Course Syllabus
Athabasca University
Anthropology (ANTH) 375
The Anthropology of Gender (Revision 2)
ANTH 375 closed December 5, 2007, replaced by current version.
View previous syllabus
Delivery mode: Individualized study.
Credits: 3 - Social Science.
Prerequisite: ANTH 275 or WMST 266.
Centre: Centre for Work and Community Studies
ANTH 375 has a Challenge for Credit option.
Course website
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
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, you must achieve a grade of at least 50 per cent on each of the assignments. The weighting of the composite grade is as follows:
| TMA 1 Response Paper | TMA 2 Take-home Exam | TMA 3 Research Paper | TMA 4 Ethnography Review | Final Exam | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15% | 15% | 20% | 25% | 25% | 100% |
To learn more about assignments and examinations, please refer to Athabasca University's online Calendar.
Course Materials
Textbooks and Monograph
Brettell, Caroline, and Carolyn Sargent, eds. 2001. Gender in Cross-cultural Perspective, 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Nanda, Serena. 1999. Neither Man Nor Woman, 2nd ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Ward, Martha, and Monica Edelstein. 2006. A World Full of Women, 4th ed. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc.
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.