ANTH 2170 Final: Final Test Notes

• School: York University
• Department: Anthropology
• Course: ANTH 2170
• Professor: Arne Steinforth

Document Summary

The body: the body is a reference point about the discourse about sex and gender. Constructing sex and gender: if gender (feminine/masculine) is a social category and sex (male and female) is a biological category, but biology is a social construction then sex = social category = gender. The construct called sex is as culturally construed as gender, there is no distinction between sex and gender. The biomedical body: even in biology of the body in science we see constructions of gender. Female = egg: passive, weak, helpless, and powerless. Male = sperm: active, strong, aggressive, and powerful. Nature vs. nature debate: leading us to generalizations of gender roles or how men or women are supposed to act in accordance to human nature. The reduction of complex social actions narrowed down to the most basic man the hunter , women the gather . Critiquing sex as female vs. male: non-ambiguous binary, biological determinism, behavioral prescriptiveness etc.