Anthropology and Gender from McGee and Worms' Anthropological Theory

Introduction

• Examination of gender in anthropology through various theoretical perspectives.
• Discussion of pre-feminist anthropology and feminist critique in cultural, biological anthropology, and archaeology.

Pre-Feminist Anthropology

Frederick Engels

• Work: "The Origins of Private Property in the State."
• Attributed women’s oppression to changes in mode of production during the Neolithic Revolution.
• Shift from matrilineal to patrilineal inheritance led to women’s societal defeat.

Margaret Mead

• Explored gender and sexuality in works like "Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies" (1935) and "Male and Female" (1949).
• Analyzed culture's role in shaping gender characteristics and behavior.
• Advocated for the full utilization of men’s and women’s talents in society.

Ruth Benedict

• Focused on cultural systems influencing personality types in societies.
• Contemporary of Margaret Mead.

Feminist Critique in Anthropology

1970s Feminist Anthropology

• Women anthropologists questioned male-centered assumptions.
• Focused on women’s roles and statuses globally.
• Criticized anthropology’s neglect of women and gender.

Key Feminist Works

• Sherry Ortner’s structuralist approach: "Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture?"
• Friedel’s materialist perspective on women’s subsistence roles.
• Rosaldo and Lamphere’s work on social structure and women’s subordination.

Challenges to "Man the Hunter" Hypothesis

• Sally Slocum’s critique on male bias in anthropology.
• Emphasized women’s roles in gathering and child care requiring complex skills.

Trends in the 1980s

Social Construction of Gender

• Focus on roles of motherhood, kinship, and marriage.
• Emphasis on gender differences among women.

Materialist and Marxist Perspectives

• Analysis of gender roles in relation to class and power.
• Marxist theory explaining women’s subordination in capitalist societies.

Cultural Specificity of Women’s Identities

• Exploration of racial, ethnic, class, and sexual identities.
• Stoller’s analysis of colonial sexual politics.

Developments in the 1990s

Multicultural Focus and Third Wave Feminism

• Questioning anthropological canon and traditional writing.
• Importance of multivocality and addressing biases in ethnography.

Experimentation in Anthropological Writing

• Emergence of autoethnography and subjective forms of knowledge.
• Utilization of poetry and fiction in ethnography.

Key Figures and Ideas

Eleanor Leacock

• Marxist ideas and gender studies.
• Critiques of non-white female representation and feminist radicalism in anthropology.

Conclusion

• Feminist anthropology’s ongoing influence on understanding gender roles.
• Integration of intersectionality in examining women’s roles and identities.