Ellen Oxfeld Fall 2004
Munroe 204 Ext. 5300
This course offers an introduction to the issues involved in the study of women and gender cross-culturally. Such an endeavor raises a number of difficult and delicate issues. What explains the diversities and similarities in women's roles across societies? How do we assess women's status and power, and how do we decide which standards to use in doing so? What forces create changes in women's roles? How do gender constructions help shape communities and even nations?
Through readings, discussions and films, we will attempt to answer these questions and to compare and contrast women's roles and the importance of gender constructions in a variety of societies. We will rely primarily on ethnographic studies of several interrelated domains of culture. These include kinship and exchange, production and reproduction, ideology, language and the nation. Our examination will therefore range from a focus on the minutest details of family life to the actions of nation-states. Course readings will deal primarily with non-Western societies, but not exclusively so.
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COURSEREADINGS
The following books are available for purchase at the bookstore and also on reserve at Starr Library. Articles are available through e-reserve (SOAN0304-5303eo).
Peggy Sanday Women at the Center
Lila Abu-Lughod Veiled Sentiments
Maria Mies Patriarchy and Accumulation on
a World Scale
Nancy Scheper-Hughes Death Without Weeping
Rhoda Kanaaneh Birthing the Nation
Sarah Lamb White Saris and Sweet Mangoes
Michaela DiLeonardo Gender at the Crossroads of Knowledge
Nicole Constable Romance on a Global Stage
Jane Collins Threads
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
This course is both reading and writing intensive. Although there will be some lectures, most classes will be based on discussion of assigned readings and/or written work. There will be no outside readings in this course. Therefore, participants in the course should be prepared at all times to discuss actively the issues being considered. Course requirements and their proportion in your final grade are listed below:
1. Prepare all assigned readings, attend all classes and films, and participate actively in class discussion (10%). All films will be shown in WNS 506 at both4:15and7:30 PMon the date shown.
2. Write three response papers (no more than 2 pages each). These can be chosen from nine topics provided throughout the semester and MUST be handed in on the day these topics serve as the focus of class discussion. Tight organization, clarity of expression, and willingness to ask probing questions will set the standard for these papers. Since they can only be two pages long, they will demand careful editing (20% for all three response papers).
3. Write three longer essays. Two of these essays will be approximately five pages long (20% each), and the final essay will be 10 to 12 pages long and ask you to synthesize and reflect upon material from throughout the course (30%).
There will be no final exam in this course.
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SCHEDULE OF TOPICS AND READINGS
PART I: ARE THERE UNIVERSALS?
September 16 Sperling, "Baboons with Briefcases vs. Langurs in
Lipstick: Feminism and Functionalism in Primate
Studies" (in DiLeonardo).
Leibowitz, "Perspectives on the Evolution of Sex
Differences" ER
Response Paper #1: How useful to you think it is to examine our primate ancestors or earlier human societies for clues about contemporary gender roles?
September 21 Rosaldo ER,Ortner ER
Peacock, "Rethinking the Sexual Division of Labor" (in di Leonardo)
PART II. KINSHIP, EXCHANGE, AND WOMEN'S ROLES
A. Patriliny and patrilocality in South Asia
September 22 FILM:"Dadi's Family"
September 23 Lamb, pp. 27-69
September 28 Lamb, pp. 70-111, 181-238
Response Paper #2:What kinds of powers (or lack thereof) do Bengali women exercise? How does this compare with what you know of American culture?
B. A matrilineal example
September 29 Film "The Trobrianders"
September 30 Sanday (begin)
October 5 Sanday (finish)
Response Paper #3:Do you agree with Peggy Sanday that the Minangkabau are a matriarchy?
C. Further issues of exchange and gender
October 7 Rubin "The Traffic in Women" ER
October 12 Constable (begin)
October 13 (Wednesday) ESSAY #1 DUE
October 19 Constable (finish)
Long "Anthropological Perspectives on the
Trafficking of Women" ER
Response Paper #4:Do you agree with Constable that the term "mail-order brides" does not describe the transnational relationships she studies? If so, why? If not, why not?
PART III. GENDER IDEOLOGIES AND SOCIAL STATUS SYSTEMS
October 21 Whitehead "The Bow and the Burdenstrap" ER
Yalman, "On the Purity of Women in the Castes of
Ceylon and Malabar" (Handout)
October 25 FILM:"A Veiled Revolution"
October 26 Abu-Lughod, Chapters 1 - 4
October 28 Abu-Lughod, Chapters 5 – 8
Response Paper #5:Is oral poetry a form of protest (counter-hegemonic discourse) amongst Bedouin women, or does it simply reinforce their powerlessness?
PART IV. PRODUCTION REPRODUCTION AND POLITICS
A. Some Pre-Capitalist Examples
November 2 Brown, "Iroquois Women: An Ethnohistoric Note"
ER
Okonjo, "The Dual-Sex Political System"ER
B. Gender and Colonial Expansion
November 4 Stoler, "Carnal Knowledge and Imperial Power"
(in di Leonardo)
Mies, pp. 74-111
Response Paper #6:Choose one idea form either Mies or Stoler that links gender to colonialism. Did this idea shed new light on colonialism for you? How so?
November 8 (Monday) ESSAY #2 DUE
C. Women and the Global Reach of Capitalism
November 8 FILM:"Working Women of the World"
November 9 Mies, pp. 112-142
Collins (excerpts)
November 11 Collins (excerpts)
Response Paper #7: Did Collins' book make you think about our own fashion practices and predilections in a different way? How so?
November 16 Scheper-Hughes (pp. 268-399)
D. Socialism and Women's Roles
November 17 Film "Through Chinese Women's Eyes"
November 18 Rofel, "Liberation Nostalgia and a Yearning for
Modernity"ER
Mies, pp. 175-222
Response Paper #8:Reflect on the connections between socialism and women's roles based on the readings and film for November 17th and 18th. How did the socialism (in its Chinese Communist form only) affect women in China? Do you think it liberated them?
E. Nationalism and Gender
November 23 Kanaaneh (begin)
November 30 Kannaneh (finish)
December 2 Chatterjee,"Colonialism, Nationalism, and
Colonized Women" ER
Brownell, "Gender and Nationalism in China" ER
Response Paper #9: Talk about one way in which national liberation and women's liberation either reinforce each other or work at cross-purposes.
December 7 Borneman, "Toward a Theory of Ethnic Cleansing"
ER
Enloe, "Feminism, Nationalism, Militarism" ER
Enloe, "Base Women" ER
PART IV. CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
December 9 Mies, pp. 205-233
Response Paper #10:Give your reaction to the "feminist perspective of a new society" outlined by Mies. Please be as critical or enthusiastic as you would like.
December 15 FINAL ESSAY DUE