Part I:Referring to Module 12 Content(see the attachments), discuss what Mead's findings from studying the Arapesh and the Mundugumor mean in terms of the basis for gender roles. (One brief paragraph [3-4 sentences], one brief paragraph [3-4 sentences], responding to another's post)I'll post it once the other part gets done.
Part II:Referring to Module 12 Content(see the attachments), answer the following:What is the significance of the photographs in the powerpoint entitled "Women Carrying Heavy Loads?"(One brief paragraph [3-4 sentences])
PowerPoint Presentation MARRIAGE CUSTOMS MARRIAGE CUSTOMS GREEK ORTHODOX WEDDING WEDDING IN MEXICO CHRISTIAN/NONDENOMINATIONAL JEWISH WEDDING (UNDER CHUPPAH) OJIBWE WEDDING MUSLIM WEDDING – EXCHANGE OF RINGS HINDU WEDDING CEREMONY TRADITIONAL WEDDING PARTY IN AFRICA CHINESE WEDDING PROCESSION KOREAN WEDDING SAMOAN WEDDING This site requires JavaScript and Cookies to be enabled. Please change your browser settings or upgrade your browser. Women carrying heavy loads Women carrying heavy loads Gender Anthropologists use the terms "sex" and "gender" in a specific way. " Sex" refers to biological differences: reproductive organs, secondary characteristics that develop at puberty, and genetic and biochemical differences. " Gender" refers to behavioral roles, often culturally influenced or determined. How can we determine if a behavior is biologically based or culturally based? One way is through cross-cultural analysis. Margaret Mead (See Attachment 1) was sent by Franz Boas, her professor to Samoa in the 1920s, when she was a young woman. She did fieldwork there and on other islands in the Western Pacific. (While her findings came under scrutiny by a later anthro- pologist, his own work was considered to be questionable.) Among the findings she made were that there was a peaceful group (the Arapesh) and a warlike group (the Mundugumor). The Arapesh men, according to her reports, were more peaceful than the Mundugumor women. If that were true, it means that males are not always more aggressive, due to biology than females. It implies that culture is responsible for much, if not all, of this behavior. In many cultures, such as ours, women can be aggressive and men can be peaceful, but in different ways. Female aggression in speech might be more acceptable than physical aggression; males may be gentle with their children and pets without having their masculinity questioned by their culture. All societies regulate human sexual behavior in some way, but some are more permissive and others are less so, and some are very restrictive. Mead's book "Coming of Age in Samoa" reported that Samoan adolescents had more freedom of premarital sex than American adolescents (although the informants' reports have been questioned). Since this relates to behavior, it is a gender issue, that is, what girls were permitted in Samoa as opposed to in America. The opposite extreme in the anthropological literature was in traditional Cheyenne culture. Differences in gender roles, that is, male task activities versus female task activities, may vary widely, or may vary slightly with much overlap between their assigned tasks. Large game hunt- ing and felling trees are generally male tasks; childcare and gathering plant foods generally female tasks. However, there are many tasks which have been found to be practiced by both sexes in pre-industrial societies, including fishing and pottery making. The basis for these different task assignments is not just due to differences in muscular strength (See the power- point "Women carrying heavy loads", attached.) Women carry heavy loads of firewood and other fuels, packages, and water. (See Attachment 2) The responsibility of childcare by women is apparently the main reason for the differences in task assignments. Gender stratification refers to the relative status of females and males in different cultures, with one sex having more power and access to education and health care than the other. In most cultures, male status is higher than female status. In many cultures where female status is lower than male status, females may nevertheless have authority over their young children, other females, and their own business pursuits. Marriage Marriage is a rite of passage, a ceremony which alters one's status relative to the group. It is a cultural universal, meaning that all cultures have this rite, even if not all individuals marry. The concept of a nuclear family, with one parent of each sex and their few biological children residing together in a single ethnic family home, is an ideal of our culture. In reality, American culture has many other forms of family groupings: unmarried couples living together with or without children, families with many children, families with grandparents or other relatives living with the nuclear family, single parent families due to divorce or death of one parent, families with adopted or foster children, blended families with step-parents and step-siblings and half-siblings, families of different ethnic backgrounds, same sex parents raising children, and families that have non-relatives residing as boarders with them. Furthermore, other cultures have other family arrangements. Definition of Marriage Because of the recent expansion of the definition of marriage to include same sex unions, the following definition includes both a textbook definition and the expanded definition. "Marriage is a socially approved union between a man and a woman (or two adults) that regulates the sexual and economic rights and obligations between them..." Pledging one's love does not constitute a marriage. Marriage ceremonies must have witnesses to attest to the event (See Attachment 3, "Marriage Customs"). Usually, there is also someone to officiate the wedding, be it a member of the clergy, a judge, or a ship captain. These are sober, responsible members of society who can oversee the contract's oaths. (Common law marriages are legal in some jurisdictions whereby cohabiting couples are recognized as spouses.) There are features of marriage: sexual relationship, permanence, and common residence. However, there are so many exceptions to these features (legal separation, military service, distant work assignments, longterm hospitalization, etc.) that they are almost not worth noting. There are three important functions of marriage that exist to stabilize families and society in general. 1. Regulating sexual activities to an exclusive relationship for paternity certainty of offspring (for support and inheritance), as well as for reducing conflict in the society. 2. Creating a household, an economic unit, to provide food, shelter, clothing, and other goods to dependents, especially children, as well as to create a division of labor among family members. 3. Providing emotional support to all family members, especially children. Whom May We Marry or Not Marry? With the exception of ancient Egyptian and Hawaiian royalty, marrying one's sibling has been out of the question. Furthermore, in virtually all societies, mating or marrying members of one's immediate family (parent, sibling, child) is considered to be incest; certain cousin marriages (See Module 13, Kinship) are permissible, while others are considered to be incest. The incest taboo (taboo = forbidden) is very powerful, as the ancient Greek play "Oedipus Rex" shows us. There are various hypotheses about the basis for the incest taboo, but there are questions as to their validity. The hypothesis that there would be too much inbreeding, leading to genetic disorders, is invalid for cousin marriage, which has enough genetic distance. Also, the hypothesis that one would be confused as to whether a relative were an uncle or a father-in-law is not convincing. However, the hypothesis that marrying out of one's group leads to the increase in the number of allies is more probable. The most inter- esting is the "Natural Aversion" hypothesis that one would recoil at that thought of such a mating since animals apparently also avoid mating with their close relatives. Humans must be both exogamous (not marrying one's closest relatives), yet culturally endogamous (marrying within prescribed social groups). Social groups that may be proscribed to marry into include: people of other ethnicities or religions, people our family is feuding with, people of different castes or socio-economic or educational status, people of different physical type (height or weight or age), people from other regions or nations, people with a different political or philosophical point of view, people with a criminal history or a family with a criminal history, etc. These prohibitions are set up by parents, other relatives, religions, and other social associations in order to keep the status quo, to avoid being shunned, and to avoid having in-laws with social and financial problems, among other reasons. Between the exogamy (marrying out) and the endogamy (marrying in) there seems to be few people left to marry. Finding Mates: Courtship versus Dating; Gift Exchange There are still cultures in which marriages are arranged by families, sometimes with the help of a marriage broker to find appropriate spouses. The intended spouses may or may not have a say as to their preferences. There are even child betrothals and child brides in some cultures, even where it is officially illegal. However. courtship is a traditional way of bringing people together in preparation for marriage. It involves parents and other family to a greater degree than dating, which may only be concerned with socialization. Courtship is more likely to be controlled, with introductions, arranged events for unmarried people, curfews, and chaperones. The decision to marry is not a decision for the couple alone, but must be granted by the parents or other family members. The chief concerns are the financial well-being of the couple and the readiness of the couple to take on the responsibilities of marriage. Dating by teenagers likely has parental oversight, while dating by adults in modern cultures or in modernized areas (such as cities) of traditional cultures permits the couple to decide when and where they meet and whether to become engaged to marry. Family members may then become involved in the wedding plans. During courtship or dating, gift exchange is an important indicator of whether the process will be successful and, if so, whether the marriage will survive. Gift exchange involves learning about the character and spending habits of the other person and other family. Whether one of the couple is too extravagant (especially early in the process) or one is too cheap (especially later in the process), there is likely to be difficulties in a marriage. If an engagement is broken, the engagement gift, such as an expensive piece of jewelry, should be returned. This is because it is essentially a down payment on the marriage, refundable if the engagement to marry is broken. Gift exchange between the families at the time of the wedding, such as the tradition of the bride's family paying for the wedding (the remnant of the dowry), cements the marriage between the families. This increases the likelihood of a successful marriage. Number of Spouses " Monogamy" literally means "one marriage". It is more accurate to use the term " serial monogamy", meaning "one marriage at a time". In cultures that practice serial monogamy, remarriage is possible after the death of one spouse or the dissolution of the marriage. There may