1. Amber Hollibaugh argues that desire and sexuality should be seen as “a central part of our struggle for justice, freedom, and liberation.” Based on the readings on sexuality and gender (as well as

Despite individual variation in sexual orientation within a society, culture always plays a role in molding individual sexual urges toward a collective norm. Such norms vary widely from culture to culture. 252 PART 2 Cultural Diversity Just how far, however, do such genetically and physiologically determined differences go? What effects do they have on the way men and women act and are treated in different societies? Anthro­ pologists have discovered both similarities and differences in the roles of men and women in dif­ ferent cultures. The predominant anthropological position on sex-gender roles and biology may be stated as follows:

The biological nature of men and women [should be seen] not as a narrow enclosure limiting the human organism, but rather as a broad base upon which a variety of structures can be built. (Friedl 1975, p. 6) Although in most societies men tend to be somewhat more aggressive than women are, many of the behavioral and attitudinal differences between the sexes emerge from culture rather than biology. Sex differences are biological, but gender encompasses all the traits that a culture assigns to and inculcates in males and females. "Gender," in other words, refers to the cultural construction of male and female characteristics (Rosaldo 1980b). Given the "rich and various constructions of gender" within the realm of cultural diversity, Susan Bourque and Kay Warren (1987) note that the same images of masculinity and femininity do not always apply. Anthropologists have gathered systematic ethnographic data about similarities and differences involving gender in many cultural settings (Bonvillain 2001; Brettell and Sargent 2005; Gilmore 2001; Mascia-Lees and Black 2000; Nanda 2000; Ward and Edelstein 2006). Anthro­ pologists can detect recurrent themes and pat­ terns involving gender differences. They also can observe that gender roles vary with environment, economy, adaptive strategy, and type of political system. Before we examine the cross-cultural data, some definitions are in order. Gender roles are the tasks and activities a cul­ ture assigns to the sexes. Related to gender roles are gender stereotypes, which are oversimplified ,. STUDENT CD· ROM LIVING ANTHROPOLOGY The Human Animal: Woman and Man Track 11 This clip emphasizes how culture molds masculinity and femininity. It shows how different social treatment received by girls and boys (including male and female styles of play) influences gender differences. The clip notes how sex (involving biological differences) serves as a basis for gender, which emerges through a process of socializa­ tion and enculturation. What are some of the differences noted between male and female children? Based on what you have read in the text chapter, does a cross-cultural perspective help you evaluate this clip? (I For information an multiple genders among Nolive Americans, see the Internet Exercises atyour OlC ........ ,...

254 - -J ­..... 1'"' .u.lL1llUJU':1u..!.pnp~ Philippine Sea ~i.~ SS~o -;,,_,®_:-.::, Lamon Bay ~ South China Sea FIGURE 11.1 location of llonqots in the Philippines. ManiJa~.........,~ " '::;: D. ". <. '" ..~.J;s i-S. ~. ...•.......•.......•..•.•.•........•.....•.••\�••.. .•.•.. ('" • ~.'. - ( ?

..... .. '.i .. () tJ""'(;,,-: ~omi ~in ..••.tI...•.C!>. C1 ~ SibuYan~(jV ,------,---, .'. Sea , -U,. Remembering the discussion, in Chapter 3 on what is now central Nebraska and central Kansas; "Culture," of universals, generalities, and partic­ they now live on a reservation in north central ularities, the findings in Table 11.1 about the divi­ Oklahoma.) Among the Mbuti "pygmies" of sion of labor by gender illustrate generalities Africa's Ituri forest, women hunt by catching rather than universals. That is, among the soci­ small, slow animals, using their hands or a net eties known to ethnography, there is a very strong (Murdock and Provost 1973). tendency for men to build boats, but there are Exceptions to cross-cultural generalizations exceptions. One was the Hidatsa, a Native Ameri­ may involve societies or individuals. That is, a can group in which the women made the boats society like the Hidatsa can contradict the cross­ used to cross the Missouri River. (Traditionally, cultural generalization that men build boats by the Hidatsa were village farmers and bison assigning that task to women. Or, in a society hunters on the North American Plains; they now where the cultural expectation is that only men live in North Dakota.) Another exception: build boats, a particular woman or women can Pawnee women worked wood; this is the only contradict that expectation by doing the male Native American group that assigned this activity activity. Table 11.1 shows that in a sample of 185 to women. (The Pawnee, also traditionally Plains societies, certain activities ("swing activities") are farmers and bison hunters, originally lived in assigned to either or both men and women. TABLE 11.1 Generalities in the Division of Labor by Gender, Based on Data from 185 Societies Generally Male Activities Swing (Male or Female) Activities Generally Female Activities Hunting large aquatic animals Making fire Gathering fuel'fe.g., firewood) fe.g., whales, walrus) Body mutilation Making drinks Smelting ores Preparing skins Gothering wild vegetal foods Metalworking Gathering small land animals Dairy producflon (e.g., churning) Lumbering Planting crops Spinning Hunting large land animals Making leather products Doing the laundry Working wood Harvesting Fetchin~\,vater Hunting fowl Tending crops Cooking Making musical instruments Milking Preparing vegetal food Trapping Making baskets (e.g., processing cereal grains) Building boats Carrying burdens Working stone Making mats Working bone, horn, and shell Caring for small animals Mining and quarrying Preserving meat and fish Setting bones Loom weaving Butchering * Gathering small aquatic animals Collecting wild honey Clothing manufacture Clearing land Making pottery Fishing Tending large herd animals Building houses Preparing the soil Making nets Making rope 'All the activities above "butchering" are almost always done by men; those from "butchering" through "making rope" usually are done by men. SOURCE Adapted from G. P. Murdock and C. Provost, "Factors in the Division of labor by Sex: A Cross-Cultural Analysis," Efhno/ogy 12(2):202-225. Chapter 1 1 Gender 255 In many societies women routinely do hard physicollabor, as is illustrated by these women carrying bricks inside a kiln in Adloi, India in March 2006. Anthropologists have described both commonalities and differences in gender roles and activities among the world's societies. Among the most important of such activities are planting, tending, and harvesting crops. We'll see below that some societies customarily assign more farming chores to women, whereas others call on men to be the main farm laborers. Among the tasks almost always assigned to men (Table 11.1), some (e.g., hunting large animals on land and sea) seem clearly related to the greater average size and strength of males. Others, such as working wood and making musical instruments, seem more cul­ turally arbitrary. And women, of course, are not exempt from arduous and time-consuming physi­ cal labor, such as gathering firewood and fetching water. In Arembepe, Bahia, Brazil, women rou­ tinely transport water in five-gallon tins, balanced on their heads, from wells and lagoons located at long distances from their homes. Cross-culturally the subsistence contributions of men and women are roughly equal (Table 11.2). But in domestic activities and child care, female labor predominates, as we see in Tables s n s .e n h ~s ·e, m ry zi­ eties known to ethnography, polygyny is much more common than polyandry is (see Table 11.5).

Men mate, within and outside marriage, more than women do. Table 11.6 shows cross-cultural data on premarital sex, and Table 11.7 summa­ rizes the data on extramarital sex. In both cases men are less restricted than women are, although TABLE 11.5 Daes the Society Allow Multiple Spouses?" Only for males 77 For both, but more commonly for males 4 For neither 16 For both, but more commonly for females 2 ·Percentage of 92 randomly selected societies.

SOURCE M. F.Whyte, "Cross-Cultural Codes Dealing with the Relative Status of Women," Ethnology 17(21:211-239.

TABLE 11.6 Is There a Double Standard with Respect to PREMARITAL Sex" Yes-females are more restricted 44 No-equal restrictions on males and females 56 *Percentage of 73 randomly selected societies for which information was available on this variable.

SOURCE M. F. Whyte, "Cross-Cultural Codes Dealing with the Relative Status of Women:'fthnology 17(21:211-239.

TABLE 11.7 Is There a Double Standard with Respect to EXTRAMARITAL Sex" Yes-females are more restricted 43 Equal restrictions on males and females 55 Males punished more severely for transgression 3 *Percentage of 75 randomly selected societies for which information was available on this variable.

SOURCE M. F. Whyte, "Cross-Cultural Codes Dealing with the Relative Status of Women," Ethnology 17(2):211-239. the restrictions are equal in about half the soci­ eties studied.

Double standards that restrict women more than men illustrate gender stratification. Several studies have shown that economic roles affect gender stratification. In one cross-cultural study, Sanday (1974) found that gender stratification decreased when men and women made roughly equal contributions to subsistence. She found that gender stratification was greatest when the women contributed either much more or much less than the men did. IIlNEWS BRIEFIIl Indonesia's Matriarchal Minangkabau OHer an Alternative Social System EUREKALERT NEWS BRIEF by Pam Kosty May 9, 2002 Cross-culturally, anthropologists have described tremendous variation in the roles of men and women, and the power differentials between them. If a patriarchy isapolitical system ruled by men, what would amatriarchy be? Would a matri­ archy bea political system ruled by women, or a political system in which women playa much more prominent role than men do in social and political orga­ nization? This news account reports on Peggy Sanday's conclusion that matriarchies exist, but not as mirror images of patriarchies. The superior power that men typically have in a patri­ archy isn't matched by women'sequally disproportionate power in a matriarchy. Many societies, like the Minangkabau described here, lack the substantial power differentials that usually accompany patriarchal systems. In reading this account, pay attention to the centrality of Minangkabau women in social, economic, and ceremonial life and as key symbols. Matrilineality is uncommon as an orga­ nizing principle in nation-states, such as Indonesia, where the Minangkabau live. But political systems operate at different levels. We seeherethat matriliny and matriarchy are expressed locally, at the village level, and regionally, where seniority of matrilineal descent serves as a way to rank villages. F o r the last century, ... scholars have searched both human history and the continents to find a matriarchy-a society where the power was in the hands of women, not men. Most have concluded that a genuine matriarchy does not exist, perhaps may never have existed. Anthropologist Peggy Reeves Sanday, Consulting Curator, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, disagrees. After years of research among the Minangkabau people of West Sumatra, Indonesia, she has accepted that group's own self­ labeling, as a "matriarchate," or matriarchy. The problem, she asserts, lies in Western cultural notions of what a matriarchy "should" look like-patriarchy's female-twin.

"Too many anthropologists have been looking for a society where women rule the affairs of everyday life, including government," she said. "That template-and a singu­ lar, Western perspective on power­ doesn't fit very well when you're looking at non-Western cultures like AMinangkabau bride and groom in West Sumatra, Indonesia, where anthropologist Peggy Reeves Sanday has conducted several years of ethnographic field work. the Minangkabau of West Sumatra, Indonesia, where males and females are partners for the common good rather than competitors ruled by self-interest. Social prestige accrues to those who promote good relations by following the dictates of custom and religion." The four million Minangkabau, one of Indonesia's largest ethnic groups, live in the highlands of the province of West Sumatra. Their society is founded on the coexistence of matrilineal custom and a nature­ based philosophy called adat, More recently, Islam has been incorporated into the foundation ... The key to Minangkabau matri­ archy, according to Sanday, is found in the ever-present adat idea [that] "One must nurture growth in humans, animals, and plants so that society will be strong." ... The emphasis on nurturing growth yields a unique emphasis on the maternal in daily life. The Minangkabau glorify their mythical Queen Mother and cooperation. In village social relations senior women are associated with the central pillar of the traditional house, which is the oldest pillar because it is the first erected. The oldest village in a group of villages is referred to as the "mother village." When they stage ceremonies in their full ceremonial regalia, women are addressed by the same term reserved for the mythical Queen. Such practices suggest that matriarchy in this society is about making the maternal the center, ori­ gin, and foundation, not just of life but of the social order as well.

The power of Minangkabau women extends to the economic and social realms. Women control land inheritance, and husbands move into the households of their wives ... During the wedding ceremony the wife collects her husband from his household and, with her female rela­ tives, brings him back to her house­ hold to live. In the event of a divorce Chapter 1 1 Gender 253 n o f --"II'I'"1"Huvinic l'JlJ~). EXUAL ORIENTA'rlON Sexual orientation refers to a person's habitual sexual attraction to, and sexual activities with, persons of the opposite sex, heterosexuality; the same sex, homosexuality; or both sexes, bisexuality. Asexualitv, indifference toward or lack of attrac­ tionto either sex, is also a sexual orientation. All four of these forms are found in contemporary NorthAmerica, and throughout the world. But etch type of desire and experience holds different meanings for individuals and groups. For exam­ ple, an asexual disposition may be acceptable in some places but may be perceived as a character flaw in others. Male-male sexual activity may be a private affair in Mexico, rather than public, socially sanctioned, and encouraged as it was among the Etoro (see below) of Papua New Guinea (see also Blackwood and Wieringa, eds. 1999; Herdt 1981, Kottak and Kozaitis 2003; Lan­ caster and Di Leonardo, eds. 1997; Nanda 2000).

Recently in the United States there has been a tendency to see sexual orientation as fixed and ¥ __·me: biologically based. There is not enough infor­ mation at this time to determine the extent to which sexual orientation is based on biology. What we can say is that, to some extent at least, all human activities and preferences, including erotic expression, are learned, malleable, and culturally constructed. In any society, individuals will differ in the nature, range, and intensity of their sexual inter­ ests and urges. No one knows for sure why such individual sexual differences exist. Part of the answer may be biological, reflecting genes or hor­ mones. Another part may have to do with experi­ ences during growth and development. But whatever the reasons for individual variation, culture always plays a role in molding individual sexual urges toward a collective norm. And such sexual norms vary from culture to culture. What do we know about variation in sexual norms from society to society, and over time? A classic cross-cultural study (Ford and Beach 1951) found wide variation in attitudes about masturba­ tion, bestiality (sex with animals), and homosexu­ ality. Even in a single society, such as the United States, attitudes about sex differ over time and with socioeconomic status, region, and rural ver­ sus urban residence. However, even in the 1950s, prior to the" age of sexual permissiveness" (the pre-HfV period from the mid-1960s through the 1970s), research showed that almost all American men (92 percent) and more than half of American women (54 percent) admitted to masturbation. In the famous Kinsey report (Kinsey, Pomeroy, and Martin 1948), 37 percent of the men surveyed admitted having had at least one sexual experi­ ence leading to orgasm with another male. In a later study of 1,200 unmarried women, 26 percent Chapter 1 1 Gender 267 ~.~-~-~~--_._._-_.- reportedsame-sex sexual activities. (Because Kin­ sey's research relied on nonrandom samples, it should be considered merely illustrative, rather than a statistically accurate representation of, sex­ ual behavior at the time.) Sex acts involving people of the same sex were absent, rare, or secret in only 37 percent of 76 soci­ eties for which data were available in the Ford and Beach study (1951). In the others, various forms of same-sex sexual activity were consid­ ered normal and acceptable. Sometimes sexual relations between people of the same sex involved transvestism on the part of one of the partners, like the berdaches discussed in the last chapter (see "Interesting Issues" on p. 268).

Transvestism did not characterize male-male sex among the Sudanese Azande, who valued the warrior role (Evans-Pritchard 1970). Prospective warriors-young men aged 12 to 20-left their families and shared quarters with adult fighting men, who paid bridewealth for, and had sex with, them. During this apprenticeship, the young men did the domestic duties of women. Upon reach­ ing warrior status, these young men took their own younger male brides. Later, retiring from the '~"" c.l'",,>.. ~, .,-r .,-N J7~" warrior role, Azande men married women. Flexi­ ble in their sexual expression, Azande males had no difficulty shifting from sex with older men (as male brides), to sex with younger men (as war­ riors), to sex with women (as husbands) (see Murray and Roscoe, eds. 1998). An extreme example of tension involving male-female sexual relations in Papua New Guinea is provided by the Etoro (Kelly 1976), a group of 400 people who subsist by hunting and horticulture in the Trans-Fly region (Figure 11.3).

The Etoro illustrate the power of culture in mold­ ing human sexuality. The following account, based on ethnographic field work by Raymond Chapter 11 Gender 269 t • • D o the taboos that have surrounded homosexuality in our own society remind you of Etoro taboos? Homosexual activity has been stigmatized in Western industrial societies. Indeed, sodomy laws continue to make it illegal in many U'S.

states. Among the Etoro, male-female sex is banned from the social center and moved to the fringes or margins of society (the woods, filled with dangerous snakes). In our own society, homosexual activity has traditionally been hidden, furtive, and secretive-also moved to the margins of society rather than its valued center. Imagine what our own sex lives would be like if we had been raised with Etoro beliefs and taboos.

Etoro opinions about sexuality were linked to their beliefs about the cycle of birth, physical growth, maturity, old age, and death. Etoro men believed that semen was necessary to give life force to a fetus, which was, they believed, implanted in a woman by an ancestral spirit. Sex­ ual intercourse during pregnancy nourished the growing fetus. The Etoro believed that men had a limited lifetime supply of semen. Any sex act leading to ejaculation was seen as draining that supply, and as sapping a man's virility and vital­ ity. The birth of children, nurtured by semen, symbolized a necessary sacrifice that would lead to the husband's eventual death. Heterosexual intercourse, required only for reproduction, was discouraged. Women who wanted too much sex were viewed as witches, hazardous to their hus­ bands' health. Etoro culture allowed heterosexual intercourse only about 100 days a year. The rest of the time it was tabooed. Seasonal birth clustering shows the taboo was respected.

So objectionable was male-female sex that it was removed from community life. It could occur neither in sleeping quarters nor in the fields. Coitus could happen only in the woods, where it was risky because poisonous snakes, the Etoro claimed, were attracted by the sounds and smells of male-female sex. Although coitus was discouraged, sex acts between men were viewed as essential. Etoro believed that boys could not produce semen on their own. To grow into men and eventually give 270 PART 2 Cultural Diversity life force to their children, boys had to acquire semen orally from older men. From the age of 10 until adulthood, boys were inseminated by older men. No taboos were attached to this. Such oral insemination could proceed in the sleeping area or garden. Every three years, a group of boys around the age of 20 was formally initiated into manhood. They went to a secluded mountain lodge, where they were visited and inseminated by several older men.

Male-male sex among the Etoro was governed by a code of propriety. Although sexual relations between older and younger males were consid­ ered culturally essential, those between boys of the same age were discouraged. A boy who took semen from other youths was believed to be sap­ ping their life force and stunting their growth. A boy's rapid physical development might suggest that he was getting semen from other boys. Like a sex-hungry wife, he might be shunned as a witch.

These sexual practices among the Etoro rested not on hormones or genes but on cultural beliefs and traditions. The Etoro were an extreme exam­ ple of a male-female avoidance pattern that has been widespread in Papua New Guinea and in patrilineal-patrilocal societies. The Etoro shared a cultural pattern, which Gilbert Herdt (1984) calls "ritualized homosexuality," with some 50 other tribes in Papua New Guinea, especially in that country's Trans-Fly region. These societies illustrate one extreme of a male-female avoid­ ance pattern that is Widespread in Papua New Guinea and indeed in many patrilineal-patrilocal societies.

Flexibility in sexual expression seems to be an aspect of our primate heritage. Both masturba­ tion and same-sex sexual activity exist among chimpanzees and other primates. Male bonobos (pygmy chimps) regularly engage in a form of mutual masturbation known as "penis fencing." Females get sexual pleasure from rubbing their genitals against those of other females (de Waal 1997). Our primate sexual potential is molded by culture, the environment, and reproductive necessity. Heterosexual coitus is practiced in all human societies-which, after all, must repro­ duce themselves-but alternatives are also wide­ spread (Rathus, Nevid, and Fichner-Rathus 2005).

Like gender roles and attitudes more generally, the sexual component of human personality and identity-just how we express our "natural" sex­ ual urges-is a matter that culture and environ­ ment direct and limit. Hidden Women, Public Men-Public Women, Hidden Men .

F o r several years, one of Brazil's top sex symbols was Roberta Close, whom I first saw in a furniture commer­ cial. Roberta ended her pitch with an admonition to prospective furniture buyers to accept no substitute for the advertised product. "Things," she warned, "are not always what they seem." Nor was Roberta. This petite and incredibly feminine creature was actu­ ally a man. Nevertheless, despite the fact that he-or she (speaking as Brazilians dol-is a man posing as a woman, Roberta won a secure place in Brazilian mass culture. Her photos decorated magazines. She was a pan­ elist on a TV variety show and starred in a stage play in Rio with an actor known for his supermacho image. Roberta even inspired a well-known, and apparently heterosexual, pop singer to make a video honoring her.

In it, she pranced around Rio's Ipanema Beach in a bikini, showing off her ample hips and buttocks.

The video depicted the widespread male appreciation of Roberta's beauty.

As confirmation, one heterosexual man told me he had recently been on the same plane as Roberta and had been struck by her looks. Another man said he wanted to have sex with her. These comments, it seemed to me, illustrated striking cultural contrasts about gender and sexuality. In Brazil, a Latin Ameri­ can country noted for its machismo, heterosexual men did not feel that attraction toward a transvestite blem­ ished their masculine identities. Roberta Close can be understood in relation to a gender-identity scale that jumps from extreme femininity to extreme masculinity, with little in between. Masculinity is stereotyped as active and public, femininity as pas­ sive and domestic. The male-female contrast in rights and behavior is much stronger in Brazil than it is in North America. Brazilians confront a more rigidly defined masculine role than North Americans do.

The active-passive dichotomy also provides a stereotypical model for male-male sexual relations. One man 268 PART 2 Cultural Diversity is supposed to be the active, mascu­ line (inserting) partner, whereas the other is the passive, effeminate one.

The latter man is derided as a bicba (intestinal worm), but little stigma attaches to the inserter. Indeed, many "active" (and married) Brazilian men like to have sex with transvestite prosti­ tutes, who are biological males.

If a Brazilian man is unhappy pursu­ ing either active masculinity or passive effeminacy, there is one other choice-­ active femininity. For Roberta Close and others like her, the cultural demand of ultra masculinity has yielded to a per­ formance of ultrafemininity. These men­ women form a third gender in relation to Brazil's polarized male-female iden­ tity scale. Transvestites like Roberta are par­ ticularly prominent in Rio de Janeiro's annual Carnaval, when an ambience of inversion rules the city. In the cultur­ ally accurate words of the American popular novelist Gregory McDonald, who sets one of his books in Brazil at Carnaval time:

Everything goes topsy-turvy . . .

Men become women; women become men; grown-ups become children; rich people pretend they're poor; poor people, rich; sober people become drunkards; thieves become generous. Very topsy-turvy. (McDonald 1984,