Athabasca University: Course Syllabus, Anthropology 375

Anthropology (ANTH) 375
The Anthropology of Gender

ANTH 375 closed April 8, 2002, replaced by current version.

Delivery mode:	Individualized study
Credits:	3 - Social Science
Prerequisite:	ANTH 275 or WMST 267
Centre:	Centre for Work and Community Studies

>> Overview | Outline | Evaluation | Course Materials | Course Fees

Overview

This course guides the student in a critical examination of gender, beginning with an exploration of gender as it affects anthropological research. It moves on to examine the cultural construction of biological sex and our narratives of human evolution-topics that were once thought to be scientifically- neutral and value-free. Next, the course explores the relationship of gender and work, and the work of gender. The work of gender includes labour that emerges from sex and gender roles. The following sections deal with gender and religion, suffering and healing and the multiplicity and complexity of gender identities. The course concludes with a consideration of the construction of gender and gender roles within the context of global and local political economies and a discussion about the struggles for gender equity in contemporary societies.

Outline

Unit One: Engendering Fieldwork
Unit Two: Biology, Culture and the Production of Gender in Human Evolution
Unit Three: Gender and Work
Unit Four: The Work of Gender
Unit Five: Gender, Healing and Religion
Unit Six: Gender Identities and Sexuality
Unit Seven: Colonialism, Globalization and Gender

Evaluation

To receive credit for ANTH 375, students must achieve a grade of at least 50 per cent on each of the assignments. The weighting of the composite grade is as follows:

Take-home midterm	Final exam	Essay 1	Research paper	Essay 2	Total
15%	25%	15%	20%	25%	100%

Textbooks and Monograph

Ward, Martha C. 1999. A World Full of Women, 2nd Edition. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Brettel, Caroline, B. and Carolyn F. Sargent, eds. 2000. Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective, 3rd Edition. Upper Saddle River, N. J.: Prentice Hall.

Nanda, Serena. 1999. Neither Man Nor Woman, 2nd Edition. Belmont, Ca.: Wadsworth Publishing, Co.

Other materials

The course materials include a reader which contains the following articles:

McKeganey N. and Bloor, M. 1991. "Spotting the Invisible Man: The Influence of Male Gender on Fieldwork Relations." British Journal of Sociology 42(2): 195-210.

Martin, Emily. 1996. "The Egg and the Sperm: How Science Has Constructed a Romance Based on Stereotypical Male-Female Roles." In Gender and Scientific Authority, edited by Barbara Laslett, et al., pp. 323-339. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

McElhinny, Bonnie. 1994. "An Economy of Affect." In Disclocating Masculinity: Comparative Ethnographies, edited by Andrea Cornwall and Nancy Lindisfarne, pp. 159-171. London: Routledge Press.

Morgan, Kathyrn Pauly. 1998. "Contested Bodies, Contested Knowledges: Women, Health and the Politics of Medicalization." In The Politics of Women's Health: Exploring Agency and Autonomy, edited by Susan Sherwin, pp. 83-121. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Doyal, Leslie. 1995. "Hazards of Hearth and Home." In What Makes Women Sick: Gender and the Political Economy of Health, pp. 27-58. Houndmills, UK: Macmillan Press.

Athabasca University reserves the right to amend course outlines occasionally and without notice.
Courses offered by other delivery methods may vary from their individualized-study counterparts.