men and women are seen as cooperative partners for the common good.
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Which of the following statements about groups with the patrilineal-patrilocal complex is not true?
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Their land and prestige are passed through the females
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Among patrilineal-patrilocal cultivators
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women remain the primary producers of subsistence crops.
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All of the following are associated with plow agriculture except
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an overall increase in the status of women as new production techniques called for female as well as male labor.
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Of the following factors, which is historically correlated with the lowering of women's status in the United States?
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European immigration around 1900
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Which of the following statements is not true?
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The feminization of poverty is unique to the United States.
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In which type of society would you expect women's status to be highest?
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hunters and gatherers
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Recent cross-cultural studies of gender roles demonstrate that
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the relative status of women is variable, depending on factors such as subsistence strategy, the importance of warfare, and the prevalence of a domestic-public dichotomy.
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Regarding sexual orientation, all of the following are true except
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there is conclusive scientific evidence that sexual orientation is genetically determined.
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According to studies in the 1960s, why did the young Etoro men and boys engage in homosexual relationships?
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They believed it is necessary for boys to ingest semen in order to mature in a healthy way.
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Based on research in the 1960s, which of the following statements about Etoro conceptions of heterosexual intercourse is not true?
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It was permitted to take place only in the couple's residence.
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Which of the following is most strongly determined by biology?
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sex
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The specific roles assigned to each gender vary from culture to culture.
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true
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Gender roles are the instinctual behaviors that are the exclusive domain of each sex.
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False
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Cross-culturally, women's roles tend to be focused on activities associated with the home, while men are more active in the public domain.
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True
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Cross-culturally, the subsistence contributions of men and women are roughly equal.
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true
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Kottak argues that the relative gender equality found in horticultural societies most likely characterizes the most "natural" state of gender differentiation.
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false
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Women in matrilineal societies tend to occupy elevated status positions.
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true
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Gender stratification tends to be extremely pronounced in patrilineal-patrilocal societies.
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true
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In agricultural societies, women generally dominate the subsistence labor.
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false
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The traditional gender roles of the Betsileo of Madagascar illustrate the idea that intensive cultivation does not necessarily entail sharper gender stratification.
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true
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Domestic violence against women is a prevalent in patrilineal-patrilocal systems in which women are cutoff from their supportive kin ties.
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true
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The reason there are more modern-day Rosie-the-Riveters today is because modern industry is even more physically demanding than it was during World War II.
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false
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With the baby boom and the increase in industrialization, women have contributed more and more to the workplace while receiving pay equal to their male coworkers.
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false
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Even though women represent more than half of the American workforce, single parent families headed by women represent more than half of the households below the poverty line.
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true
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Some of the reasons why there are so many single parent families headed by women include male migration, divorce, abandonment, and the idea that women are responsible for the children.
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true
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Flexibility in sexual expression seems to be an aspect of our primate heritage.
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true
