ANTH 3230 6.0 Women, Culture and Society

This course explores the contributions of anthropology to the study of gender, and the contributions of feminism to anthropology. We begin with a critical look at the history of androcentric bias in anthropological field work and theory and then trace the anthropological study of women’s lives from the emergence of the “anthropology of women” in the 1970s to contemporary feminist anthropology. Drawing on ethnographic examples from around the world, we will explore women’s lives in depth, taking the perspective that sex, gender, and sexuality are best understood as socially and culturally constructed categories cross cut by race, class, religion and nation. Among the specific topics covered in this course are: marriage and the family, adoption and parenting, midwifery and childbirth, fashion and beauty, globalization and women’s work, and women’s agency and political activism. We will also address a number of theoretical and methodological dilemmas raised by the relationship between feminism and anthropology.